Monday, January 9, 2012

Breaking: Williamsburg/Believe Charter with Slimeball Leader Eddie Negron - Charter Revoked

UPDATED: 9:30PM

NY Times:

Gotham School: City moves to close two charter schools, citing mismanagement

RED FLAG ALERT!
 Most of the charges center on founder Eddie Calderon-Melendez, who earned $478,000 last year as the CEO of the Believe Charter Network, which has run Williamsburg and two other high schools.
That's rights folks - Almost half a million for Eddie - but you know he's doing it for the kids.

Here is my comment at Gotham:
What a joke. They're still giving Eddie a month to clean up his act?
Like, did they find out yesterday about Eddie? Ed Notes has been following this story for years. We broke the story of the $100 bounty they were offering kids if they brought in a sucker -- er recruit --- years ago. In the comment section teachers were screaming out in outrage but also in fear of Eddie and his thuggish behavior. He once threatened Susan Ohanian with a "visit" because she had mentioned his poodle business. In the corporate ed deform world it is ok for Eddie to make almost half a million while scamming us taxpayers for years.

Where are John King and Merryl Tisch who are quick to condemn people who fight to keep their schools open as "supporting failure" while a school that clearly was engaging in shady tactics for years was allowed to continue. Eddie's charter should have been revoked before the ink was dry.

As for Penninsula Prep out here in Rockaway where even the sea breezes coudn't wash away the smell of scandal from St Sen Malcolm Smith's equivalent of Rosemary's baby. How about those earmarks he got for the school he founded? I bet they don't end up in a public school in Rockaway. How about giving it to PS 215 which they are closing?
 3:30

Unconfirmed - from good source in District 14:

Lindsey Christ at NY1 confirms and also ads Rockaway's Penninsula Prep - a school founded by NY State Senator Malcolm Smith - talk about conficts of interest even though he claims not to have anything to do with the school. I do hope someone in the media digs into how these schools were founded on the use of political pull.

No time to put up links but use the "search blog" function to find scads of articles we've done on Eddie the Slime. This is the charter that pushed the teacher out of the library at IS 126 after she renovated it. We actually shot a bunch of footage for The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman in front of this charter to highlight the corrupt charter practices but we decided we didn't have room in the film to get into that aspect.
Believe North & Believe South are chartered through the State Education Department (SED ---- where have you been all these years Merryl Tisch, John King, etc?
Watch these clowns take credit for closing down the charter despite waiting for years and letting children's education be destroyed for years. Message to Merryl, who challenges parents at closing schools who fight to keep their schools open with "you are supporting failing schools" - with a reframing: Merry Merryl, why are you supporting failing school policies?

Also confirmed by Mona Davids at New York Charter Parents Association (NYCPA)
NYCPA warned parents about this charter just as we have about others that have been shut down.  Parents have been disrespected, students' IEP's violated, staff harassed for speaking up for students for many years and the DOE's charter office did nothing.
Then NYCPA broke the story on the new buidling the Believe Network, the Charter Management Organization (CMO), which runs Williamsburg, Believe North & Believe South High School, couldn't pay AND signed a 30 year lease when charters are renewed every 5 years.
Believe North & Believe South are chartered through the State Education Department (SED).  Those schools and Believe Network are under investigation by the State Attorney General's office too. 
NYCPA talked about the corruption of the board, the intermingling and incestuous releationship between board members of the three schools and the CMO.
DOE should have stepped in a long time ago.  As usual they do nothing until the stench of corruption, mismanagement and cronyism, reaches outside of the DOE office to other agencies.
This is why we are pushing charter parents be allowed under law to fire school leaders and replace their boards if they're mismanaging the schools.  If 51% of parents vote to remove leadership, the parents can bring in new leaders and reconstitute the board.
We have good charters and bad charters just as we good public schools and bad public schools.  Parents be vigilant, attend your board meetings, request monthly copies of your school's financial reports, get a copy of your school's charter and by-lays.  Protect your children's education, hold your charter accountable and ensure they're doing right by your children.
Best regards.
Here are a few quick links from a quick search on the web for background:


  1. Williamsburg Charter High School Placed On Probation - NY1.com

    brooklyn.ny1.com/.../williamsburg-charter-high-school-placed-on-pr...
    Sep 16, 2011 – Williamsburg Charter High School Placed On Probation | NY1 News is ... A Charter school in Brooklyn may be on its way to closing its doors for ...
  2. CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: Williamsburg Charter High School

    charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/.../williamsburg-charter-high-sch...
    Apr 1, 2011 – The owner of a brand-new school building in Williamsburg is putting it on the ... It spent more per-student at its two other charter high schools, which are ..... consequences at "When charters close, public schools foot the bill" ...
  3. City adds high schools, charter schools to possible closure list ...

    gothamschools.org/.../city-adds-high-schools-charter-schools-to-possi...
    Nov 2, 2011 – Williamsburg Charter High School (Brooklyn) ... Yes, please do close down horrible failing schools and save us parents sleepless nights when ...
  4. Williamsburg Charter High School – SchoolBook

    www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/school/1563-williamsburg-charter-hig...
    News, test scores and information for Williamsburg Charter High School, a charter high school in Brooklyn, ... School Closing Announcements Start Thursday ...

----------
Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on the right for important bits.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

it's Eddie Calderone Melendez, not Negron.

Anonymous said...

Sorry it's Calderon.

Michael Fiorillo said...

Obviously, it should be "Make Believe Charter Schools."

FormerTeacher said...

Re-posted from GS article comments (I'm the OP):

I taught at WCHS, and I "left" (was fired) with some small, tiny bit of hope that maybe Eddie wasn't as bad as we all thought. I mean, we (as in anyone who step foot in the building) always knew he was incompetent from a business and educational perspective, his hiring (and firing) decisions were beyond despicable, he did not have the skills (or perhaps intention?) to keep children safe, the boards were a completely impotent sham, he was regularly dishonest about virtually everything about the school to students, parents, staff, and the public, and under no circumstances should he have been allowed to continue to impede the work of the educators that were working at his schools. Make no mistake, his impact was necessarily negative; had he simply decided to stay home, the school would have likely found a way to run itself successfully.

I guess I always thought that deep down, somewhere, he had a desire to educate children. A misguided, poorly informed, and disastrously executed desire, perhaps, but there was some element of his being that cared about children.

Clearly, I was wrong.