Sentinel Watchdog: Failed charter school paid principal's husband $460K

[Baitball Blogger]

The failed Orange County charter school that gave its principal a payout of $519,000 in taxpayer dollars after closing in June also paid her husband more than $460,000 during a five-year period, audits show.

The payments to Steven A. Young, which averaged more than $80,000 a year, were for performing "certain management services," according to annual audits paid for by the school. The total included about $41,000 for services to be performed after the school closed, according to one of the audits.

Young, husband of NorthStar High School Principal Kelly Young, helped establish the charter school 11 years ago and was its first board president. He resigned from the NorthStar board in August 2008, the same month he was arraigned on charges of soliciting prostitutes while on duty as an Orange County sheriff's commander. He was ultimately adjudicated guilty of three charges and lost his law-enforcement job. He is now a divorce attorney.

The payments to Steven Young appear to violate state law prohibiting public officers and employees from doing business with family members, according to legal and charter-school experts. The law states that no employee or officer may purchase services "from any business entity of which the officer or employee or the officer's or employee's spouse or child is an officer, partner, director, or proprietor."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-northstar-charter-high-husband-20121201,0,7745898.story

[ArcticFox]

1. A lawyer, with that history?

And his wife not only stayed with him, but funnelled $460,000 to him?

Only in Florida.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Exactly. Only in Florida.

It would have been harder to expose him if he had a position in the Rotary Club or the school's lawyers were connected to the good ole boy network.

[madfloridian]

2. That is just stunning to me.

I think that NorthStar school business has really waked up a lot of people who were not paying attention before.

Actually if you add in the principal's salary, she got almost a million. It's unbelievable.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/03/1154823/-FL-failed-charter-school-did-without-computers-library-or-cafeteria-Principal-got-824-000

The principal in question not only received a $519,000 severance check, but she took home her $305,000 annual salary for a grand total of $824,000 during the 2010-2011 school year. The Orlando Sentinel also reported last week the school only spent $366,000 on teacher salaries and instruction during that school year. Nothing can justify that imbalance, especially for the leader of a charter that failed.

Now we learn they paid the hubby also?

[Baitball Blogger]

11. I've been following your posts.

Almost sent you a PM because I thought this was up your alley. I thought I had posted it so late at night that no one would see it. But, I woke up this morning to find 18 recs!

[ReRe]

3. Somebody ought to write a book....

... (maybe someone has?) documenting the shenanigans that go on in charter schools. Bad stories are starting to accumulate, and more of them recently. Have always been against the privatization of primary and secondary schools. Didn't this all start with private religious schools wanting federal monies? If someone can afford to send their children to private school, why should those schools be federally funded? Especially when they don't have to follow federal education laws/guidelines, when they are considered a business. We all know what happens in a business...everything is private, i.e. closed to public scrutiny. SECRET. Even the states they do business in have little control over what they do.

I read that entire article and brother that is one twisted tale. She didn't even have a teaching degree, let alone a Masters in Education, which I think she should have had at a minimum to be a principal.

When they start debating Education in the 113th Congress, and funding of charter schools in particular, comes up, I bet you Allen Grayson gets up there and tells everyone about this mess in Orange Co, FL.

Thanks, Baitball Blogger, for sharing this article.

[HiPointDem]

5. there's a website, "charter school scandals," but it's a one-woman operation. she could use

some help a/o funding, as it's a big area for one person to cover.

http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/

she's also the first person i saw who did a major documentation bringing together information about the gulen schools that were dotting the country. all set up by followers of the turkish iman & probable US intelligence asset fetullah gulen. It's the biggest "chain" of charter schools in the country, and a huge h1b user.

http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/p/gulen-school-characteristics.html

It's likely that some of the taxpayer dollars supporting those schools are funneled into cloak & dagger-type stuff.

this is another potential danger of charter schools: not only that the money will be funneled into private and unaccountable pockets, but that the schools will operate as money-laundering operations and sources of income for questionable activities.

[ReRe]

6. Money-laundering....

....BINGO! Why couldn't Mother Jones, The Nation or the NYTs take this up? They would have the money that would be needed to fund such an investigation, as well as body guards for them. You know that TPTB behind the drive for privatization of education in this country would mount a huge resistance. Anybody could do it, really, if you enjoy investigative journalism. The first place to start would be to research ever printed article that's ever been published, and on from there... I will take a look at those links (thanks for those) and see what the lady is doing on this serious issue.

[HiPointDem]

8. I don't think she mentions the possibility of money laundering. But that was what came

to mind when I started looking into Gulen's spooky background and activities, his world-wide network of schools and his apparent connection to us intelligence. Either that, or siphoning money off to support other activities.

I hope you *will* take a look & maybe *you* can do that investigative journalism. I'd love to read what you came up with, and there are others who would too.

[ReRe]

9. It might take a totally unknown, as I am ;-)

No, there's no way I could take it on. Too much health baggage. Think Peter Faulk in Columbo, wondering around in my trench coat. I'd have to get a beat-up old car, one that smokes, stalls out and rattles, the whole nine yards. Didn't he always chew on an old stub of a cigar? That's one prop I'd have to work on.

I might stick my neck out to a few journalists and ask them why no one has taken this on. If I was younger and in good health, I'd do it. Because I love to solve puzzles, look up answers and
learn.

[Baitball Blogger]

13. I wonder if there's public money involved in building those schools?

I know there was an Osceola Good ole Boy Club (which was proud of the title) who received Florida money around 2000-2002 to build charter schools, and then handed the entire operation to administrators once the project was complete. There's an article in the Orlando Sentinel. Probably the first time they did an investigative piece, that I can remember.

[HiPointDem]

15. yes, there is in many cases. also charters have in some cases gotten ownership of school

property below-market. there seems to be a significant real estate angle to the whole 'reform' movement, in fact.

[Baitball Blogger]

16. SHAZZAAAM!

I think we found the Trojan Horse:

"there seems to be a significant real estate angle to the whole 'reform' movement, in fact."

[Baitball Blogger]

12. Good idea.

Each chapter to take on another Charter School nightmare to establish a weakness in the process.

[HiPointDem]

4. charter schools = license to steal.

[underthematrix]

7. not suprised

explains why some are so big on them. truly a license to steal.

[bvar22]

14. All you need to know about "Charter" Schools.

Rahm Emanuel LOVES them and is pushing HARD to Charterize Chicago's Pubic Schools.