Are you kidding me?

New Year Introspection Blog - The Strength of Conviction

2011-12-28T15:39:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, Blogvillers! Happy Holidays, Blogvillers! To steal a line I heard on television, “Happy End of Last Quarter of the Fiscal Year”, Blogvillers! However you want to say it, it is the time of year when people draw closer to those they love; try to rebuild bridges with those they don’t; and spend time being loving and understanding toward others and, hopefully, toward themselves. The new year looms large. Beginnings and endings dance through our heads like sugarplums in that famous Santa story. The possibility for change and improvement in our lives, and in the world, is palpable. Even those generally not inclined toward introspection and analysis tend to dabble in those arts as the intangible potential for transformation promised by the new year beckons.

Those of us who are more introspective by nature are unable to avoid revisiting both momentous, and sometimes seemingly insignificant, life events and the people who shared and shaped them. We examine those events to help us better understand how they contributed to making us the people we are and trying to better learn all the lessons offered in order to make the best use of the sense of renewal inherent in the impending new year. We reminisce about the people who have impacted our lives in some manner. We examine their qualities and how our relationships were shaped and how those relationships progressed, evolved, devolved, unraveled, or ceased to exist. We question how those relationships shaped us into the people we are and how they can contribute to making us the people we would like to be next year.

Never is introspection more tempting than when a person’s life is in flux as the new year approaches. When the year that is coming to an end has contained life altering events, the possibilities and potential of the future seem far more apparent. That has been the case for me in the past two years. A life in flux can be daunting but it also holds a great deal of promise.

Like millions of other Americans, I unexpectedly became unemployed almost two years ago. Before I lost my job, I had a life plan in which that job was a central piece. Suddenly, I was forced to build a new life. Looking back at the end of this year, I realize that I have made many choices that have greatly improved my life and will benefit those that I love. I also realize that my life is filled with amazing people. Each of those people has brought me a unique joy and perspective on living that has enriched my life and made me a better person. I have also learned more about myself. I have a much better understanding of my priorities and my expectations for myself.

I have also been forced to seek an explanation for the reason that the loss of my job had such an impact on me. “It was just a job,” people tell me. “Let it go and move on,” say others that love me. “Why can’t I just turn my head and let the cards fall where they may?” I have asked myself more often than you can imagine.

So I set a goal for myself (something that has become a big part of my life in “the years of flux”). I decided that I would find an answer to that question. I believe that I have and that the answer can be found where most of the answers in my adult life can be found – in my children.

There are moments in your life that are pivotal – those moments which demand that you question the underpinnings of your world. The rest of the world may not see the significance but, sometimes as they are occurring and sometimes in retrospect, you know that the event is life-altering. I had one of those life-altering moments with my middle daughter in 2000.

To understand the impact, you have to understand my daughter. When she was a little girl, the neighbors used to ask me if she ever stopped smiling. She was this little beam of sunshine. She was gentle and caring and sensitive and she loved everyone immediately. She was so smart! She loved to learn. She loved to make people proud of her. She positively beamed when she received a compliment. Our lives weren’t easy, but she always found the best in a situation and made it hard for others not to do the same.

Then, she started school. She was tested before she started school and was placed in first grade rather than kindergarten based on her performance on the testing. She quickly became a target for bullying. Her brother, who was a year ahead of her in school, had also been bullied. He had responded to the bullying by becoming aggressive. She was not an aggressor and could not develop a method of coping with the abuse. She was never really comfortable in her own skin after the bullying began, yet she continued to try. She spent most of fifth grade being bullied and beaten up by one of the more popular girls and the girl’s popular friends. At fifth grade graduation, the girl decided that she wanted to make peace. My daughter hugged her. That might say all that needs to be said about the amazing young lady that was my daughter. My most frequent comment about my daughter was “she has such a big heart!

I did everything that I could, in light of our very difficult financial situation, to ensure that my daughter would have a fresh start with a new group of kids for middle school. While I did get her into a school outside our area, the problems didn’t end. Around the time she entered sixth grade, her thyroid failed. She began to gain weight rapidly and, once again, became a target for the bullies. After failing sixth grade once, my sensitive, targeted daughter changed schools again to repeat sixth grade. In her second round of sixth grade, my loving, smiling child disappeared. In her place was an angry, resentful, passive-aggressive kid who excelled at making her family members miserable. I can’t tell you the number of days that I felt a sense of dread and foreboding in my heart when it was time to leave work and go home to her.

Around the holidays, I took this child that I couldn’t recognize out to breakfast with my parents and her siblings. She was horrid and the meal was a nightmare for all of us. When we got into the car, I had no compassion left in my soul. I screamed at her, “What is wrong with you?!” I received no answer so, in my least therapeutic tone, I screamed again, “What the hell is wrong with you?!” The answer I received would change my life forever. All I heard were deep, heart-wrenching sobs interspersed with words made unintelligible by the inconsolable pain that was pouring from my poor baby’s soul. She told me a story of her life at school which combined outright cruelty with constant low-level torture. At the end of the devastating tale, I was a mother bear, ready to tear apart those who had inflicted such unholy pain on my sweet, sensitive, happy daughter. Yet there was my baby begging me not to do anything. “Just leave it alone, Mom, it will only get worse if they know I told.”

I contacted the school immediately. I was shocked by the response. While I was given lip service about addressing the problem, the actual result was that my daughter was treated like the problem rather than the victim. Despite my daughter going to the school administration on several occasions, nothing seemed to happen to the students that were bullying my daughter. Rather, there were recommendations for how my daughter could change her behavior in order to stop the other students from targeting her. The entire experience was reminiscent of the treatment that abused women once suffered. If she had dinner on the table on time, then her husband wouldn’t have to smack her around. The school was telling my daughter that if she would simply change to meet the expectations of the bullies, then the bullies wouldn’t have to abuse her. The message that my daughter received was utterly unacceptable.

She was eventually forced into anger management counseling at the school after two students reported that she had made a threatening comment. The principal searched my daughter’s backpack and found no weapons or contraband. Nevertheless, she had to attend anger management counseling, unlike the bullies that had tortured her daily.

Had my daughter not been angry about what was being done to her, I would have been worried about her. When I asked the woman doing anger management counseling for my daughter how she would react if a colleague of hers were to make denigrating comments upon her arrival every morning, her response was that she would file a complaint. I asked how my daughter could do that. The counselor’s response indicated that bullying was different when it occurred among teens and that teens needed to learn how to handle it. While I couldn’t agree more that children need to be taught how to address a situation in which they are being bullied, I never believed that immersion education in bullying could possibly be beneficial. I needed to find a different educational solution for my daughter.

My father found a newspaper article about a new concept called cyber school. After numerous attempts to learn more about the option of cyber schooling, I finally contacted the Pennsylvania Department of Education and was sent a list of cyber schools operating in Pennsylvania. I enrolled my daughter in a cyber school in 2001. Her school performance and attitude steadily improved once she was removed from the constant bullying. Unfortunately, there were legal problems related to the school which threatened to close it. I finally volunteered to join the Board of Trustees of the school. Unfortunately, the difficulties had gone too far and the school was closed at the end of that year. While we eventually found another cyber school for my daughter, following a year of homeschooling, she had suffered too many negative experiences related to school and was not able to rally again. All these years later, the damage caused by the bullying and the loss of a positive learning environment can be seen in her behavior.

When it was time for my younger daughter to start school, she too was able to start a year early. I simply could not force her into the public school system which had been so damaging to my older children. Her father and I paid for her to attend a local parochial school. She was academically and socially successful in first and second grade. However, in third grade a new student enrolled who began to pick on my daughter and tease her. The teasing began because my daughter ate yogurt rather than sandwiches for lunch. My daughter also had very eclectic interests, even as a young child. These interests, such as a love for jazz music, made her a target for the new child when my daughter contributed to a talent show by singing a jazz song. Differences were not embraced. Despite being in the same class, the young bully was two years older than my daughter because my daughter started school a year early and her young tormentor had been held back a year. Other children began to follow the new girl’s lead and my daughter began to feel like an outcast. She didn’t want to go to school anymore because of the teasing. As she began to withdraw, she was less accepted socially. As I watched her love of learning disappear, I decided that I would not allow her to suffer the same fate as her siblings. She would not live through abuse that was indirectly supported by school staff. She would not be advised by school personnel to conform her behavior to the wishes of the bullies. She would not have to go through anger management counseling with a woman who felt that children should tolerate bullying but the counselor should not. I transferred my younger daughter to a cyber school in fourth grade. She flourished.

In 2004, I learned from friends that a new cyber school was opening. Although I had a full-time job, I began working for the new cyber in a bookkeeping capacity in the evenings. About six months later, I left my full-time job and went to work for the cyber school full-time as the Executive Assistant. I had enjoyed other jobs in the past, but I loved my job at the cyber school. The positive experiences of my daughters in cyber school made me feel certain that cyber school was a necessary option for students. The constant striving of the staff at the cyber school to improve the learning experience for our students was uplifting and invigorating.

However, as with all things, it was not long before the ambitions of some of the employees began to overshadow the needs of the students. Cyber education was a new field. Some of the people who got involved were dedicated educators and parents who saw the potential of the new educational format. Others were people who saw a new arena in which they could build little kingdoms for themselves. The school in which I worked was primarily composed of the dedicated. There were those who had other goals but the staff worked together to present the problems to the Board of Trustees of the school and, although the process took time, those people were removed. Unfortunately, throughout the school’s existence, new empire builders would arrive from time to time and the staff was forced to defend the school against the ambitions of the new arrivals.

During my employment, I changed. I became a more vocal advocate for cyber education, and the students that needed it as an option, than I had ever been before. I recognized that, in order to remain beneficial to the students, it was necessary to keep the interests of the students in the forefront. Adult power struggles and adult desires for authority and control could not taint the purpose of the school. I became a different person during that period. It had not been in my nature to speak up when I saw a problem. I learned that I did not have a choice. If I wanted change, I had to be an active part of the change. It was not a pleasant lesson.

I had many responsibilities in the non-academic areas of the school which put me in a rather unique position to understand the effects of decisions on a variety of areas and the interactions between those areas. Despite the numerous responsibilities, I was not in a position of authority at the school. Therefore, although I was often one of the first to become aware of a problem, I could do nothing to change it without the support of the administration. Over the years, there were periods during which the various administrations and Boards of Trustees were open to discussion and periods when that was not the case. I remained outspoken because I felt it was my duty. At times, that made my job very uncomfortable and, on different occasions, put my job at risk.

Despite the intermittent periods of unpleasantness and job insecurity, over those years I had the privilege of working with a group of people who were amazingly committed to a vision of education that was student focused. While we certainly did not always agree about how best to address our responsibilities in order to offer the greatest benefit to the students, the staff behaved professionally and resolved differences of opinion through discussion. During periods when the administration and Board were abiding by the collaborative philosophy of the charter, the school was innovative and fostered a love of learning through example. When things were difficult, the staff simply worked harder and devoted more time and energy to ensuring that student needs were met. We had a common purpose, a common commitment, and the sense that we were making a difference. These shared beliefs made the low pay and periods of bad leadership palatable. We all knew that the bad periods would end and that we were on the right road.

In January 2010, a new administration came into power. It took only a few weeks before a Board meeting was held and my position was reorganized out of the school. Despite the protections offered to employees by the Sunshine Act, I was given no notice that my position was being considered for termination and had no opportunity to request that discussion of the matter occur in public. Discussion occurred behind closed doors and it was clear that the decision was made well before the public vote occurred. I was terminated immediately following the Board meeting. I was offered a reasonable severance package which included the condition that I could not criticize or disparage the school for a period of five years. I had reached another of those momentous occasions in my life.

In the brief period that the administration had been in power, I had heard and seen actions which I knew would be detrimental to the school. I had listened to comments by the new administrator that indicated a vast change in philosophy. There were statements which expressed the intention to get rid of students who were not successful in an effort to improve test scores. There were statements which denigrated special education students. There were statements expressing the intent to end collaborative management of the school. Most frightening were the statements which supported a philosophy of excessive spending. All of these philosophies were antithetical to the mission and vision of the school.

This time, I knew that I was at a life-altering crossroad. I could accept the severance package, which I desperately needed as the sole support for a family, or I could stand by the principle that each of us must be an active participant in change. If I were to accept the severance package, I would not be able to continue to advocate for the school that I loved. I made a choice. I would not be purchased or bullied by ambitious administrators. I would continue to be an active part of the positive changes that good, honest cyber schools could make in the lives of students. I declined the severance package.

I began writing this blog prior to the hiring of the new administration. Initially, the purpose of having a blog was to practice my writing skills and possibly start discussion about current events among a small group of friends who were interested. Following my termination, I realized that the blog could be a vehicle for positive change. I began to chronicle the actions of the administration and Board. I attended Board meetings and made Right to Know requests. Many of the staff kept in touch with me. I was amused to learn that the staff was told not to read my blog! I would have to assume that was an indicator that the blog was fulfilling its new mission. . . making it harder for the administration to destroy the school.

My suspicion that the blog was a bigger problem to the administration than they cared to admit was later confirmed when the administration spent public funds to attempt to have the court issue an injunction to stop me from submitting Right to Know requests. During the hearing for the injunction, the school’s attorney attempted to make the blog an issue. The judge was having none of it. The injunction was not granted. However my interpretation of the situation that the school wanted to force me to stop writing the blog, and was not hesitant to spend public money to accomplish that goal, was reinforced.

The concern among the staff about the practices of the new administration grew rapidly. Several staff members decided that it was time to contact a union. They recognized that there was little that could be done to protect the school if the staff were fired. I was so moved by the courage that these women displayed. In a terrible economy when jobs were disappearing regularly, these women cared more about protecting the school they loved than about protecting themselves. The administration managed to bully the remainder of the staff into submission by terminating those that played an active role in attempting to establish a union.

Of course, the administration has not admitted that the terminations were a result of union activity, but the union activists are all gone and any talk of unionizing seems to have been crushed. Did that stop the original staff members? No, it didn’t. The union provided an attorney for these women and they filed suit against the school. The hearings are over and those who lost their jobs to save the school are awaiting the decision of the hearing officer. It will be interesting to see if the hearing officer interprets the administration's actions the same way that this group of courageous women did!

Once having rid the school of those who would stand against the corruption of the founding philosophy, the administration continued with its expansive spending. Staffing has ballooned. Salaries have exploded. Consulting firms and outsourcing of responsibilities abound. There is unequal provision of educational services based on geographic location. Yet the result does not appear to be an improvement in student success. In fact, watching from the outside, it does not appear that there is much discussion about student success. The focus appears to be on empire building and stroking the egos and supporting the ambitions of the adults.

As recently as November 2011, I was contacted about the blog by the attorney for the school. In his letter he indicated that I made slanderous and/or false allegations and demanded that I remove them within 72 hours or there would be further legal action. Two of the three items that the attorney claimed were slanderous and/or false were derived directly from documents supplied by the school in Right to Know requests. I altered the blog entry in question to show that the attorney, on behalf of the school, disputed the information in the blog. I requested that the attorney instruct me about acquiring corrected information from the school. I have not heard from the attorney on this matter but will be glad to “correct” my blog as soon as the school issues documents which do not contain slanderous and/or false information for me to use. The third item was simply a repetition of information posted on a public website about the genealogy of one of the school employees. I even included the link to the public website in my blog. I did suggest that the employee might want to contact the source of the information on the public website to have it corrected when I addressed the attorney’s letter.

It appears the administration still finds my blog a difficult pill to swallow and will continue to threaten me as long as I continue to present public information about the school to the public and continue to express my opinion. Bullies seem to fear opinions. They fear facts being made public even more. It has been almost two years since my position was removed from the school and eighteen months since those brave women were terminated following their attempt to unionize. Yet the school continues to be concerned about information being made public on my blog and continues to spend public tax dollars to defend against claims that they engaged in union-busting practices.

When I took the time to consider why I am unwilling and unable to “just let it go” and to view the privilege of working at that cyber school as “just a job” I took all of these things into consideration. I realized that, as a result of enrolling my youngest daughter in a cyber school, she has grown to be one of the most amazing teenagers I have ever had the privilege to know. She is now fifteen years old, on the honor roll, and will be ready to graduate at the end of eleventh grade at the age of sixteen. She is happy, confident, well-adjusted, socially graceful, extremely funny, warm and caring, and she loves learning. Her interests remain diverse. She is exploring her options for college with great excitement. I have experienced none of the family dissent that many of my friends have experienced with their teens. My daughter had the opportunity to enter into an educational format which allowed her to excel without fear of bullying. If cyber schools are permitted to become nothing more than fiefdom-building opportunities for adults, then other students will be deprived of the opportunities which were afforded my daughter. It is absolutely necessary that the cyber schools that have become less than student focused be weeded out and that the administrations and Boards of those schools be replaced with committed, caring, courageous innovators who measure their success by the successes of the students.

As I examined the idea of “letting it go” a little further, I came to another realization. The administrators are the same bullies that my children were exposed to in their educational careers.

The bullies are now grown up and wear business suits but they are bullies nevertheless.

The state agency that is in a position of oversight for the school administrators are behaving in the same fashion as the school staff who treated my daughter as though she were the problem. I have no intention of “letting it go” and conforming my behaviors to the expectations of the bullies in order to stop being bullied. My silence would further empower them. That is unacceptable.

My children were too young, and their education was too important, to force them to stay in a school in which they were bullied. I am not too young. Standing and facing these bullies will not destroy my opportunities. I will stand and face the bullies for the former co-workers that I so admire, for the school to which I am devoted, and for my children who I love with all my heart.

Yes, they have more resources – although their resources are public funds. Yes, they have the acquiescence of those who should be monitoring their behavior. How can I hope to succeed? I am just one little person, sharing public information with the public, in an effort to stop the bullies while trying to build a new career for myself. Or am I? No, I am not. I am one of a group of committed, caring, courageous employees, and former employees, doing my part to save a school that we love and support from a group of suited up bullies! My part is to continue to share information. Other members of this brave little group have different parts to play and they continue to play them. None of us is willing to “just let it go”. None of us ever considered this to be “just a job”. This fight is not about having “just a job” taken away from us. It is about removing bullies whose greed and ambition would destroy the opportunity for students to have an educational format in which they can excel without being bullied! It is about teaching those who have been bullied, like my children, how to remove a bully’s power without being forced to conform to the demands of the bully to avoid being bullied.

How will our little group succeed? The bullies’ resources far outstrip ours. Or do they? The answer to that question came with a gift that I received on Christmas from a very dear friend. She wrote that “the power of words and the strength of conviction” are “both forces to be reckoned with.” Our little group’s greatest asset is “the strength of conviction – a force to be reckoned with” and a force which the bullies are, and always have been, noticeably lacking. Conviction, coupled with commitment and courage, will be the undoing of those whose ambitions would steal opportunities from children.

Triple F,

Bearded Sheriffs of New Florence, Pa - Where There is Smoke There is Often Fire!

2011-10-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon, Blogvillers and Avid Readers! My apologies for the delay in the release of the information about the Bearded Sheriffs of New Florence! However, with the information I’ve received in my latest Right to Know Request, the story has begun to look even stranger. To borrow a quote from Dr. Timothy Daniels – CEO of Achievement House Cyber Charter School – in a deposition in South Carolina, “Where there is smoke there is often fire.”

I’m sure that you are aware that the country is suffering through some exceptionally tough economic times. People are coming together in the streets to express their dissatisfaction with the inequalities in the country’s economic structure. If all were in “apple pie order” financially, to quote Dr. Timothy Daniels, I don’t suspect that there would be protestors living in tent cities in major American cities. However, if you examine the financial situation of some of the employees at Achievement House Cyber Charter School, you would think that this economic crisis doesn’t exist. However, if you look more closely at the Achievement House Cyber Charter School salaries, you will begin to see that the inequities being protested in the city streets are alive and well under the leadership of the grandiloquent Dr. Timothy Daniels. The Bearded Sheriffs of New Florence might just be the poster family for those benefiting from these inequities.

Lori Sheriff was hired as a teacher at the Bolivar location in western Pennsylvania in August 2010. Her starting salary was $46,500. Sounds reasonable, right?

Maybe not, though. Lori Sheriff’s is the highest salary on this chart and she was hired in August 2010. The other four employees listed have been employed by the school for at least two years. One of these employees has been employed for six years longer! So what does Lori Sheriff have that makes her so valuable? Let’s take a peek….

Lori Sheriff’s degrees are in elementary education and middle school mathematics. Allow me to note that Achievement House Cyber Charter School is primarily a high school. A middle school program, which was permitted by the Pennsylvania Department of Education to offer only 7th and 8th grade, was implemented in 2009 but did not have a sizable enrollment in comparison with high school enrollment. In fact, according to figures presented at the July 21, 2011 Board Meeting by Don Asplen – Chief Information and Technology Officer at Achievement House Cyber Charter School – middle school enrollment accounted for only 15% of the student body in 2010. There is no elementary school component to Achievement House Cyber Charter School.

Yet Annette LeGendre is certified in Secondary Math and Physics and had been employed by the Achievement House Cyber Charter School for two years (2008) and was making 7% less than Lori Sheriff. Diana DiNenna was certified in Art K – 12 and Family and Consumer Science K – 12 and had been employed by Achievement House Cyber Charter School for five years (2005) and was earning 12% less than Lori Sheriff. What did Lori Sheriff offer that warranted that degree of salary inequity? Of course, there could be a logical explanation for the inequity that isn’t visible to a member of the public who needs to struggle through delays and lawsuits in order to obtain information regarding the expenditure of taxpayer dollars. This piece of information is certainly not, in and of itself, indicative of any difficulty. But wait…there’s more!

David Sheriff, Lori Sheriff’s hubby, was hired on November 1, 2010 to be a custodian at a salary of $37440.00 according to employee salary reports provided by Achievement House Cyber Charter School.

An important aside before I continue. . . on November 28, 2011, I received a letter from Brian Leinhauser, Esq. of Lamb, McErlane in West Chester, Pa. disputing the accuracy of the salary figure for David Sheriff and asking that it be removed from the blog. I received the salary information for David Sheriff in response to a Right to Know Request which I submitted to Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Should Achievement House Cyber Charter School release corrected salary information, I will be glad to share it with you. In the interim, please be aware that the figure cited above for David Sheriff's salary has been called into question by the school's solicitor and might be inaccurate

I could find no mention of his hiring being presented to the Board of Trustees for approval prior to November 1, 2010. However Board Meeting minutes reflect that at the January 18, 2011 Board Meeting, Dr. Timothy Daniels – CEO stated that “once the facility has been purchased, AHCCS will negotiate with David Sheriff, the current part time maintenance worker, to become a full time maintenance worker.” A full-time maintenance worker for a cyber school? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Even if we take into account the locations in western Pennsylvania which Dr. Timothy Daniels asserts are not blended schools, but offer educational services in the school’s location to students on a regular basis, is a full-time custodian/maintenance worker truly the best use of taxpayer dollars? Janitorial services for the Achievement House Cyber Charter School location at 1300 sq. ft. 916 Springdale Drive in Exton costs $6760 annually for services twice a week. If we were to approximate the cost for janitorial services for the 5700 sq. ft. New Florence location, based solely on square footage, the cost to provide janitorial services through an external contractor would be $30,420 per year – a $7,000 a year savings over the cost of hiring David Sheriff. Additionally, there would be no cost to supply benefits to the contracted janitorial service. Of course, there was no public discussion about hiring a maintenance person for $37,440 dollars per year instead of contracting services to a local firm which would serve to improve the local economy. Now let’s look at David Sheriff’s part-time custodial salary compared to the salaries of other non-academic staff members.

Let’s examine this chart a bit. Angela Alderfer, Cheryl Kern, Lindsay Potts, Amy Shea, Sheila Weimer, and Samantha Riffey are all mentors at Achievement House Cyber Charter School. According to the Achievement House Cyber Charter School’s Annual Report submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Education on August 1, 2011, the mentoring program has distinguished itself as a key component of Achievement House Cyber Charter School’s success since the inception of the school (July 2004 – well before Dr. Timothy Daniels’ arrival). Also included in the same report is a statement that the school received feedback from families about the large role that mentors play in the success of the students by building relationships with the individual students. However, the majority of the mentors are being paid less than the custodian! I did not note the custodian being listed as a key component to student success. Angela Alderfer has been a mentor at Achievement House Cyber Charter School since 2006 and, as of December 2010, was making approximately the same salary as the newly hired David Sheriff – Custodian.Samantha Riffey, also hired post-Tim Daniels, is making more money than David Sheriff but has the additional job title of Student Re-engagement Specialist (another newly developed position under Dr. Timothy Daniels).

