Posted on 01/22/2002 9:13:03 AM PST by Saundra Duffy
Welcome to California where the Muslims were given tax payer money to set up a sort of underground charter school system and establish a sort of enclave or compound where the community could separate itself from us California taxpayers. Fresno Unified School District last week revoked the charter for this suspicious Muslim charter school system. Here's the article from the SF Chronicle:
School's charter revoked Fresno operation has Bay Area satellites
Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, January 17, 2002 The Fresno Unified School District board voted unanimously to revoke Gateway Academy's charter after finding that the school had $1.3 million in debt, teachers without credentials, employees without criminal background checks and falsified attendance records.
In a letter to Fresno Unified, Gateway Superintendent Khadijah Ghafur described the efforts to revoke the charter as "alarmist, post-Sept. 11 response." Gateway attorney Akil K. Secret threatened to take the matter to court.
But school board members said the charter's management was so bad, two teachers whose backgrounds were not checked were convicted felons working at one of Gateway's satellite campuses in Oakland. Another employee in Fresno without a background check was recently arrested on kidnapping charges, officials said.
The vote means that 620 students now must return to regular public schools or finish up the school year with independent study.
A Chronicle visit last month to one satellite campus, the Silicon Valley Academy in Sunnyvale, found children studying the Koran and parents paying tuition. Schools receiving taxpayer funds are prohibited from teaching religion or collecting tuition. Gateway severed ties with the school one day after a reporter inquired about the practices at the Sunnyvale campus.
The charter, started in 2000 by members of a secluded Muslim community in the Sierra foothills, began quietly adding satellite campuses as far away as Pomona. The rapid proliferation caught Fresno Unified off guard, and created an acrimonious relationship because Fresno became saddled with oversight of schools hundreds of miles away. Gateway leaders, said Fresno spokeswoman Jill Marmolejo, were reluctant to let the district know what was going on in their classrooms.
Under a law enacted in 1992, charter schools provide an alternative to traditional public schools by allowing founders to hire their own teachers and design their own curriculum. They receive state funds of about $4,600 per pupil, but must comply with the same health, safety and nonsectarian regulations as public schools.
Law enforcement from Fresno police, sheriff's office and the FBI began investigating Gateway's finances and operations in November.
Questions about religious instruction at Silicon Valley Academy prompted a threat from state schools chief Delaine Eastin to withhold public funds from Gateway, and a meeting between Fresno officials and the State Board of Education to explain the situation.
According to the district's recently completed 600-page compliance review, the situation is:
-- More than half of Gateway's 162 employees have not had Department of Justice background checks. Two employees of the former Institute of Human Excellence in Oakland were convicted felons. One was convicted for repeatedly carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
-- None of Gateway's campuses has a fire permit.
-- Gateway failed to turn in financial audits, despite asking Fresno Unified for a $630,000 loan.
-- Gateway has repeatedly failed to provide requests for information about salaries, contractors, meeting agendas or an explanation as to why it bought a residential duplex with no apparent educational purpose.
-- Four of the Gateway schools, including Blackhouse Learning Center in Oakland, were in violation of state law because they were operating as an independent study where students pick up schoolwork and schedule meetings with their teacher. The state Education Code bars charters from creating independent-study schools outside the county or neighboring counties where the original charter was granted.
Gateway severed ties in December with those four schools as well, following a Chronicle reporter's questions.
Secret, the Gateway attorney, held a news conference Tuesday asking for more time to clear up the problems. Every point could be fixed, he said.
Employees lacking background checks have been placed on administrative leave, he said, and sites yet to meet fire-safety requirements will be closed temporarily.
E-mail Meredith May at mmay@sfchronicle.com.
Do they have UNION CARDS??
Is this legal?
Is this a NEA loophole?
Or, an 'operation' of ACLU etc.
The reality of this charter school was posted by Clovis Skeptic back in December.
Right?
So I'm needed here. You gals and guys are needed there!
Yes, my son attended Christian private school and now my daughter is in 6th grade there. No vouchers and we pay tax for public schools anyway. We're told it's separation of church and state, so I don't understand why this muslim school gets tax payers money. Their credential are bad, to say the least.
But school board members said the charter's management was so bad, two teachers whose backgrounds were not checked were convicted felons working at one of Gateway's satellite campuses in Oakland. Another employee in Fresno without a background check was recently arrested on kidnapping charges, officials said.
You know what whould happen if this were reported in a private Christian school system? First off, they wouldn't threatened to sue, they'd fire any idiots they hadn't vetted enough. But I guess it depends on what kind of teachers one is looking for.
THROW THEM OUT, THEY ARE OUT TO INFILTRATE AND DESTROY, ALL IN THE NAME OF THEIR MOON GOD! America will not become a muslim country.
What about if we repost it and say it's by Mormons?
Oh darn, you mean verbally. I thought that perhaps US armed forces were taking out yet another Al-Qaeda installation.
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