Providence Creek Academy Charter School Investigated…Once Again Shows School Leaders Misused Thousand of Dollars in Tax Dollars!

Yesterday, the Auditor of Accounts released another report showing that school leaders at Providence Creek Academy Charter School in Clayton misused thousands of dollars in school funds. You can view the entire report below.

House Bill 186 would require all charter schools to go through the Auditor of Accounts for their audits, currently all public schools except for charter schools goes through the Auditor of Accounts. Sen. Sokola’s bill, Senate Bill 171, will still allow charter schools to select their own auditors. The issue is allowing charter schools to select their own auditors. Academy of Dover’s auditors audited Academy of Dover for three years. The reason why Academy of Dover was audited by the state someone phoned in an anonymous tip to the Auditor of Accounts hotline–the Auditor of Accounts opened an investigation. Because of the fraud and mismanagement of tax dollars now we are using additional tax dollars to investigate these schools not only through the Auditor of Accounts but also through the Attorney General’s Office.

I was in a meeting yesterday discussing both bills with Sen. Sokola and the Delaware Charter Schools Network. The Charter Schools Network reasoning for not supporting House Bill 186 is the original charter law allowed charters to have flexibility and to have extra freedom from state bureaucracy in exchange for tougher consequences for poor academic performance. Apparently, the current system is not working and we the taxpayers have seen over and over the cases of mismanagement to outright fraud involving our tax dollars. Charter Schools should have their audits performed under the Auditor of Accounts just like our public schools—charter schools are public schools funded by local school and state taxes.

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DE Online article: Audit finds Providence Creek school leaders misused funds

 

Did you know the State Board of Education evaluates its own process and performance?

I was on the State Board of Education website today and found the State Board of Education Procedures Manual. On page 8 of this manual, it goes over how the State Board will be evaluated. They have no evaluation process, they apparently monitor themselves.

Evaluation The Board will monitor its own process and performance to ensure continuity of Board improvements, integrity of Board actions and progress toward Board goals. The Board will be accountable to the public for competent, conscientious, and effective accomplishment of its obligations as a Board. The Board may seek the input from others regarding the effectiveness or impact of Board initiatives as part of the evaluation process, and may utilize the services of an independent consultant in doing so.

AP Courses, Are DE Students Actually Receiving College Credits?

Governor Markell gave his final State of the State address on Thursday in the House Chambers. In his speech, he spoke about AP courses —“We have made more rigorous courses available. Delaware students are taking and passing 1,000 more AP exams than four years ago.” The question that I would like answered, how many of those AP credits are actually counted at the colleges Delaware students attend?

As Governor Markell stated more Delaware students are taking and passing AP tests every year, a passing score is 3. See College Board for more information. Parents and students are under the impression that if you pass the AP course exam their child will receive college credits, that is not necessarily true. Many colleges require a 4 or a 5 in order for a student to earn college credits and that is not being explained to families. Families have to pay about $92 for each AP test. Here is the University of Delaware AP Credit List, you will see that in order for a student entering the University of Delaware, a student must score a 4, in most cases, in order to earn college credits. Parents are paying for the AP courses and then paying for college.

Bucknell University AP Credit List

Cornell University AP Credit List

Duke University AP Credit List

Penn State AP Credit List

University of Pittsburgh AP Credit List

 

 

State Board Audio of WEIC Discussion

The State Board of Education did not follow the law with regards to WEIC as stated in Senate Bill 122. The State Board was suppose to vote no or yes –if they voted no they needed to send a response back to the commission as to why they voted no. The State Board President, Dr. Gray, instructed someone (possibly Donna Johnson) to have a side bar off the record, which in my opinion, should not have happened, again I think they broke the law with regards to open meeting laws. The president of the State Board would not allow for Dr. Allen or Dr. Rich to give a public comment even though it was promised. The attorney for the State Board stated that the law allowed for public comment if the President agreed to it.

After the WEIC Commission left and the meeting was still taking place, the State Board President Dr. Gray, came over to the attorney’s table and had another side bar conversation, off the record, asking the attorney about WEIC.  These are public meetings and there should be no conversations off the record.

Audio of State Board Meeting

 

Check out E.R. Educators to the Rescue

Please take a minute and “LIKE” E.R. Educators to the Rescue on Facebook. This page was developed by two Delaware public school teachers. Below is information about their page.

This page is for public education teachers and those who support public education in Delaware. We sincerely want to improve the learning experiences of our students/children.

This page is meant to provide information all public school teachers and parents must know about testing; the who, what, when, where, why and hows of its creation, its longevity and the intensity that never lets up.

Our classrooms have transformed from actively engaging, creativity-based, vibrant learning environments that promote learning and foster a love of learning to a monotone atmosphere of digitalized learning, scripted lesson plans, assessment-laden daily activities. A severe disconnect from the joys of learning and discovery has occurred. The lights have gone out in our classrooms. Young children especially need interaction with a human teacher and one another, not a computer or tablet for a large portion of their day. They need to hear and see and feel and do and experience and observe. High-stakes testing has robbed us of our profession and taken the joy from teaching and from learning.