Also being paid less than David Sheriff – Custodian in December 2010 was Sandy Hodorovich, Student Services Assistant. No need to elaborate on a Student Service Assistant’s direct impact on students. Bridget Taylor, the English tutor, was also being paid less than David Sheriff – Custodian in December 2010. In 2010, 48% of Achievement House Cyber Charter School’s students scored below basic in Reading on the PSSA tests. That was an 11% decline in performance from 2009 (pre-Dr. Timothy Daniels), according to the Achievement House Cyber Charter School’s Annual Report to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Wouldn’t it seem prudent to pay an English tutor more money than a custodian in light of the decline in student performance?

I guess at this point you might be beginning to catch a whiff of smoke but the blog clearly hasn’t become smoke-filled yet! Stay with me now! In May 2010, Lori Sheriff was promoted to the position of Assistant Principal. According to undated employee salary reports issued by Achievement House Cyber Charter School, Lori Sheriff’s salary rose from $46,500 to $68,000. There had never been an Assistant Principal at Achievement House Cyber Charter School. The Principal at Achievement House Cyber Charter School, who had been earning $76,874 per year as Principal, had resumed the position of English teacher at some time around April or May 2010. Dr. Timothy Daniels took on the title of Principal and Lori Sheriff leap-frogged over senior teaching staff members to the newly created position of Assistant Principal with a pay increase of over 46.2%. The August 16, 2011 Board Meeting minutes indicate that a Principal was hired at the Board Meeting at a salary of $67,000. However, when I reviewed the employee salary information released by Achievement House Cyber Charter School, the Principal is being paid $78,000 annually.

According to Achievement House Cyber Charter School figures, the school had an Annual Daily Membership (enrollment) of 574 students in 2010. As presented at the August 2011 Board Meeting, the number of current active students was 459 on August 12, 2011. The billing records for August 2011 indicate that the school billed for 484 students. The current active enrollment figure as of September 15, 2011 was 514. I am incapable of rationalizing the need for an Assistant Principal and a Principal, with salaries totaling $146,000 taxpayer dollars, to provide services to less than 600 students. This seems even more unreasonable in light of the fact that the school currently employees approximately 36 teachers, 6 mentors, 1 tutor, and 1 instructional aide. That is one teacher for every 16.66 students. If the other academic staff members are included in that ratio, that is one academic staff member to every 13.63 students. Don’t forget, folks, this is primarily a cyber school! The demands on staff in brick and mortar environment related to critical discipline issues do not exist. Even taking into account the “non-blended” school which students can attend, that is still a pretty great student/teacher ratio, don’t you think? How can it possibly be necessary to have an Assistant Principal and a Principal which cost the taxpayers $146,000 plus benefits?

Here is a little note about the Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 School which shows as having an enrollment of 888 on their website: “Pittsburgh CAPA 6-12 makes AYP in 2010 and 2011 with increases in Reading, Math and AP test scores! .... Assistant Principal(s): None ...” Apparently, it is not necessary to have an Assistant Principal in order to make AYP and show increases in Reading and Math with a student enrollment of almost 900 in a brick and mortar setting. So, why is it necessary with a student enrollment of under 600 in a cyber, or at most a “blended”, environment? In a March 15, 2011 article by Amy Crawford in the Tribune-Review entitled Corbett Wants to Grade Schools – Pay Teachers on Merit Basis, Senator Mike Folmer, Vice Chair of the Education Committee, is quoted as saying “I think, in a sense, we’ve created an education industrial complex. I’m not going to say it’s become only about the people who work in it, but it should be about the children.” I would love to hear Senator Folmer’s analysis of the situation at Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Maybe I’ll drop him a note when I finish this blog?!

Lori Sheriff apparently does not have Principal certification and, I suppose, was therefore not eligible to become Principal. Yet she was moved ahead of academic staff members with greater seniority and secondary education certification to a newly formed position of Assistant Principal with a raise in excess of 46.2%. Does that sound like frivolous spending to you? Are you getting a stronger odor of smoke?

Well, the smoke fest doesn’t stop there! David Sheriff’s income according to the most recently released employee salary document is now $44,600 and he has the fancy new title of Facilities Manager. So David Sheriff received a salary increase in excess of 19%. If we re-examine the cost-effectiveness of hiring an external janitorial service instead of hiring a full-time Facilities Manager, the cost difference has doubled from a $7,000 savings to a $14,000 savings. Doesn’t seem very fiscally responsible, does it? Smoke is beginning to get pretty thick here…I’m feeling a bit choky!

We are not done yet, though! A little genealogy on Lori Sheriff is in order:

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/h/e/n/Holly-Henderson-pa/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0059.html

According to the information that I found posted on the above referenced website Lori Sheriff was originally Lori Beard. The above referenced website also indicates that Lori Sheriff was previously married to Dwayne Donahue and has a son from that marriage. On December 2, 2011, I received a letter from Brian Leinhauser, Esq., an attorney at Lamb, McErlane in West Chester, Pa. the school's solicitors, which stated that I "falsely reported that Ms. Lori Sheriff previously was married to Dwayne Donahue." Apparently, there is some question about whether the information on the website which I located - a publicly available website - is accurate. Therefore, for the sake of accuracy I would like to clarify that I have absolutely NO PROOF, other than the publicly posted information on http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/h/e/n/Holly-Henderson-pa/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0059.html, regarding the relationship status between Lori Sheriff and Dwayne Donahue now or in the past. If the information posted on the above referenced website is incorrect, I recommend that Ms. Sheriff contact the website to have the incorrect information removed. In the meantime, I will attempt to reach the department which handle vital records to obtain correct information regarding marriages and divorces for Ms. Sheriff so that we can all rest assured that only accurate information is made available.

Where has the name Beard arisen before? Oh, that’s right, in my last blog about a no-bid construction contract given to Beards Building and Remodeling in New Florence, Pa. in the amount of $28,684.00. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Is John Beard, the signatory on the no-bid construction contract, Lori Sheriff’s brother and David Sheriff’s brother-in-law?

At the February 15, 2011 Board Meeting, another new member joined the cast of characters at Achievement House Cyber Charter School. The Board approved the hiring of Robert Beard as a part-time IT Technician. According to Robert Beard’s resume, his employer prior to Achievement House Cyber Charter School was Sheriff’s Salon and Fitness from August 2009 – September 2010. His reporting supervisor at Sheriff’s Salon and Fitness was Lori Sheriff! Are you humming “It’s a Small World After All” yet? Robert Beard’s starting salary on the latest undated employee salary report from Achievement House Cyber Charter School is $35,360. Nice salary for a part-time gig, eh?

On November 28, 2011, I received a letter from Brian Leinhauser, Esq. of Lamb, McErlane in West Chester, Pa. disputing the salary figure for Robert Beard and asking that it be removed from the blog. I received the salary information for Robert Beard in response to a Right to Know Request which I submitted to Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Should Achievement House Cyber Charter School release corrected salary information, I will be glad to share it with you. In the interim, please be aware that the figure cited above for Robert Beard's salary has been called into question by the school's solicitor and might be inaccurate.

I have finally reached the end of the list of Beards and Sheriffs who are on the payroll or who are making more than 10,000 taxpayer dollars from Achievement House Cyber Charter School. That does not mean that I am done discussing members of the clan who have received fewer than 10,000 taxpayer dollars.

When reviewing the February financial statements from Achievement House Cyber Charter School, I came across some checks that gave me pause. Naturally, I sent a Right to Know Request. My Right to Know Request asked for information about the following payments:

A. Sheriff Inv. #2011 0227 02/27/11 Bill Pmt 79 $160.00
T. Sheriff Inv. #2011 0227 02/27/11 Bill Pmt 104 $110.00
R. Donahue Inv. #2011 0227 02/27/11 Bill Pmt 100 $440.00

These payments were made for work done on the building purchased by the school in New Florence, Pa. I do not know for certain who the individuals are to whom payment was made but I find it interesting that more Sheriffs are receiving money from Achievement House Cyber Charter School and that the name Donahue, which is linked with the name Lori Sheriff on http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com%20/users/h/e/n/Holly-Henderson-pa/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0059.html

has also received a payment in the amount of $440.00.

Since August 2010, two Sheriffs and a Beard have been added to the Achievement House Cyber Charter School payroll. Another Beard has been given a no-bid contract. At least two other Sheriffs and a Donahue also received payments from Achievement House Cyber Charter School. So, Lori Beard Sheriff and her husband and presumably her brothers and other family members have all received money from Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Not to mention Sheriff’s Pizza! Sheriff’s Pizza is shown on the internet as being owned by Roger M. Sheriff. Who is he? Around the end of August or beginning of September, I called New Florence Borough to get the names of the Borough Council members…Can you imagine my shock when I learned that Roger Sheriff was on the council?!

One has to ask, is this a photo of a Beard/Sheriff family gathering or a picture of part of the Achievement House Cyber Charter School staff … or both?

Just being relatives working together shouldn’t be an issue, should it? Maybe not, but let’s look a little deeper. New Florence is a small town in western Pennsylvania that had a population of 725 in July 2009 according to City-Data.com. The median household income in New Florence in 2009 was $32,450 compared to $49,520 median household income in the state. The estimated per capita income is $19, 234. The unemployment rate is 7.8%. Lori and David Sheriff’s current earnings from Achievement House Cyber Charter School are almost 350% of the median household income in New Florence. Not to mention that there are least two Sheriff family businesses and one Beard family business in New Florence. Even if Achievement House Cyber Charter School had been limited to hiring only from the population of New Florence (which they were not), what is the likelihood that if the positions for which the Sheriffs and Beards were hired had been properly advertised, and valid applications were accepted and objective interviews, that all those hired would have been from the same family? Are Lori and David Sheriff and Robert Beard the only residents of New Florence who are interested in and qualified to be employed by Achievement House Cyber Charter School? Was Beards Building and Remodeling the only contractor in the area interested in and qualified to submit a proposal to do the construction work on the Western Center in New Florence?

Allow me to make a VERY clear point here. I am blaming neither the Sheriffs nor the Beards for these outlandish raises, job creations, and no-bid contracts. I do not know the Sheriffs or the Beards. They might well be wonderful, caring individuals with good intentions and a strong desire to help the students of Pennsylvania.

I am blaming Dr. Timothy Daniels – CEO for his decision making and the Board members for their willingness to continue to be a rubber stamp for Dr. Timothy Daniels’ decisions. In the past, the administration would suggest employees to be hired and, in general, the employees would not be hired prior to obtaining Board approval for the position, person, and salary. That all ended when Dr. Timothy Daniels came into power and the Board relinquished that system of checks and balances with the result that some employees received a 1.5% increase while others, like the Sheriffs/Beards received increases far in excess of that figure.

Another example, one of Dr. Timothy Daniels’ pet employees, Don Asplen, Chief Information and Technology Officer was given a raise over $10,000 JUST TO GET HIS SALARY IN LINE WITH OTHER EXECUTIVE SALARIES. Twila Smoker, Director of Pupil Services and Marketing was given an Assistant Director of Pupil Services and Marketing. This newly created position, added to an already grossly bloated administrative structure, will be filled by promoting Sandy Hodorovich, already an employee in the Student Services Department. Ms. Hodorovich’s promotion comes with a salary increase of more than 15%!

Another pet employee of Dr. Timothy Daniels is Ms. Hodorovich’s boss, Twila Smoker. Twila has been promoted from a part-time position earning $10.00 per hour to a mentor position earning $33,000.00 on December 8, 2009, at some point in February or March 2010 Twila Smoker was promoted again to Executive Assistant to the CEO with a salary in the $43,000. A new position of Director of Marketing and Pupil Services was later created for Twila Smoker with a salary increase to $60,275. Currently Twila Smoker is earning $65239.13. That is a two year salary increase of over 650%!

Twila Smoker must have an incredible background to warrant such an incredible pay raise, right? There is no mention on Twila Smoker’s resume about her education. Her longest period of employment appears to have been seven years as the Worship Arts Director of Petra Christian Fellowship where she was employed from 1992-1999. Her responsibilities included directing two full service worship teams weekly, choir, special music, oversight of audio engineers, dance troupes, drama, and youth worship bands. She also administrated worship and art functions for regional and national church conferences, weddings and memorial services, VBS, festivals and other events. Her next longest employment experience was as the owner of T.J. Smoker Music Studio where she developed, marketed and operated programs for individualized and group piano, guitar and keyboard weekly instruction and individual and ensemble semi-annual recitals. For the last two years of her employment as owner of T.J. Smoker Music Studio, Twila was employed by another cyber charter school as the Director of Student Services. Her employment with the other cyber charter school lasted three years. Am I reaching when I assume that Twila taking a second job when she was the owner of T.J Smoker Music Studio could be an indicator that her marketing skills at T.J. Smoker Music Studio did not produce sufficient income to meet her needs? If accurate, wouldn’t that be sufficient reason not to give Twila a 650% raise over a two year period? Would expending over $450,000 in her department in order to increase enrollment by approximately $100,000 over the prior year’s high enrollment not be indicative that a 650% salary increase was not taxpayer dollars well-spent?

Another of the high rollers in the increased-income sweepstakes is the inimitable Dr. Timothy Daniels – CEO Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Since his hiring in January 2010, not even two full years ago. Dr. Timothy Daniels was hired at a salary of $110,000.00 per year with a $10,000 allotment to relocate from South Carolina where his contract at this previous position was not renewed after his first year of employment and where he was sued by both an employee he fired and a vendor. Less than two years later, he has received four salary increases and is currently earning $152250.00. That’s an increase of over 38.4%.

How could such a travesty occur? Well, the Board gave Dr. Timothy Daniels a five percent raise during his first year of employment. Then they issued a new contract on January 19, 2011 raising his base salary to $150,000 with another raise of 3% - 5% in June of 2011. At the August Board Meeting, Nick Vastardis, President of the Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School explained that Dr. Timothy Daniels was ENTITLED to another raise and had agreed to accept a 1.5% raise. Well, isn’t that generous of the philanthropic Dr. Timothy Daniels?! His renegotiated contract in January 2011 contained a salary increase of over 30%. A salary increase of over 30% was not even mentioned at the public January 2011 Board Meeting, nor was a copy of the contract made available to the public for public comment. There was simply a Board vote for a renewal of Dr. Timothy Daniels contract. There was also no mention made that Dr. Timothy Daniels was contractually ENTITLED to another 3 – 5% raise a mere six months later! Yet the same Board that quietly passed all these raises for the Dr. Timothy Daniels whose former employer did not renew his contract because he lacked vision did not feel it necessary to give the inequitably paid long-term staff of the school a 3 – 5% raise.

In addition, Dr. Timothy Daniels received a $12,500.00 bonus, in accordance with his contract, for an enrollment that exceeded 500 Average Daily Membership. In the same March 15, 2011 article in the Tribune-Review that I quoted earlier, Amy Crawford states “[i]n addition to fiscal responsibility, the administration on Monday announced its plans to grade schools on an A to F scale and pay teachers on merit. Acting Education Secretary Ronald Tomalis said the grading system would take into account factors such as student test results, dropout rates and per-pupil spending.” Does anyone see Secretary Ronald Tomalis grading the schools on ENROLLMENT? I wonder what Secretary Tomalis would think of a Board that awards a CEO with a $12,500 for increasing enrollment by approximately 100 students above the highest enrollment from the previous year, with a value of about $100,000 while spending over $450,000 in advertising to accomplish that admirable feat? I wonder what Secretary Tomalis would think of a Board who made the standard for judging a CEO’s performance the enrollment in the school rather than basing his performance evaluation on “factors such as student test results, dropout rates and per-pupil spending.” How would Secretary Tomalis feel about increasing a salary over 30% contractually for a CEO under whose audacious leadership PSSA Reading scores dropped by 11%, PSSA Math scores dropped by 15%, and the graduation requirement was not met? I think that Secretary Tomalis would be hesitant to applaud the decision making skills of the Board or reward the leadership of that CEO with a 38.5% salary increase in 19 months PLUS a $12,500 bonus. I think it might be time to drop Secretary Tomalis a letter asking for his opinion in this matter.

All of these outrageous salaries are being granted after a year in which the school suffered a $326,000 deficit! All of these outrageous salaries are being granted in a year when the district teachers are being asked to accept a one year pay freeze. In an article in CNNMoney on March 8, 2011, author Tami Luhby states that Governor “Corbett is asking teachers to freeze their salaries for a year, saying it would save $400 million, and he wants school districts to be allowed to furlough employees during tough budget times. Tami Luhby, Pennsylvania Budget Calls for Deep Spending Cuts, CNNMoney, http://money.cnn.com/ 2011/03/08/news/economy/ Pennsylvania_Corbett_budget/ index.htm (accessed Oct.29 2011). Dr. Timothy Daniels touted Governor Corbett’s plans to expand charter schools in a little opinion piece that Daniels submitted to the The Daily Local in Chester County, Pa. on October 20, 2011 entitled Agenda Paves Way for School Reform. However, Dr. Timothy Daniels apparently chose to ignore Governor Corbett’s message about saving money. In his little opinion piece, Dr. Timothy Daniels also focused on the ten year charter renewal legislation gushing about how it will reward successful charter schools with stability. Dr. Timothy Daniels chose to ignore that a ten year renewal will allow fiscally irresponsible charter schools an additional five years to give their cronies big, fat raises with tax payer dollars, purchase real estate, and oversee a half-million dollar marketing programs on the taxpayer money before the school is up for renewal! Rather typical Tim, I must say.

Another interesting note about Dr. Timothy Daniels’ little opinion piece is that Dr. Timothy Daniels shared with the folks of Chester County his experience in the Pennsylvania cyber school movement and as executive director of the Pa. Coalition of Charter Schools, yet he completely ignored his year of experience in South Carolina where his contract wasn’t renewed after a year and he had two law suits filed against him because of his behavior. The Board in South Carolina felt that he lacked vision but I must dispute that. It appears that Dr. Timothy Daniels has a true vision . . . for extravagant spending of taxpayer dollars on himself and his cronies! He also had vision when he responded to a question in a deposition that “Where there is smoke there is often fire.”

Cessation of Summer Session/Scandalous Spending Sprees "No Bid Beard Construction Contracts"

2011-08-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

Good evening, Blogvillers and Avid Readers! My summer session courses have successfully ended and I am finally able to spend some quality time with the documents from my most recent Achievement House Cyber Charter School Right to Know Requests. There seem to be quite a few areas of interest to be discussed! To celebrate the luxury of having some time to spare to work on the blog, I’ve decided that it might be fun to issue a series of single topic blogs over the course of the next week or two. What do you think? Doesn't that sound like good, wholesome FUN?!

The opening blog of the Cessation of Summer Session/Scandalous Spending Spree Series will concentrate on Achievement House Cyber Charter School’s actions surrounding the renovation of the New Florence location.

This photo can be viewed on the Achievement House Cyber Charter School website http://www.achievementcharter.com/.

A little history of the purchase of a 5700 sq. foot former parish hall for use by a cyber school might be in order! On or around December 28, 2010, Dr. Timothy Daniels signed an agreement of sale for Achievement House Cyber Charter School to purchase an old parish hall in New Florence, Pa. for a purchase price of $75,000. The agreement stipulated, in part, that written acceptance of all parties would occur by January 3, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. On January 3, 2011, a check for $1500.00 was issued to Howard Hannah Chestnut Ridge Realty in relation to the purchase of the New Florence real estate for a cyber school.

There had been no public discussion regarding the purchase of the building at the November 22, 2010 Board meeting, the last public Board meeting preceding the signing of the sales agreement by Dr. Timothy Daniels. The only comment at a public meeting about New Florence that occurred prior to Dr. Timothy Daniels’ signing of the sales agreement occurred when Dr. Timothy Daniels commented about a plan to lease property in New Florence at the October 19, 2010 Board meeting. He also commented in a sarcastic tone (in my opinion) that New Florence was “very urbane”. Rarely do I mock a town prior to purchasing real estate there. Bad form, Dr. Daniels!

The Board apparently approved the $75000 purchase of a former parish hall in New Florence, Pa. for use by a cyber school on January 18, 2011…a mere 21 days after Dr. Timothy Daniels agreed to the purchase! I don’t suppose that any public comment expressing concern about the purchase of a 5700 square foot piece of real estate for a cyber school at a cost of $75000, later to be listed at approximately $85,000 in total purchase costs, would have had any impact on the Board’s approval three weeks after the purchase occurred, would it? Did the Board discuss this purchase and approve it in an executive session or did Dr. Timothy Daniels act on his own impetus and commit the cyber school to spend $75,000 taxpayer dollars? Just like the age old question regarding the number of licks required to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop…the world may never know!

The New Florence parish hall building purchase, which preceded public Board approval by 21 days, was only the beginning of the expenses that would be paid with taxpayer dollars earmarked for the education of students. Once the building was purchased, there was a mad rush to renovate! Apparently the Board and administration of Achievement House Cyber Charter School did not want to delay the Rush to Renovation by complying with Pennsylvania Charter School law. I find it funny there is an item on the March 15, 2011 Board Meeting Agenda under “Administrative Updates” which says “Proposed Changes to PA Charter School Law.” Did the person who drafted agenda actually think that Achievement House Cyber Charter School might just change PA. Charter School law rather than complying with it? I digress.

There is a little section of Pennsylvania Charter School Law which states that “[b]oards of trustees and contractors of charter schools shall be subject to the following statutory requirements governing construction projects and construction-related work: . . . 751 and 751.1.” 24 P.S. § 17 – 1715A. Well, what do sections 751 and 751.1 say, you might ask! Luckily, I checked that also!

All construction, reconstruction, repairs, maintenance or work of any nature . . . upon any school building or upon any school property . . . made by any school district, where the entire cost, value, or amount of such construction, reconstruction, repairs, maintenance or work, including labor and material, shall exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000), shall be done under separate contracts to be entered into by such school district with the lowest responsible bidder, upon proper terms, after due public notice has been given asking for competitive bids.

24 P.S. § 7-751

In a recent Right to Know Request, I requested information about payments made to Beards Building and Remodeling. As part of the response, I received a few documents entitled “QUOTE” from Beards Building and Remodeling. One of the quotes, dated February 7, 2011 was for $28,684.00. Oddly, and worthy of note, there is no address showing on the letterhead of the “Quote” from Beards Building and Remodeling” although there is a handwritten note which says 111 Lawerence’s Lane, Latrobe, Pa. 15650 on the second page of the “quote”. The “Accepted By:” signature lines are also interesting (although unsigned). The signer listed is “Owner Sue Stiver”! Holy transfer of property, Batman! I thought Achievement House Cyber Charter School owned the building! Or is that another case of “Holy continued carelessness and incompetence, Batman!”?

On a subsequent Right to Know Request (39a), I asked for Requests for Proposals (RFP’s) for construction and remodeling in New Florence Center to include proof of advertising. Here is the response I received from the infamous Jennifer L.Vargas, Right to Know Officer, of Achievement House Cyber Charter School in a letter addressed to Ann Marie Daily (Ms. Vulgaras, as she will henceforth be known, seems incapable of spelling my name correctly!) on July 29, 2011.

Ms. Daily and Ms. Vulgaras were like peas and carrots!

The 2 document requests you added to your revised 37a request that we received on June 24, 2011, “RFP’s for construction and remodeling in New Florence Center to include proof of advertising of RFP’s” and “detailed accounts payable,” have been denied because these records do not exist.

What does Ms. Jennifer L. Vulgaras mean when she says that “RFP’s for construction and remodeling in New Florence Center to include proof of advertising of RFP’s . . . do not exist? Was the “Quote” from Beards Building and Remodeling with no known address included on it in an amount greater than $10,000? Doesn’t the Pennsylvania School Code require that:

All construction, reconstruction, repairs, maintenance or work of any nature . . . upon any school building or upon any school property . . . made by any school district, where the entire cost, value, or amount of such construction, reconstruction, repairs, maintenance or work, including labor and material, shall exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000), shall be done under separate contracts to be entered into by such school district with the lowest responsible bidder, upon proper terms, after due public notice has been given asking for competitive bids.

24 P.S. § 7-751

Doesn’t the Pennsylvania Charter School Law require that “[b]oards of trustees and contractors of charter schools shall be subject to the following statutory requirements governing construction projects and construction-related work: . . . 751 and 751.1.” 24 P.S. § 17 – 1715A?

