Kent Amos Paid Himself over $1 Million a Year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who doesn't believe there's also quite a few gravy trains in DCPS (via contracts, et cetera) is pretty naive....

OK... let's fix all of them. Or at least fight back as best we can...

Lobby council for a bill mandating complete fiscal transparency for ALL public school funding. And slam any council member who isn't willing to go along with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, Charters receive that much money, but can't pay their teachers a decent salary.

Not ALL charters. And I agree on financial transparency for all charters and DCPS.

I really want to be reassured that BASIS DC pays its teachers decent salaries. We are asked to contribute to a "teacher retention fund" because Cameron Louis said "although we don't like to advertise this, charter teachers get paid less than those in DCPS." Well, the discrepancy in per pupil funding here has been litigated, legislated, you name it, so the idea that it was some kind of secret to us was hilarious to me. Not so funny is the fact that the private corporation pays the teacher's salaries, while asking us to contribute, and a former teacher just posted on another thread that all the money raised went to fulfill the teacher contracts that Basis was already legally obligated to pay. She did not teach in DC, but yes, I want to see the salaries. I want to know they are being paid well because most of the teachers do a tremendous amount of work for our kids, and I want to know where any money I donate goes. So no donations from us except to individual teachers. Again.

[Anonymous]

Charters are provided significantly less funding per pupil than DCPS. On a school vs. school budget sheet comparison, you'll see slightly more budgeted per student in the typical DCPS as compared to any charter. But that's not even the story - what's not included in the DCPS figures are most of the facility costs - the building, the utilities, the maintenance and remodeling, the janitorial services, et cetera. Also not included are the athletic facilities, which are typically provided, funded, maintained and staffed by DC Parks. Also not included are a big chunk of the administrative costs, along with textbooks and a lot of materials, which are under the Central Office budget. There are many other things not included in the typical DCPS budget sheet. What a charter school's budget sheet shows is EVERYTHING - it has to include ALL of those things - they ALL come out of the charter's base budget. By the time you add it all up, DCPS costs on a per student basis are nearly double that of the typical charter. Yet to see what goes on, you certainly wouldn't believe most of that money reaches the students. Now where do you suppose all of THAT money goes?

[Anonymous]

Also not included are the athletic facilities, which are typically provided, funded, maintained and staffed by DC Parks.

This is not true. Almost all of the athletic facilities are owned by DCPS, particularly the really expensive middle school and high school ones. DCPS is allowed to apply to use DPR properties, but they're on the same footing as charters. It is much more common for charters to use DPR facilities than DCPS, because charters don't have their own facilities.

In general the relationship between DPR and DCPS is not good, there's not a lot of cooperation.

The advantage DCPS has is that it has all of the good locations, many of them are closer to DPR facilities than charters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Charters are provided significantly less funding per pupil than DCPS. On a school vs. school budget sheet comparison, you'll see slightly more budgeted per student in the typical DCPS as compared to any charter. But that's not even the story - what's not included in the DCPS figures are most of the facility costs - the building, the utilities, the maintenance and remodeling, the janitorial services, et cetera. Also not included are the athletic facilities, which are typically provided, funded, maintained and staffed by DC Parks. Also not included are a big chunk of the administrative costs, along with textbooks and a lot of materials, which are under the Central Office budget. There are many other things not included in the typical DCPS budget sheet. What a charter school's budget sheet shows is EVERYTHING - it has to include ALL of those things - they ALL come out of the charter's base budget. By the time you add it all up, DCPS costs on a per student basis are nearly double that of the typical charter. Yet to see what goes on, you certainly wouldn't believe most of that money reaches the students. Now where do you suppose all of THAT money goes?

Some for to the central office and shady consultants. I'd love to clear out some of that BS too.
Charter or DCPS, cut out the waste and support the kids better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I forgot to add billionaires.... Stepped foot in a public school
As adults.

I doubt too many billionaires stepped foot in a public school as children either.

Warren Buffet did! A product of DCPS

Sergei Brin attended and graduated from PG County public Schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also not included are the athletic facilities, which are typically provided, funded, maintained and staffed by DC Parks.

This is not true. Almost all of the athletic facilities are owned by DCPS, particularly the really expensive middle school and high school ones. DCPS is allowed to apply to use DPR properties, but they're on the same footing as charters. It is much more common for charters to use DPR facilities than DCPS, because charters don't have their own facilities.

In general the relationship between DPR and DCPS is not good, there's not a lot of cooperation.

The advantage DCPS has is that it has all of the good locations, many of them are closer to DPR facilities than charters.

