Two other lawsuits are pending. They claim the charter high school is not being honest about enrollment and is falsifying grades.
Third Whistle-Blower Suit Filed Against Mavericks Charter Schools
A former special-education teacher at Mavericks High in Palm Springs has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit alleging that the charter school is inflating enrollment records and fabricating grades [...]
Since the school receives state funding based on the number of students it enrolls, Mechato alleges Mavericks officials inflate the numbers. "The high school does this by falsely reporting students to be enrolled in courses in which they are not actually enrolled," her lawsuit says.
There's more:
In October, Mechato alleges that Mavericks Assistant Principal Tisa Brandon asked her to write 504 plans -- educational plans that describe how a school will accommodate students with learning disabilities. However, Mechato was asked to write the plans without the required meetings or documents "and/or for students who did not even qualify" for such plans, the lawsuit says. Mechato, who is certified by the state to teach special ed, refused
She was fired in early December.
Mavericks is one of the charters, like Imagine Schools, which is turning a huge profit by turning public schools into a real estate market. They also charge large fees to the schools, often putting the schools into debt. Thus public money ends up going into the pockets of such companies when the debts become due.
Mavericks Charges Charter Schools $350K in Rent, Plus Fees
When a private company aims to profit from a taxpayer-funded public school, the extra dough must come from somewhere. For Mavericks in Education Florida, the charter school chain headquartered in West Palm Beach, leasing agreements appear to be one source of cash.
Remember, Mavericks is a for-profit company, but each of its eight schools in Florida is run by a separate nonprofit. Mavericks charges the nonprofits an annual management fee for overseeing operations at the schools, and it also charges them rent.
Mavericks president Frank Biden says the company turns a profit because of its savvy real estate choices. "It's all about the buildings we buy," he says."Certainly the operation of the schools isn't profitable."
But most of the time, Mavericks isn't buying buildings --at least, not directly. It's striking deals with private landlords, then charging individual schools rent of $350,000 per year for five years, regardless of the price of the building.
Be sure to read all of this very revealing article.
Frank Biden has made clear he will use his name to help his school succeed.
WP: Frank Biden pushes his charter school by invoking family name.
Francis W. “Frank” Biden, a younger brother of Vice President Joe Biden, is a real estate developer in Florida. He also is helping a for-profit company open charter schools in the state by employing a major asset: his last name. In February, Frank Biden urged the Palm Beach County School Board to approve a charter school proposal from the company, known as Mavericks in Education.
“I give you my word of honor on my family name that this system is sustainable,” Biden told the board in the videotaped Feb. 2 special meeting. “This school will be sustained.”
Afterward, the board voted to approve the Mavericks proposal, overriding a staff recommendation to deny the application because of questions about its fiscal soundness and academic quality.
Frank Biden refers to himself as a salesman.
For the past two years, Frank Biden’s been flying around the state talking to local school boards, lobbying for the Mavericks High charters. “I’m a salesman. I’m nothing but a P.T. Barnum for these kids,” he says. Biden’s not an educator. He served as a legislative director in the Clinton administration and worked for a humanitarian aid group in Nicaragua before settling in South Florida. He lives in Ocean Ridge and is currently developing a country club community in Costa Rica. ...
The Second Alarm
It will be interesting to hear the outcomes of these whistleblower suits in Florida.
(Note, I removed some quoted material from the original blockquote in order to comply with a DMCA copyright violation notice from the newspaper quoted. -- kos)