Let’s think this through:

1. Achievement House Cyber Charter School is a cyber charter school in Pennsylvania chartered by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

2. Charter schools in Pennsylvania are subject to Pennsylvania Charter School Law.

3. Pennsylvania Charter School Law states that board of trustees and contractors of charter schools are subject to sections 751 and 751.1 of the Pennsylvania School Code related to construction projects.

4. Section 751 of the portion of the Pennsylvania School Code related to construction and construction projects requires that due public notice be given for competitive bids and that a contract be given to the lowest responsible bidder for construction which will exceed $10,000.

5. Achievement House Cyber Charter School needed construction work done on a building purchased three weeks prior to receiving public approval on the building purchase.

6. The cost of construction for the New Florence Center was in excess of $10,000.

7. Mrs. Jennifer L. Vulgaras indicates that no requests for proposals or proof of advertising exist related to the construction at the New Florence Center.

I think the only way to interpret this series of facts is to say that Achievement House Cyber Charter School’s Board of Trustees and contractor (Beards Building and Remodeling which has no address) failed to comply with the requirement of Pennsylvania Charter School Law! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Did Achievement House Cyber Charter School actually buy a building (why does a cyber charter school with fewer than 700 students need a 5700 sq ft building when it already leases three other buildings?) without prior public Board approval? Did Achievement House Cyber Charter School then defy Pennsylvania Charter School Law and fail to advertise publicly for bids for construction on that building? Has the Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School failed in its responsibilities by allowing Beards Building and Remodeling to complete the construction work in the absence of advertising for other bids?

YES to all of the above!

Now I have to ask if the Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School was even aware of the requirement for public bids for construction work valued at over $10,000? Did Dr. Timothy Daniels or the solicitor inform the Board of Trustees of that legal requirement?

Again, let’s look the Tootsie Pops Owl…the world may never know!

How did Achievement House Cyber Charter School settle on having Beards Building and Remodeling complete this construction project? Did the school place a list of contractors in the area on a wall and throw a dart to choose one? Well, that couldn’t have happened! Beards Building and Remodeling doesn’t even have an address on its “Quote” so how would the school have known they were from the area? So, absent the local construction company theory, how did the school arrive at choosing to defy the law and award a construction project in excess of $28,600 (far in excess of $10,000, eh?) to Beards Building and Remodeling?

That, Blogvillers and Avid Readers, is going to be the topic of Cessation of Summer Session/Scandalous Spending Sprees Series Submission 2 “The Bearded Sheriffs of New Florence”. This time, though, we might not be stuck with the Tootsie Pop Owl answer....

Really Short Blog....Comparitively...Money Management in RTK at AHCCS

2011-07-22T15:58:00.000-07:00

Good afternoon Blogvillers and Avid Readers! I'm busy as a bee with other responsibilities in my life and must wait at least a week to have time to post a full blog BUT... my email exchange today with Jennifer Vargas, Executive Assistant and Open Records Officer at Achievement House Cyber Charter School, seemed worthy of this mini-blog. If the ramifications of this exchange weren't so unnecessarily costly to Pennsylvania taxpayers, it might actually be humorous!

Here's the background:

I submitted Right to Know Request #37a and #37c around April 25, 2011. I was notified by Jennifer Vargas of Achievement House Cyber Charter School that Achievement House Cyber Charter School intended to take its standard 30 day delay for legal review.

On May 25, 2011, I received an e-mail from Jennifer Vargas containing the documents which were available electronically and Final Response letters, with files named Final Response_Right to Know Request 37a 052711, Final Response_Right to Know Request 37b 052711, and Final Response_Right to Know Request 37c 052711. As you might imagine after having the opportunity to review the information I have shared about the less than "apple pie order" of documentation at Achievement House Cyber Charter School, I was not overly shocked to see that I had been e-mailed letters that, according to documentation, would not even be created until two days after the letters were e-mailed to me!

The letter regarding Right to Know Request 37a notified me that documents that were not available electronically would cost me $1.75 with a postage charge of $1.05. I must admit that I wondered what postage method Achievement House Cyber Charter School was using that was charging $1.05 to mail 5 sheets of paper but with all of the other unexplained excessive expenses, I didn't think it was worth pursuing.

You don't think that Achievement House Cyber Charter School would defy Right to Know Law and charge me more than the actual postage costs, do you?

The letter regarding Right to Know Request 37c notified me that documents that were not available electronically would cost me $32.35 for 129 copied pages with postage charges of $4.75. Wow! Those five pages from the other request must be REALLY heavy!

One other weird thing you should know about the two letters from Jennifer Vargas of Achievement House Cyber Charter School responding to Right to Know Request #37a and #37c…both letters were dated July 22, 2011! That is almost two full months after the letters were e-mailed!

I’ve heard of backdating letters (and it is TERRIBLY unethical) but I have never heard of POST DATING letters.

Alrighty then... QUIZ TIME!

Is the POST DATING of letters by Achievement House Cyber Charter School:
a. Another sign of incompetent documentation at Achievement House Cyber Charter School
b. Proof that there is a lack of orientation to time and place at Achievement House Cyber Charter School
c. Proof that there is a time warp or black hole at Achievement House Cyber Charter School
d. Some non-sensical yet nefarious method of scooting around the Right to Know Law time limits on the part of Achievement House Cyber Charter School?
e. Yet another unintentional screw up on the part of Jennifer Vargas whose sign off on her correspondence is "Professionally"

On June 27, 2011, I received an email from Jennifer Vargas notifying me that 30 days had passed since the Achievement House Cyber Charter School responded to my Right to Know Request (actually, I think it was 32 days but who can tell when letters are emailed two days before they’re written!) and referenced the section of the Right to Know Law reminding me that I had 60 days to retrieve the documents before the documents would become unavailable. Fancy that…Achievement House Cyber Charter School referencing Right to Know Law to me?!

On July 20, 2011, I emailed Jennifer Vargas of Achievement House Cyber Charter School indicating my intention to pick up the documents from Right to Know Request #37a and #37c in person on July 21, 2011 and asking that she confirm the dollar amount and forward cost estimates for documents on pending Right to Know Requests #39a and #40 (both of which Achievement House Cyber Charter School delayed for 30 days to get legal advice). I received no response.

On July 21 2011, I sat in traffic for two hours and twenty five minutes to attend the July Board Meeting (at which there were no year-end financials presented….but more on that later!). I brought with me a money order for $33.60 (the cost of documents minus the exceptionally high postage costs) to retrieve the documents from Right to Know Request 37a and 37c. No appropriate personnel were available to talk to me about the documents prior to the half hour delayed start of the Board meeting. I left the Board Meeting early for a variety of reasons (some I which I will share in a later blog!). I left the money order and an explanatory note requesting confirmation of receipt of the money order and the release of the documents, without postage fees, on a table blocking entry to the office area of the school with “No Entrance” signs on it when left. I made note that the letter was to the attention of Jennifer Vargas and Dr. Timothy Daniels.

Needless to say, I received no confirming e-mail from Jennifer Vargas or Dr. Timothy Daniels as of 2:00pm today. Since I am unemployed (at the behest of Achievement House Cyber Charter School), $33.60 is hard to come by to buy public documents! So I took a little more of my time to send the following e-mail to Jennifer Vargas and Dr. Timothy Daniels:

From: amdaly0905@comcast.net [mailto:amdaly0905@comcast.net]
Sent: Friday, July 22, 2011 2:32 PM
To: Jennifer Vargas; Dr. Tim Daniels
Subject: Documents from Right to Know Request 37a and 37c

Good afternoon,

I am writing for multiple purposes:
1. Please confirm receipt of money order #68845748170 in the amount of $33.60 in payment for documents from Right to Know Request 37a and 37c. The money order was left on the table to the left of the entrance hall to the room in which last night's Board Meeting was held under a note to the attention of Jennifer Vargas and Dr. Timothy Daniels explaining the purpose of the money order.

2. Please verify, as requested in the note described above, that the documents from Right to Know Request 37a and 37c will be released today with a waiver of postage fees. I emailed you on July 20, 2011 to notify you that I would be coming to AHCCS on July 21, 2011 and would proffer a money order to pay for those documents and pick up the documents on July 21, 2011. I received no response. Therefore, despite the fact that I drove to the school to attend the Board Meeting and pay for and pick-up the documents, the documents were not made available to me. It would not be appropriate for the school to charge postage as a result of the school's failure to respond to my written request to make arrangement for document retrieval.

3. Please send notification of the cost related to receiving documents for Right to Know Request 39a and, if available, Right to Know Request 40. The delay in making cost information available to me, as specified in the Right to Know Law, has resulted in a delay in my retrieval of documents and infringes on my ability to avail myself of my rights under the Right to Know Law.

Thank you,

Ann Marie Daly
Below is the response that I received from Jennifer Vargas of Achievement House Cyber Charter School LESS THAN AN HOUR LATER. Holy Rapid Response Time, Batman!

RE: Documents from Right to Know Request 37a and 37c
Sent By: "Jennifer Vargas" On: Jul 07/22/11 3:15 PM
To: amdaly0905@comcast.net

Ann Marie Daly,

I am discussing this matter with legal counsel and will provide a response to each of your items below by Monday, July 25.

Professionally,

Mrs. Jennifer Vargas
Executive Assistant

Achievement House Cyber Charter School
222 Valley Creek Boulevard, Suite 301
Exton, PA 19341
Office - 484-615-6200 x222
Fax - 610-644-7019

*This email and any attachments or files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed. If you have received this email in error, please notify the system manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this email. Please notify the sender immediately by email if you have received this email by mistake and delete this email from your system. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited.*

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Let me summarize the questions:

1. Did you get the money order that I left on the table?

2. Are you going to waive the $5.80 in postage charges because of your failure to respond to my email to arrange a pick-up?

3. Would you please tell me how much you are going to charge me for my next two Right to Know Request documents so that I can get them in a timely manner?

What legal advice could possibly be required to answer these questions?! SERIOUSLY?!

Now for a few questions of my own about the fiscal sanity of this course of action:

1. How would any attorney at the law firm of Lamb, McErlane located at 24 East Market Street in West Chester, PA be able to advise Jennifer Vargas of Achievement House Cyber Charter School located at 222 Valley Creek Boulevard, Suite 301in Exton, Pa. whether Jennifer Vargas received a money order for $33.60 that was left on a table in the offices of Achievement House Cyber Charter School in Exton, Pa?

2. Why would Jennifer Vargas of Achievement House Cyber Charter School contact the legal firm of Lamb McErlane, who bills the school at a rate of $190.00 per hour in block billing format, for legal advice about whether to waive $5.80 in postage charges on Right to Know Requests after failing to respond to an email requesting to arrange a pick-up for the documents?

3. How would any attorney at the law firm of Lamb, McErlane know whether cost estimates were available for copied documents pertaining to two pending Right to Know Requests made to Achievement House Cyber Charter School? Is Lamb McErlane at 24 East Market Street in West Chester, PA being paid at a rate of $190 per hour to make copies or count copies?

Is Lamb, McErlane being paid at a rate of $190 per hour to craft legal responses to questions from Ann Marie Daly for which only their client, Achievement House Cyber Charter School, would have answers?

Wonder how much all the 30 day legal reviews on Right to Know Requests are costing the school at a rate of $19.00 for every six minutes in block billing format?

Let’s think this through…

Attorneys usually bill in six minute increments. So any task will take a minimum of six minutes. In this case, that means that contacting the attorneys at Lamb, McErlane will cost a minimum of $19.00.

Also, Lamb, McErlane bills Achievement House Cyber Charter School in a block billing format. That means that Lamb McErlane issues a bill for the tasks performed on behalf of Achievement House Cyber Charter School for each day - lumping all of the tasks together - and indicating a total number of hours. It is TRULY difficult to discern what any single task would cost.

That would bother me if I were paying the bill! Oh wow….that’s right! We are ALL paying the bill!

So, Jennifer Vargas’ initial contact with legal counsel for advise on the three pressing and challenging legal questions listed above cost the school at least $19.00! No wonder Achievement House Cyber Charter School needs to charge me $1.05 to mail 5 pieces of paper! If Lamb McErlane attorneys respond, that’s at least another $19.00! So, there are $38 taxpayer dollars out the window! That’s more than Achievement House Cyber Charter School raked in on the $33.60 in documents! Well, they seem to be pros at deficit spending…

I suppose it doesn’t bother them much. Oh yeah…and it’s the KIDS' money!

Also Please Note:

There is NOTHING CONFIDENTIAL in the email I received "Professionally" from Jennifer Vargas despite the lengthy caveat about CONFIDENTIALITY at the bottom of her e-mail. You may feel free to read it. Your eyes won't melt or anything! Guess what?! I won't even ask for a 30 day delay while I contact my non-block billing attorney for legal advice on that issue!

The Relationship Between Contrived Confidentiality and Spending Sprees

2011-06-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

Good evening, Blogvillers and Avid Readers! Once again, it has been a bit since I last posted. Do not worry that the delay indicates that I have not been following occurrences at Achievement House Cyber Charter School.

Why a Good Board Member Might Be Hampered from Being Effective

I had the pleasure of attending the May Board Meeting. I do not get to attend as many Board meetings as I would like. I was pleased to see that Marilou Strangarity was in attendance. I was concerned that Marilou Strangarity might have decided to leave the Board following the exit of George E. Zorgo, Jr. and David Johns, who brought her onto the Board, but my concern was needless. While I have admittedly given Marilou a hard time in some past blogs, I have given a great deal of thought to what I remember about Marilou Strangarity from my interactions with her when I was the Coordinator of Operations of Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Marilou exhibited a true interest in the students of the school and in finding methods by which to improve their educational experience. I always had the impression that Marilou Strangarity really wanted to do the right thing for the students of Achievement House Cyber Charter School. She appears to be the only Board member who regularly asks questions and raises concerns that pertain to issues that directly affect the students and families of Achievement House Cyber Charter School rather than focusing on how to expand the real estate acquisitions of the school or increase advertising revenues.

Wasn’t it Marilou Strangarity who questioned the School Visitation Policy in February 2011 because she did not agree that it was good policy to preclude siblings from program or classroom visitations or to prohibit visitors from photographing or videotaping any person or part of any building or tape recording or using any electronic device to record any conversation or activity of any kind? (WHAT ARE THEY SO AFRAID OF PEOPLE RECORDING?) Apparently Marilou supports family involvement in education! (Sounds like an idea whose time has come, Marilou!) Maybe, just maybe, Marilou even supports honesty and transparency and doesn’t fear photos or tape recordings. In fact, wasn’t it Marilou Strangarity who wanted to add the word “Blended” to the name of the school when the name was changed? Wasn’t it Marilou who, when told by Dr. Timothy Daniels that the school wasn’t blended, questioned what the school was doing in western Pa.? (Obviously, Marilou recognized a blended school when she saw one and the Bolivar location was…, well you decide!) A refreshing display of concern for honesty by Marilou! Bravo! Well done! And please….ENCORE!

I am willing to overlook Marilou’s rather thoughtless expression of concern a few months ago about whether the school would make parent volunteers pay for their own clearances in light of the fact that I hold the sincere belief that Marilou suffers from the same difficulty that the rest of us do...lack of transparency from the administration. From my perspective, the difficulty with the administration at Achievement House Cyber Charter School is not with what they say and do and share but with what they DO NOT say and do and share. Sometimes, silence can be more meaningful than hours of empty, canned speech, don’t you think? In the case of Achievement House Cyber Charter School contrived confidentiality is the breeding ground for corruption.

Funding Family Trips?

I have a feeling that Marilou would not have been concerned about Achievement House Cyber Charter School expending money for child abuse clearances for parent volunteers had she been aware that Achievement House Cyber Charter School reimbursed Dr. Timothy Daniels to fly his one of his children to Charlotte, N.C. on Friday, June 18, 2010! The only reason he was not reimbursed for two kiddie tickets is that the other child flew “in-lap”. Not only was Dr. Timothy Daniels reimbursed for his child’s airline ticket to Charlotte, N.C., he was also reimbursed for car seat rental for two car seats at $12.00 per day for three days! The car seat reimbursement portion of Dr. Timothy Daniels’ reimbursement was handwritten on the rental car receipt. The actual information from the rental car company on the receipt states “Infant and Toddler Child seats are available for rental for $10.00 per day.” A little musical question for Dr. Timothy Daniels, "How much is that car seat in the contract? That one says $10.00 right there! How much is the car seat in the contract? The misrepresentation I just cannot bear!"

I guess Dr. Timothy Daniels decided that a 20% up-charge to Achievement House Cyber Charter School for car seat rental for his two children to travel through North Carolina with him would go unnoticed by the accountants at Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Wow! I guess he was right! Both the airline tickets and the rental car, outfitted with two car seats, for Dr. Timothy Daniels to tool around North Carolina with his two children for three days was paid for on Achievement House Cyber Charter School’s dime. Wait a minute! That’s on the taxpayers of Pennsylvania’s dime, isn’t it? That’s your dime and my dime and the dime of the parents and students of Achievement House Cyber Charter School. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

But wait a minute, Blogvillers and Avid Readers...Dr. Timothy Daniels could not have been on a flight to North Carolina with his two children on June 18, 2010! On June 19, 2010, Dr. Timothy Daniels was in attendance at the graduation of Achievement House Cyber Charter School! How can I be so certain? Remember the letter that Achievement House Cyber Charter School paid to have written to a former employee to forbid her attendance at the Achievement House Charter School Prom and Graduation 2010?

Not only is there a letter proving the date, but I have a picture of Dr. Timothy Daniels that was posted on Facebook showing him while he was in attendance at Achievement House Charter School's 2010 Commencement Ceremonies!

So whose adult ticket was paid for by Achievement House Cyber Charter School?

Why in the name of all that is holy is Achievement House Cyber Charter School reimbursing Dr. Timothy Daniels $675.80 in airline costs and $215.14 in rental car and car seat costs for some unknown adult and his two children to go to North Carolina? Come on, Timmeroid, Achievement House Cyber Charter School has never been some "fly-by-night" operation!

Do Right to Know Requests Garner More Info than the Board Gets?

As one question often leads to another, so did that question. The next question provoked by Achievement House Cyber Charter School funding a flight for some adult other than Dr. Timothy Daniels and Dr. Timothy Daniels' progeny to North Carolina is “Was Marilou Strangarity aware that Achievement House Cyber Charter School funded the North Carolina Daniels’ family trip?” Somehow, I doubt that she was! I can’t imagine that the Marilou Strangarity that called me one evening to ask me to explain a PSSA scoring concept would have too little interest in the students to balk at their money being expended on airline tickets to North Carolina and car seats for the children of Dr. Timothy Daniels, CEO of Achievement House Cyber Charter School.

Is That Why the School Spent $4,279.51 in Litigation Alone to Stop Right to Know Requests?

Oops, that begs another question…”How would I know about the Achievement House Cyber Charter School funded Daniels family flight fiesta and Board Secretary Marilou Strangarity might not?” Well, I have four little words to say to that…Right to Know Request. Do you wonder why Achievement House Cyber Charter School spent $4,279.51 Pennsylvania taxpayer dollars to have Lamb, McErlane PC, Attorneys at Law, 24 East Market Street, West Chester, Pa. 19381 bring a civil suit in equity against me for a temporary injunction to stop me from making Right to Know Requests to Achievement House Charter School? Allow me to add that $276.40 of that expenditure was for photocopying which included a copy of the annual report (a document over 80 pages long) which Lamb, McErlane attached to their complaint against me for reasons unknown and what appeared to be copies of some of my blogs which Brian Leinhauser (fondly known as Skippy the Solicitor) referred to while he questioned me about giving school personnel “pet names” in my blog during a hearing related to Right to Know Requests! (Not sure how pet names are related to Right to Know Requests but I guess Skippy the Solicitor saw a link!).

Another portion of that $4,291.51 litigation expenditure to Lamb, McErlane included a disbursement of $175.00 to George L. Morrissiey for Constable Service. This expenditure truly confuses me because I was never properly served a copy of the complaint for a temporary injunction in which Brian Leinhauser of Lamb, McErlane was unsuccessful in securing a temporary injunction or the complaint for a permanent injunction for which Lamb, McErlane later entered a praecipe to end, settle, and discontinue. What could George L. Morrissiey have been paid to do in a “Constable Service” fee if not to serve papers?

I suspect that Marilou Strangarity never saw these charges. Do you know how many child abuse clearances for volunteers could have been purchased for the $451.40 that was invested in Constable Service and photocopying for unsuccessful litigation to stop Right to Know Requests? I cannot imagine that the Marilou Strangarity who expressed concern about the need to permit siblings to be involved in classroom and program activities at Achievement House Cyber Charter School would have agreed to such a disgusting waste of educational funds.

That $4,279.51 figure does not include all of the charges from Lamb, McErlane for addressing Right to Know issues that were not involved in the litigation. I would love to be able tell you what Achievement House Cyber Charter School spent on those legal fees but Lamb, McErlane’s bills to Achievement House Cyber Charter School are in block billing format. That means that Achievement House Cyber Charter School receives a list of a series of activities in which Lamb, McErlane attorneys engaged on a specified date and the bill is calculated based on the total number of hours that all those activities took. So for example, on January 27, 2011, Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. of Lamb, McErlane (currently Republican candidate for District Attorney in Chester County) billed Achievement House Cyber Charter School $304.00 to “confer with CEO; review truancy policy; review Right to Know Act issues”. What portion of the $304.00 billed to Achievement House Cyber Charter School was generated based on the review of Right to Know Act issues is impossible to ascertain. From my very basic understanding of attorney billing, block billing is not the most ethical billing format but…I digress.

I received the information regarding the Achievement House Cyber Charter School funded Daniels family North Carolina junket in a Right to Know Request. Part of my request included a copy of a check made payable to Dr. Timothy Daniels in the amount of $4321.34 and all related documentation. Part of that documentation included the airline and rental car information previously described. Marilou Strangarity would just have received the financial statements on which Dr. Timothy Daniels check would have been one of many check amounts for Marilou’s review, none of which include documentation for the reason payment was being made. So, I end up receiving more information by submitting a Right to Know Request than a Board member receives as “standard practice” at Achievement House Cyber Charter School. That would make me nervous if I were a Board member giving my approval to the payments made as part of the approval of the financial statements at the monthly Board Meeting. It would also provide a strong rationale for the Board gambling on an expenditure of $4,279.51 to unsuccessfully litigate to stop me from making those pesky Right to Know Request!

Moving Expenses Paid Without Receipts and How Long Does It Take to Move?

I also noted that there is a note on Dr. Timothy Daniels’ check in the amount of $4,321.34, dated October 18, 2010, which says “moving expense balance per contract.” This makes me question another Board decision that I wonder if Marilou Strangarity understood. In the employment contract that Dr. Timothy Daniels made with the Achievement House Cyber Charter School Board of Trustees, there is an allotment of $10,000 for moving expenses. Considering the fact that Dr. Timothy Daniels was hired on January 19, 2010 and this flight took place June 18, 2010, I have a great deal of trouble believing that the June 2010 flight was a “moving expense”. Any of you who have ever moved probably managed to accomplish the task in under six months, didn’t you?

Maybe moving is a different experience for Dr. Timothy Daniels. If I’m not mistaken, Dr. Timothy Daniels already owned a home in West Chester prior to Achievement House Cyber Charter School hiring him. In fact, Dr. Timothy Daniels had only relocated to South Carolina sometime in the summer of 2009 to take a job as superintendent to the South Carolina Charter School District for which his contract was not renewed at the end of his one year tenure. How much “stuff” could Dr. Timothy Daniels have accumulated in his very brief time as a South Carolina resident? Could he possibly have accumulated enough “stuff” to require an expenditure of $10,000 to move it back to a home he already owned?

How did the Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School determine that Dr. Timothy Daniels would be forced to expend $10,000 to relocate to a home he already owned in Pennsylvania? Did Dr. Timothy Daniels actually expend $10,000 in moving expenses or was this another “salary increase” by a different name? If so, then it was a $10,000 UNTAXED salary increase since reimbursements aren’t taxed! When I received the documents related to the $4,321.34 check to Dr. Timothy Daniels, the documentation of expenses that was attached only totaled $890.80. That leaves a $3,430.54 payment to Dr. Timothy Daniels UNEXPLAINED! I sent a note to Jennifer Vargas, Open Records Officer, but no additional documentation for the remaining $3,430.54 was forthcoming.

Let’s Ask Board President/Contract Negotiator Nick Vastardis!

