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Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 | 2 a.m.
IF YOU GO
What: Imagine 100 Academy of Excellence charter school board meeting
When: 6 p.m. today
Where: 2341 Comstock Drive, North Las Vegas
Sun Archives
- Families galvanized by charter school principal's suspension (9-11-2009)
- Schools will be funded based on Sept. 18 attendance (9-11-2009)
- 100 Academy supporter says parents' view of school matters (11-17-2008)
- A principal fired, a campus on thin ice (11-13-2008)
- Time is on charters' side (7-23-2008)
- Charter school on thin ice (6-10-2008)
Sun Coverage
Beyond the Sun
The dramatic buildup to tonight’s board meeting at Imagine 100 Academy of Excellence charter school has included Principal Timothy Goler’s resignation, a cascade of dueling letters to hundreds of families from two sides of an ongoing conflict and the permanent withdrawal of at least 50 students.
The school’s bumpiest beginning since opening in 2006 has morphed into chaos. Dozens of parents are nearly two weeks into a protest over Goler’s unexplained Sept. 2 suspension. The school also stands to lose more than $300,000 in state funding for next year because Friday is “count day,” when the state tallies the number of students at state-funded schools to calculate the per-pupil funding total for each campus. Each student in class Friday is worth $6,433 for next school year.
Dozens of families have withdrawn their children from the school, and others are threatening to keep theirs at home Friday to convey their dissatisfaction with the treatment of Goler, the school’s third principal in as many years. And some say they are simply fed up with the management of 100 Academy by Virginia-based Imagine Schools Inc.
The agenda for tonight’s board meeting includes an evaluation of the school’s contract with Imagine.
The case is important because Imagine 100 Academy was seen as a beacon of hope in an area beset by high rates of poverty and crime and because Imagine also operates Imagine School in the Valle near Summerlin.
Imagine has stirred similar controversy in some of its other schools nationwide, where there have been allegations of heavy-handed, profit-centered management.
Problems at 100 Academy, which have included turnover and sloppy bookkeeping, have been followed in media across the nation. The Virginia-based company operates 74 schools in 12 states.
With 100 Academy, families want to know whether the unwieldy mix of influences over the school — state and county, the governing board, the 100 Black Men organization, and Imagine — dooms it to fail.
Or can the community — parents, the board and 100 Black Men volunteers — seize the school’s destiny?
Goler handed out a missive to families Wednesday saying that he had resigned from Imagine, but not the school. “Imagine is a management company. They are not the school. Period!” Goler wrote.
Goler said resignation was the only move left to him after the company suspended him without explanation, and then asked him this week to apologize to school families and staff “for all the ruckus.”
“My conscience wouldn’t let me do that,” he said.
In the days leading up to Goler’s resignation, dozens of parents signed a petition seeking his return. Many said they thought Goler was suspended because he personally invited families to attend the year’s first meeting of the school’s board, on Aug. 27. About 100 showed up, and many parents took the opportunity give the board an earful about the school’s needs — for an improved physical education program and a school nurse, for example.
Meanwhile, Vickie Frazier-Williams, Imagine’s regional vice president, sent out her own letter saying her company “met several times with Mr. Goler to work through mutual concerns ... (and) could not come to a consensus.”
Goler, in his letter, disputes that there were several meetings.
Frazier-Williams did not return calls Wednesday seeking comment.
As for the school’s immediate future, Napoleon McCallum, chairman of the 100 Academy board, said “there is always an option to cancel the contract. It’s not like they have a free pass.”
But if the board severed the relationship, McCallum added, “where would the kids go?”
The board pays an affiliate of Imagine for the school’s building, not to mention books and supplies. In fact, about 40 percent of the funding that the state provides to the charter school goes to rent.
Still, Goler insists the community can take charge. He points to schools elsewhere — including one, recently, in Marietta, Ga. — that have severed ties with Imagine Inc.
“It’s not as difficult as it seems,” he says.
Hundreds of families in the valley — and likely many others across the nation — will watch events unfold at 100 Academy in the coming weeks to see whether Goler is right.
The parents that are pulling their kids out of school on Friday, to make a point, are only hurting their children. If those kids aren't there on count day, the school loses money that would pay for them. If enough miss, teacher positions will be cut, programs will be slashed, and supplies and materials provided by the school will go by the wayside. There is nothing wrong with protesting, and it is nice to see the parents behind the principal, but be smart about it. Pulling your kids will equal less money for them in the future. If you are pulling them to make a point, than you should just put them into a different school.
The CCSD board of trustees has played games with many schools and groups of people and now I want them to tell these people to go away. Remember what you did with the Veterans groups? You won't get by that easy with these people and I don't blame them.
Nobody likes to see the school in which their children attend take a financial hit like this, but at what point does your obligation to your own child collide with your obligation to other children? 100 Academy has an opportunity to force Imagine Inc. to acknowledge some severe un-ethical practices that plague their schools throughout the country. It's about profit, so unfortunately, that has to be where you hit them to get their attention.
Imagine targets many under-priviledged children in this country. Imagine Schools promise these families a certain outcome and it's bound to end tragically if Imagine isn't forced to clean up its act.
Goler isn't an isolated incident.. Hugh Wallace, Bruce Greening, Gillian Horsley, Dr. Mike Tappler, Octavia LeGrand, Catherine Montini, Cynthia DeLuz....these are just a FEW of the educated and dedicated principals and administrators throughout the country that Imagine gave the axe to or forced to resign. Is there no regualting force out there that is curious as to why? Are all of these seasoned educators truly not a "good fit" for Imagine and if so, why is that? This principal and teacher turnover is just ONE of many very curious issues that surrounds this charter cartel that needs to be investigated.
I hope these parents have the courage of their convictions and stick it to the Trustees and their crony administrators. They successfully played ping-pong, shell game shenanigans and flim-flam with other groups like the Veterans seeking the name VETERANS MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL to honor local war dead and heroes. They did this for 20 years and eventually trustees and administrators won on their own terms by changing the rules.
If you want something done with this board of soccer mom and PTA moms who would rather enjoy a quiet meeting with no controversy then raise all the hell you can and make your positiions known.
Ask questions and demand immediate answers. That is your contitutional right as a process for redress of grievances.
It is time that the public, WE THE PEOPLE, stood up to these moron, power hungry, super ego incompetent fools on the board understood that.
Remember they will have the CCSD police Rent-A-Cops there in force because they want the meeting to go quietly, quickly and with no controversy. Be careful that you are not wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and expelled from the meeting. It has happened before.
GIVE 'EM HELL! MAKE 'EM TAKE NOTICE OF YOUR DEMANDS AND MAKE 'EM ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS !!!!
Don't let Sheila Moulton, Terri Janison or other whimpy board members tell you that they cannot respond because of the NEVADA OPEN MEETING LAW...they don't know the law and what they say is plain ordinary Bull Crappola!