It’s Past Time For The DOE And Elected Officials To Speak Out On The Pencader Charter School Saga – And The Fate Of That School
I was planning on waiting until I had more concrete information on what is going on at Pencader Charter High School before writing a post, but information on the school’s fate is slim on the ground. So, forgive me. This post will ask more questions than provide answers. Basically, it’s going to be a bit of a mess. Try and bear with me.
First, what we know. As usual, Kilroy and John Young, Transparent Christina, have been all over this story from the beginning. I’d suggest clicking on their links and start reading. Also check out Children and Educators First. Excellent Blogging on there as well. Today they have a post up called “What is a Forgery? A Felony, of course…” – not sure what that means.
Side Note to Kilroy and John: Tags are your friend. Please use them. Writing this post would have been so much easier if you guys had a Pencader tag. Still love you.
Nichole Dobo of the News Journal has also done an excellent job of reporting on the situation. You can read her story about the School Leader’s PhD problem here (Sorry, can’t access that story – which is really idiotic since this is an ongoing saga and people might want, you know, to read the entire thing). Click on this link to Ms. Dobo’s blog and you’ll find the PhD summary:
Note that on the agenda below Ann Lewis is now being referred to as “Mrs.” rather than “Dr.” So far, I have not yet seen the documents Lewis said would prove she earned a Ph.D. from Westfield University, a school that had a website that became defunct after The News Journal wrote about it. The state Department of Education removed her Ph.D listing from DEEDs, and has been awaiting transcripts that Lewis told me had a “ship date” of June 28. I put in a request today to the state DOE to see if those transcripts from Westfield ever arrived at the DOE, and I will update accordingly.
(UPDATE: The state has not received any transcripts regarding Westfield, said Alison Kepner, the department spokeswoman.) The state DOE only accepts degrees from accredited universities for listing within the DEEDS system. No accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education has accredited Westfield University.
From that paragraph I assume the PhD wasn’t a PhD.
There’s a lot of history to go over, but it looks like (and someone correct me if I’m wrong) the “bitch” incident set the ball in motion. This is the incident where the school leader’s husband and Pencader teacher, Bob Lewis, was caught on video telling a student she was acting/behaving like a bitch. This video seems to have triggered an avalanche. It also appears to have divided the school (School Board, teachers, parents and students) into two teams: Team School Leader, Ann Lewis and Team… anti-Lewis?
Mr. Lewis was fired over the bitch incident, but the hoopla surrounding the story seemed to attract the notice of State Pension Office who thought Mr. Lewis, and others, had already left Pencader. Take it away, Ms. Dobo:
School leader Ann Lewis instructed those working under her to remove the teachers, including her husband, Bob Lewis, from the state’s payroll system in October. The three teachers were transformed into independent contractors. Ann Lewis’ husband collected about $6,500 a month from the school while continuing to draw his state pension.
About six months after the termination letter, Lewis’ husband made headlines. Bob Lewis was fired after a Pencader student recorded him using the word “bitch” while admonishing a teenage girl in a math class.
Pension Administrator David Craik said the school told his office the teachers had been terminated. Craik believed the school no longer employed the teachers. But in March Craik realized this wasn’t the case when he read in The News Journal about Bob Lewis’ remarks.
Uh oh.
And, believe it or not, it gets worse. Kilroy writes on Pencader not reaching it’s enrollment financial threshold.
Pencader May 1 numbers 410 needs 500 to meet the 80% financial threshold. May 1 numbers put them a 66%. Some other charter schools struggling. Moyer OMG!
No good news on the Pencader internal conflicts that appears to be at a stalemate. The adults can’t find a way to put their pettiness aside and think of the students.
Now… during all this, Pencader Board Members are dropping like flies until only two are left. Those two then appointed six other board members and Kilroy and John Young debate on whether, or not, that vote was legal.
Is your head spinning yet? And I’ve left a out a ton.