Maybe Board President Nick Vastardis can offer an explanation for this expenditure. At the January 19, 2010 Board Meeting, the Board indicated that then-Board member, now-Board President Nick Vastardis was designated as one of the Board members who was deeply involved in the contract negotiations with Dr. Timothy Daniels. (Do I remember mention being made at a Board meeting that Nick Vastardis and Dr. Timothy Daniels attended school together at some point…along with Board Treasurer Jim Bowers?) Did Nick Vastardis actually negotiate a lump sum “moving expense” of $10,000 without any basis for that figure or any requirement that the moving expenses be actual documented expenses? Did Dr. Timothy Daniels receive, at the behest of the Board, a $10,000 UNTAXED allotment?

What callous disregard for the financial rights of the students of Achievement House Cyber Charter School if this contract was drafted in this careless manner! I doubt that Marilou Strangarity would be able to explain the $10,000 “moving expense” clause of the contract. She appears too rational and student oriented. I also suspect that Board President Nick Vastardis WON’T explain the $10,000 “moving expense” clause. Instead, he’ll hide behind the cloak of invisibility of the Board of Trustees policy of not answering questions from the public.

Let’s Talk About Hotels!

Lest you think that this bizarre funding of the Daniels family junket to North Carolina and the $4,279.51 temporary injunction litigation bonanza were the only expenditures that caused a raised eyebrow, or that I’m simply picking on Dr. Timothy Daniels for what I view as a “standard practice” of excessive spending of taxpayer dollars, let’s talk about a few other “monetary mysteries” that were generated by the documents that I received in my April 2, 2011 Right to Know Request.

There were a large series of credit card payments in October 2010 to Hotels.com and a few other hotels, such as Comfort Inn and Springhill Suites. In my Right to Know Request I asked for copies of the receipts for these hotel expenditures in addition to documentation for the persons registered in the hotel and the purpose of the trip. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? Here is a portion of my April 2, 2011 Right to Know Request that pertains to hotel expenditures.

Records related to credit card payment to Springhill Suites in the amount of $450.00 on 10/08/10 to include persons registered and purpose of trip

Records related to credit card payment to Springhill Suites in the amount of $261.25 on 10/12/10 to include persons registered and purpose of trip

Records related to credit card payment to Springhill Suites in the amount of $169.86 on 10/12/10 to include person registered and purpose of trip

Records related to credit card payment to Hershey Lodge in the amount of $127.65 on 10/12/10 to include persons registered and purpose of trip

Records related to credit card payment to Hotels.com in the amount of $120.48 on 10/14/10 to include persons registered and purpose of trip

Records related to credit card payment to Hotels.com in the amount of $240.96 on 10/14/10 to include persons registered and purpose of trip

Records related to three credit card payments to Hotels.com in the amount of $260.14 on 10/25/10 to include persons registered and purpose of trip

Records related to credit card payments to Hotels.com dated 01/03/11 to include persons registered and purpose of trip in the following amounts:

$209.87, $320.26, $320.26, $415.36, $431.10,

Records related to credit card payments to Hotels.com dated 01/18/11 to include persons registered and purpose of trip in the following amounts:

$131.78, $840.99

Records related to credit card payment to Hershey Lodge dated 01/18/2011 in the amount of $432.90 to include persons registered and purpose of trip

Records related to credit card payment to Hotels.com dated 01/20/11 in the amount of $146.46 to include persons registered and purpose of trip

Records related to credit card payments to Hotels.com dated 01/24/11 to include persons registered and purpose of trip in the following amounts:

$289.65, 65.89

Records related to credit card payment to Hotels.com dated 01/26/11 in the amount of $185.66 to include persons registered and purpose of trip

Records related to credit card payments to Hotels.com dated 1/31/11 to include persons registered and purpose of trip in the following amounts:

$481.72, $94.02, $87.50

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? All of these hotel charges were generated in one month? The total expenditure appears to be $6083.76! Is this a school or a travel agency? Yet again, I digress…

In her response to my Right to Know Request, Right to Know Officer Jennifer Vargas made the following pronouncements:

• “Records related to credit card payment to Springhill Suites in the amount of $261.25 on 10/12/10 to include persons registered and purpose of trip” – This has been denied because the record does not exist.

• “Records related to credit card payment to Hershey Lodge in the amount of $127.65 on 10/12/10 to include persons registered and purpose of trip” – This has been denied because the record does not exist.

• “Records related to credit card payment to Hotels.com in the amount of $240.96 on 10/14/10 to include persons registered and purpose of trip” – This has been denied because the record does not exist.

• “Records related to credit card payments to Hotels.com dated 01/03/11 to include persons registered and purpose of trip in the following amounts: $209.87, $320.26, $320.26, $415.36, $431.10” – These have been denied because the records do not exist.

• “Records related to credit card payments to Hotels.com dated 1/18/11 to include persons registered and purpose of trip in the following amounts: $131.78, $840.99” – These have been denied because the records do not exist.

• “Records related to credit card payment to Hershey Lodge dated 1/18/2011 in the amount of $432.90 to include persons registered and purpose of trip” – This has been denied because the record does not exist.

• “Records related to credit card payment to Hotels.com dated 01/26/11 in the amount of $185.66 to include persons registered and purpose of trip” – This has been denied because the record does not exist.

• “Records related to credit card payments to Hotels.com dated 1/31/11 to include persons registered and purpose of the trip in the following amounts: $481.72, $94.02, $87.50” – These have been denied because the records do not exist.

By the admission of Jennifer Vargas, Right to Know Officer of Achievement House Cyber Charter School, the school disbursed $4,581.28 in one month to a variety of hotels and is incapable of producing documentation identifying who registered at the hotel or the purpose of the trip! Please do not assume that, of the $6083.76 in receipts and records of registration and purpose that I requested, I actually received complete documentation of the remaining $1502.48. I did not. I did received printed copies of website registrations to Hotels.com which were, for the most part, difficult to interpret and did NOT contain information regarding the purpose of the trip for which the hotel was used. Some documents did show names of staff members who might or might not have been the people that registered in the various rooms. I mean, seriously, we don't even know for certain who used the adult airline ticket to North Carolina for which Dr. Timothy Daniels was reimbursed! How can we assume that a name mentioned on an electronic confirmation of a hotel reservation is actually the person who used the rented room?

Whether the undocumented expenditures on hotels total $6083.76 or $4,581.28 in a one month period, the fact that these undocumented expenditures exist is DISGRACEFUL! Want to venture a guess at how many parent volunteer child abuse clearances could be purchased with these undocumented expenditures? Again, Marilou Strangarity would not have had the opportunity to view the documents that I viewed on a normal basis. Hopefully, after reading this blog, Marilou Strangarity will begin to ask to see the same documents that I’m reviewing and will begin to ask “Who is doing what with whom in which hotel and why?!”

How Many People Get a Company Credit Card BEFORE They’re Hired?

While we’re discussing undocumented expenditures that the Board has probably never seen which I’ve acquired through Right to Know Requests that seem, well, odd, for lack of a better word, let’s take a peek at a receipt for Gullifty’s dated January 19, 2010 (a day that will live in infamy for many of the Blogvillers and Avid Readers) in the amount of $60.00. Small money, right? Chump change you might say! Why would this receipt make any difference in the grand scheme of things when there was a projected $899,628 deficit resulting from the spending spree between July and April of 2011?

This $60.00 receipt speaks to the corruption that comes from contrived confidentiality, which began brewing with the Board shortly before the entrance of Dr. Timothy Daniels. Under Dr. Timothy Daniels’ overbearing regime, with the assistance of an insipid Board steeped in intentional ignorance, this contrived confidentiality has blossomed into a full-blown blatant suppression of public information related to superfluous expenditures of public funds conflicting with policy, large litigation and solicitor expenditures, and shoddy accounting practices which prevent appropriate public investigation through statutorily established standards.

This receipt indicates that four guests dined at Gullifty’s at 6:09 p.m. on January 19, 2010. There is, as usual, no indication of who those four guests were or what their relationship was to Achievement House Charter School (that was the name of the school at that point in time). The credit card used for purchase was an Achievement House Charter School credit card linked to the school’s bank account which was issued in the name of Alexander Grande III. Dr. Grande was a former CEO/Principal of Achievement House Charter School. At 6:09 pm, Dr. Timothy Daniels signed the receipt to pay for this dining experience with the Achievement House Charter School credit card in the name of Alexander Grande III. Why does this present a problem, you may wonder? Well, Dr. Timothy Daniels had not yet been hired by the Board of Trustees of Achievement House Charter School. The Executive Session of the January 19, 2010 Board Meeting was scheduled to begin at 6:00 pm on January 19, 2010, to be followed by Public Session. Dr. Timothy Daniels hiring occurred during the Public Session on January 19, 2010…at least in theory! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

I guess the decision to hire Dr. Timothy Daniels must have been made prior to the Board of Trustees voting on it if Dr. Timothy Daniels was already authorized to spend the educational funds of Achievement House Charter School to purchase dinner for three unidentified guests and himself. This certainly does not seem to be in "apple-pie order"!

Apparently, Dr. Timothy Daniels’ comfort level with spending Achievement House Charter School educational funds for non-educational purposes began even before he was hired! I somehow doubt that Marilou Strangarity was aware that Dr. Timothy Daniels was authorizing the expenditure of educational funds for his own non-educational purposes prior to voting to hire him with a contract containing a clause which gave Dr. Timothy Daniels $10,000 in moving expenses to return to a home in Pennsylvania which he already owned from a one-year residency in South Carolina after losing his job. Marilou, would you like me to send you a copy of this bill? I wouldn’t want you to have to pay a copy cost for making a Right to Know Request! Yet, for some reason, I truly believe that you wouldn’t have agreed to the students’ money being spent in this offhand fashion!

Lunch with “Good Ole Bill Taylor”

One of the few records which I received that did contain a partial explanation for the expenditure is a receipt from Dr. Timothy Daniels for lunch on January 3, 2011 at The Drafting Room in Exton, Pa. which cost the students of Achievement House Cyber Charter School $108.00. The note on this receipt said, “lunch 1/3 w/Bill Taylor”. Who is Bill Taylor and what benefit would he bring to the students at Achievement House Cyber Charter School that would warrant expending a pro-rated $54.00 on his lunch? It is noteworthy that there is no purpose listed on the receipt for taking “good old Bill Taylor” out to a pricey lunch on the school’s dime. As I mentioned earlier, sometimes what isn’t said is more important than what is said. Was this receipt, with an explanation of the expenditure ever provided to the Board members prior to the Board approving the disbursement of these funds? I can’t imagine Marilou Strangarity would think it acceptable for student funds to be used to buy a $54.00 lunch for “good old Bill Taylor” unless “good old Bill Taylor” was going to do something beneficial for those students.

Reimbursements for School Credit Card Purchases – Double Dipping Redefined!

Another record for reimbursement from Dr. Timothy Daniels, which said much more than I expected but, sadly, not enough to keep the school from paying him an untaxable reimbursement, was an expense report which was titled “Expense Report – PA. Coalition of Charter School (another former Daniels’ employer). From this report Achievement House Cyber Charter School saw fit to pay Dr. Daniels 99.00 for supplies for the Board which Dr. Daniels clearly stated were paid for with the AHCCS credit card. So, the school pays the credit card bill PLUS it reimburses Dr. Timothy Daniels. The unstated message seems to be that Dr. Daniels will get as much money as he requests, right?

Wish the double dipping did only cost five cents, don't you?

So Worried About Spending that He Hit Send Too Soon?

I’m truly glad that I waited to post this blog until tonight because I received an email this morning that really puts Dr. Timothy Daniels’ spending priorities in perspective. I sent the following e-mail to Jennifer Vargas, Open Records Officer and Dr. Timothy Daniels, CEO:

From: amdaly0905@comcast.net [mailto:amdaly0905@comcast.net]

Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 11:41 PM
To: Jennifer Vargas; Dr. Tim Daniels
Subject: Right to Know Request addendum to 39 062711 (39a)

Attached is Right to Know Request 39a dated June 27, 2011. This request is the same as Right to Know Request 39 issued on the same date but includes one additional item at the top of the page which has been highlighted for ease of identification. Please fulfill Request 39a and consider Request 39 to be withdrawn.

Thank you,
Ann Marie Daly

I received the following peevish response from Dr. Timothy Daniels:

RE: Right to Know Request addendum to 39 062711 (39a)
Sent By:"timothy daniels1" On: Jun 06/28/11 7:32 AM
To: amdaly0905@comcast.net; "Jennifer Vargas" ; "Dr. Tim Daniels" tdaniels@achievementcharter.com

Please document, again, the confusing and expensive nature of these requests.

And, let me know what the new point is.

Thanks,

ThD

Isn’t it interesting that Dr. Timothy Daniels is concerned that fulfilling Right to Know Requests is expensive when he doesn’t seem the least bit concerned about the expense of flying his family to North Carolina or accepting contracts which allot him $10,000 for moving expenses, or accepting 37% raises? Apparently, Dr. Timothy Daniels also wasn’t concerned about spending over $4,000 to litigate against me to stop me from making Right to Know Requests and spending at least $5,000 to have an employee of Charter Choices serve as the Right to Know Officer for a period of time at a rate of $90 net per hour. Talk about a skewed perspective!

I also suspect that Dr. Timothy Daniels didn’t really want to send that e-mail to me. I suspect that Dr. Timothy Daniels was simply careless about e-mailing and unintentionally released a “confidential” email between the Open Records Officer, Jennifer Vargas and him. Isn’t it nifty that he released that e-mail from his private e-mail address? Is Dr. Timothy Daniels having email forwarded from his school e-mail address tdaniels@achievementcharter.com to his personal email address timothy_daniels1@comcast.net? Wouldn’t that be a confidentiality risk if an email actually contained confidential student or personnel information? Wouldn’t that mean it was possible that Dr. Timothy Daniels is communicating about school business with other employees or Board members from his private e-mail address? Hmmmm…..lots of possible ramifications if that is occurring!

Exporting Pennsylvania Education Funds to Arkansas

Here’s another example of an instance in which Dr. Timothy Daniels wasn’t terribly worried about spending money and sent a very clear, if unspoken, message to the citizens of Pennsylvania. Dr. Timothy Daniels was very excited about having Dr. Robert Moranto join the Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School despite the fact that Dr. Robert Moranto is a resident of Arkansas by his own admission. (I wonder if it bothers Dr. Robert Moranto that his home address was included on the documents I received in a Right to Know Request rather than being redacted?) Apparently, Dr. Timothy Daniels was so excited to have Dr. Robert Moranto join the Board that he personally authorized Achievement House Cyber Charter School to expend $594.96 for Dr. Robert Moranto to be flown from Arkansas to Pennsylvania from September 22, 2010 through September 25, 2010. Dr. Timothy Daniels also authorized the school to provide Dr. Moranto with a rental car, the cost of gas for the rental car, and airport parking at Northwest Arkansas Airport for three days. Dr. Timothy Daniels clearly expressed what an asset he felt Dr. Robert Moranto would be to the Board of Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Yet what was left unsaid is far more important. Dr. Timothy Daniels felt that the students of Achievement House Cyber Charter School should invest their money in importing a Board member who resides in Arkansas. Isn’t Dr. Timothy Daniels really saying that there are no Board members worth having to be found in Pennsylvania? Instead. . . it is necessary to import Board members? Well, at least the school didn't have to pay for car seats for Dr. Moranto!

Closed Finance and Audit Committee Meeting? Is that Legal?

I certainly don’t want the Blogvillers and Avid Readers to think that unexplained and undocumented expenditures are all that is left unsaid at Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Let’s take a look at the school’s advertisement from The Times Herald on February 11, 2011 for the Board of Trustees meeting of February 15 2011. The advertisement clearly states that the meeting is scheduled for 7:00 pm and that “[t]his will be preceded by a closed Finance and Audit Committee meeting that will take place at 5:00 p.m. as well as a closed Executive Session at 6:00 p.m.” [emphasis added]

Under the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act, 65 Pa. C.S.A. § 707, the following gatherings are considered to be the only exceptions to open meetings:

(a) Executive session. — An agency may hold an executive session under section 708 (relating to executive sessions).
(b) Conference. — An agency is authorized to participate in a conference which need not be open to the public. Deliberation of agency business may not occur at a conference.

(c) Certain working sessions. — Boards of auditors may conduct working sessions not open to the public for the purpose of examining, analyzing, discussing and deliberating the various accounts and records with respect to which such boards are responsible, so long as official action of a board with respect to such records and accounts is taken at a meeting open to the public and subject to the provisions of this chapter.

So, what gave Achievement House Cyber Charter School the legal right to hold a “closed Finance and Audit Committee Meeting” at 5:00 p.m. on February 15, 2011? There are three possible exceptions to the open meeting requirement of the Sunshine Act: (1)Executive Session, (2) Conference, (3) Certain working sessions. Clearly the “closed Finance and Audit Committee Meeting was not an Executive Session since there was an Executive Session scheduled for 6:00 pm. Since, according to the Board approved February 15 2011 Board Minutes, Board Treasurer Jim Bowers announced at the Public Session on February 15, 2011 that “the Finance Committee had met to review and discuss the contract with Charter Choices. Some minor revisions were suggested. Charter Choices will make thiese suggested changes and have a final version of the contract ready for the March 15 Board meeting”, then clearly deliberation of agency business took place and the “closed Finance and Audit Committee Meeting” could not meet the definition of a “conference.” Finally, the category of “certain working sessions” states that a “Board of auditors may conduct working sessions not open to the public. . . .” Clearly, the Finance and Audit Committee is not a “Board of auditors” and therefore, by definition, the Finance and Audit Committee meeting is not included in the category of “certain working sessions”.

Charter Choices Didn’t Mind!!!

Apparently, Achievement House Cyber Charter School did not have a legal right to hold a “closed Finance and Audit Committee Meeting.” This seems to be an especially important point when the deliberations that occurred resulted in a contract which could be potentially yield approximately $375,000 in revenue for Charter Choices if the enrollment at Achievement House Cyber Charter School reaches 999 students by June 15, 2015. This figure reflects a rate increase from 3.5% to 3.75% of the school’s funding up to an enrollment of 999 students. The new contract also states that Charter Choices will provide payroll services as part of the service that warrants Charter Choices earning 3.75% of the taxpayer dollars allotted for students at Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Yet payroll is outsourced! Maybe if deliberations on this contract had actually occurred in Public Session, as demanded by Pennsylvania law, a member of the public would have had the opportunity to ask about the outsourced payroll services.

Charter Choices is not required to delineate the services rendered to the school during a particular month or the length of time invested in delivering those services in order to earn 3.75% of the students’ money for themselves. The PDE addressed the issue of management companies being paid a percentage of the students’ funds in the charter renewals for two other cyber charter schools by requiring that services rendered be clearly delineated in the billing if the management company did not provide a “fee for services” contract. Do you think Charter Choices monthly invoices which state “service performed per contract for the month of…” meet the PDE requirements?

The PDE also determined that the cyber charter schools must include an audit paragraph in their contract with the management company to allow state or federal agencies to audit the management company’s contracted services information. Notably, there is no audit paragraph in the contract which was deliberated in the “closed Finance and Audit Committee meeting” held on February 15, 2011. I wonder if anyone explained to Marilou Strangarity that Charter Choices showed such brevity on their invoices and that the PDE had already addressed that issue with other cyber charter schools and that Achievement House Cyber Charter School and Charter Choices seem disinterested in proactively complying with increased requirements for transparency?

So, you might wonder, what was left unsaid about the “closed Finance and Audit Committee meeting” that was held on February 15, 2011? Well, in my April 2, 2011 Right to Know Request, I asked for minutes from the Finance and Audit Committee meeting held on February 15, 2011. According to Jennifer Vargas, Open Records Officer, my request was denied because the document does not exist. Big surprise?! A secret illegal meeting was held to discuss a contract with a potential value of $375,000 that was being given to a recently established firm for management services and no written record was made of the meeting!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Gracie and Secret Accomplishments

Now, let’s talk about the resume for Grace Cisek, recently hired Chief Curriculum Officer, who is being paid $120,800.16 according to employee salary records received in a Right to Know Request. I received a redacted copy of Gracie’s resume in response to my April 2, 2011 Right to Know Request. I expected redaction of Gracie’s address information in accordance with the Right to Know Law. However, there were other redactions on the resume. Under Gracie’s “Professional Administrative Experience” from August 2006 – Present as an Assistant to the Superintendent of Perkiomen Valley School District, Gracie lists a series of “Accomplishments”. The school chose to redact one of Gracie’s accomplishments! In what contrived confidential instance does an “accomplishment” warrant redaction under the Right to Know Law? There were three other instances in which Gracie’s accomplishments were also redacted. If your “accomplishments” need to be hidden from the public, what unspoken message does that send to the public? I can tell you what my message to Grace Cisek is… “Say goodnight, Gracie!” Sell contrived confidentiality somewhere else! We’re all stocked up here! Besides, I think that $120,800.16 is too darned much money for someone who has to hide her “accomplishments.”

What ISN’T Confidential at Achievement House Cyber Charter School

Finally, let’s talk about instance in which confidentiality does NOT matter to Achievement House Cyber Charter School. As I mentioned in the paragraph about Dr. Robert Moranto being reimbursed for his flight from Arkansas to Pennsylvania and a few other related costs, the school did not seemed concerned about keeping Dr. Robert Moranto’s home address confidential. That seems rather inconsiderate, don’t you think?

Well, if that’s inconsiderate, the next example of carelessness about confidentiality will ROCK YOUR SOCKS!

I have in my possession, released by Achievement House Cyber Charter School in response to a Right to Know Request, a series of email communications between the PDE and Achievement House Cyber Charter School which contain names of students receiving special education services in addition to some information about the services received by those students! Holy lack of concern for the students, Batman!

Marilou, I can’t imagine that the knowledge that the administration of Achievement House Cyber Charter School cared so little for student confidentiality that it released student names and confidential information to a member of the public won’t break your heart! I know it broke mine. Rest assured, Marilou, that I will not share the confidential information that was callously released with anyone else. I have too much care and concern for the students at Achievement House Cyber Charter School to take such a wretched, thoughtless, federally prohibited action.

What Is the Unspoken Message?

I guess the unstated message that all of these actions really send is that the administration of Achievement House Cyber Charter School feels that it can thumb its nose at the rules and regulations that other lesser mortals are forced to follow. The administration also seems to be thumbing its nose at the taxpayers of Pennsylvania. The administration’s unspoken message to the taxpayers seems to be that the funds earmarked for the students of Achievement House Cyber Charter School are actually going to be spent in any manner that the administration chooses to spend them without explanation.

If the administration chooses to spend those funds for hotels or lunches with “good old Bill Taylor, or for limited transparency management companies, or for Chief Curriculum Officers with “secret accomplishments” or for North Carolina junkets for the some nameless adult and the CEO's children, or for $10,000 untaxable salary bumps by contract, or even to import out-of-state Board members then the taxpayers of Pennsylvania and the students of Achievement House Cyber Charter School should just “suck it up”.

Who Can Change the Unspoken Message?

Maybe the PDE will soon decide that it is time to remove the thumb from the administration’s nose? Maybe Marilou Strangarity will prove herself to be the decent Board member that I think she wants to be and will start asking to see ALL the documents necessary to make decisions. Maybe Marilou can act quickly enough that it won't be necessary for the Attorney General to step in and make a public statement about the shocking absence of information being offered by Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Please, Marilou! You've taken stands for the students of Achievement House Cyber Charter School in the past. Take the time to find out where and how the students’ money is being spent and protect what rightfully belongs to the students – especially their right to confidentiality.

Lady Voldemort

A Successful Deficit? The Gauntlet has Been Thrown Down

2011-05-11T21:12:00.000-07:00

Good morning, Blogvillers and Avid Readers! Over the last several days, a great deal of information has come to light about Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Within the next few days, a great deal more will become available. Some of the information has come through the partial fulfillment of a Right to Know Request. Other information has been made available through some truly surprising avenues. Achievement House Cyber Charter School was scheduled to make additional information available yesterday. Although the school missed that deadline, I’m hopeful that the promised documents will be made available by the end of the week. Still more information has been promised to be made available by May 13, 2011. The sudden deluge of information, from a variety of sources, seems to support many of the concerns I’ve expressed about the legitimacy and legality of the actions of the CEO of Achievement House Cyber Charter School, Dr. Timothy Daniels, and its Board of Trustees.