I disagree about the equal footing - charters typically don't even get a crack at some of the facilities, they are basically already spoken for. Also, you probably don't even realize how many DCPS schools are using DPR facilities, particularly given a lot of the DPR athletic facilities "just happen to be" directly adjoining or directly adjacent to DCPS schools, so that one wouldn't ever even know that they are separate from the school. Banneker, Deal, Amidon, Ketcham, Eaton et cetera...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charters are provided significantly less funding per pupil than DCPS. On a school vs. school budget sheet comparison, you'll see slightly more budgeted per student in the typical DCPS as compared to any charter. But that's not even the story - what's not included in the DCPS figures are most of the facility costs - the building, the utilities, the maintenance and remodeling, the janitorial services, et cetera. Also not included are the athletic facilities, which are typically provided, funded, maintained and staffed by DC Parks. Also not included are a big chunk of the administrative costs, along with textbooks and a lot of materials, which are under the Central Office budget. There are many other things not included in the typical DCPS budget sheet. What a charter school's budget sheet shows is EVERYTHING - it has to include ALL of those things - they ALL come out of the charter's base budget. By the time you add it all up, DCPS costs on a per student basis are nearly double that of the typical charter. Yet to see what goes on, you certainly wouldn't believe most of that money reaches the students. Now where do you suppose all of THAT money goes?

Some for to the central office and shady consultants. I'd love to clear out some of that BS too.
Charter or DCPS, cut out the waste and support the kids better.

If you're concerned about fraud, waste and abuse, there's a lot more money vanishing on the DCPS side of the house than anywhere else. Start there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charters are provided significantly less funding per pupil than DCPS. On a school vs. school budget sheet comparison, you'll see slightly more budgeted per student in the typical DCPS as compared to any charter. But that's not even the story - what's not included in the DCPS figures are most of the facility costs - the building, the utilities, the maintenance and remodeling, the janitorial services, et cetera. Also not included are the athletic facilities, which are typically provided, funded, maintained and staffed by DC Parks. Also not included are a big chunk of the administrative costs, along with textbooks and a lot of materials, which are under the Central Office budget. There are many other things not included in the typical DCPS budget sheet. What a charter school's budget sheet shows is EVERYTHING - it has to include ALL of those things - they ALL come out of the charter's base budget. By the time you add it all up, DCPS costs on a per student basis are nearly double that of the typical charter. Yet to see what goes on, you certainly wouldn't believe most of that money reaches the students. Now where do you suppose all of THAT money goes?

Some for to the central office and shady consultants. I'd love to clear out some of that BS too.
Charter or DCPS, cut out the waste and support the kids better.

If you're concerned about fraud, waste and abuse, there's a lot more money vanishing on the DCPS side of the house than anywhere else. Start there.

Nonsense. You can question how effective spending is, but given the procurement and financial systems DC isn't funneling funds to anyone. In addition all DCPS spending is accessible via FOIA. Not so with charters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who doesn't believe there's also quite a few gravy trains in DCPS (via contracts, et cetera) is pretty naive....

OK... let's fix all of them. Or at least fight back as best we can...

Lobby council for a bill mandating complete fiscal transparency for ALL public school funding. And slam any council member who isn't willing to go along with it.

Absolutely. And the problem isn't limited to charters. Duke Ellington also had had issues with a captive, non-independent board, a lack of transparency and excessive management compensation (though fortunately not at Amos' level.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charters are provided significantly less funding per pupil than DCPS. On a school vs. school budget sheet comparison, you'll see slightly more budgeted per student in the typical DCPS as compared to any charter. But that's not even the story - what's not included in the DCPS figures are most of the facility costs - the building, the utilities, the maintenance and remodeling, the janitorial services, et cetera. Also not included are the athletic facilities, which are typically provided, funded, maintained and staffed by DC Parks. Also not included are a big chunk of the administrative costs, along with textbooks and a lot of materials, which are under the Central Office budget. There are many other things not included in the typical DCPS budget sheet. What a charter school's budget sheet shows is EVERYTHING - it has to include ALL of those things - they ALL come out of the charter's base budget. By the time you add it all up, DCPS costs on a per student basis are nearly double that of the typical charter. Yet to see what goes on, you certainly wouldn't believe most of that money reaches the students. Now where do you suppose all of THAT money goes?

Some for to the central office and shady consultants. I'd love to clear out some of that BS too.
Charter or DCPS, cut out the waste and support the kids better.

If you're concerned about fraud, waste and abuse, there's a lot more money vanishing on the DCPS side of the house than anywhere else. Start there.

Nonsense. You can question how effective spending is, but given the procurement and financial systems DC isn't funneling funds to anyone. In addition all DCPS spending is accessible via FOIA. Not so with charters.

