California has more charter schools than any other state. But the way they're overseen is flawed -- and questionable operators are making millions. 1st in an extensive latimes investigation by annamphillips, graphics by swetha_kan & gaufre.
. As superintendent of Today’s Fresh Start, she is paid an annual salary of about $285,000.
In examining Today’s Fresh Start, The Times interviewed 11 current and former teachers and administrators; reviewed hundreds of pages of financial and legal records; and spoke to those responsible for overseeing the organization’s schools. It found that there were plenty of reasons to be wary of the Parkers well before the couple opened their first charter school.
“As soon as we approved them, we started getting signs they weren’t really operating in the best interests of students and teachers,” said Darline Robles, a USC professor of education who was superintendent of the Los Angeles County Office of Education when it authorized Today’s Fresh Start. That was an argument that could stand up only if the network’s board was independent. But county officials found that more than half of its members — who included the Parkers — had a financial stake in the schools.
The Parkers sued the county to try to get its decision overturned and keep their schools open. While that case was pending, they appealed to the State Board of Education, an 11-member body appointed by the governor that has the power to overrule decisions by school districts and county boards. “I might have been lobbied for Today’s Fresh Start more than any other vote I cast on the state board,” said former state board member Ben Austin, who had misgivings about allowing the charter to stay open.
State Supt. of Instruction Jack O’Connell led department staff in recommending that the board keep Today’s Fresh Start open, which the board — including Austin — unanimously approved. The new school year was only weeks away and if the vote had been no, hundreds of students would have had to scramble to find a new school.
Goudy wrote that he’d overheard an administrator call several students a “total waste” and speak of the opportunity “to get rid of” those with disabilities. When Yanin Ardila was hired in 2009, she arrived to find no workbooks, notebooks or crayons for her students, she said. Half a dozen kindergartners had been plopped into her first-grade class because they didn’t have a classroom or a teacher of their own. On a few occasions, she said, she had to intervene to stop the staff from serving children bread that was past its expiration date.
After spending a year in a cockroach-infested classroom, she said, she was moved into a nicer space. But the school remained a chaotic place. She left after three years for a job at another charter school. In court filings, Parker disputed the state’s account. He said that some of his employees had worked for both the day-care centers and the charter schools. The audit “is flawed and it should be dismissed because it is written by Biased Auditors and it is based on speculation,” he wrote in a request for an appeal.The state Department of Education is currently suing Golden Day and Clark Parker to recover more than $19 million it says the nonprofit misspent.
The Parkers, looking for a lifeline, turned to the two districts in which the schools were located: L.A. Unified and Compton Unified. In a strongly worded report to the school board, L.A. Unified officials wrote that the Parkers had potentially broken California’s conflict-of-interest laws. They were also concerned about the charter’s academics. Although officials found Today’s Fresh Start’s test scores acceptable, they wrote that the charter was struggling with English learners. These students made up 30% of the charter’s population, yet over a two-year period, not a single one had been reclassified as English-proficient.
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