For more than a year, I have invested time, effort, and very limited financial resources in an effort to protect the original mission of Achievement House Charter School. The school’s original mission appears to be have been completely supplanted by a culture of corporate greed, cronyism, and excessive spending which was embraced by the new entity, Achievement House Cyber Charter School, under the leadership of Dr. Timothy Daniels, which I have heard described as tyrannical, and with the unquestioning approval of the Board of Trustees with its blank stares. In the last few days, as more and more information has become available, I could not stop wondering why the dam which has blocked information from the public at Achievement House Cyber Charter School seemed to be crumbling. While the CEO and Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School fight harder and spend more tax dollars to keep the school’s financial activities from the public, more information continues to escape.

I sat for hours evaluating the information I recently received, comparing it to all the information that I’ve received in the past, and evaluating additional information and charter school law. No-bid contracts, unsupported expenditures, missing documentation on expenditures, conflicting financial information, fees for public policies, active programs not included in the charter – the list was mind-boggling and vindicating. As fascinating as the evaluation was, I could not stop myself from examining a tangential interest in the mechanisms that brought this search for information toward its finish. How could a CEO and Board of Trustees who appeared so utterly determined not to allow information to be made public have made so many errors in such a short period of time? How could a CEO and Board, willing to spend taxpayer dollars to stop a citizen from accessing public documents, so carelessly allow damaging information to be released?

I think I found the answer. The difference between the original Achievement House Charter School and the unrecognizable, horribly mutated Achievement House Cyber Charter School is that Achievement House Cyber Charter School lacks a meaningful shared purpose.

While Achievement House Charter School certainly suffered through its share of challenges in leadership and financing, it continued to survive when many outsiders felt that it could not. Achievement House Charter School’s existence was predicated on the dedication of its staff. Its staff, though terribly overworked and undervalued, was united by a meaningful shared purpose. The strength of commitment to that purpose was almost tangible during staff meetings. While there might have been arguments about how best to achieve the purpose, the purpose itself served to unite the staff and keep it focused. The purpose was individual achievement for the whole student for all students.

What is the purpose of Achievement House Cyber Charter School? I don’t suppose that the incredibly increased staff could define that purpose. Of course, they could read the mission statement to get a sense of the purpose. However, I doubt that they could look to each other or the leadership and actually define the purpose independently. From my very brief interaction with Dr. Timothy Daniels early in his regime, I would have to identify the true new purpose of Achievement House Cyber Charter School as being the aggrandizement of Dr. Timothy Daniels. Though the CEO and Board of Trustees seem unaware of the fact, the advancement of Dr. Timothy Daniels is not a unifying common purpose.

The process of aggrandizing Dr. Timothy Daniels began with the Board of Trustees members who developed his contract. What was their purpose in offering a three year contract? I would guess that Dr. Timothy Daniels’ ego was still stinging from his rapid removal as superintendent of the South Carolina Charter School District. I would suppose that he needed to feel important and a three year contract served that purpose. I can tell you that he discussed his “strong” contract frequently at management team meetings in the few weeks following his hiring at Achievement House Charter School. He embarked on monologues regarding his “strong” contract when opinions differing from his own were offered. He also did not hesitate to describe his “old school” management style (read tyrannical, dictatorial, and by some reports, threatening, in place of “old school”).

Dr. Timothy Daniels’ “old school” management style was in direct conflict with the charter and Board policies which stressed collaboration and innovation for the benefit of the whole student, including students who were at-risk. The conflict between Dr. Timothy Daniels “old school” management style and the philosophy and policies of the school that hired him didn’t seem to bother Dr. Timothy Daniels. He just decided to change the school. He went so far as to change the school colors, mascot, and eventually the name of the school.

I guess Dr. Timothy Daniels spent those first few weeks determining which staff members were able to change the focus of their purpose from the success of the whole student to the aggrandizement of Dr. Timothy Daniels. He could apparently tolerate those that wouldn’t challenge his new focus. Those that Dr. Daniels felt might actively protest his digression from the original purpose had to be removed as a method of controlling the remainder of the staff. What a threat the discussion of a union must have been to Dr. Timothy Daniels! The removal of almost half the staff - either by termination, reorganization, or voluntary resignation - took less than six months.

Then the focus of the CEO became increasing the size of the Kingdom of Daniels. The kingdom expansion took the form of fancy new administrative offices with a hefty new price tag, staffing increases with decreased responsibilities, the increase of subcontracted services, increases in advertising expenditures, and real estate increases. The staffing has more than doubled and administrative positions with huge salaries continue to be created. Multiple functions have been handed over to subcontractors. Advertising expenses are six times what they were in the 2009-2010 budget, yet student enrollment has not even doubled from the highest enrollment in the 2009-2010 school year. Purchases of new property, constant increases in the number of rental properties, and renovations to both leased and purchased properties would lead the average person to believe that either the school had become a brick and mortar school with a hugely increased enrollment or that the school had expanded to include a branch which serves as real estate development firm. Expenditures without concomitant results seem to be standard practice in the Kingdom of Daniels.

Through it all, the vacant-eyed Board of Trustees continued to meet in secret in Executive Session and convene Public Session only to pass motions to increase the kingdom’s debt and relinquish the Board’s responsibilities to the CEO with little or no public discussion.

The Board continued to approve policies that placed hurdles in the way of the public who were interested in attending meetings and forbid direct contact or public interaction with the Board members. All information intended for the Board must be funneled through Dr. Timothy Daniels or presented to a silent, unresponsive Board during the public comment session which is not held until all votes have already been taken by the Board. How can a group of seemingly educated and worldly wise individuals find it intelligent to permit all of their information to be garnered from one source? Do they believe that the responsibility of a Board of Trustees is to unquestioningly trust the CEO? Should they actually be called the Board of Ostriches?

I would hope that the motions passed by the Board to increase the kingdom were passed with little understanding of the manipulations that were occurring. I cannot imagine that the members of the Board of Trustees could sleep at night if they were actually willing accomplices to the excessive spending, little of which seemed to increase educational opportunities for all students. Evidence of the Kingdom of Daniels’ spending spree is that Achievement House Cyber Charter School now has now an admitted, planned deficit of over $349,000 at the end of this school year. Did the Board of Trusting Ostriches actually believe Dr. Daniels’ claims that this abysmal financial failure should be considered a success? The Board must have believed his claim since it extended his contract for an additional year and gave him a 37% pay raise. Why would financial failure warrant a contract extension and a pay raise?

However, in the quest to expand the kingdom, Dr. Daniels and his vacuous Board of Trustees failed to consider a very important factor – the human factor. While Dr. Daniels managed to remove many staff members whom he felt were a threat to the growing kingdom and replace them with people that he felt would not question his supremacy, Dr. Daniels never considered that most people seek a meaningful purpose in their work and in their lives. Neither Dr. Daniels nor the Board of Trustees seems to have considered the possibility that the staff might accurately assess the situation at the school as a failure and find that Dr. Timothy Daniels was the cause of the failure. Despite reports of Dr. Daniels’ use of intimidation, demotions and threats of termination to engender “loyalty” in his subjects, he does not appear to have succeeded in acquiring loyalty. All that Dr. Daniels actually needed to do to inspire loyalty and success was to abide by the philosophy of the original Achievement House Charter School and maintain a respectful, collaborative work environment with a meaningful common purpose. Despite his less civilized, “old school” methodologies, when Dr. Daniels was unable to provide a meaningful common purpose other than his own aggrandizement, he was unable to generate the kind of loyalty and commitment that was the foundation of the original Achievement House Charter School staff.

Dr. Daniels did not build an empire with a collaborative team of loyal and committed equals as espoused in the original mission and philosophy of Achievement House Charter School. Dr. Daniels did not build an empire with a focus on the individual achievement of the whole student. Dr. Daniels did not actually build an empire or an “Achievement House” at all. Dr. Daniels seems to have built nothing more than a house of cards, lacking the necessary foundation of a common purpose. Dr. Daniels appears to be, not the ruler of the kingdom, but the joker in the deck. The failure to build a strong foundation of commitment to a common purpose within a group of equals was the mechanism by which the house of cards began to weaken and allowed information to seep through the cracks in its foundationless structure.

During the last fifteen months my focus has been on acquiring enough public information to build a case to protect the original mission of Achievement House Charter School. There has been limited planning about what would be done once sufficient information had been gathered. I feel certain that the point is near where there will be sufficient information, if that goal has not already been reached.

The next step is to determine how the accumulated information can be used to protect the mission of the original Achievement House Charter School. This blog has helped to make the next steps possible. This blog has served to keep a focus on the actions of the CEO and Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School and the utter disregard for the mission of Achievement House Charter School and state law displayed by both. The blog has also served to maintain the commitment to the common purpose that was the foundation of the original Achievement House Charter School. Finally, the blog has served to increase the membership of the committed group of equals, loyal to this shared purpose. That ever-expanding committed group of equals with a shared purpose is what will protect the mission of the original Achievement House Charter School, as it always has.

Since all attempts to communicate to the CEO and Board of Trustees that their actions are detrimental to the mission of Achievement House Charter School have been ignored, only one option remains. Armed with adequate information, and an amazing amount of support, commitment, and conviction, it is time to share the accumulated information with the governmental agencies that are best able to evaluate the information and use it to enforce the law to protect the original mission of Achievement House Charter School.

Other charter schools have been investigated by their chartering districts. For Achievement House Cyber Charter School, that entity would be the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Other charters have been investigated by the FBI and the Attorney General’s Office. Those are two other agencies which might be able to help protect Achievement House Charter School. Since a large percentage of Achievement House Cyber Charter School funding comes from Philadelphia, the Philadelphia City Controller might be interested in how the city’s taxpayers’ dollars are being spent. The Philadelphia City Controller might also be interested to learn that Philadelphia money is funding services which are not part of the charter and are not available to students from Philadelphia. Other sources of support for accountability for the CEO and Board of Trustees are legislators and the media. Never underestimate the care and concern of legislators. Never forget the support that the media can offer a cause.

Once this committed group of people begins presenting the information that has been accumulated to governmental agencies, elected officials, and the media, then the opportunity for the CEO and Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School to continue to expand the kingdom, with no concern for the original mission of Achievement House Charter School, will come to end.

The CEO and Board of Trustees have an opportunity to avoid the maelstrom of bad publicity and expense that would accompany any investigation by governmental agencies.

This might be the perfect time for the CEO and Board of Trustees at Achievement House Cyber Charter School to simply acknowledge that their lack of meaningful common purpose, and failure to build a team of equals to support that purpose, has caused the kingdom to crumble. This might be the perfect time for the CEO and Board of Trustees to simply acknowledge their failure and recognize that the flood of information cannot be stopped. This might be the perfect time for the CEO and Board of Trustees to put the interests of all of the students of Achievement House Charter School above their own interests and do the right thing. This might be the perfect time for the CEO and Board of Trustees to step down and turn over the temporarily decimated Achievement House Cyber Charter School to new leadership which can revive Achievement House Charter School. This might be the perfect time for the CEO and Board of Trustees to allow Achievement House Charter School to return to its original mission and once again focus on the individual achievement of the whole student for all its students.

Lady Voldemort

Ain't No Sunshine When They're Locked

2011-04-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well, Blogvillers and Avid Readers…until last night I short-sightedly espoused the stance that Achievement House Cyber Charter School simply could not surpass the sordidness of submitting a SLAPP suit to silence a citizen by soliciting the court to suspend a citizen’s statutory state civil rights under the Right to Know Law. Subsequently, the School surpassed its own scurrilous side-stepping of the state Sunshine Act by sealing the ingress to the PUBLIC Board Meeting! To make a long story short, the doors of the posh new offices of Achievement House Cyber Charter School’s administrative offices were LOCKED while a PUBLIC (and I use the term loosely) Board Meeting was being held!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Keep in mind that the posh new administrative office of Achievement House Cyber Charter School are costing almost twice the taxpayer dollars earmarked for education that the administrative offices of the original incarnation of Achievement House Charter School (also known as the pre-Timmers period of history) cost. Also keep in mind that the posh new offices are now only one of five locations which are all funded by taxpayer dollars earmarked for education! In buildings being funded by taxpayer dollars earmarked for education, the doors should NEVER be locked when the agency is deciding new and creative ways to spend taxpayer dollars earmarked for education. Those meetings are, and must be kept, PUBLIC!

Apparently Dr. Timothy Daniels, fondly known to Blogvillers and Avid Readers as Timmeroid or Timmers for short, does not just have difficulty with math as mentioned in earlier blogs. His vocabulary skills are also lacking! The students and families of Achievement House Cyber Charter School and the taxpayers of Pennsylvania cannot afford to wait for Timmers to get a vocabulary tutor.

For Timmer’s benefit, here is the definition of PUBLIC found in Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary:

PUBLIC - exposed to general view; open; of, relating to, or affecting all the people or the whole area of a nation or state; of or relating to business or community interests as opposed to private affairs

Timmers, do any of those definitions seem to encapsulate the idea of a locked door?!

A PUBLIC Board Meeting for a PUBLIC school CANNOT occur behind locked doors!

“The General Assembly finds that the right of the public to be present at all meetings of agencies and to witness the deliberation, policy formulation and decision making of agencies is vital to the enhancement and proper functioning of the democratic process and that secrecy in public affairs undermines the faith of the public in government and the public's effectiveness in fulfilling its role in a democratic society.” 65 Pa. C.S.A. § 702(a).

This quote is taken directly from the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act. This statement is the legislature’s findings which resulted in the legislature crafting the Sunshine Act. This statement defines much of what is good and strong in the democratic society of the United States. The fact that Achievement House Cyber Charter School appears to proudly thumb its nose at the Pennsylvania Sunshine Act is downright unpatriotic! Board meetings which are not PUBLIC are breeding grounds for actions which endanger the ethical use of PUBLIC funds.

News flash, Timmers: Achievement House Cyber Charter School is not your own personal financial playground! If you aspire to be a real estate mogul with corporate greed syndrome and a proclivity for decreasing your responsibilities while increasing your salary, expending funds to provide yourself with opulent surroundings, hiring redundant employees, creating inflated titles and publicly misrepresenting accomplishments of former administration and staff to diminish your own weaknesses, then I suggest that you invest YOUR OWN MONEY in developing some sort of entrepreneurial business. Until you have the intestinal fortitude to put your own money on the line,

STOP THE EXCESSIVE SPENDING RECOMMENDATIONS

FOR PUBLIC FUNDS EARMARKED FOR EDUCATION!

Since I didn’t have the opportunity, after driving all the way from Philadelphia to Exton, to avail myself of my right under the Sunshine Act to attend the public Board Meeting last night, I spent the time I would have spent in the meeting reviewing the February financial statements. I’ll be sure to share what I found with the Blogvillers and Avid Readers in greater depth when the related documents which I will request on my next Right to Know Request are finally released. However, my review of those financial statements has prompted one MAJOR questions to the Board and Dr. Timothy Daniels,

“What happened to expenditures requiring two signatures on a check??

Here are some of the items I found on the February financials that prompted this question:

1. Purchases of gasoline and McDonald’s food with a credit card?

2. Cash withdrawals with a credit card?

3. Seventeen (17) separate charges to Hotels.com?

4. A credit card payment to Lukesh Consulting Group, a vendor?

5. Payments through Bill Pay while employing a financial firm at 3.5% of the School’s taxpayer dollar income?

6. An $86,430.75 bank check for the acquisition of real estate, following a $1,500.00 deposit for the property issued prior to receipt of Board approval for the purchase, that the PUBLIC was told cost $75,000

7. SERIOUSLY?!

After reviewing these financial reports and attending the February Board meeting I must admit that if I were hired to lead a public school to success, and a year after my hiring my financial reports looked like the February financial reports of Achievement House Cyber Charter School, I might consider locking the doors against the taxpaying PUBLIC too! I think I’d be afraid that the lynch mob would arrive with pitchforks to thank me for my service!

What rationale can be offered for a $600,000 DEFICIT fund balance when in March of 2010, the school was showing a POSITIVE fund balance of $455,337 with less revenue?!

Holy Wasted Public Funds, Batman!

Do any of the Blogvillers or Avid Readers have to wonder why Achievement House Cyber Charter School was willing to spend additional taxpayer dollars earmarked for education on a SLAPP suit to stop me from making Right to Know Requests?

The claim made in the factually incorrect complaint signed by Dr. Timothy Daniels (CEO of Achievement House Cyber Charter School and aspiring real estate mogul) was that my Right to Know Requests had cost the school over $12,000.00 to fulfill. By the time we actually reached the courtroom, just a few days after the factually incorrect complaint was filed, the cost of my Right to Know Request had burgeoned to $15,000.00 according to testimony offered by Ryan Schumm. Awww heck….what’s $3,000 between friends (or between a public school represented by a solicitor paid with taxpayer dollars earmarked for education and a beleaguered citizen representing herself in an attempt to protect her statutory rights so that she could continue to follow and report on how taxpayer dollars were being spent by an aspiring real estate mogul posing as a CEO?)

I ask you to consider that it was the School’s obstructionist reaction to releasing PUBLIC records to a member of the PUBLIC that cost the school $12,000 (or was that $15,000?). Or was it you that paid those bills, taxpayers of Pennsylvania? Or were the bills to obstruct the law and the related legal bills to try to blame the victim of the obstruction actually paid by your children with their education dollars?

I went to the Board Meeting last night to present to the Board my position that the administration of Achievement House Cyber Charter School is intentionally defying the Right to Know Law. Why would I bother? I guess I’m still hoping that the Board is simply acting from a position of unawareness rather than being active contributors to the unsavory and damaging actions of the administration. I assume that the Board is being taken in by the spin factor of Dr. Timothy Daniels regarding the actions of the administration. How could seven adults be coerced into believing that everything is fine when there is a $600,000 fund balance deficit? Maybe they are exhausted from rubber stamping?!

Honestly though, in the past I have found speaking to the Board of Achievement House Cyber Charter School to be similar to hollering into an abyss. The speaker is greeted by a great void. I stare into blank, insensate, vacuous, uncomprehending, empty, expressionless eyes. Imagine how it would feel to try to explain something as complex as honesty, good will, and transparency to a flock of sheep. That has been my experience to date with the Board. Yet…I was willing to try again last night, after an hour and a half drive, AND THE DOORS WERE LOCKED!

Here is some of the information that I wanted to share with the Board.

1. Despite the assertions to the contrary on the School’s complaint against me, the School has NOT delivered all of the Right to Know Requests in a timely manner and in accordance with the law. I brought four separate Final Determinations from the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, one of which encompassed two Requests which were answered in an untimely manner, to prove that fact. The School has still not complied with one of those Final Determinations. The Final Determination that the School has refused to comply with was issued on JULY 14, 2010 and due to be delivered to me by AUGUST 14, 2010! It is APRIL 20, 2011 – 9 months after the ordered release date - and those documents are not in my hand.

Brian Leinhauser, known as Skippy the Solicitor to Blogvillers and Avid Readers, personally informed me that the Office of Open Records did not have the authority to make the decision to release those documents. I would assume if Skippy the Solicitor is advising the school that breaking the Right to Know Law is acceptable, then the Board is not going to question defiance of the Right to Know Law. I wonder if Skippy has informed the Office of Open Records that they are lacking in that authority?

2. The School continues to REFUSE to comply with Pennsylvania Right to Know Law in an abhorrently unprofessional fashion. In response to a Right to Know Request submitted by me on April 2, 2011, the new Right to Know Officer, Jennifer L. Vargas, issued a letter invoking a blanket 30 day extension for legal review of the items on the request. Jennifer L. Vargas has taken a 30 day extension for legal review on documents that were clearly public such as Board meeting minutes, invoices, and receipts for expenditures such as hotels and travel.

The Right to Know Law requires that the School include an estimated cost of documents when those documents become available in an extension letter. Jennifer L. Vargas failed to include the estimated cost of those documents. I notified Jennifer L. Vargas that the School was not complying with the Right to Know Law. I also notified Jennifer L. Vargas that the blanket 30 day extension was a dilatory action on the part of the school and would force me to resume issuing multiple Right to Know Requests categorized by my perception of the likelihood of immediate release by the school.

In response to my communication to Jennifer L. Vargas about the blanket 30 day extension response letter from the school, Jennifer L. Vargas issued the following letter to me on April 12, 2011:

Ms. Daly,

As reported to you in the response to your Right to Know Law request, the estimate of fees will be provided to you when available.

Your request is, as usual, abusive and an attempt to harass the school. The school has followed the requirements of the Right to Know Law in responding to your request and your objection to the use of the thirty day extension is baseless. As you know the Right to Know Law clearly permits such a review of the documents to be provided and consider the volume of your request, it is appropriate. Moreover, your threats of reverting to your prior harassing conduct of sending multiple requests in one month is noted but we suggest that you find some other constructive use of your time rather than harassing the school and wasting education funds. Your response to your Right to Know Law Request will be provided in accordance with the law.

Sincerely,

Jennifer L. Vargas

Right to Know Officer

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Stating that “the estimate of fees will be provided to you when available” in juxtaposition with the statement that “[t]he school has followed the requirements of the Right to Know Law in responding to your request” is LUDICROUS! Maybe Jennifer L. Vargas isn’t talking about the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law. Is there a Jenny’s Right to Know Law that I haven’t had the opportunity to peruse?!

Seriously though, Jennifer L. Vargas did not read, or did not comprehend, my correspondence regarding the blanket 30 day extension issued on my April 2, 2011 Right to Know Request. Clearly, Jennifer L. Vargas either has not read, or did not comprehend, the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law. That failure to comprehend the Right to Know Law is a BIG problem when the person failing to comprehend is the Right to Know Officer, don’t you think? How about you, Jennifer L. Vargas? Do you feel as though you have a clear understanding of the finer points of Right to Know Law? Do you think that is an important requirement for a Right to Know Officer? I do! How about you, Blogvillers and Avid Readers? Do you think an Open Records Officer should know the Right to Know Law? One has to wonder why the CEO would choose someone who is unprofessional AND who does not read and comprehend documents to serve as both Executive Assistant and Open Records Officer.

Is there ANY world in which a blatant refusal to abide by the law, coupled with personal attacks, is considered to be acceptable or professional? As if those two actions were not bad enough, this young lady put those unprofessional sentiments in writing!

As a personal aside, I am astounded by the arrogance displayed by Jennifer L. Vargas in presuming that she is capable of comprehending the motivations for my actions. Jennifer L. Vargas has never even met me. Jennifer L. Vargas is unaware, or chooses to ignore, my record as an Achievement House Charter School employee. Even folks who were not fond of me acknowledged my untiring devotion to Achievement House Charter School and the high standards to which I held myself in providing services to students and families.

There are objective results that speak to my dedication, work ethic, and desire for excellence in performance. While fulfilling the responsibilities that Jennifer L. Vargas is currently fulfilling, in addition being the PSSA Coordinator and numerous other responsibilities for which Dr. Timothy Daniels has hired additional staff, the school repeatedly achieved 100% attendance for PSSA testing. That is an unqualified, quantifiable, objective success. Does it seem reasonable to assume that a person who displayed such devotion to Achievement House Charter School would be motivated by a desire to harass the school? Does it seem more likely that I am motivated by a deep concern about the actions of the current administration and the damage that such actions will cause to the positive reputation that Achievement House Charter School once held with its students and families?

I am thoroughly dismayed by the possibility that the letter I received from Jennifer L. Vargas is indicative of the quality of service currently being offered by Achievement House Cyber Charter School. I would hope that Jennifer L. Vargas would review her letter and reflect on the negative image of Achievement House Cyber Charter School which such correspondence projects. If I am ever properly introduced to Jennifer L. Vargas, I would hope that an apology for a presumptive, unprofessional letter would be forthcoming. Then who knows...maybe me and Jenny...

can be like peas and carrots?

Achievement House Cyber Charter School has recently increased its advertising budget to $475,000 educational dollars, roughly 8% of the taxpayer dollars that are earmarked to fund EDUCATION at the school. Doesn’t the administration and board recognize that a letter like the one issued by Jennifer L. Vargas, Open Records Officer, can decimate any positive effect that $475,000 of advertising spending might create?

Jennifer L. Vargas, formerly Jennifer Tarr, was originally hired to ship books under the inflated title of “Logistics Specialist”. Were I the CEO who appointed her as Open Records Officer, I would rapidly relegate her to a back room shipping books again. If I were a Board member who had recently passed a budget that included almost half a million dollars for advertising, I would make a motion that the Board fire Jennifer L. Vargas AND the CEO who allowed a law-defying, factually incorrect, presumptive, unprofessional letter to be released to a taxpayer with a documented history of dedication to the cyber education and Achievement House Charter School. Think DAMAGE CONTROL, Board members. That is the very best you can hope for after such a letter has been sent.