Now I’m going to jump ahead… Transparent Christina posted this video. I would suggest you make time to watch it and read Transparent Christina’s explanation/summary of why all this matters.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHs2QpHg6SE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Click here for a snippet of the video showing the School Leader, Ann Lewis, (the blonde sitting at the table) laughing and behaving in a totally unprofessional manner. Dear Ms. Lewis, there’s nothing remotely funny about what is going on at Pencader under your leadership.
After watching these videos a Pencader parent asked me what I would do if my child attended this school. My answer? I would yank them out of that school so fast their head would spin.
And while I would yank my child from that school my response wasn’t very compassionate. As of now, these parents and students of Pencader are left hanging. Add to this that Kilroy is now reporting that “Pencader Board Is becoming Subject Of Concern For Someone In A High Place.”
What’s a Pencader parent to do?
And that’s the main point of this post. I am calling on Pencader leadership, the DOE, politicians and the Governor to give these parents answers. Will Pencader open in a few weeks? If it does, will it stay open through the school year? Given the low enrollment what educational programs/teachers, if any, will the school lose?
Pencader parents have a right to these answers. How can they possibly make an educational decision concerning their child without having these, and other, questions answered. It’s past time for those in charge to break their silence.
UPDATE: After writing this post Kilroy posted this comment on his blog. Everyone, pay attention!
Sadly the negativity falls back on Pencader the school when it should remain on the leadership. No doubt there are issues with the school leader however, the board is failing to take action. School leader’s contract is expired and the board needs to end the relationship. What is really missing is the voice of the parents. The PTO needs to make a public statement as to where they stand.
Its obvious the school leaders rather see Pencader implode to nonexistence. This way any evidence of $$ wrong doing is buried.
The concept of Pencader business and finance is wonderful..But one must question the old saying lead by example. Ethics and morals go hand and hand with business and finance and the current events is sending a bad message to students. DE DOE reported to the state board they meet monthly with Pencader and no “red flags”.
As each day goes by Pencader sinks and might not be saved. I see nothing going on that suggest “its about the kids”! Pencader parents best hurry and demand leadership change or they’ll be scrambling for a new school.
Sad, but true.
Pandora, the diploma mills story can be viewed in cache, here: http://bit.ly/Mug7hc
point taken on tags, I do have a keyword search on right border, but tags would probably be easier.
Thanks, John.
Also, I think that more is yet to come from Children and Educators First.
This is an unholy mess. Where is the DOE? Where are our politicians? Why can’t the people in charge straighten this mess out? And, boy, is this a mess.
As of now, and I think John is correct that more is coming, I would be surprised if this school is still open by the end of this year.
Pencader parents, it’s past time to unite. You guys deserve answers.
Also, ran a live tweet for those interested in last Thursday’s meeting: http://transparentchristina.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/livetweeting-pencader-charter-board-meeting-at-hashtag-pchs/
@Pandora it’s 2012, that’s where they are. They’ll get courage after the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
Charter schools have their own power brokers, who need to have an overdue come-to-Jesus meeting with Ms. Lewis, if only to protect the interests of the charter movement.
The question is, do ALL charters have a potential for this sort of chaos, due to their similar (and probably insufficient) structures of governance and accountability? Nobody wants to rip the top off that can of sardines right before an election, but the noise is getting too loud to ignore.
OK worked on those taga and added a special one for “Pandora” LOL
Believe it or not the Pencader issues are unfolding with more to come.
Many of us supporting saving Pencader last year and for Kilroy there was no vested interest. Pencader seemed to be moving in the right direction until the “Bitch” incident that caused an internal riff. Personal after giving it some thought, at best the teacher in question Mr. Lewis should have be suspended for the remainder of the year. But the board voted to terminate. So now all this shit appears to be about family honor and not what is best for the Pencader students.
DE DOE took some heat last year when they were poised to close Pencader, So now is it damn if we do and damn if we don’t? Pencader “is” on probation as a condition to keep it open. re: last year’s DE DOE decision. However, the DE DOE probation officers lack the capacity to be effective. DE DOE meets once a month at Pencader and yet their report to the state board of education this month was, Pencader was meeting the conditions of probation and “no red flags”
http://kilroysdelaware.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/de-state-board-of-education-re-pencader-no-red-flags/
My guess is the school leaders rather see Pencader implode rather than a takeover. This was any possible $$ evidence would burn in the rubble.
