Charter schools with troubled history apply in South Florida. District not allowed to deny them.

[madfloridian]

The districts are not allowed to turn down a charter applicant based on its past history. They must look only at the present application.

Charter school applicants have troubled histories

These schools are publicly funded but run privately. Among those applying are:

• A group that managed three new charter schools in Broward and Palm Beach counties that opened this year — and then shut down on the first day of school.

• The founder of two charter schools that failed in 2007 amid accusations of stolen money, shoddy record keeping and parent complaints, according to state and local records. A state investigation later chastised school directors for "virtually nonexistent" oversight, though prosecutors filed no criminal charges.

• An educator who was banned from New Jersey public schools, then consulted for two schools in Broward and Palm Beach counties that shuttered in 2013. The Palm Beach County school district closed one of the schools because of poor academics and financial difficulties; the Broward school chose to cease operations amid dwindling enrollment, according to school district reports.

Starting up, shutting down

Eight hours before students were to report for classes at the new Broward County Charter High on the first day of school this year, Richard E. Durr emailed a Broward school district official saying the school would not open "due to circumstances beyond our control." Durr is a director at the school's management company, American Charter Schools, Inc.

More about the failed New Jersey educator who came to Florida.

School superintendent banned in NJ finds work in FL, brings banned colleagues with him.

Three charter schools in the South Florida counties of Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade hired Steve Gallon III's company, Tri-Star Leadership, in June 2011, five months after Gallon was banned from working in New Jersey, according to a report from the Sun Sentinel.

In May 2010, Gallon and two of his assistants, Angela Kemp, 36, and Lalelei Kelly, 34, were accused of falsifying documents so that their children could attend schools in South Plainfield. Authorities said at the time that Kemp and Kelly provided a sworn statement from Gallon, who falsely indicated that the women and their children lived with him at his home in South Plainfield.

The charges brought against Gallon, Kemp and Kelly were dropped in January 2011 and the three agreed to serve probation and to never work in the New Jersey public school system again, the report said.

Just over a year after Gallon was hired to work with schools in South Florida, he hired Kelly to work as a consultant, at a salary of $60,000 a year, the report said. Months later, he hired Kemp to be the principal at Excel Leadership Academy in Palm Beach County, at a salary of $80,000 a year, according to the report.

There's a war on teachers demanding accountability in every way. There is little accountability required of charter school operators.

[malletgirl02]

1. Where is Campbell Brown on this?

Oh I get it, she doesn't care because the failed school is a charter school, and not a public one.

[madfloridian]

2. .....

[riversedge]

3. We have the same problem in Wisconsin--increased taxpayer

money was budgeted for this fall--to open new schools yet with no accountability.

[madfloridian]

4. More coming. Arne insists that states raise cap on number of charters.

He wants more and more of them. If states don't do it they don't get NCLB waivers, and they don't get federal money.

[Starry Messenger]

5. k&r

[madfloridian]

6. Thanks.

Those are so very hard to get anymore.

[madfloridian]

7. Districts should not be forced to approve charter schools with failed histories.

So I am giving this a kick because it is important.

[suffragette]

10. Absolutely agree with you

K&R

[Laelth]

8. That's tragic. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[madfloridian]

9. Article now behind firewall...so I managed one more section. Important. Thx for tweets.

I should have put it in the OP, but there just wasn't copyright wiggle room.

At least seven groups of applicants with ties to failed or floundering charter schools are seeking second chances and public money to open 18 more.

Odds are, most will prevail.

School districts say that they can't deny applicants solely because of past problems running charter schools. State laws tell them to evaluate what they see on paper — academic plans, budget proposals, student services — not previous school collapses or controversial professional histories.