Coconut Grove charter school whose owner called parents "ignorant" gets extra chance.

[madfloridian]

In spite of the fact that the owner has three other companies profiting from this Academy of Arts and Minds, in spite of the fact that even though he got 2.4 million of taxpayer funds and still charged fees to parents illegally.....the school will remain open while being observed.

From the Miami Herald's SCOTT HIAASEN AND KATHLEEN McGRORY

Coconut Grove charter school gets reprieve

District officials threatened to close Arts & Minds earlier this month after the school failed to deliver some special-education services. The school was also criticized for charging parents illegal fees.

School district spokesman John Schuster said Arts & Minds had come into compliance for all but four special-needs students.

“The school is heading in the right direction,” he said Tuesday.

..."Parents have also questioned the role of the school’s founder, Manuel Alonso-Poch, who serves as the school’s landlord, manager and food-service provider. His cousin, Ruth “Chuny” Montaner, is the chairwoman of the governing board.

When parents started questioning how he was running the school, wondering why there were not enough teachers, wondering why they were photocopying textbooks instead of buying them, why the rent from which the owner profits was so exorbitant.....he said they were ignorant and misinformed.

Some parents sent a letter to Dade officials about the way the school is being run. Then the owner of the charter school, the Academy of Arts and Minds, became angry.

When the parents sent the letter he used the word "ignorant" in speaking of them. That is degrading and unprofessional.

Alonso-Poch says the complaints are hooey: "For a group of misinformed, ignorant parents who don't trust anything to attack my hard work is very offensive."

The school pays the charter owner, Manny Alonso Poch, much money to his 3 other companies that profit from the school.

Miami charter school got 2.4 mil from taxpayers last year. Owner's 3 other companies profit.

Arts & Minds received about $2.4 million in tax dollars in the 2009-10 school year, records show. But the school has long depended on money from Alonso-Poch to stay afloat. Alonso-Poch says he has donated more than $2 million to the school over the past eight years — some in cash, some in forgiven rent — and at times has had to pay the mortgage on the school building from his own pocket.

But Alonso-Poch has profited, too: The school pays more than $77,000 a month in rent to Alonso-Poch’s company, records show, though Alonso-Poch said the mortgage costs about $45,000 a month. All of the property devoted to the school is not taxed.

In addition, the school paid $147,000 in 2009 and 2010 to another Alonso-Poch company to provide student lunches. Alonso-Poch said his food-service company is “not a profit-making enterprise.”

..."In July, the school’s board agreed to hire a company called EDU Management to run the school — a company Alonso-Poch created in April, state records show. Under the contract, EDU Management will receive $200 for each of the 450 students at the school.

He is getting about $32 thousand dollars more a month than the mortgage actually is. I would call that profit for him.

I agree with Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post:

Actually, there’s plenty wrong with people making big profits on public education, with public money. The country’s public education system is the nation’s proudest civic institution, and running it like a business, where profits are king, is the wrong model.

..."Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said repeatedly that bad charters should be closed, but these sentiments are frankly lost in the push to open new ones, and too many charters are not given adequate oversight by their chartering agencies.

I doubt this much consideration is given to traditional public schools when they have problems. When one man has that many companies profiting from a school which he runs his own way...using public money to do it...he should be watched very carefully and regulated.

[snagglepuss]

1. Calling all grammarians! Is the following sentence wriiten by Poch grammatical?

"For a group of misinformed, ignorant parents who don't trust anything to attack my hard work is very offensive."

[EC]

2. What a racket.

How does one get into this? How did this guy get the money to begin with?

[madfloridian]

3. MInus zero recs...

Interesting...don't see that very often.

[chervilant]

4. Actually,

he should be stopped, AND compelled to return every bit of the taxpayers' money.

[madfloridian]

5. But it's ok to misuse taxpayer money if you are part of the ed reform

movement it seems to me. In FL they seem immune.