This intent of this page is to be nonpartisan and will support any and all political figures that provide assistance in helping to rescue our students from the over-use and developmentally inappropriateness of high stakes testing.

Simply put, you can hold schools, their teachers and administrators accountable for their job duties and end high-stakes standardized testing.

Join our group, get informed and start taking action. We ask all members to maintain conversations and comments to a professional level. If you fail to do so, you will be dismissed from the group and all offensive material will be deleted.

“Do the best you can until you know better. When you know better, do better.” Maya Angelou

SJR #2 – Assessment Inventory Committee Meeting Update

I attended the Assessment Inventory Meeting this week–I am not sure what direction the committee is heading. I appreciate the open discussion and the questions that were being asked by some committee members. The next meeting will be February 22, 2016 from 4:00 to 6:00 – Townsend Building.

Dr. Terri Hodges with the Delaware PTA and Natalie Avini Ganc, a Delaware teacher, both made public comments at the end. They commented about how there are no parents or classroom teachers serving on the committee. When I addressed the committee, I told the committee that I agreed with Dr. Hodges and Ms. Ganc’s comments. I also asked the following question and asked for the DOE to get back to me and the committee with an answer:

We are constantly comparing schools and their state assessment scores. I asked if there was data available showing which schools test in March, April, and May? With an elementary school that tests in May, the school’s scores are compared to another elementary school that tests their students in March. The elementary school that tests in May has two additional months of instruction time compared to the elementary school that tests in March.  One would assume that a school that tests in March probably has no choice because of the size of their school; the school needs to start testing early on in order to get all of their students tested.

Example: Washington T Booker Elementary School has 304 students and no 5th grade. Warner Elementary School has 529 students and 5th grade. Warner has 200+ more students than Washington T Booker and an additional grade level to test.

I am interested in seeing when schools are testing and if, certain schools are testing later, are their state assessment scores better compared to the ones who are testing earlier? Also, does size of a school matter when it comes to state assessment scores? It would be interesting to see data showing size of school and test dates and see if there is a correlation between the two.

View the entire bill, click here – SJR #2.

 

Second Week in Dover, It Has Been an Interesting Week

The second half of the 148th has been busy. Over the weekend, I will give you a run down of what has happened during this last week. Today, Governor Markell will give his final State of the State and the State Board of Education will be voting on the Wilmington Improvement Commission’s Final Plan.

Today’s Agenda in Dover

Legislation	Sponsor		Status	Title
House Agenda
	HB 188-HA 1		Baumbach	Out of Committee	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 25 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO RENT INCREASES FOR MANUFACTURED HOUSING.
	HS 1 for HB 219-HA 1 (F/N)		M. Smith	Out of Committee	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO INSURANCE COVERAGE FOR IN VITRO FERTILIZATION SERVICES.
	HB 237		B. Short	Out of Committee	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 18 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO INSURANCE.
	HJR 4-HA 1		Briggs King	Out of Committee	ESTABLISHING A TASK FORCE TO STUDY AND MAKE FINDINGS CONCERNING FINANCIAL LITERACY EDUCATION IN DELAWARE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND MAKE POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS TO INCREASE THE FINANCIAL LITERACY OF DELAWARE STUDENTS.
	SB 74		Poore (Brady)	Out of Committee	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE BOARD OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS.
	SB 81		Sokola (Brady)	Out of Committee	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 24 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE BOARD OF ARCHITECTS.

Note : Revised House Agenda for Tuesday, January 19, 2016. HB 237 was added to the House Agenda.

Send a letter to our Delaware Senators

Our tax dollars are being mismanaged or stolen and no one is being held accountable, we need this to stop. Please remember, this is not about charter schools vs public schools, this is about accountability and transparency, it is about making sure our local and state tax dollars stay in the charter schools and not in someone’s wallet. Currently, charter schools are  funded by our local tax dollars through property taxes and state taxes. The charter schools are not audited through the State of Delaware Auditor of Accounts as public school districts. House Bill 186 gives the Auditor of Accounts the necessary power to audit charter schools as they do public school districts.

Please sign the letter asking the Senate to support House Bill 186 and not to support Senate Bill 171, Sen. Sokola’s bill. Sen. Sokola’s bill does not give the Auditor of Accounts the authority to audit the charter schools. We cannot continue to allow individuals to continue to mismanage or steal our tax dollars.

It takes 30 seconds to read and sign the letter to the Senate.

Click here to send a letter to our Delaware Senators.

Your School Property Taxes Help Fund Charter Schools, See the Reports Showing How the Taxes Have Been Misspent and Stolen -Auditor of Accounts Investigative Reports

Charter schools are funded through our property taxes and the state. The Auditor of Accounts reports that are shown below, shows how our tax dollars were mismanaged or stolen for personal purchases. Go to the 2nd page in each document and you can read what the Auditor of Accounts found with each investigation. Please sign a letter to all Delaware Senators asking them to support House Bill 186, Charter Audit bill instead of Sen. Sokola’s bill which does nothing to protect your tax dollars. There are charter schools that do a great job managing our tax dollars, my bill will just have all charter schools audits done through the Auditor of Accounts Office like all our public schools districts do.

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