Reply to Kent Amos Paid Himself over $1 Million a Year

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele]People are anti-charter for a lot of reasons, but one of the most common reasons is the belief that charters are simply a method of siphoning off public money for private gain. The Washington Post's latest article about Kent Amos will certainly stoke such fears:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/judge-orders-dc-charter-to-stop-payments-to-company-founded-by-school-leaders/2014/10/27/83a8078c-5e1f-11e4-9f3a-7e28799e0549_story.html

"Federal tax returns show that Amos received about $1.15 million in income in 2012 from the private management company. In 2013, he received $1.38 million, including $103,000 that was paid to his wife. His stepson also earned about $167,000 that year."

Amos' private company was paid by Dorothy I. Height Community Academy Public Charter School, a charter school that Amos set up. This pattern of setting up a non-profit charter school which contracts with a for-profit management firm is not uncommon and an arrangement that definitely needs more oversight from the DCPCSB. This is exactly the sort of activity that will increase opposition to charters.
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There has been a lot said about the for profit corporation that lurks behind all the BASIS charter schools, and to be honest, I am actually starting to believe some of it.

A post from someone who purported to be a former BASIS teacher about the "Annual Teacher Fund" aka ATF, who said that all the money the parents try so hard to raise over the year actually only goes to fulfill contractual obligations that are incurred and written in stone before students enroll (including a formula for bonuses), which I found credible, both disturbed and reassured me, since the parents at our school cannot possibly match money raised in Arizona.

We had just had a Q&A (or what counts for one at Basis) about the very subject where the HOS stated that our money was essential to retain teachers in Washington DC, even though almost half the student population is sufficiently impoverished to qualify for reduced meals (such families cannot possibly come up with the $500 the BOOSTERS are requesting "per capita," a phrase that I am brave enough to admit I did not understand), but while that may mean that no matter how little we raise teachers will be paid, it does not mean that ultimately this money would go towards their retention.

So if her facts are correct, the money we raise goes to pay the teachers' salaries, including, presumably, those who are fired at the end of the year, and thus is in no way a "retention" fund to reward good teachers who stay in whatever manner BASIS sees fit (we are not privy to the formula.)

This was originally a husband and wife team, but their have been allegations about paying relatives in the Czech republic (which, if they do their job and their salary were reasonable I would not object to), and now they have brought their son into the family business.  The very idea that the wife remains on the charter school not-for-profit side while the husband guides the for profit corporation would have caused endless headaches to in house counsel and external lawyers advising anyone in a more scrutinized arena, and it is smelling worse and worse to me.

I have often said that I do not care if they make money hand over fist as long as it does not adversely affect our children, but the fact that the founders' son presented tablets to students at Basis DC in LEAP Chemistry for a pilot program where, unlike in other schools, our students are only getting 3 days of instruction as opposed to the 5 in Arizona, and the uncomfortable realization that the very valuable (to DC) former HOS from last year is now not only in charge of us, but in charge of two schools that I believe are up front for profit, where parents are paying tuition, and there is in general no financial aid, means that in contrast to my steadfast position 4 years ago when every time it was raised I was a BOOSTER who said it did not matter, I am no longer as dismissive of the posters who raised ethical issues about the entire organization.

In fact, families posted interesting articles from an education blogger in I believe San Antonio, where they have also opened up a charter school, raising all these issues and more.  Unfortunately their posts were deleted from our school list serve because technically, as former parents, or soon to be former parents, they had no right to speak in that forum.

What worries me is that BASIS may ultimately close our school here.  I would like to think that is not a possibility, but I certainly think they were woefully ignorant, arrogant, and unprepared to start a school in our city, and they have been penalized for it monetarily with respect to children with IEPS, to whom the Office of Civil Rights required them to provide expensive compensatory educational services for their blatant disregard of the law in their first year.

To its credit, the Charter Board did raise the issue of their refusal to open their financial data to public scrutiny as a reason for their denial for permission to expand.  Although the denial was pro forma, because it was a request after the first year which is never granted, the reason for the necessity of expansion offered was financial.  If that part was genuine I can only imagine what our books look like now in terms of even holding even, which I am sure we are not.

I think the premise is sound and could work in DC if we had someone really competent able to focus on just our school for more than one year.  I am just worried that they are oblivious to how much attention we need.  We are a great school for a certain type of student, and my kids happen to fit into that category, but we are apparently having trouble keeping those kids for high school, when options expand and the lack of respect our students are accorded compels them to go in search of greener pastures.  I hope the administration is smart enough to realize that many who enter do not intend to be there for the whole process, and they have to be convinced.  And that the chaos of our early years caused many to leave who never intended to, for the same reasons, and we cannot go back to that type of regime without risking our future.

Jeff, again, kudos to you for providing an alternative forum, which as chaotic as it may be at times, has been a bountiful source of information for my family on numerous fronts since we moved here (long before we were even contemplating having a charter school student), but you have actually made us more attentive to local politics as well, because they do affect education.  Having grown up here, when it was Barry or no one, I was rather jaded when I returned.  But our votes as parents of children in any part of the public school system, charter or not, matter, and we need to pay attention to who we vote for.  We are one issue voters, and the issue is complicated, but since you seem so committed to politics I just wanted to let you know that this time we are doing our homework. :wink: [/quote]

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