Why hasn’t the PTO put out a message to parents? They do have a board member that represents parents. Why is DE DOE going underground re: no comments. The same for Markell? What is the state’s position in all of this?
let me preface this with the fact that i have no children. i’m not trying to be smart, i just don’t really understand what’s going on here (similar to that newark charter debate)
are the public schools in that area really so bad that this crazypants situation is a better option? I know the debate over public v charter is much bigger and complex than what’s going on here, but the concept always struck me as weird. Why aren’t we focusing more on improving the “regular” public schools so people don’t feel compelled to leave?
V the concern with Pencader has nothing to do with the pros and cons of charter and traditional. Many of us involved in the issue supported keeping Pencader open last year and I honestly don’t want to see it closed. The school needs new leadership and bylaws restricting family of the board and administration from being employed. Charter school boards are not publicly elected and I think it high time one member be appointed by DE DOE (but DE DOE is part of the problem re: effective oversight) Pencader teachers are wonderful and hard working! Pencader DCAS scores did improve.
Kilroy is correct, V. This isn’t about Charter vs Traditional public schools. This is about Pencader.
Their enrollment has dropped below the required financial threshold – and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s dropped further in the last few months.
I’m starting to think Kilroy may be onto something when he says: “My guess is the school leaders (would) rather see Pencader implode rather than a takeover. This was (way) any possible $$ evidence would burn in the rubble.”
@pandora – “This isn’t about Charter vs Traditional public schools. This is about Pencader. ”
I agree with you in the short term. But in the long term, the question is whether controls in Delaware’s state-chartered schools are sufficient to prevent something like this Pencader mess. Look at that video – is there one elected official in the room accountable to the public? Compare to a district board meeting.
I stand corrected, Mike. Which brings this full circle – revising Charter Law.
As far as Pencader… Somebody in charge had better start informing Pencader parents what is going on because the writing on the wall doesn’t look good.
It almost seems like the DOE and our elected officials are watching this school fall off a cliff, and, if it does, then they’ll throw up their hands, claim to have given Pencader every possible chance, point fingers at Pencader’s board and school leader, and then shut down the school – Probably this November. Ugh, hope I’m wrong.
“…are the public schools in that area really so bad that this crazypants situation is a better option?”
In all but a few cases I’ve seen, parents think of charter schools as some kind of poor man’s private school. If the test scores are marginally better it is because of the adverse selection imposed on non-charters.
Unless we are talking about Cab or Wilmington, the benefits of charter schools are wildly overblown.
I am rarely speechless. Today, I am. And sad, mad,frustrated, and adjectives I can’t even put into words. I plan on showing this post to my son, he has seen bits and pieces but you wrapped it all up for us. Thank you.
ps right now I was as creative as Geezer and MJ and could write something as foul-mouthed-locker-room-jaw-dropping as they do 🙂
Just an FYI, Jason… Cab is a magnet school, not a charter.
My money is now on the idea that DOE will not allow Pencader to fold this year. They will open the school with a DOE team sent to virtually “live” in the building and try to nurse the school through one more year of operation while they look for a way out.
More and more I believe–and I think Pencader provides the example–that local school boards need to be the primary organizations chartering and supervising charter schools.
try to nurse the school through one more year of operation while they look for a way out.
Ouch! Educational life-support?
and by nurse the school through, does that mean provide what kids need for their given school year, including honors classes, AP classes, guidance counselors, etc. How can we find out if that is what would happen?
You’re not going to find out whether that would happen until it happens. DOE is not a big organization regarding transparency, but the immiment failure of Pencader in August is something they will see as worse than life-support. That’s 400+ high school kids (mostly from Christina if I am not mistaken) who will suddenly and abruptly have to be accommodated in their feeder-pattern schools at the very last minute, which will compromise a lot of programs and resources at those schools as well.
Moreover, DOE is already taking big hits for failing to supervise charters or enforce the charter law as written (much less revisit it) and cannot afford not to be seen as stepping in during (I really hate to say this) an election year.