At Basis, the wife is on the not-for-profit side and the husband is the for-profit corporation they contract with. And looking at what they did and did not release to the Charter Board for 2013, they did not release teacher or administrators salaries,,,,,,,,,,

[Anonymous]

If you think Catania will stop this, guess again. Here is a summary of his education plan. Who do you think those "outside operators" to whom he would turn over failing schools are?


http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/catania-plans-to-announce-bills-that-would-overhaul-dc-public-schools/2013/06/03/5f1aac50-cc65-11e2-8f6b-67f40e176f03_story.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dipping into the pot to enrich himself is the last of Kent Amos' offenses against the taxpayers of Washington DC. His "school" welcomes children dropped off chiefly in cars with Maryland license plates. He hosts a Maryland church with thousands, on public school property, and probably claiming tax deductions. He built massive, illegal parking lot with no objection from his cronies in the DC city government, and yet with no permits, no environmental studies, no concern for flooding in the area -- and no need for the school. His teachers reports that he is a narcissistic, self-promoting fool, who knows nothing about education, and is using the failing school only as a way to collect money from honest citizens. He is a known liar. The man belongs in prison, but will use his connections to continue to evade the rule of law.

You are talking about that parking lot he built in the former Armstrong school building now Amos 5 at the corner of P and 1st St NW, correct? I live in the neighborhood and anyone so much as try to fix anything without a permit in the neighborhood and they'll be stopped but Amos got to build that huge parking lot without permits or notifying the neighborhood including the ANC - the bulldozers just showed up one day and did it.

Whoa

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should he go to jail...? He did not steal the funds, he is not embezzling the funds, he sort a salary and it was approved. Get a life. The public education is free not the work.

The fact that Amos has hired Frederick Cooke, longtime consigliere to Marion Barry says volumes about the corrupt DC crowd he runs with and the seriousness of the trouble he is on. It's pretty likely that the Feds will be all over his tax filings as well. Yes, this crony bro is likely to do time.

I doubt it. Unfortunately, what he has done is not illegal. It may be unethical, but not illegal. They need to change the law and have restrictions. I would be happy for them to fix this loophole and make it difficult for the for-profit charters to do abuse the system they way they have been doing it for years.

However, every charter school in DC is required to be organized as a non-profit corporation. That's a requirement of the school reform act. Non-profit corporations are required to retain their profits, rather than distribute them to their owners.

So, the more subtle question is whether it is legal for the owner of a non-profit corporation in DC to subvert this provision of the law by paying out the profits to himself in the form of salary, rather than distributing the profits to himself in the form of dividends.

I suspect that subverting this provision of the law is not so easy. This is probably a civil violation, and the DC attorney general undoubtedly has the power to force Amos to pay back that portion of his salary that was in excess of a "reasonable" amount -- however that would be calculated. It might also be a criminal violation.

Any lawyers care to chime in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should he go to jail...? He did not steal the funds, he is not embezzling the funds, he sort a salary and it was approved. Get a life. The public education is free not the work.

The fact that Amos has hired Frederick Cooke, longtime consigliere to Marion Barry says volumes about the corrupt DC crowd he runs with and the seriousness of the trouble he is on. It's pretty likely that the Feds will be all over his tax filings as well. Yes, this crony bro is likely to do time.

I doubt it. Unfortunately, what he has done is not illegal. It may be unethical, but not illegal. They need to change the law and have restrictions. I would be happy for them to fix this loophole and make it difficult for the for-profit charters to do abuse the system they way they have been doing it for years.

However, every charter school in DC is required to be organized as a non-profit corporation. That's a requirement of the school reform act. Non-profit corporations are required to retain their profits, rather than distribute them to their owners.

So, the more subtle question is whether it is legal for the owner of a non-profit corporation in DC to subvert this provision of the law by paying out the profits to himself in the form of salary, rather than distributing the profits to himself in the form of dividends.

I suspect that subverting this provision of the law is not so easy. This is probably a civil violation, and the DC attorney general undoubtedly has the power to force Amos to pay back that portion of his salary that was in excess of a "reasonable" amount -- however that would be calculated. It might also be a criminal violation.

Any lawyers care to chime in?

The payments were made under a contract to a for-profit corporation that contracted with the school to provide services. This is a provision in the law that was set up for a good reason- to allow schools which needed back-office and operational support to contract with experienced "CMOs"- charter management organizations. But some people realized that they could contract out EVERYTHING and just siphon off the excess profits through the contract. It's the same thing the Options folks did. The PCSB is trying to combat this by requiring disclosure of the salaries of the CMOs, but are having a tougher time because they are private companies. This all works generally well if there is no connection between the school and CMO, so the school is able to perform proper due diligence and control over the CMO. But in both the CAPCS and Options cases, the CMOs were owned by the same people who were running the school, and that lack of control over conflicts of interest and dealing on both sides is very much in violation of DC's non-profit laws.

This is a pretty good summary of the alleged violations- http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-officials-allege-improper-diversion-of-charter-funds/2014/06/02/a22ffcc2-ea94-11e3-b98c-72cef4a00499_story.html