3. Brian Leinhauser of Lamb, McErlane (currently fondly known to Blogvillers and Avid Readers as Skippy the Solicitor) was paid with taxpayer dollars earmarked for education to write two letters to the Office of Open Records defending the School’s failure to release Right to Know Request within the timeline dictated by the Right to Know Law. Allow me to share one example of the brilliant legal reasoning of Skippy. No need to share the other example of the brilliant legal reasoning of Skippy. The only difference in the two letters is the date of the letter and the date of the untimely released Right to Know Request.

March 10, 2011

Dear Sir or Madam:

This firm represents Achievement House Cyber Charter School (the “School”). This correspondence is in response to the appeal filed by Ms. Daly regarding perceived denial or partial denial of her Right to Know Act requests submitted on February 15, 2011. All documents requested have been provided to Ms. Daly and therefore this appeal is moot.

Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions.

I have some questions, Skippy! If the Right to Know Law allots five business days to respond to a Right to Know Request before the Right to Know Request is deemed denied, and I submitted a Right to Know Request on February 15, 2011 and received a response to my February 15, 2011 Request on March 14, 2011, is the denial PERCEIVED or ACTUAL?

I’m going to go with ACTUAL denial, Skippy! Especially as denial is defined in the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law since that is what is being discussed!

Why would an appeal submitted on February 27, 2011 for an ACTUAL denial of documents requested on February 15, 2011 be moot on March 10, 2011 when the documents weren’t released until March 14, 2011, Skippy? Is that a PERCEIVED mootness?

Blogvillers and Avid Readers, Skippy the Solicitor is officially having his pet name changed to Skippy the PERCEIVED Solicitor!

How I hope that the bills for his letters will be simply PERCEIVED. However, I fear the bills will be ACTUAL. Hopefully I will receive copies of those bills in the near future, with only legal redactions for a change, now that the Office of Open Records ruled in my favor on my recent appeal to stop the School from redacting all explanations of the invoices being issued by Skippy the PERCEIVED Solicitor’s firm, Lamb, McErlane.

Apparently the Appeals Officer at the Office of Open Records didn’t feel that the denials were PERCEIVED. This is what the Appeals Officer had to say in her letter:

“Given that AP 2011-0304 shall address the issues raised in AP 2011-0274, and a response not of record (untimely) has been submitted by the School, the Requester agreed to withdraw AP 2011-0274.”

The Appeals Officer acknowledged that the School’s response was “untimely”, note the absence of the word “perceived", and did not seem to consider the appeal moot since she included the fact that the Requester (that would be me) agreed to withdraw the appeal. Does agreeing to withdraw the appeal sound like the actions of an abusive person who simply wishes to harass the school? A person who wished to harass the school WOULD NOT have agreed to withdraw the appeal. A person who simply wanted to avail herself of her right to access to PUBLIC documents of a PUBLIC school funded with taxpayer dollars who received those documents, even in an untimely manner, WOULD withdraw the appeal. Had the school followed the law, that person would not have needed to file the appeal in the first place!

Do the Blogvillers and Avid Readers think that the three facts that I intended to share with the Board (had the doors to the PUBLIC school’s administrative offices not been locked while a PUBLIC Board Meeting was being held) would have pierced the abyss of the Board members’ eyes and made them understand that the administration is actively defying the Right to Know Law and using taxpayer dollars earmarked for education to file a SLAPP suit against a concerned citizen?

Do you think if we united to file suit against the school for violating the Sunshine Act by holding a PUBLIC meeting while denying the PUBLIC access to the “the deliberation, policy formulation and decision making” of the school, that might pierce the vacuous stares of the Board? Maybe the Board should proactively agree to reschedule the PUBLIC Board Meeting held behind locked doors for next Tuesday night to allow the PUBLIC “to witness the deliberation, policy formulation and decision making” of the Board. I would suspect that will have to be done anyway if a successful suit is filed against the school for violating the Sunshine Act!

Lady Voldemort

Litigious Bunch, Aren’t They?! or Your Tax Dollars for Freedom from Accountability!

2011-03-18T22:00:00.000-07:00

Good evening, Blogvillers and Avid Readers! On March 15, 2011, I attended another presentation of the surreal circus known as the Achievement House Cyber Charter School Board Meeting. I felt like Alice, both down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass simultaneously. Reality was bent, twisted, revised, contorted, and reshaped. The unrecognizable entity that was once reality was then presented to staff, board members, and members of the public. I was appalled by the absence of looks of astonishment or disbelief on the faces of those present!

The ringmaster of the show was, of course, the inimitable Dr. Timothy Daniels, fondly known to Blogvillers as Timmeroid or Timmers. Timmers appears to have managed to completely segregate himself from any recognizable reality.

Over the next week or two, I will be reviewing documents, notes, and video of the March 15, 2011 Board meeting. I will attempt to perform the amazing feat of reuniting the information presented by the ringmaster with reality and packaging it all in the upcoming “In the Wake of… March 15, 2011” blog. I think you will all be amazed by the “bottom line”!

AN E-MAIL FROM BRIAN LEINHAUSER

Today’s blog has a slightly different focus. I attended March’s Board Meeting for several reasons. One of the major concerns that prompted me to drive an hour and half each way to the impersonal, expensive Exton offices of AHCCS was that on February 17, 2011, I received both a phone call and an e-mail from Brian Leinhauser of Lamb, McErlane. While I did not have the opportunity to speak with Brian on the phone, I did review his email with absolute incredulity.

Ms. Daly,

As you know, this firm represents Achievement House Cyber Charter School. This correspondence is to inform you that at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow, I will present to the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County a request for a preliminary injunction against you.

If you have any questions regarding this matter, please feel free to contact me. If you are represented by counsel, please have your counsel contact me.

Very truly yours,

Brian H. Leinhauser

Brian H. Leinhauser
Direct: 610.701.3270
Cell: 484.886.7800
Fax: 610.692-0877
24 E. Market St. PO Box 565
West Chester, PA 19381
www.lambmcerlane.com

I didn’t know which part of the Leinhauser e-mail was more absurd:

a) The possibility that an unemployed woman would have counsel on retainer

b) The fact that Achievement House Charter School was petitioning the Court of Common Pleas in Chester County to issue a preliminary injunction against me?!

Fully aware that the issuance of a preliminary injunction would impact my rights in some fashion, I drove to the Chester County Court of Common Pleas on Friday, February 18, 2011 in response to the lovely invitation I received from Mr Leinhauser. Upon arriving at the Chester County Court House, after a two hour drive, I was unable to locate Brian Leinhauser or to get any information about the request for a preliminary injunction.

When I arrived home, I had e-mails from:

Jennifer D. Pylant
Legal Assistant to Scot R. Withers and Brian H. Leinhauser
Litigation and Appellate Departments
Main: 610.430.8000 x268
Fax: 610.692.0877
24 E. Market St. PO Box 565
West Chester, PA 19381
http://www.lambmcerlane.com/

These emails contained a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction and a Court Order for a hearing to be held on the motion on February 23, 2011 at 9:30 a.m. The motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction had been filed with the prothonotary on Friday, February 18, 2011 at 12:34p.m. The Court Order for the hearing had been filed with the Prothonotary on February 18, 2011 at 1:07p.m.

WHY DID BRIAN LEINHAUSER LIE?

The Court Order stated that there was “No appearance for defendant”. Well of course there wasn’t! Brian Leinhauser’s e-mail clearly stated that “This correspondence is to inform you that at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow, I will present to the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County a request for a preliminary injunction against you.” Yet, Mr. Brian Leinhauser had already filed his documents and received an order from a judge to hold a hearing twenty-three minutes before he told me to arrive! Why would Brian Leinhauser lie to me in an e-mail that he initiated?

THEY WANT TO STOP ME FROM DOING WHAT?

After thoroughly reviewing the documents forwarded to me by Jennifer D. Pylant from Lamb, McErlane, I sat reading them again with utter incredulity. I was certain that I must have misunderstood! What public school would spend public tax dollars to pay a law firm to try to stop a taxpayer from availing herself of her right to access public information?! In what world did it seem reasonable to the school to spend taxpayer dollars to pay attorneys to stop a taxpayer from questioning the expenditure of taxpayer dollars?! This was sheer madness…a complete loss of contact with reality!! I was down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass…and it wasn’t even a Board meeting!

Yet, after reading the document again, I realized that Achievement House Cyber Charter School actually did spend taxpayer dollars to pay an attorney to file suit against a taxpayer for asking how the school was spending taxpayer dollars!

Was this some Orwellian alternate universe? Had I entered a variation of the nightmare of 1984 with the team of Dr. Timothy Daniels and Lamb, McErlane serving as the “question police”?

WHAT ARE THEY CLAIMING?!

Allow me to share with you some of the statements made in Achievement House Charter School’s complaint against me:

“This matter arises from the Defendant’s [that would be me!] continued abuse of the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law – which are motivated by Defendant’s personal vendetta against AHCCS which has forced AHCCS to incur significant expense and devote substantial time responding to Defendant’s bad-faith requests.”

Wow! They must be psychic! They know how I feel! They know what I think! They can interpret my motivations! They can read my mind! Sadly, when it comes to my mind, they are clearly illiterate. I LOVE Achievement House Charter School. It is the damage that this current administration and Board is doing TO Achievement House Charter School that forces me to ask questions.

“Responding to Daly’s numerous requests has forced AHCCS to incur over $12,510 in expenses – public funds properly allocated to the education of AHCCS’ students.”

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? Paying Charter Choices, in the person of Ryan Schumm, $90 per hour net and paying Lamb, McErlane $190 per hour to BLOCK my requests has caused the School to incur over $12,510 in expenses! Public funds properly allocated to the education of AHCCS’ students?! What about the $40,000 raise that Dr. Timothy Daniels received in one year? Is that $40,000 not properly allocated to the education of AHCCS’ students? I guess the funds spent on no-bid contracts to friends and colleagues are not properly allocated to the education of the AHCCS’ students either?

“As a direct, proximate and foreseeable result of Defendant’s actions as above-described, Plaintiff has no adequate remedy at law.”

Have any of them – the $150,000 per year CEO, or the $190 per hour attorney, or the $90 per hour Open Records Officer – even read the RTKL or the Final Determinations issued by the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records? The School had the right to appeal decisions by the Office of Open Records to the Common Pleas Court. Yet, the School didn’t bother to do so! Instead, the School paid a lawyer to request that the court revoke my right to ask for public documents from a public cyber charter school funded with public tax dollars!!!

“Daly was a Special Education Teacher at AHCCS.”

I was the Coordinator of Operations when I was terminated. I was NEVER a Special Education Teacher and, in fact, do not hold a teaching certification! Wow! I was terminated and no one involved in that termination even knew what job I did!? Do you think the decision to terminate me might have been based on the fact that I questioned even the early fiscal management of Dr. Timothy Daniels? I also questioned the hiring of Lamb, McErlane to represent Achievement House Charter School. Lamb, McErlane was representing Charter School Choices, a major vendor of the Achievement House Charter School, when it was hired. Deliberations regarding the hiring of Lamb, McErlane as school solicitor took place in Executive Session. Why wouldn’t I question that hiring?! Apparently, terminating me and offering me money for silence didn’t stop my questions so now they are going to ask the court to silence me?!

…and my personal favorite……

“Despite the burdensome amount of Requests, AHCCS has replied to each and every Request promptly and in accordance with the law.”

Anyone who has followed this blog, or examined the Final Determinations on the Office of Open Records website, knows that statement is a BLATANT lie!

Dr. Timothy Daniels signed a verification of all of the above information. That verification says that Dr. Timothy Daniels verifies and affirms that the statements made in the foregoing complaint are true and correct to the best of his knowledge, information and belief. Further he states that he understands that false statements are made subject to the penalties of 18 Pa. C.S.A. §4904 relating to unsworn falsification to authorities. Wow! That’s pretty brazen of Dr. Timothy Daniels, isn’t it? Is Timmers willing to face CRIMINAL charges for lying?

If you need verification that Dr. Timothy Daniels has verified an untrue statement in the Complaint against me, take a look at Daly v. Achievement House Charter School Docket No. AP 2010-0532 issued by Audrey Buglione, Esq. of the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records on July 14, 2010.

http://openrecords.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/open_records/4434/final_determinations/481690

In Final Determination AP 2010-0532 Ms. Buglione stated “[t]he Charter School timely extended the deadline for a final response as permitted by section 902; however, there is no record of a final response to the Request. Accordingly, at the expiration of the thirty-day extension, the Request was deemed denied and the Requester timely appealed.” Ms. Buglione also stated “[t]he OOR recognizes that it is possible that the requested records may be wholly or partially exempt from disclosure under the RTKL. However, by remaining silent the Charter School fails to meet its burden of overcoming the presumption that its records are public records.”

In other words, the School’s failure to repl[y] to each and every Request promptly and in accordance with the law”, as stated in the Complaint against me, resulted in the School being ordered to release documents which it might otherwise have been allowed to withhold based solely on the fact that the School REMAINED SILENT!

The Final Determination also states that the appeal is granted and that the decision is binding on the parties. Either party is given thirty days in which to appeal the decision to the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas.

The School did NOT appeal the decision. However, on August 24, 2010, (41 days after the binding decision that the School had to release those documents) Ryan Schumm sent an email which stated that
“[t]hese requests are denied to the extent that it [sic] requests pre-decisional and/or strategic deliberations of the School pursuant to Section 708(b)(10) of the Act. This [sic] requests are [sic] denied to the extent that it requests documents protected by the attorney-client privilege and/or work-product doctrine.”

So, not only did the School fail to respond to my Request “promptly and in accordance with the law”, the School thumbed its nose at the Office of Open Records and proceeded to deny a request that was already granted in a legally binding decision by the Office of Open Records!

To date, 247 days after the OOR issued that binding decision, I have still not received the documents.

Apparently, the School really does believe that it is ABOVE THE LAW!

Then, Dr. Timothy Daniels decides to “go to the mattresses” and bring a suit against me in which it is stated that the school responded to all of my requests “promptly and in accordance with the law” and is willing to sign a document that the statement is true under penalty of CRIMINAL charges!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

HI HO, HI HO, IT’S OFF TO COURT I GO!

On February 22, 2011, just four short days after Brian Leinhauser filed the court documents an hour before he told me he would arrive at the Court House to file them, I found myself driving to the Chester County Court of Common Pleas again to file documents which I hoped would serve to protect my right to request public documents from a public cyber charter school financed with public tax dollars. Are you sensing a theme here?

The following day, February 23, 2011, I had to drive to Chester County Court of Common Pleas again in order to appear in court, representing myself. Opposing counsel, Brian Leinhauser, was there with his witness Ryan Schumm. They had with them a spreadsheet showing, among other things, that I had asked for financial statements from Achievement House Cyber Charter School 13 times since I was terminated from Achievement House Cyber Charter School on February 16, 2010, in violation of my rights under the Sunshine Act. Can you believe that in twelve months, I had asked for 13 financial statements?! Can you believe that I still haven’t received the March, April, or May 2010 financial statements?

Brian Leinhauser also wanted to discuss my blog with the Judge. He asked me if I had a blog. Since I am in the habit of telling the truth, I said that I did. Then he asked me if I had started the blog after being fired from Achievement House Charter School. I responded that I had started the blog during my employment with Achievement House Charter School. What attorney asks a witness a question for which the attorney does not know the answer?! What attorney would fail to check a fact that would be so very easy to check?! I started the blog on January 3, 2010, Brian. I was terminated on February 16, 2010, Brian. January 3, 2010 is prior to February 16, 2010, Brian. Hope that helps!

Brian followed that wickedly probing question by asking whether I had given pet names (Brian’s terminology, not mine) to some of the staff in my blog. The Judge did not have me respond to that question. Apparently, the Judge thought that the possibility that I had pet names for some staff members was not relevant to the issue of whether I should have my right to ask for public documents from a public cyber charter school funded with public tax dollars revoked.

BRIAN GETS A PET NAME

Brian’s fascination with his question about the “pet names” for the staff didn’t end there. He tried to ask the question again. Again, the Judge apparently didn’t see the relevance. Nor did I! However, Brian’s fascination with my “pet names” in the blog leads me to believe that he is feeling left out. I certainly wouldn’t want that to occur! So, Brian, here’s your “pet name” for the blog….Skippy the Solicitor! I had a friend once who had a cocker spaniel named Skippy. Brian’s head is shaped rather like the cocker spaniel’s head. So, now you have your “pet name”, Brian.

After getting past the “pet names” issue, Brian didn’t seem to have much more to offer the Judge to prove that asking for public documents from a public cyber charter school funded by public tax dollars was causing irreparable harm to the school.

                   PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION DENIED

Therefore, the Judge did not issue the preliminary injunction requested for the school by Brian Leinhauser of Lamb, McErlane aka Skippy the Solicitor.

     THUMBING HIS NOSE AT THE OFFICE OF OPEN RECORDS

To add insult to injury, Brian Leinhauser and Ryan Schumm stopped me in the hallway outside the courtroom after the Judge decided not to issue an injunction. Brian Leinhauser wanted to discuss the documents that the OOR told the School to issue in Docket AP 2010-0532. Mr. Leinhauser explained his version of the Right to Know Law to me.

In Skippy the Solicitor’s version of the RTKL, the Office of Open Records doesn’t have the authority to make the decision that they made. Apparently, under Skippy the Solicitor’s version of the RTKL, if a party doesn’t agree with the binding decision, the party should just ignore the decision and proceed to thumb its nose at the Office of Open Records.

                                       DISGUST

        I was appalled by the fact that the School filed a Complaint in an attempt to deny me of my right to request public documents from a public cyber charter school funded with public tax dollars. However, I was disgusted when Skippy the Solicitor thumbed his nose at the authority of the Office of Open Records instead of utilizing the “adequate remedy at law” by appealing the decision.

                                      RENEWAL OF FAITH

Yet, the Judge’s decision renewed my faith in the legal system. In part, my faith was renewed because the Judge protected my rights. In part it was renewed because Judge Robert Shenkin listened to the information presented without concern for who the parties to the case were. I mean, there was poor little me, defending my rights without an attorney, against Achievement House Cyber Charter School with an almost $6,000,000 annual budget and the legal expertise of Brian Leinhauser of Lamb, McErlane.

                          WHO IS LAMB, MCERLANE ANYWAY?

Lamb, McErlane, the firm that employs Skippy the Solicitor, is apparently quite a prestigious firm in Chester County. In fact, one of its partners, Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. is actually the Republic candidate for District Attorney in Chester County. Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. is also the solicitor for Achievement House Cyber Charter School. Thomas P. Hogan, Jr.'s name also appeared on the document that was submitted to the court to ask that the court revoke my right to access public documents of a public cyber charter school funded by public tax dollars.

DO THOMAS P. HOGAN, JR.’S ACTIONS BELIE HIS PUBLIC STATEMENTS?

I was surprised to hear that Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. was running for District Attorney in Chester County. I was also surprised to hear that Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. of Lamb, McErlane was chosen as the Republican candidate for Chester County District Attorney. I read several articles about the Chester County D.A. race after I found out that Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. was the candidate. Apparently, Thomas P. Hogan, Jr., candidate for Chester County District Attorney and partner at Lamb, McErlane, had some strong words about the current District Attorney. In another blog, the author of the blog allowed Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. to respond to a post in her blog about the verbal hullabaloo between Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. and the current District Attorney. This is what Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. had to say:

"The taxpayers of Chester County want open government and fiscal responsibility that separates the partisan political from good government."

http://pattyebenson.org/2011/01/19/chester-county-da-candidate-tom-hogan-responds/

Isn’t the Right to Know Law a statute that was written to protect citizens’ rights to open government? Isn’t a public cyber charter school funded with public tax dollars a governmental agency? Aren’t I a citizen?

Does Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. of Lamb, McErlane, who represented an entity who wanted to deprive me of my right to participate in ensuring open government, think that only the taxpayers of Chester County want open government? Or, does Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. only feel that government needs to be open when the person being examined is his adversary?

WOULD THOMAS P. HOGAN JR. CARE TO EXPLAIN HIMSELF?

If Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. - candidate for Chester County District Attorney, partner at Lamb, McErlane, and solicitor for Achievement House Cyber Charter School - would like to issue a statement explaining why Achievement House Cyber Charter School wanted the court to issue an injunction to stop me from requesting public documents from a public cyber charter school funded with public tax dollars I would be happy to post his statement on the blog.

If Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. would like to issue a statement about why his firm would represent Achievement House Cyber Charter School in such a suit without verifying whether the statements made in the Complaint were true, I would be happy to post that.

If Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. would simply like to explain why his firm didn’t explain to the Board and administration of Achievement House Cyber Charter School that they had adequate remedy at law under the Right to Know Law if they simply chose to avail themselves of the remedies, I’d be glad to post that also! Clearly, Jennifer Pylant at Lamb, McErlane has my e-mail address. Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. may feel free to submit his comments to my e-mail address.

TIMMERS HAS SOME ‘SPLAINING TO DO TOO!
WOULD TIMMERS LIKE TO POST?

For that matter, Dr. Timothy Daniels may also submit a statement explaining why Achievement House Cyber Charter School would file a complaint seeking an injunction to stop me from requesting public documents from a public cyber charter school funded with public tax dollars. Dr. Timothy Daniels should also have access to my e-mail address since he is copied on my Right to Know Request e-mails since he was, by Board policy, the Open Records Officer at Achievement House Charter School until the March 15, 2011 Board Meeting.

BET THEY’LL HAVE NOTHING TO SAY? I DO!

I suspect that I won’t hear a peep from Thomas P. Hogan, Jr. or Dr. Timothy Daniels. I don’t think either of them have the ability to spin an answer that wouldn’t make them a laughing stock!

I OFFERED THE BOARD AND ADMINISTRATION A SOLUTION!

At the March 15, 2011 Board Meeting, I offered to volunteer as a Board member in order to reduce the costs that Achievement House Cyber Charter School claimed it had incurred as a result of my Right to Know Requests. As a Board member, I wouldn’t need to file Right to Know Requests. I would simply be able to ask probing questions during the public session of meetings so that everyone would be apprised of the answers.

Following the meeting, I hand delivered my letter of interest and resume to Mr. Nick Vastardis, President – Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School. I gave Mr. Nick Vastardis two recommendations for me to serve as a Board member issued by two former CEO’s of Achievement House Cyber Charter School under whom I worked as an Executive Assistant and/or Coordinator of Operations.

I thought that the Board would be TICKLED PINK with such an easy resolution to the problem that they found compelling enough to file a lawsuit for an injunction to stop me from requesting public documents from a public cyber charter school funded with public tax dollars. Mr. Nick Vastardis seemed anything but TICKLED PINK when I handed him my letter of interest, resume, and recommendations.

MAYBE THEY LIED ABOUT THEIR MOTIVATION FOR FILING?

Maybe the school didn’t file a complaint requesting that injunction to stop me from requesting public documents from a public cyber charter school funded with public tax dollars because the Board and administration were concerned about the costs they were incurring or because they had no other remedy at law. Maybe the school filed the complaint because the Board or administration is trying to hide something?

I just have to wonder what Timmers and/or the Board is trying to hide by denying my requests. What could be so big that hiding it is worth the penalty of CRIMINAL charges to Timmers?! Don’t the actions taken by the school seem to scream that whatever is being hidden is big enough that it is worth many risks to hide it?

Well, Blogvillers and Avid Readers, in the famous words of Forrest Gump, “that’s all I have to say about that.” You may feel free to decide for yourself whether I'm the one that the court needs to stop.

Lady Voldemort

When Did You Get Your Last 37% Raise?

2011-03-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

Good morning, Blogvillers and Avid Readers! It’s been a while! I’ve missed being able to chat with all of you. Spring break is here for me, freeing my time to share with you the latest shenanigans at Achievement House Cyber Charter School (AHCCS). I’m curious…how many of you are able to share with us the memory of the last time that you received a 37% pay increase in a single year?

Another Year of this “Leadership”?

In my January 7, 2011 blog, SHOW ME THE MONEY or The Dr. Timothy Daniels’ Year in Review Report, I made this statement:

I am requesting that the Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School, even Dr. Timothy Daniels’ school buddies and Facebook friends of his children, remove Dr. Timothy Daniels from his position as CEO of AchievementHouse Cyber Charter School immediately!

In a document dated January 19, 2011, the Board extended Dr. Timothy Daniels’ regime as CEO of AHCCS until JUNE 30, 2014!!!

