More about problems at Cesar Chavez charter schools in Colorado

[madfloridian]

Problems came to light after an investigation by the Colorado Commissioner of Education which started in July.

DUer donco6 posted a Denver Post article about it a few days ago.

After months of altercations, the Cesar Chavez School Network board decided Friday night to demote its chief executive and accepted the resignation of its chief financial officer.

At a raucous public meeting, the board decided that CEO Lawrence Hernandez would no longer have administrative power over all the network's schools, said Alex Medler, board chairman of the state-run Charter School Institute.

Since charter schools receive public taxpayer money but are not regulated like public schools are, this kind of thing bothers me. Charter Schools are the main part of Arne Duncan's plans for schools, so there must be watchers. He has 4.3 billion to give to states that lift the cap on the number of charter schools. There should be more oversight.

The Colorado Independent yesterday posted a chronological history of the way things had been handled at the Cesar Chavez network.

Colorado charter school gone bad

May 28: Colorado Education News reporter Nancy Mitchell reports that founder Lawrence Hernandez received 53 percent pay increase in three years, from $171,466 in 2005 to $261,732.

July 2: Colorado Commissioner of Education Dwight Jones orders an investigation into testing practices after former superintendent John Covington allegedly pleads with him to investigate.

July 10: Mitchell reports that over half the students at Cesar Chavez schools receive testing accommodations.

August 3: Mitchell publishes a stunning investigation into the Chavez schools. In addition to finding concerns about the school’s finances and testing practices, she notes that Hernandez has initiated a dozen legal actions in eight years—against former teachers, former board members, and the state of Colorado, among others.

September 21: After the Colorado Charter School Institute directs the network to set up a separate board for Cesar Chavez Academy North and the Guided Online Academic Learning (GOAL) Academy, chaos erupts, according to the Pueblo Chieftan. The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that Hernandez orders the locks changed at GOAL Academy’s computer labs, locks teachers out of the online network, and fires two administrators. When an administrator refuses to give him student information, he allegedly takes it by force.

September 22: The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that GOAL Academy staff were told by Cesar Chavez officials that they must sign a loyalty oath at 4:30 p.m. or the network would assume they had resigned.

About the testing accommodations....the link there was dead so I did a search. This is a really bad thing to do during testing. There should be no accommodations at all unless spelled out in writing...zero tolerance is the name of the game.

Testing Questions Surface At Chavez

More than half the students at a high-profile and high-performing Pueblo charter school received extra time or other special accommodations when they took state reading and math tests in 2007 and 2008, according to data obtained from the Colorado Department of Education.

In most cases, students at Cesar Chavez Academy, the original K-8 campus of the charter school network soon to be subject to a state audit, were given an extra 30 minutes to complete their 60-minute exams, the CDE documents show.

According to figures obtained by Education News Colorado under the state’s open records law, for example, 56 percent of Cesar Chavez Academy students in grades 3 through 8 received extra time on their 2008 reading exams.

Another 4 percent used the services of a scribe, who wrote what students dictated in response to a test question.

In comparison, 6.9 percent of all Colorado students in grades 3 through 8 received extra time on their 2008 reading exams and 1.2 percent used a scribe. But Lawrence Hernandez, founder and CEO of the Cesar Chavez Schools Network, said Tuesday that the records are incorrect, and he blamed poor direction from Pueblo School District 60 testing officials.

I believe state rules differ on the use of scribes and on giving extra time. I am not sure of the rules in Florida right now, but before I retired some special education students were allotted extra help...specifically spelled out.

[madfloridian]

1. Excessive salaries paid with public taxpayer money....

It took since May to get anything done. Yet now I read an article that sounds like it will all work out.

Restraining orders unchanged..The parties involved, however, now say they are getting along.

Getting along is not as important as accountability for spending taxpayer money.

In May, at the same time the network was trying to shutter one of its schools due to financial problems, it was first disclosed thatHernandez was earning $261,732 a year, making him the highest paid public-school superintendent in the state. His wife made $134,826, and Guerrero, the CFO, earned $247,797.

Citing the financial problems, along with allegations of recruitment improprieties and testing abuse, Pueblo's school superintendent asked for an audit, which was then ordered by the state.

Over 600,000 yearly to 3 execs, plus testing problems...where is the outrage.

[madfloridian]

2. Two charters schools in Colorado may have charters voided.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/frontpage/ci_13415814

"A struggle over control of a Front Range online school could permanently shutter the Denver-based online GOAL Academy, as well as the Cesar Chavez Academy North in Colorado Springs, a state administrator said Thursday.

The Colorado Charter School Institute moved Thursday to explore revoking the charters of the two programs, which together educate more than 900 Front Range students.

The schools could survive with a new charter and a new educational services provider, said Alex Medler, board chairman of the state-run Charter School Institute.

That appears increasingly unlikely under current leadership of the Pueblo-based Cesar Chavez School Network, which educates about 2,100 students at two schools in Pueblo, one in Colorado Springs and one in Denver.

Earlier Thursday, the network's board placed its top three officers on paid leave, including founder and chief executive Lawrence Hernandez and his wife, Annette Hernandez, the network's operating officer."

[madfloridian]

3. Latest update...execs to return.

http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2009/09/27/news/local/doc4abefd17578a8649489484.txt

"The interim director of the GOAL Academy, placed on paid leave this past week, will return as an employee at the Cesar Chavez Academy on Monday.

Dennis Feuerstein, president of the Cesar Chavez School Network, said Saturday that Velia Rincon was being removed from paid administrative leave and will return to work Monday at CCA in a new role still to be determined.

"She will be returning to work at Cesar Chavez but she will return in a different capacity," Feuerstein said Saturday. "What exactly her position will be, won't be determined until the board meets to discuss it."

Feuerstein said Rincon will be working with CCA Executive Director Lawrence Hernandez."


That was quick!

[loudsue]

4. I'm really tired of the government "outsourcing" all of our tax money to

corporations that are SCREWING the very same taxpayers they are supposed to "serve".

Government serves. Corporations profit.

Who SHOULD government serve? All their citizens.
Who SHOULD the corporations serve? Their stockholders.

It's not rocket science to see where we, the people are getting left out.

[intheflow]

7. Wish I could rec this post. n/t

[JordanSmith73]

5. Interesting

Interesting

[MadMaddie]

6. What is it with these loyalty oaths?

<snip>
September 22: The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that GOAL Academy staff were told by Cesar Chavez officials that they must sign a loyalty oath at 4:30 p.m. or the network would assume they had resigned.
<snip>

[madfloridian]

8. I wondered that also. Loyalty to what? to whom?

Very strange.

[MadMaddie]

9. I think it's loyalty not to spill the beans on illegal actions people

might witness. Kinda like the mob.

[gtar100]

10. So Hernandez wants his own little kingdom. Peasants be damned.

Or in this case, the children. The way I see it, the guy had a really good opportunity to do something positive in this world but instead he got greedy. Or maybe he was greedy from the beginning. But why play around with something as important as education and the very hearts and minds of our children? There is something horribly cynical about that. Big titles don't warrant large salaries. I'm sure somebody could do that job for $100K and do just fine. That really isn't a bad salary if you don't feel the need to live in an extra-large house, drive new cars, eat at expensive restaurants, and wear expensive suits.

He forgot the value of integrity and he therefore lost it. Another idiot human masquerading as an adult in charge. I'm sick and tired of people acting like serious adults but are really just dysfunctional persons who's only talent is knowing the right thing to say to get what they want, regardless if they mean it or care if anything good comes out of it.