It’s past time for the Pencader PTO/PTA (whichever, I don’t know) to step up and start advocating for their own kids and their own school. I will be brutally honest here: until this past week most of what I have seen from a lot (not all, pencadermom) of Pencader parents is the expectation that somebody else should take care of their problems for them. When you go into a charter school environment, guess what? Along with all the rules you are leaving a lot of safety nets behind, and without extreme parent ownership (which you see at CSW, or DMA, or even NCS), you are headed for trouble.
@Kilroy why do you insist on perpetuating this lie:
Pencader DCAS scores did improve.
Well, not a lie, except when used to support performance like you use it.
All schools in DE improved, despite the insane statistical improbability of it happening, it happened. It’s another post for another day, but DCAS score improvement revealing anything useful about a school, its students or teachers is a joke,and the DOE knows it.
I don’t know about other parents, I never expected anyone else to take care of my problems. I think my problem was trusting the wrong people.
When you are dead center in the middle of something, and not just watching from the outside, you don’t see as clearly and probably, well, not probably, most likely, react differently. I’ll tell you, watching all those videos has helped clear my vision.
As far as the PTO, it’s kind of hard to communicate with parents through them as the leader of the PTO is part of “Team Lewis”
I thought the ‘safety net’ was the DOE. I thought charter schools had to answer to them.. that “was” good enough for me.. lesson learned!
ps I like brutal honesty and @ Pandora, I think hard truths and honest opinions trump compassion. 🙂
The evidence is overwhelming, almost every segment of Delaware Public education is wasteful and under forming.
Come on Mr. Young, Pencader showed some improvement! The new game is no whether students met the standards but if they show growth. But, comparing DCAS to DSTP scores isn’t apples to apples.
DCAS should only be used for student assessment to guide intervention needs. Also, the new game is , keep taking the test until you improve the score.
As far as Pencader, DE DOE took a beaten last year when they attempted to close Pencader. DE DOE is giving Pencader all the rope they need to hang themselves. The board is hand picked and parents continue to drink the Kool-aid. DE DOE sends their trolls to the board meeting but yet takes no position.
Pencader will open this fall and if the September 30th unit count is poor DE DOE will start moving towards closure. Cutting staff and programs undermine the promise made to those students attending Pencader.
“The evidence is overwhelming, almost every segment of Delaware Public education is wasteful and under forming.”
Are you suggesting school vouchers?
“The evidence is overwhelming, almost every segment of Delaware Public education is wasteful and under forming.”
I think wtf is proving how “under forming” the schools are.
Pandora,
It just got much more sad and frustrating:
http://www.elizabethscheinberg.blogspot.com, C$E1st has several new posts…
Elizabeth
What the hell is going on at Pencader? Go click on Elizabeth’s link above. DO IT!
Pencader has lost its Tax Exempt Stautus – the revocation occurred May 15, 2011.
How does this effect the people who donated to Pencader after May 2011?
Buckle up for another post.
Elizabeth, can you email me at pandora@delawareliberal.net? I’d like to discuss this.
The problem isn’t exactly Pencader, and the problem isn’t Delaware Schools. It’s “Schools in Delaware.”
Sure, there’s a muddle in issues of who supervises Charter schools. But there’s a muddle in who supervises any school in the state. Look at Red Lion Christian. Look at Marc Egerson. And kilroy’s done an awesome job covering the (alleged) rapist at Glasgow High. People believe someone is looking out for these kids, and no one is. And I’m not suggesting homeschoolers, on the whole are any better, but there doesn’t seem to be any reason they’d be worse.
We have a problem.
re: Elizabeth’s link
Oh, they’ll round up the Lewes’s for tax evasion. Problem solved, and no messy questions for the state.
Coolio.
Kids? Impact on the kids? What do you mean?
We are SHOCKED- SHOCKED, to find gambling in this establishment.
http://bit.ly/NRc9Ro SHOCKED!
I want to know when Schooley and Sokola are going to announce who is named to the task force to fix the charter school law. There is supposed to be a committee in place by the end of this month.
Nancy,
A) please don’t hold your breath, you’ll expire
B) when it is announced, let’s make sure it is a balanced panel.