I thought one year of Timmer’s “leadership” was more than the school could survive!

What Did He Do to Earn An Additional Year?

Apparently, the Board supports Timmer’s extravagant spending on: (1) fancy offices; (2) multiple staffing reorganizations which served to double the staffing costs to the school; (3) new locations for programs not included in the charter; (4) programs offered only to SOME students in the school; (5) outrageous salaries and salary increases for a select few; (6) no-bid contracts to friends for services which are sometimes duplicative; (7) an enrollment increase of 35% with an advertising budget increase of 380%; (8) architects; and, (9) a newly hired custodian who makes $300 less per year than a mentor with a masters degree who has been with the school for over 5 years! These are only a few of Timmer’s “accomplishments” in the past twelve months!

Oh Wait…ANOTHER Raise in Less than a Year?

Not only did the Board, in its infinite wisdom, extend the Timmer regime, it also saw fit to give him…….A SALARY INCREASE!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Timmer’s reign of terror as CEO of Achievement House Charter School began on January 19, 2010 with a salary of $110,000; a salary for which his two predecessors served as both CEO and Principal.

On January 19, 2011, the Board of Trustees of AHCCS decided to increase that salary, for the second time in a year. The latest absurdly inflated salary of Dr. Timothy Daniels is…..$150,000 for the first year with increases of 3 – 5% in subsequent years PLUS bonuses to increase enrollment.

That is a 37% salary increase in ONE YEAR!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

What are Timmer’s Colleagues Being Paid for Similar Jobs?

The City Controller in Philadelphia prepared a Fraud Vulnerability Assessment related to Charter School oversight in April 2010. The report indicated that the average salary of CEO’s of charter schools outside Philadelphia was $86,686 while the average salary of nine School District of Philadelphia Assistant Superintendents was $133,889. How can the Board at AHCCS explain to taxpayers that Timmers should be earning in excess of 12% more than the average salary of a School District Assistant Superintendent responsible for an average student population of 723 students in the building? How can the Board at AHCCS explain to the taxpayers that Timmers' salary is almost 75% higher than the average salary for his position in charter schools outside Philadelphia? How can the Board at AHCCS explain to the taxpayers that Timmers’ salary is more than half the salary of the Chancellor of the New York City School District with an enrollment of more than 1.5 million students while AHCCS boasts only about 600?

These are your tax dollars, folks. These tax dollars are earmarked for the education of your students! They are not supposed to line the pockets of seemingly incompetent, overspending, school administrators with track records like Dr. Timothy Daniels’!

A Sympathy Raise?

Maybe the Board considered the fact that Dr. Timothy Daniels might need the money. Apparently, Dr. Timothy Daniels recently settled one of the two lawsuits brought against him in South Carolina for actions taken by Dr. Timothy Daniels during his short-lived stint as superintendent of the South Carolina Charter School District (a position he notably does not brag about in his little blurb on the school website).

Why Did He Get Sued?

The suit that was settled was brought against Dr. Timothy Daniels by Philip Willis. Mr. Willis was the Finance Director for the South Carolina Charter School District (SCCSD) according to court records. Philip Willis alleges that, during the course of his duties, he discovered and reported serious mismanagement by Dr. Timothy Daniels, including waste and excessive expenditure, which should have been disclosed by Dr. Timothy Daniels to the Board of SCCSD. When Mr. Willis reported the serious mismanagement, Dr. Timothy Daniels allegedly isolated him from contact with the Board members and created a hostile work environment in an effort to keep Mr. Willis from disclosing the information about Dr. Timothy Daniels’ alleged mismanagement. When the Board did decide not to renew Dr. Timothy Daniels’ contract, Dr. Timothy Daniels terminated Philip Willis!

A Confidential Settlement – BIG SURPRISE!

Sadly, the settlement, like so many other things that surround Dr. Timothy Daniels, is CONFIDENTIAL. However, I felt it was important to find out as much as possible about the Philip Willis suit since the allegations in Philip Willis’ complaint sounded so much like the experiences related by former employees of AHCCS.

Oh YAY! Depositions Are Not Confidential!

I located depositions taken from three different people. A deposition is a device used as part of the discovery process during which a party’s attorney is allowed to question a witness or party under oath, prior to the trial, and record the testimony. Some of the statements made by the deposed parties were chillingly similar to the concerns that I’ve voiced about Dr. Timothy Daniels’ “leadership” at AHCCS.

In an earlier blog, I commented on how difficult it can be to figure out what Timmers is trying to communicate when he speaks. His responses to questions tend to be circuitous and rarely actually answer the question asked. Take a look at this example from the deposition of Timmers himself:

Q. As superintendent of the district, what did your duties include?

A. Well, typical job description of the superintendent, the extent that you were a CEO for the staff, atypically of a superintendent. That’s why the title may not be totally sufficient to describe the oversight of member schools in the district. So it would be a more typical superintendent’s job in terms of staff, but the less typical job of oversight, which was a different thing for independent schools. And independent schools – and independent charter schools, by the way, independence is in the definition of a charter school, to providing oversight.

Is anyone besides me left completely befuddled by this non-answer? One has to wonder what Dr. Timothy Daniels’ response would be were one to ask him to justify his outrageous salary at AHCCS by defining his job! Were I to translate that statement into English, I would say that Timmers’ was responsible for oversight of District personnel and oversight of the charter schools within the district, of which there were between five and eight. For that task, Timmers was paid approximately $127,000 according to his deposition. How can oversight of a single cyber charter school with approximately 600 students enrolled be worth $150,000, especially when Timmers has more assistants on staff than Santa has elves?

You know what would be a hoot…the Board should ask Timmers to explain that to the taxpayers! I can only imagine the verbal acrobatics that would go into producing that circuitous, lengthy non-answer!

Yet the Board of AHCCS continues to support and financially reward Timmers, even after information about his questionable competency has been made public in the depositions taken for the Willis v. Daniels lawsuit!

Another person deposed for Philip Willis’ suit against Timmers was Donald McLaurin, then president of the Board of SCCSD. Mr. McLaurin was one of the Board members who voted not to renew Timmer’s contract although he did express that he felt sorry for Timmers after the Board voted not to renew his contract. McLaurin thought he was a “nice guy”. Here is a portion of a statement made by Mr. McLaurin in his deposition regarding Timmer’s interaction with the Board regarding the SCCSD budget:

And I didn’t feel like he gave them very good answers and I didn’t feel like – I wasn’t sure what they meant, but I just didn’t feel like he understood anything about budgeting at all.

Mr. McLaurin then had a meeting with Philip Willis and Dr. Timothy Daniels about the budget to “help Tim get his arms around giving them something so that every meeting they would stop screaming about an austerity budget.” Here are Mr. McLaurin’s thoughts following that meeting:

. . .and my impression coming away from there, I mean as a Board member I already had concerns about a lot of things that was going on, that it was just a dysfunctional situation. And remembering that my view of the world comes from being a CEO, and so we met, the three of us, Tim, Philip, and I, and I left very – I mean when that meeting ended, I was pessimistic about our ability to present numbers and to understand the numbers and to give the board good numbers in our budgeting process. To be very honest about it, it didn’t seem to me like Tim or Philip had the tools necessary to give the board what they needed and to run the district well.

Mr. McLaurin, a CEO himself, and the Board President of SCCSD, felt that Timmers didn’t understand anything about budgeting at all and that Timmers didn’t have the tools necessary to run the district well. Mr. McLaurin was not on the list of people that Dr. Timothy Daniels considered to be “against him” or “leaking” information to the board according to the deposition of Paula Gray, another SCCSD employee. That list included:

David Church – Board member who recommended Timmers for the job.

Joe McMullen – Board member

Barbara Nielsen – Board member

Tom Hatfield – Board member

Diane Jacobs – District employee (who Timmers initially viewed as “the leak”)

Philip Willis – District employee (who Timmers later considered to be “the leak”)

Bill Moser – employee of Kelly Moser Consulting – contractor with SCCSD

South Carolina Association of Charter Schools

Paula Gray also testified that Timmers had a problem with K-12, “a parent company for one of our virtual charter schools.” Ms. Gray testified that Timmers talked with her about revoking their charter. Ms. Gray testified that she heard that Timmers desire to revoke the charter of the K-12 run school was that “his wife had worked for them and was let go or something along those lines.”

Seems that Timmers felt persecuted by quite a lot of people during his brief tenure at SCCSD. Timmers discussed revoking a charter because a company “let his wife go or something.” Timmers also ended the contract with Kelly Moser Consulting and gave the contract to a new firm claiming there was conflict of interest which Timmers was clearly told by external auditors didn’t exist.

Timmers discussed firing Diane Jacobs with Ms. Gray because Timmers "believed" she “leaked” information to the Board, Timmer’s supervisors. What was he trying to hide from the Board that was worth threatening Diane Jacobs’ job?

Paula Gray also testified in her deposition that Dr. Daniels intentionally delayed sending Board packets out to the Board members. Ms. Gray recalled that the reason given for the delay was the Timmers “didn’t think that they needed it too far ahead of time.”

As this law suit shows, Timmers did fire Philip Willis after Timmers' contract was not renewed even after the Board President, Mr. McLaurin, said, “Tim. . .just let somebody else handle that.” Timmers apparently has difficulty taking instruction from his superiors. However, Timmers doesn’t seem to have any difficulty taking away the jobs of people he feels are a threat to his job or might expose information that he would like to conceal. One has to wonder…what is he trying to hide?

Does that sound familiar to anyone who has been reading the blog? Isn’t that EXACTLY what Timmers appears to have done at AHCCS?

According to testimony given by Mr. McLaurin in his deposition, some of the Board members at SCCSD felt strongly enough about their concerns to report them to the Governor of South Carolina. Mr. McLaurin makes it clear in his deposition that he did not agree with these Board members but says that “they felt like he was doing things that were improper and in open – this is a matter of record, in open meetings, even said that he was doing things that were illegal.”

Mr. McLaurin stated that Board member Tom Hatfield “compiled a book that’s that thick” but Mr. McLaurin never looked at the book. I would love to find out what information was included in Tom Hatfield’s book. Why didn’t Mr. McLaurin take a look at the information in Tom Hatfield’s book before deciding to ignore it?

I cannot imagine that the Governor’s Office in South Carolina would have held meetings to discuss the allegations of the Board members who felt that Dr. Timothy Daniels’ actions were improper if the allegations of the Board members were baseless.

The Carver Method of Governance

Throughout his deposition, Mr. McLaurin references the Carver method of governance. Another deposed Board member, Terrye Seckinger, also relies on the fact that the Board utilized the Carver method in overseeing the school throughout her deposition. The Carver method of governance makes the Board responsible for the policies of the organization while delegating day-to-day operations to the CEO (or a similar position). The Board develops policies and expectations for performance. The CEO is responsible to meet those expectations. The Board communicates with the CEO to evaluate the success of the day-to-day operations of the school. This is, of course, a very basic, simplified explanation of the Carver method of governance.

However, it doesn’t take long to realize that, were the CEO to be engaging in questionable practice, or withholding information from the Board, the Board would be unable to appropriately evaluate the success of the day-to-day operations or the CEO’s performance. It seems unreasonable to me, as a lay person, for a Board to opt to meet its governance responsibilities by limiting its sources of information to a single employee. Yet Mr. McLaurin and Ms. Seckinger seem to have wrapped themselves in the protective robe of the “Carver method” and used it to avoid examining the validity of claims of impropriety against Dr. Timothy Daniels by other Board members and Philip Willis.

Has the AHCCS Board Embraced the Carver Method of Governance?

After Timmer got hired at AHCCS, following the South Carolina Board’s decision not to renew his contract, the Board at AHCCS began passing policies to limit communication from the staff and the public to the Board. Everything was supposed to go through Timmers. Do you know of any human being in the world who would rush to accurately report to his superiors that there were questions of impropriety about his actions? Think back to Ms. Gray’s deposition testimony in which she spoke about Timmers delaying the release of information to the Board because he “didn’t think that they needed it too far ahead of time.” How much information is being withheld from the AHCCS Board so that they don’t get too look at it “too far ahead of time”?

Following Timmer’s hiring at AHCCS, the Board passed policies limiting communication between the staff and Board members and limiting public participation at Board meetings to live attendance with a three minute public comment for attendees AFTER the voting has occurred. Additionally, the school ceased to distribute packets containing documents related to the issues being discussed at the Board meeting for the public. Although I gather that a very abridged version has begun to be issued again.

In my June 21, 2010 blog, Achievement House Charter School Board – Do They Really Want Public Participation, I made the following statement:

Besides my own discomfort with a decision of that nature, the Pennsylvania Department of Education had this to say in a powerpoint they prepared for Board members about governance entitled "Legal Obligations of Charter School Trustees:

"You must probe, ask questions, and—when necessary—press for answers from those involved in the day-to-day operation of the school.".

If the Board has passed a policy precluding communication between the staff and the Board except through the CEO, how are the Board members (Trustees) expected to be able to comply with the instruction given by the PDE regarding the Trustees' legal obligations?

After reading the depositions from SCCSD Board members Don McLaurin and Terrye Seckinger, it has become clear that Timmers would like to see the AHCCS Board adopt the Carver method of governance. Why wouldn’t he? Under the Carver method, Timmers is the only source of information that the Board has! Timmer can fire people who attempt to get information to the Board because they’ve broken a policy or he can simply reorganize and remove their jobs! Timmer can ultimately control just what the Board is told and what they are not told! Hey Timmer! This isn’t South Carolina! This is Pennsylvania! The Pennsylvania agency who issued the charter to Achievement House Charter School, which you have since rushed to rename, doesn’t seem to agree that the Carver method of governance is the governance method that is to be adopted. In fact, the Pennsylvania Department of Education instructs Board members:

"You must probe, ask questions, and—when necessary—press for answers from those involved in the day-to-day operation of the school."
The PDE clearly sees the danger that permitting a single conduit of information to the Board of Trustees presents. So do I! Do any of you taxpayers out there?

Is the AHCCS Board cloaking itself in the Carver method mantel? Does the Board of AHCCS feel that they are able to avoid responsibility for improper fiscal management by staff simply by claiming that they didn’t look at the problems because the problems weren’t reported by the single acceptable conduit, Dr. Timothy Daniels?

What if the Single Person Reporting to the Board under the Carver Method Is Not Truthful?

If that single conduit is not truthful, the Board is forced to act on misinformation. I have reasons to question Timmer’s truthfulness.

In Paula Gray’s deposition, she states:

Q: Did Dr. Daniels ever indicate to you that he intended to terminate Diane Jacob’s employment?

A: Yes

Q: About when was that? A month and year or season and year?

A: Early winter ’08 maybe or first of ’09. It’s all right – everything kind of runs together.

Q: Is it fair to say late 2008, early 2009?

A: Yes.

Q: And did he say why he planned to terminate her?

A: At the time he was convinced she was the leak.

Q: But Dr. Daniels later became – or later believed that it was Mr. Willis who was providing information to the Board members, correct?

A: Correct

Q: Okay. Did he, Dr. Daniels, ever indicate to you that he intended to terminate Philip?

A: That was right before it happened, June.

Q: Was this prior to the meeting that occurred where – in which Philip was ultimately terminated?

A: Yes, a few weeks before that – well, it might have been a month or so before that. But then I thought it had been resolved and it was no longer an issue.

Q: What did Dr. Daniels tell you about the month before Philip was terminated?

A: That he was not doing the job of director of finance as he saw, thought it should be done.

Yet in Timmer’s deposition he was asked if sole reason he gave Mr. Willis for the non-renewal [of his contract] was the economy and reorganization. Dr. Daniels response was:

A: That was the sole reason.

Q: You had no other reasons for not renewing his contract?

A: I had no other reason.

Isn’t all of that interesting? Timmers told Paula Gray that he planned to terminate Diane Jacob’s employment because Timmers felt she was the “leak”. Then Ms. Gray clarified that Timmers later decided that it was Mr. Willis who was the “leak”. Then Timmers told Ms. Gray that he was going to terminate Philip Willis because Mr. Willis wasn’t doing the job of director of finance as Timmers thought it should be done. Then Timmers told the attorney deposing him, in a sworn statement, that the only reason he did not renew Mr. Willis’ contract was the economy and reorganization!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

I also have in my possession an official document signed by Tim Daniels verifying that the statements made in that document are “true and correct to the best of his belief, knowledge, and understanding.” Further, Tim Daniels stipulates that false statements made in the document are subject to penalties relating to unsworn falsification to authorities.

One of the statements made in that document is “. . .AHCCS has replied to each and every [Right to Know] Request promptly and in accordance with the law.” Anyone who has followed this blog or looked at the Final Determinations on the Office of Open Records site for Daly v. Achievement House Charter School knows that this statement is untrue. For example, take a look at Docket No. AP 2010-0507. In that document the Office of Open Records made the following statements:

(1) “The Open Records Officer, Ryan Schumm (“ORO”) did not respond within five business days under Section 901, and no extension of time was noted in accord with Section 902, and consequently the Request was deemed denied. 65 P.S. §67.901”

(2) “The Charter School did not respond to the Request, the appeal or correspondence from OOR offering an opportunity to supplement the record.”

(3) “The Charter School is cautioned regarding its failure to comply with the above-cited provisions of the RTKL.”

Yet, in an official court document, Timmers swore that, to the best of his belief, knowledge and understanding, AHCCS has replied to each and every Requests promptly and in accordance with the law. If Timmers is willing to misrepresent facts in a situation in which he can suffer penalties for his misrepresentation, and he does so with such seeming disregard for easily available information disputing his claim, how dangerous is it to have the Board of Trustees be forced to rely solely on Timmers for accurate information?!

I hope to be able to explain more fully in a later blog the source of Timmer’s verification. I suspect every Blogviller and Avid Reader, along with the populace of Pennsylvania, will be shocked and appalled by what you will hear.

Termination by Reorganization/Hiding the Sins of Paranoid Personnel Management

Another interesting point, Timmers seems to have continued his love affair with termination by reorganization since his hire by AHCCS. I am not surprised that the school has refused to fulfill a May 21, 2010 request for copies of communications between Timmers, the Board, and the Solicitor regarding the reorganization that occurred in February 2010 despite being ordered to release those documents by the Office of Open Records in July 2010. The school claims that the documents are privileged. However, the school failed to avail itself of its right to claim privilege under the Right to Know Law. The school simply decided to defy the Right to Know Law and not respond. Therefore the Office of Open Records ordered the release of the documents. The school then chose to defy the order of the Office of Open Records! Oops! Doesn’t that show that Timmers wasn’t truthful in his statement that “. . .AHCCS has replied to each and every [Right to Know] Request promptly and in accordance with the law.”

The Board Doesn’t Need to Get Information “Too Far Ahead of Time”

Let’s talk briefly about Board approval and Timmer’s issues with timely disbursement of information before I go. At the November 22, 2010 Board Meeting (for which the school has still not provided proof of advertising) a Special meeting was held (for which the school ALSO has not yet provided proof of advertising), and the Board passed a motion to allow Timmers to execute contracts with a value less than $10,000.

On the January 18, 2011 Board agenda, there was an item about a real estate transaction for the Parish Hall in New Florence. While I have still not received the Board Meeting minutes from the January 18, 2011 Board meeting which I requested on February 15, 2011 and have since been forced to appeal to the Office of Open Records to receive, I will assume that the Board approved the real estate transaction. There was no mention of the real estate transaction at the November 22, 2010 Board meeting according to the Board meeting minutes.

I did receive a copy of the real estate transaction in a Right to Know Request and examined it closely. The agreement of sale, with a purchase price of $75,000, was signed by none other than Timmers. The agreement of sale was dated DECEMBER 28, 2010. According to the agreement, written acceptance of all parties will be on or before JANUARY 3, 2011 at 6:00p.m. A check was issued to Howard Hanna Chestnut Ridge Realty, in the amount of $1,500 on JANUARY 3, 2011, signed by Sue Ellen Stiver and T. Daniels with a memo showing that it was a deposit.

With no discussion or vote on this subject at the November 22, 2010 Board meeting, and no subsequent Board meeting until January 18, 2011, how on God’s Green Earth was Timmers able to sign a purchase agreement for real estate in the amount of $75,000?! Is $75,000 in excess of $10,000?! I keep telling everyone that Timmers needs a Math Tutor but this is a bit ridiculous, wouldn’t you say?

When did the taxpayers of Pennsylvania have the opportunity to make public comment on $75,000 of their tax dollars being spent to purchase real estate for a CYBER school?

When was the Board made aware of the signed sales agreement? Did the Board simply “rubber stamp” a sale on January 18, 2011 that the inimitable Timmers effectuated without the Board’s permission? Is this yet another example of the danger of having Timmers be the single informational conduit to the Board of Trustees of AHCCS under the policies that were passed after the start of the Timmer reign of terror?

I have to say that such behavior, without explanation from Timmers to the public, certainly appears to be an issue of fiscal impropriety…at the very least!

Let Me Ask Again!

For these reasons, and many more discussed in earlier blogs, I will again petition the Board at AHCCS to reconsider its decision to continue Timmers employment with the school.

I am requesting that the Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School remove Dr. Timothy Daniels from his position as CEO of Achievement House Cyber Charter School immediately!

At least the Board in South Carolina was wise enough not to renew his contract! The Board at AHCCS has chosen to EXTEND his contract and reward him FINANCIALLY with YOUR tax dollars.

I wonder how much of the Pennsylvania taxpayer dollars earmarked for education, given to Dr. Timothy Daniels in his 37% salary increase, will be going to Philip Willis of South Carolina for the treatment he received from Dr. Timothy Daniels after trying to expose financial actions on the part of Dr. Timothy Daniels that Mr. Willis viewed as improper and wasteful to the Board of SCCSD?

I wonder how much more taxpayer money will be spent by AHCCS to silence those who present Timmer’s questionable actions to the Board and the public?

I wonder how much more taxpayer money will be spent to stop the public from asking questions about Timmer’s financial activities?

I think the information that you’ll see over the next few blogs will certainly force you to consider the possibility that all is not "in apple pie order" in the financial realm at AHCCS and that the continued employment of Dr. Timothy Daniels by the Board is a true disservice to the students and taxpayers of AHCCS and the state of Pennsylvania.

Lady Voldemort

What a Renowned Educational Reformer Says About Cyber School Spending

2011-01-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

Good morning, Blogvillers and Avid Readers! I was reading a fascinating article which evaluated spending patterns in Pennsylvania’s school districts vs. Pennsylvania’s public cyber charter schools. The early part of the article focused on the spending patterns in Pennsylvania’s school districts. The authors made this statement, “Pennsylvania schools are underperforming not because they spend too little, but perhaps because of how they spend their money.” The authors then supported that statement with some interesting statistics. I was shocked at the similarities between the spending patterns which these respected authors attributed, with such a negative tone, to school districts and the current spending patterns at Achievement House Cyber Charter School under the leadership of Dr. Timothy Daniels.

What’s the Staffing Problem?

According to these authors, one of whom is a renowned leader in education reform, “Between 1996-97 and 2005-2006, Pennsylvania’s public schools added over 43,000 staff—teachers, administrators, and support staff—while enrollment increased by only 26,000. Thus, for every new student, schools added 1.6 staff.”

In the period between January 2010 - the arrival of Dr. Timothy Daniels as CEO - and May 18, 2010, there was a staffing increase of 26 employees. In the same time period, there was an increase of 19 students. That shows a hiring pattern of 1.3 staff members for every student enrolled. Also worthy of note is the fact that the increase of 26 employees between January 2010 and May 18, 2010 was a 196.5% overall increase in staffing! The enrollment increase was only 4.34% between the January enrollment figure of 419 and the May enrollment figure of 438.

The authors of this fascinating article also indicated that, for the period of 1996-97 to 2005-06, spending in school districts included “a 62% increase in administration and support services”.

As I mentioned in my latest blog, “SHOW ME THE MONEY…”, there was a 228% increase in non-instructional (support) and administrative salaries between the hiring of Dr. Timothy Daniels in January 2010 and August 2010. The hirings resulting in this increase were recommended by Dr. Timothy Daniels. This 228% increase at Achievement House Cyber Charter School under Dr. Timothy Daniels is a substantially larger increase than the 62% increase in the 9 year period examined by the article’s authors - one of whom is an acknowledged expert in education reform.

The article’s authors also presented this statistic, “Pennsylvania public school teachers earn, on average, 149.96% of the mean county-wide salary”.

