Bad For Business

The Tampa Bay Business Journal has now chimed in on the Windsor  Prep and East Windsor Middle Academy scandal.


They opine that the scandal,  involving the former (but perchance still attached) management company, Newpoint Education Partners, has had, and may continue to have, a negative impact on Bay area business.

Here is a link so that you may read for yourself.

While I agree with some of what the author writes, I can not agree with all of it.

She implies that no one will want to associate with poor performing schools, or those with "bad press". This is where I break with her reasoning.

In her article, she quotes a parent who enrolled her child in kindergarten for the current school year.

At that time, Windsor Prep had not been gratuitously granted it's unearned C, and was still  an (earned and deserved) F school. The school at that time was still (did they ever actually stop?) being monitored by the Pinellas County School Board and previously had to submit an improvement plan to repair several educational deficiencies. (all well publicized)

The management company also had a lengthy, and shady track record that was also quite well publicized for anyone who  cared to investigate, even just a little.

Here's a link to a previous post to refresh your memory. ( and just for fun, this just to remind you that I have been talking about all of this for quite awhile)

There were at least a dozen, out of the forty two pleading and desperate parents at the May 17 School Board Meeting who had admittedly enrolled their children there during that same general period.

In fact, anyone who enrolled their kids at Windsor prep from 2013 until now appears to have been perfectly fine with sending, and continuing to keep, their kids at a failing school despite their arguments that they only want the best for said children.

Color me silly, but you would think for such an impassioned and determined parent, or group of parents, who continually state they have researched ALL of the other schools in Pinellas County, and found them lacking, that they would have demurred from enrolling their precious youngsters in an F school. Hmmmm? One that was in the bottom 300 of all schools in the state. Hmmmm? Lower than many of the other public schools in Pinellas County. Hmmmmm?

And funnily enough, in a previous hearing called by the Pinellas County School Board, the former principal for the schools conceded they had switched to teaching the same curriculum as Pinellas County Public schools instead of that highly touted "project based learning". Or is that what the public schools teach too? Again...hhhmmmm?

 Perhaps they just like the shiny new building just a few blocks away from home? Oh wait, many are from quite a distance away, such as Seminole, Largo, and more affluent areas in St Petersburg. Perhaps they like sitting in traffic?
Perhaps they just want to say their kids go somewhere other than their zoned schools.
Perhaps they are just afraid of change...even when it's for the better.

Add to the mix  a  healthy dose of complacency and willingness  to believe the lies you are told as you see the school's teachers fleeing and a lack of materials, proper instruction, etc. and yeah...one can see why the parents would think it so good for their kids.

And this same group of willing to settle for an F school parents want to take over and lead the school at a cost to the tax payers of at least 6 million dollars. 

Great idea.

Nothing but the best!

* sigh * eye roll* snicker *