Nancy, John:
Schooley and Sokola have nothing to announce. Markell is putting it together.
huh?
As the session drew to a close after nearly two and a half hours, Schooley announced that House Speaker Robert Gilligan (D-Sherwood Park) had agreed to create “a blue-ribbon committee or task force,” with Schooley as its chair, to study an overhaul of the current charter school law. The panel would include members of the House and Senate, representatives of the Department of Education and Gov. Markell’s office, leaders of charter schools and traditional school districts and other stakeholders. It will likely take a week or two to get the group organized and determine its scope, Schooley said.
http://www.wdde.org/26222-charter-school-task-force-delaware
has something changed?
other than the “week or two” bullshit, and now complete lie, I mean.
As I understand it, two things happened:
1. In that “week or two” somebody figured out that there wasn’t enough time for a task force to study the issue and make recommendations before the end of the session, so they decided not to rush it.
2. Schooley announced her retirement, so she was no longer the logical chair for a panel that would be wrapping up its work at the end of the year, and then Gilligan also decided he would retire, so he no longer had a vested interest in naming the committee.
I’m sure others will draw additional inferences.
Who would “other stakeholders” be? Biggest stakeholders in my opinion would include taxpayers, parents, and students.
Yes students. They are honest, innocent, and without motivation other than getting a good education, feeling safe in school, graduating from a school they can feel proud of, having a good college app. or resume, and, they are, in my opinion, the number #1 stakeholder. (and tonight, I just got an ear-full and an education from a couple of them!!)
It’s a safe bet that the task force will include teacher(s), including someone from DSEA; at least one superintendent and a school board member; someone (or two,or three) from the Skip Schoenhals/Vision 2015/Rodel/Chamber of Commerce crowd. Markell would be foolish not to name a parent; while he might not put a student on the panel, look for a recent college grad who went to a charter school (he can probably find one fairly easily from among his campaign volunteers.).
@mediawatch in the two weeks after May 2nd, neither Gilligan nor Schooley retired. Each simply dropped the ball/lied, take your pick. I wonder who the “somebody” you refer to might be?
John,
I phrased my comment carefully — what happened in the “week or two” was the realization that putting the committee together quickly might prompt a rush job to get something done by June 30.
I made no time reference to the Schooley/Gilligan retirement decisions.
But it is quite clear that, once someone (not sure who) decided not to force the issue before June 30, it mattered less when the task force would be appointed, as long as it completes its work before the GA returns in January.
I don’t think Schooley lied … and Gilligan, as far as I know, never said anything publicly on the subject. It was Schooley repeating what she said Gilligan told her.
Was Gilligan lying? I don’t know. Did he change his mind about how to move ahead? More than likely.
I guess my point is: the decision to form a commission was public. The decision to slow it down/not do it on the promised timeline is/was private. That’s crappy open government and insulting to taxpayers. We deserve better, from Schooley, Gilligan, Sokola, and the Governor.
[This is on topic, I’m just taking the ‘scenic route’ getting there.]
State-centered blogs are currently the important ones — except for Steve Benen and the like. Too many of the national-centered and pundot-centered ones are beginning to sound like Sports Talk Radio, with the idea to be clever and impress your friends and bash the enemy. Somehow a few weeks of them and you forget that being a Democrat instead of being a Republican is a little more important than being a Met fan instead of being a Yankee fan.
But the weakness in state-centered blogs is they forget that other states may be having the same or similar problems. They read the other blogs for their state, they actually read newspapers — which makes them anathema to the pundits (“It isn’t news unless WE say its news”). But they don’t check other state’s blogs to see if they are dealing with the same type of screwups, and how they are handling them.
In a situation like charter schools, which are often run by multi-state entities, it might show paterns by a similar company. For example, I don’t know what company runs Pencader — but if this is typical, you might find ways of dealing with them as well — pr at least pass your own experiences to people in other states. (For example, David Safier has been doing a long series of posts about Imagine Schools at Blog for Arizona and branched out to handle the Agora Cyber problem in Pennsylvania.
