and the RATS, take another one in the.........HA ha!!!
Posted on 09/10/2011 7:01:08 AM PDT by Bean Counter
Students and parents eagerly awaiting opening day Monday at Portland's new recording arts-centered charter high school expressed astonishment Friday that the school has been shut down.
Sisters Gabby and Maya Vertner were ready to start their junior and freshman years at REAL Prep Charter Academy, whose personalized, hands-on philosophy was just what their mother, Patty, thought they needed. An open house at the school's Pearl District location two weeks ago kindled that feeling, with nothing seeming amiss.
So they were among dozens of students shocked Friday to learn the hip-hop-themed school is dead, felled by its planners' failure to have the minimum curriculum, materials, leaders and space ready, despite more than two years and $500,000 worth of planning.
"I'm angry, disappointed, sad," Patty Vertner said. A week into the school year, the girls have no idea where they will go to school this year, she said.
Officials at Portland Public Schools cut off funding for the school Friday, citing an astounding lack of readiness.
The building was still a construction zone, the school's leaders kept changing and school officials made false claims to try to allay district concerns -- all signs that the school was not equipped to serve students, said Sue Ann Higgens, executive director for education options in Portland Public Schools.
The 48 students who had enrolled in REAL Prep were notified by email Friday afternoon that the school will not open and that district placement specialists will help them find another school.
Another 50 or so students, who had filled out online applications to attend the school but never formally enrolled, were also being contacted -- at least in the instances where district officials can locate email addresses or phone numbers to reach them, Higgens said.
It was unclear Friday where the students would go to school instead. Many who had signed up for REAL Prep said they were doing so because their traditional neighborhood high school wasn't a good fit, Higgens said.
REAL Prep administrators told district officials in mid-August that, despite paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for curriculum development, the school didn't actually get curriculum materials and teachers were unprepared to teach as the charter school's founder, Portland parent Erica Jayasuriya, had promised, Higgens said.
District officials said that was their first indication how far off track REAL Prep planners had fallen. The school's leaders said it would be a squeeze but they could be ready for students by Monday. District officials said OK.
Nikolai Nyschens was counting on spending his sophomore year at the charter high school, where he was promised he could work at his own pace rather than be held back as in traditional courses. His mother, Mia, said the school's promise that students would learn academic skills by doing meaningful hands-on projects, such as starting their own record company, sold her.
Mother and son met with a district placement specialist Friday, but it's still unclear where Nikolai will enroll, and his mother is worried he will miss weeks of school.
REAL Prep is in financial shambles. A $50,000 planning grant and two $225,000 implementation grants -- all from the federal government -- have been spent, yet many employees and contractors haven't been fully paid. The school also owes $200,000 for renovations to the building.
Jayasuriya's vision for the school secured a unanimous school board vote to sponsor the school. She said Friday from New York that she could have gotten the school up and running if she had just been given more time, but the district wouldn't let her start the school in October or January, as she requested.
She blamed many contractors and employees for failing to do what they were paid to do. She also blamed state and school district authorities for not regulating her and the school more forcefully.
She had stepped down from actively leading the school at the start of August, citing exhaustion and health problems. But, she said, "I was trying to come back in because I could see that there was a lot of problem-solving that needed to be done and I was needed."
There's so many things wrong about this story it is hard to know where to begin...
Oregon and Washington *ping* please!
The woman who started this idiocy is in New York? What’s she doing there, starting another school, or fleeing?
???
In other words, it's their fault she screwed up? Way to take responsibility there sister.
Evidently Mathematics was not in the curriculum.
Was their mascot a frog? Or an old lady recovering from hip surgery?
She bailed out in August, claiming exhaustion and poor health, and probably took the money with her.
Many Charters were also closed in NYC. THey were all new and staffed by just out of college teachers. My dtr is a 2nd grade teacher and her school got many of the students who can’t read nor do simple addition. She has a class of 27, some way ahead, and then these kids. This woman created a total mess for others but she’ll be bumped up to a higher paying job.
The students were distraught when they heard they were being relocated to the Polka and Square Dance Academies.
So, are you saying this woman from Portland was involved with these charter schools in New York?
More federal money down the toilet. I wonder if the “founder” found herself a new car or some fancy trips on our dime?
You have to wonder who the people are that approve of this rubbish. But, the real problem is the grant program, one in which people think it's all just more free gubmint cheese.
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Moronic parents, underachieving students, scam "academy", missing money. Sounds like a first rate Dimocrat enterprise.
Another “shovel ready” project for 0.
Sounds like this one is ready to be buried, though.
Anyone remember when the Aaaaaafrican Americans wanted to build a black Smithsonian? It has been awhile but what I can remember is that they got full congressional approval to get a blank check. When asked how much it was going to cost, the reply was, When it is finished, you will know. The only person with balls big enough to put his foot down was Jesse Helms. He refused to sign off on it until there was a dollar amount and they admitted that they didn’t know. Everyone was ‘afeared’ to say no to the project because they knew they would be labeled racist.
I am pretty sick of these Hip Hop Rap Crap schools, the muslim schools that we, the taxpayers, are paying for. Let me guess who is approving the funding. It sickens me that Christians have to pay for their own schools that have done just fine thankyouverymuch without going under from fraud.
And I hope they find the woman who is behind this and hold her accountable. But I won’t hold my breath.
Looks like school officials worked at their own pace too.
You have to wonder who the people are that approve of this rubbish. But, the real problem is the grant program, one in which people think it’s all just more free gubmint cheese.
I don’t wonder at all. Anyone like to take a crack at just how big a bureaucracy would be necessary to police government grants. IMHO it would take generally one person per grant to properly police the who what when why where and the daily particulars that need overseeing.
This is why you and I both agree, government should not be in the grant business.
Yet charter schools promoted by businesses that teach business skills get shut down because school boards don’t think these programs are useful.
They just fired a bunch of teachers in my son’s high school. Got rid of business, law and marketing classes in order to save the performing arts program. And the board is complaining that the sports program, which develops leaders and brings in revenue, need to be cut.
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