Troubled Rise Academy Charter School Appeals Closing (FL)

August 24, 2010

A closed South Miami-Dade charter school cited for spending public money in questionable ways, not providing textbooks to students and having unsanitary conditions is asking for another chance.

On Tuesday, representatives from Rise Academy will meet with the state’s charter school commission to make their appeal to reopen, citing the school’s improvement from an F grade to an A in one year.

The controversy at Rise highlights the friction that sometimes exists between charter schools and public school districts. Both receive public money. But charter schools are far less regulated and don’t have to follow the rules set by local school boards.

Two months ago, the Miami-Dade School Board voted unanimously to close Rise Academy, citing poor academic performance and serious financial problems. But this month, when school grades were released, Rise was given an A. “The bottom line is that we did great things for kids,” principal and founder Gemma Torcivia said.

Records obtained by The Miami Herald tell a different story. In signed affidavits, former teachers said they did not have access to textbooks, and that science, social studies and art were not a part of the curriculum. The bathrooms were rarely cleaned and food was stored in unsanitary conditions, the teachers wrote.

State reviews show the school did not offer sufficient special education, as required by law. Moreover, bank statements detail questionable expenditures made with public money, including $8,300 at retail clothing stores, $2,800 at hotels and Orlando theme parks and $2,145 at restaurants.

“It just went from bad to worse,” Miami-Dade Assistant Superintendent Helen Blanch said.

Like other charter schools, Rise was funded by taxpayer dollars and managed by its own governing board. The Miami-Dade School Board does not control charter schools. It does, however, have the authority to close charter schools that are failing academically or financially.Rise Academy, it says, was failing on both fronts.

In 2008, its first year, Rise enrolled 187 students in kindergarten, first and second grade.

It closed out that year with a negative balance of $250,000 — enough to warrant a state of financial emergency.

Torcivia said the school struggled financially because the district withheld federal money for school lunches. District officials refute that claim, saying no charter schools in Florida receive federal funding for food service.

The following year, Torcivia balanced the books by taking out a $200,000 loan from a non-profit organization. Rise also received a $222,000 grant from the state Department of Education and $180,000 in federal funding for poor chi ldren, records show.

But school district officials had lingering concerns over Rise’s finances. The grants were not renewable, they said, and the school had not come up with a viable plan to stay afloat.

There was also the question of spending. Records show thousands of school dollars spent on clothing and restaurants, and at Walt Disney World and wholesalers like BJs. School funds were also used to purchase a pick-up truck.

Torcivia says the spending was justified. The Disney expenses were for a conference, she said. The money spent at BJs for school lunches.

Tensions over Rise’s finances reached a boil after the School Board shut down the school.

Charter schools that close are legally obligated to return their money to the home school district. The Miami-Dade district says Rise has not accounted for its balance.

It should have had $117,000 in the bank, but the district said no one can account for that money.

Torcivia says the money has already been spent, mostly on paying teachers and vendors.

Still, Rise owes its teachers an additional $35,000 — and thousands more to its vendors.

Moreover, the district alleges that Torcivia took furniture from the school, which was also supposed to be returned to the district. Photographs show the school in a state of disarray after being closed. Torcivia says the furniture belonged to her.

Should Rise be allowed to re-open?

The school district says no.

Last year, school district and state education official s visited the school and wrote shocking reports about what they found: Classrooms were cluttered. The teachers didn’t plan their lessons or provide sufficient instruction. There were no textbooks. Administrators knowingly promoted students who should have been retained.

Later, in signed affadivits, teachers described the conditions as deplorable.

“The school was dirty with trash overflowing everywhere, filthy carpet and unusuable bathrooms,” former teacher Sarah White wrote in a signed affidavit. “I, with the other teachers and staff, had to clean the walls and floors ourselves to get rid of vermin and mildew.”

Torcivia says what was written in the reports and affidavits was false. She points to the improvement in the school’s grade as a strong case for reopening the academy. Rise bounced from an F to an A in a year, an uncommon feat. “The FCAT is an objective measure of student achievement,” she said. “You can’t argue with that.”

School district officials say the A grade does not accurately reflect the school’s performance. Because Rise does not have students in the third, fourth, fifth or eighth grades, the state used the districtwide averages as part of Rise’s school grade. “Our districtwide scores actually bumped them up,” said Blanch.

On Tuesday, the state charter school commission will hear the appeal from Rise. The commission will then issue a recommendation to the state Board of Education, which will ultimately decide Rise’s fate. If the board decides to re-open Rise, Torcivia said the school will be ready to open in early September.

Torcivia, a Teach for America alumna who had taught special education at Miami Central Senior High, said she founded Rise to provide new opportunities for low-income student s in South Dade. “I honestly believe that as a society, we have an obligation to make sure all children get a quality education,” she said.