The problems with Pencader seem unique, — and, btw, you just have to Google “Pencader Westfield” to find relevant articles, and details about the phony degree — nut similar and other problems, bad contracts, administrators ripping off the system, and even, I’d guess this type of phony degree, appear across the board — but because people don’t look outside there immediate area, we get a situation where — to quote David Safier:
On the Pencader situation — which I’m just finding out about now — is this a stand alone school, or part of a chain — and can we find out if they have similar problems in other states?
Of course, the troyble isn’t Pencader — from some comment s here, it seems to have been a decent school — but the whole concept of privatization of public education. (If “$X brings you so much education in public schools”, how can “$X-(profit margin)-(special geegaws and advertising to ‘sell’ the school)” bring you mopre or better education? It can be done, but it needs lots of proof.
media watch – I was in the room to support Jacques charters-must-first-be-run-through-local-school-boards-for-approval-because-that-is-the-tax-base/and-likely-student-base-they’ll-be-drawing-from.
Jacques was persuaded to remove his bill because of the task force which would look at the entire statute not piecemeal.
So guess what. Terry Schooley was chairing that House Ed. Committee and it was LONG after announcing plans to retire.
She told us, the public, that she wanted to form this task force and lead it UP THROUGH JANUARY as her final task for the the state. She is in office through the election if not until January (not sure about succession rules).
She had EVERY INTENTION of leading this group through the fall. It is on the record.
There was NEVER an idea put forth that the task force was to form and complete its work by June 3oth 2012. Where are you getting this bogus information?
Prup – Pencader is a stand-alone school. No chain.
Nancy:
I talked to enough people in early May to know that a June 30 deadline was in play at that time. By mid-May, with no action taken to form the task force, consensus had developed that it would be smarter to take more time and do it well, rather than rush. (And I think that is the better way to accomplish this objective.)
And, like you, I’m certain that Schooley would want to chair the task force, and that no doubt would have happened if Gilligan was making the call. But he defaulted.
Markell could name Schooley to chair the task force and, yes, it would be a fitting final assignment for her. However, if it’s the governor making the call, he’s more likely to choose someone from outside the legislature as chair, and it would make more sense, in terms of getting a bill through next year, in having legislators on the committee who will be in the GA next year. Not saying Schooley won’t be on it, only that the delay in startup makes it less likely she will be leading the group.
It would be batshit insane not to have this LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVE led and named by the freaking legislature. For fucks sake, excuse my french, the Markell admin. is who is screwing it all up. He controls who is hired and fired in DDOE and the State Board of Ed. They are who are not controlling the charter schools properly and the point of the task force is to put together legislation to improve the charter statute.
John Kowalko is a must and I would put Earl Jacques on it as well. If the task force goes through 2013 a newly elected Paul Baumbach would be a fantastic addition. These are the people who have figured out solutions and identified flaws. I haven’t heard A SINGLE OTHER ELECTED OFFICIAL talk frankly and clearly about the situation nor has a whisper come out of DDOE or Rodel etc.
I’d like to be on it. If anyone is making a list.
Markell is likely the primary, if not exclusive roadblock, to the committee being seated and to being unleashed to do their job.
So sad, to so obviously play politics with schools.
John,
Sounds like you haven’t gotten an invitation to be the school board rep on the panel.
I heard from Earl Jaques yesterday that he has been named to the task force. Gilligan forwarded his request to be included and Markell accepted the nomination. I imagine we will be hearing the full roster very soon. I will call the Gov. office if nothing comes out soon.
@mediawatch 1st, never asked to be on it, nor do i wish to be, 2nd, when did MArkell have to approve names if it is a legislative task force?
It’s not going to be a legislative task force. Gilligan/Schooley never introduced the resolution to create it. When they didn’t do it, and the GA adjourned, it became an opportunity (if that’s the appropriate word) for Markell to have the task force run out of the governor’s office. Abdication of legislative responsibility? Perhaps.
But I don’t think it matters much. Markell, Schooley, Sokola, Gilligan — no matter who’s in charge, they’ll all wind up picking pretty much the same people.
well, we certainly agree there: New Stack City.