According to the website, Pay Scale, the median income for high school teachers in the U.S. is $43,428.00, http://www.payscale.com/research/US/All_K-12_Teachers/Salary. Many of the staff with several years seniority at Achievement House Cyber Charter School are being paid about $41,000, 6% less than the median income. However, there are several newly hired teachers who are being paid well over the median income. For example, Don Kienz is earning $56,240.58. That is approximately 129.5% of the median income. Karen DeMascola is earning $55,000.00 annually. That is approximately 128.6% of the median income nationwide.

This lack of alignment with median salaries doesn’t stop with teaching staff. “According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2008 Employment and Wages data, network and computer systems administrators earned a national median salary of $66,310.” According to the U.S. Inflation Calculator, http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ , that would be the equivalent of $67,387.95 in 2010. Don Asplen, who holds the newly Tim Daniels-created position of Chief Information and Technology Officer is earning $110,000.00 annually as his starting salary. That is 163.3% of the median salary for that position.

This data would seem to indicate that Achievement House Cyber Charter School, under the "leadership" of Dr. Timothy Daniels, is exceeding the school district spending pattern that the esteemed authors of the article berated.

Building the Argument for the Negative Impact of Construction Spending

Another area of focus in the article was the negative impact of construction spending on instructional spending. “[T]he authors found a surprisingly strong inverse correlation between the percentage of total education spending going to construction and that going to instruction. In other words, school districts that choose to spend more on construction end up spending less on instruction.” The authors also state that from 1996-97 to 2005-2006 there was a whopping 103% increase in spending on construction and debt.”

Achievement House Cyber Charter School doesn’t actually own any real estate, therefore, their construction costs would entail improvements to rental property, property in which they have NO EQUITY. I think a reasonable comparison between the construction and debt increases at school districts would be increases in rent expenditures and construction to make improvements to rental properties at Achievement House Cyber Charter School.

In the 2009-2010 budget, there was $70,000.00 budgeted for rent. Between January 2010 and October 19, 2010, Achievement House Cyber Charter School has moved to a new location and rented three additional locations with the recommendation of Dr. Timothy Daniels. At least one of those locations required major construction to make it useable as a school building for students (why would you need that in a cyber (online) school?).

Another of those locations has a lease which forbids more than two students to be in the building at a time even if the students are accompanied by their parents. The rent for that location, which benefits only the staff at Achievement House Cyber Charter School and provides an upscale office for Dr. Timothy Daniels, is over $132,000 educational dollars per year. That increase alone is "a whopping" is 189%. Well worth it for a swanky new office for Dr. Timothy Daniels, right?

Rental for the four locations now leased to Achievement House Cyber Charter School is $166,841 per year based on the cost information released at Board meetings. That is an increase in rent expenses of 238.5%. If the amount of money spent on security deposits in this fiscal year is included, that rental expense increases to $183,166. That’s an increase of 262%. If you then include the construction costs listed on the July and August 2010 check detail totaling $37,260.00, that percentage increases to “a whopping” 315.5% increase. Achievement House Cyber Charter School, under the "leadership" of Dr. Timothy Daniels, has put the school districts to SHAME in this spendfest.

Just Present This to the Board and All Will Be Well, Right?

I’m sure Blogvillers and Avid Readers are curious about the identity of the renowned expert in educational reform who co-authored this article. I also suspect that many of the Blogvillers and Avid Readers are thinking that if I were to present this information to the Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School, the Board would have to recognize the sheer lust for spending that has been a hallmark of Dr. Timothy Daniels’ period of “leadership”. Sadly, I have to assume that, even with the support of the renowned expert in educational reform, I would probably get nowhere with the Board.

Let me tell you “why not”!

The renowned educational reform expert that co-authored the fascinating article is Dr. Robert Moranto, Ph.D., Endowed Chair in Leadership in Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas and member of the Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School!

All of the school district spending statistics used in this blog were taken from a policy report co-authored by Dr. Robert Moranto entitled “Edifice Complex: Where Has All the Money Gone?” written in July 2007. This is the same Dr. Robert Moranto who identified himself as a Republican in a 2007 article he wrote entitled “As a Republican, I’m on the Fringe.” This is the same Dr. Robert Moranto about whom I wrote this comment in an earlier blog:

            Well, one would hope that Dr. Maranto’s political leanings would encourage him to vote for
            fiscal restraint at Achievement House (Cyber?) Charter School. One would also hope that Dr.
            Maranto, a victim of discrimination in the job market on the basis of political beliefs, would have
           an eagle eye for any discrimination that might be occurring at Achievement House (Cyber?) Charter
            School.

The is the same Dr. Robert Moranto who became a Board member at the September 23, 2010 Board meeting. This is the same Dr. Robert Moranto who did not oppose the lease of two new properties at the October 19, 2010 Board meeting. This is the same Dr. Robert Moranto who did not object when Don Asplen was hired for the newly created position of Chief Information and Technology Officer at a salary 163.3% above median at the September 23, 2010 Board meeting. This is the same Dr. Robert Moranto who apparently approved the August financial statements which included $32546.26 in construction costs, some to a man named John Clark, on a property that Achievement House Cyber Charter School does not even own and additional payments to John Clark totaling $29,978.86, seemingly without question! This is the same Dr. Robert Moranto who has yet to recommend removing the spend-happy Dr. Timothy Daniels as CEO of Achievement House Cyber Charter School.

This is the same Dr. Robert Moranto who co-authored “Edifice Complex” a report which defended public cyber schools from attacks by legislators and claimed that “public cyber schools adhere to every accountability and performance measure that public schools do, and more.”

I guess this same Dr. Robert Moranto has more in common with Dr. Timothy Daniels than I thought he would. You remember Dr. Timothy Daniels who said in a 2008 article in The Notebook that he “did not have a problem with stricter accountability for poorly performing and scandal ridden charters”?

I guess Dr. Robert Moranto and Dr. Timothy Daniels just like to talk about accountability, they don’t want to be held accountable. That doesn’t seem to be an educational reform to me! That seems frighteningly like "business as usual" from the Endowed Chair of Leadership in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas and the CEO of Achievement House Cyber Charter School who was formerly the Superintendent of the South Carolina Public Charter School District whose contract wasn't renewed!

What do these two men have in common?

Come on, Dr. Robert Moranto, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

SHOW ME THE MONEY! or The Dr. Timothy Daniels' Year-In-Review Report

2011-01-07T21:42:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, Blogvillers and Avid Readers! It’s been a while and it feels great to have time to visit with you all again. I hope that the administration at Achievement House Cyber Charter School didn’t feel that I neglected them or lost interest in their shenanigans! Not only have I continued to pay attention, I also continue to pay bills for public documents, and I remember what has occurred in the past; a quality that seems to be lacking at Achievement House Cyber Charter School. George Santayana said, “A country without a memory is a country of madmen”. Is this quote applicable here? Let’s do a “year in review”, and then we can decide.

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

A Taxpayer’s Evaluation of Dr. Timothy Daniels’ Leadership at AHCCS

January 2011 is a milestone in Achievement House Cyber Charter School history. January 19, 2011, one day after the January Board meeting, will be the anniversary of the Board of Trustees hiring Dr. Timothy Daniels as CEO of Achievement House Charter School, a school he asked to rename shortly thereafter.

I’m sure that Dr. Timothy Daniels won’t mind the public asking some tough questions and expecting answers. In a 2008 article in The Notebook, Dr. Timothy Daniels said that he “did not have a problem with stricter accountability for poorly performing and scandal ridden charters”. Considering the fact that in the first year that Dr. Timothy Daniels was CEO of Achievement House Charter School, the school did not show improvement in its PSSA Reading and Math scores, and almost 50% of the staff that were employed when Dr. Daniels was hired are no longer there, he should have no problem with stricter accountability, right? Who better to hold a charter school accountable than the taxpayers? Here begins our year in review.

Key Aspects of the Dr. Timothy Daniels Regime

Change and reorganization were key themes of Dr. Timothy Daniels’ first year at Achievement House. Besides changing the name of the school, Dr. Daniels changed the logo and the school colors. He has also changed the organizational chart at least three times in his first year! Dr. Daniels apparently believes that change is good. However, as I’ve said many times before, change for the sake of change is not progress! In The Nine Master Keys of Management, Lester Bittle says, “Good plans shape good decisions. That's why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true.” Dr. Daniels seems to eschew planned change and prefers rapid, seemingly unconsidered change and emotional knee jerk reactions. I find it rather ironic that one former Board member told me that he wanted to get rid of another CEO because she was “emotional”. I guess emotional is considered to be acceptable if the emotions are anger and hostility?

Another key theme of Dr. Daniels’ first year was spending! In his first weeks as the CEO of Achievement House Charter School, Dr. Timothy Daniels’ primary focus seemed to be purchasing new, often unnecessary, items for himself. He began with items like a new computer system and a bulletin board and a frantic search for a large, flat screen television for the office. Seemingly, those little items didn’t satisfy him. In short order, Dr. Daniels was purchasing lots of contracted services, some of them duplicative, leasing expensive new offices, purchasing a new website a year after a website had been developed, and choosing a new educational platform while under contract to another vendor for the same product.

Power was another key theme of Dr. Daniels first year. Apparently Dr. Daniels confused power with leadership. Dr. Daniels spent the first weeks of his tenure at Achievement House telling the staff what a strong contract he had gotten from the Board. In that respect, he reminded me of my old dog, Yogi. Yogi was a chihuahua who aspired to be a rottweiler. Yogi spent a great deal of time marking his territory and attempting to prove his supremacy to all other dogs. I suppose it’s a thing that little dogs have to do. Luckily, Yogi had no leadership responsibilities and had people to protect him when he made a bad decision and recklessly entered a fray.

The overarching philosophy that supported these key themes was my old favorite – confidentiality. Closed door meetings, limitations on communication between staff, the Board, the administration, and the public, and obstructionist mistreatment of the Right to Know Law are practices which have been heartily embraced under the leadership – and I use that term loosely – of Dr. Timothy Daniels. President Theodore Roosevelt expressed this sentiment, “People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.” Achievement House Charter School deserved a leader. Instead, it was given a Machiavellian boss, a name change, and its mission and character were made unrecognizable in under a year.

Money Talks, Right? Let’s Talk About Spending!

Fiscal responsibility is expected of a CEO in a public school setting. Actually, it’s expected of a CEO in any setting! It’s just far more important in a public school in which taxpayer dollars are being used. How did Dr. Timothy Daniels measure up in this arena during his first year? Let me show you!

A good place to start is with the October 19, 2010 Board Meeting. At the October Board Meeting, the Board received a copy of a revised budget. The budget was being revised because the original budget was based on a lower enrollment figure than was realistic. That means that the revenue would be higher than originally predicted. I wish I could show you a copy of the revised budget but Achievement House Cyber Charter School has still not released it since my October 22, 2010 Right to Know Request.

I was a bit confused by the presentation for the revised budget at the October 19, 2010 Board meeting. Ryan Schumm, the external vendor who handles accounting functions, stated that the original budget had been predicated on an average daily membership (ADM) of 400 at the May 18, 2010 Board meeting. At the October 19, 2010 Board Meeting, Ryan Schumm said that the original budget had been predicated on 425 ADM. Now, one would expect Dr. Daniels, CEO, to have at least a basic enough knowledge of the budget to realize that there was an inconsistency in the reporting of the base number on the two budgets. I mean, come on, I saw it! Shouldn’t a CEO pick up on that detail? I realize that it sounds minor when the variation is 25 students but let me give some perspective on that. At the May 18, 2010 Board Meeting, Ryan Schumm estimated that the average revenue per student is $10,000. That means that the variation in the base number for the budget is $250,000.00! That’s a quarter of a million dollars! Yet the CEO with the “strong contract” didn’t notice a quarter of a million dollar variance?!

Why is that mistake important? Well, the revised budget, seen only by the Board and administration, is being predicated on a 475 ADM. That would lead the Board to believe that the revenue only increased by $500,000 rather than by $750,000 which would give the CEO a quarter of a million dollar leeway in spending prior to the budget revision. I would find it highly unlikely that any of the Board have actually reviewed the financial reports in conjunction with the salary reports and check detail as I have. The Board apparently simply accepts whatever Ryan Schumm of Charter School Choice, and Dr. Timothy Daniels, CEO present to them.

After reviewing the spending that has been done under the leadership of Dr. Timothy Daniels, you will see why he needs that quarter million dollar cushion! Dr. Timothy Daniels remained noticeably silent at the October Board meeting about the $250,000 discrepancy in the budget revision.

What is that Total Salaries Budget, Dr. Timothy Daniels, CEO?

Let’s start by taking a look at the overall salaries for Achievement House Cyber Charter School. The Budget v. Actual Report for the 3 months ending September 2010 shows that Total Salaries figure budgeted is $1,894,925. However, if you take a look at the spreadsheet that I’ve developed from the absolutely illegible report on August employees released by Achievement House Charter School, you will note that the total salaries on that report are actually showing at $2, 271,254.70.

That figure does not include a salary for Patricia Litchenfels, the administrative assistant in Bolivar, Pa. I have no idea why her salary is showing at zero on the report, since she is clearly not a volunteer. I would look back at the Board minutes from her hiring to check her salary but Dr. Timothy Daniels does not present salaries to the Board when the Board is hiring employees.

The actual annual salary total from the spreadsheet is $376,329 higher than the Total Salaries figure budgeted. If you were to estimate Patricia Litchenfels salary as being at least $30,000, that would make the difference between the actual annual salaries and the Total Salaries figure budgeted $406,329. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That’s more than the $250,000 question that I raised earlier, isn’t it?

Let’s give these figures some comparative perspective. As of September 30, 2009, the percentage of the School District Subsidy figure that was allotted to salaries was 40.4%. If I increase the salary number to include the estimated annual salary payment of the subcontracted CEO at that time, the percentage increases to 43.9%. As of September 30, 2010, if I calculate the salary percentage based on the Budget v. Actual reporting figures, the salaries total 41.3% of the School District Subsidies. However, if I do the same calculation using the total salary figure calculated on the August employee report (shouldn’t those numbers match more closely?), the percentage of the School District Subsidies being spent on salaries under the leadership of Dr. Timothy Daniels increases to a whopping 49.5%! If I increase the annual salary figure on the spreadsheet below to include the estimated $30,000 salary for Patricia Litchenfels, then that percentage leaps to an even more incredible 50.1%! If the average of three months of money spent on temporary office help through Patricia Schultz Enterprises and Office Team is multiplied by 12, that results in an additional $129,361.51 which brings the percentage of the budget used for employees to 52.9% of the budget. That’s an increase of 9% of the budget over those costs in the previous year. Way to go, Timmeroid!

So, here is the salary spreadsheet that I generated from the Achievement House Cyber Charter School employee report.

How Many Administrators Does It Take to Double Administrative Costs? Just One if it’s Dr. Timothy Daniels!

Let’s take a closer look at that spreadsheet in a few areas. We should start with the non-instructional administrative costs.

From August 2009 until January 2010 (with the arrival of Dr. Timothy Daniels), the non-instructional/administrative staff consisted of:

          Dr. Dale Baker, CEO/Principal;
          Constance Frownfelter Brooks, Director of Special Education;
          Ray Sobers, Coordinator of Technology;
          David Sutter, Student Services Manager;
         Ann Marie Daly, Coordinator of Operations.

Additional non-instructional/administrative staff included:

        Evie Hekking, Assistant to the Director of Special Education;
        Richard Mingin, Technology and Instructional Materials Specialist;
        Andy Werner, Student Services Associate/Human Resources.

The total of the non-instructional/administrative salaries was $440,201.

Dr. Dale Baker, who served as interim CEO AND Principal, was a consultant and therefore received no employee benefits, unlike Dr. Timothy Daniels. That also served to reduce the costs.

In January 2010, prior to Dr. Timothy Daniels being hired, there were 419 students enrolled at Achievement House Cyber Charter School.

As of October 19, 2010, there are 502 students enrolled in the school (125 in the blended school component in Bolivar and 377 in the cyber school component with administrative offices in Exton). That is a 24% increase in enrollment. Let’s see what the non-instructional administrative costs are to serve 24% more students under the auspices of Dr. Timothy Daniels.

As an aside, despite the fact that almost 25% of the total student body is enrolled in Bolivar, Dr. Timothy Daniels seems to hold the people from that area in utter contempt! At the October 19, 2010 Board meeting while trying to rush through a lease for another location in New Florence, Pa., Dr. Timothy Daniels explained to the Board that metropolitan New Florence was "just south of Bolivar and halfway to a sewer". He went on to state, with apparent sarcasm, that the area was "very urbane". These comments are similar to those made by Secretary of the Board, Marilou Strangarity, at the September Board Meeting when Sue Stiver discussed playing some sort of bingo and Marilou said that it should be called "Cow Patty Bingo". The other Board members chuckled at these comments. I am shocked at the superior attitudes and lack of respect displayed by the Board members and Dr. Timothy Daniels for the population that provides them with 25% of the school's income. Do the families who have registered their children to attend the Bolivar Blended Program know that the Board and Dr. Timothy Daniels mock the rural area in which they live and compare areas south of New Florence to be a "sewer"? Maybe they would reconsider where they have enrolled their students and choose to put them into a school which appreciates them!

Well back to the topic of how much of the Achievement House Cyber Charter School School District Subsidies (25% of which apparently come from that area that Dr. Timothy Daniels likes to mock) are being spent on non-instructional/administrative salaries. According to the Achievement House Cyber Charter School website today and recent Board meeting and employee information, the non-instructional/administrative staff consists of:

         Dr. Timothy Daniels, CEO;
          Sue Stiver, Principal;
          Debra Pearson, Director of Special Education;
          Don Asplen, Chief Information and Technology Officer;
          Twila Smoker, Director of Pupil Services and Marketing.

Additional non-instructional/administrative staff includes:

          Jennifer Vargas, Executive Assistant;
          Amy Tyson, Administrative Assistant to the Principal;
          Catherine Berman, Assistant Special Education Director;
          Sharon Guest-Taglievento, Assistant to the Director of Special Education;
          Patricia Litchenfels, Administrative Assistant;
          Ray Sobers, IT Coordinator;
          Richard Reeves, IT Coordinator;
          Kurt Brenner, IT Help Desk;
          Barbara Ventresca, Admissions;
          Jeanne Brady, Pupil Services Representative;
          Sandy Hodorovich, Pupil Services Representative;
          Bob Worn, Director of Human Resources.

The length of this list alone will give you the sense of the burgeoning cost of administration at Achievement House Cyber Charter School. The glut of administrative assistants should also be a red flag that salary expenses are sky rocketing.

There are some pieces of information lacking that are necessary to make this calculation exact. This information is lacking because Achievement House Cyber Charter School has not released Right to Know Request documents in accordance with Pennsylvania law. Therefore, I’m going to do some estimating. I will explain which figures are estimated and how I’ve arrived at those estimated figures.

First, I am guessing that Jennifer Vargas, Executive Assistant, was formerly Jennifer Tarr, Logistics Specialist since there is Jennifer Vargas suddenly showing as Executive Assistant and a Jamie Campbell, who I’ve never heard discussed at a Board meeting, showing in the new “Shipping Logistics” Department. Therefore, I used the salary showing for Jennifer Tarr in August as the salary for Jennifer Vargas as Executive Assistant. Catherine Berman, Assistant Special Education Director wasn’t employed in August. However, it appears that Berman replaced Sherri Carnevale, so I will use Carnevale’s salary. Patricia Litchenfels’ salary on the August report is showing as ZERO, though I doubt that she is working in a volunteer capacity. I will estimate her salary at $35,000 based on other Administrative Assistant pay rates. Jeanne Brady and Sandy Hodorvich are not included on the August payroll. I have to wonder if they were temp hires through Patricia Schultz Enterprises or Office Team, to whom Achievement House Cyber Charter School paid a combined amount of $13547.69 in August alone. Since there is no way to verify Brady and Hodorovich’s salaries, I will estimate them at $30,500.00 which is what Barbara Ventresca is being paid in the Pupil Services Department.

Bob Worn is actually a subcontractor from the Lukesh Group (Tim Daniels’ old friends from PALCS) who is being listed as an administrator at Achievement House Cyber Charter School but who is not included on the employee list and therefore has no salary. For Bob Worn, I’ll use the figures offered by Tim Daniels at the September Board Meeting, $48,000 per year for part time services. Keep in mind that Bob is being paid $48,000 per year for 20 hours per week of service. That means that Bob is actually being valued at $96,000.00 per year.

So, utilizing the figures delineated above, because current information is not being released by Achievement House Cyber Charter School in the timeframe delineated by Pa. law and salaries are not being announced when employees are hired at Board meetings, the total non-instructional/administrative salaries under Dr. Timothy Daniels’ leadership are $875,119.16!! Remember, that’s compared with $440,201! That is almost DOUBLE the non-instructional administrative costs to serve a 24% increase in students! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Of course, that figure does not include the money spent on contracted services and temp agencies. As I mentioned above, over $13,547.69 was paid to Patricia Schultz Enterprises and Office Team in August 2010 alone. In July 2010, payments made for temporary help totaled $9,675.12. In June, those costs were $9,117.57. You’ll notice that those costs have increased each month. However, if I simply average those three months costs (which is a generous analysis), the average monthly costs were $10,780.13 for an annual cost of $129,361.51. That would bring the non-instructional/administrative salary rate to $1,004,480.06. That is 228% of the non-instructional/administrative salaries when Dr. Timothy Daniels was hired to manage a 24% increase in student enrollment! Way to go, Timmeroid!

Pertinent to this discussion of ever-increasing salaries at Achievement House Cyber Charter School is the fact that Dr. Timothy Daniels serves as ONLY the CEO for a higher base salary than Dr. Dale Baker was paid to be CEO AND Principal. I believe that Dr. Daniels’ base salary for being ONLY the CEO is equivalent to the fees paid to Dr. Alexander Grande III to be CEO AND Principal. Again, Dr. Dale Baker and Dr. Alexander Grande III were not given medical benefits, although Dr. Timothy Daniels certainly is. Nor did Dr. Dale Baker or Dr. Alexander Grande III receive a $10,000 relocation fee as part of their salary package. Nor did Dr. Dale Baker or Dr. Alexander Grande III have the opportunity to receive a substantial bonus at varying increments of enrollment ($12,500 for 500 ADM) as Dr. Timothy Daniels does. Nor did Dr. Grande or Dr. Dale Baker have an Executive Assistant to the CEO dedicated only to meeting their needs. Not only does Dr. Timothy Daniels have his very own administrative assistant, so does his Principal, Sue Stiver. So that is four people, with four salaries to take the place of Dr. Dale Baker or Dr. Alexander Grande with a confidential assistant with a wide variety of other assignments besides being Dr. Dale Baker's or Dr. Alexander Grande's assistant. Wow! Four people to replace 1.5 people. Way to go, Timmeroid!

As a result of Dr. Timothy Daniels being paid over $115,000 per year to serve as CEO ONLY, the resultant need to hire a Principal means that the CEO/Principal position now costs the school $192,375.04. That does not, of course, include the cost of the CEO and the Principal’s administrative assistants! It's difficult to judge the value of the Executive Assistant to the CEO. When that position was created for Twila Smoker, it was valued at $43,000. When Richard Reeves was put into that spot after the Director of Marketing and Pupil Services position was created for Twila Smoker, the position was worth only $33,000. Now that Jennifer Vargas appears to be holding the position, it would appear that the position is worth at least $34,999, unless Jennifer took a pay cut to wait on Dr. Timothy Daniels.

Why was Richard Reeves paid less than the others? Was it because he was one of the employees who preceded the reign of Dr. Timothy Daniels? Why was Twila paid so much more? After speaking with several former employees, I've heard that no one is quite sure what Twila's responsibilities are other than to laugh at comments made by Dr. Timothy Daniels and walk around the office. I would love to be able to explain what her responsibilities are but I cannot seem to get Achievement House Cyber Charter School to release either her job description (any of them) or her resume, although both are public documents! Therefore, with no information to dispute the job descriptions given by former employees, I will have to assume that their assessments are accurate. I mean, they're the ones that worked with her, right?

While the Cost of Computer Equipment Drops,

Technology Department Costs at Achievement House Cyber Charter School Skyrocket!

If you think that the non-instructional/administrative salaries increase is indicative of excessive spending, let’s take a look at the Technology Department.

In January 2010, before Dr. Timothy Daniels’ brought his “leadership skills” to bear on Achievement House Charter School, the salaries for the Technology Department totaled $83,563.

In August 2010, the salaries for the Technology Department totaled $240,500! Additionally, some of the work for the Technology Department is being outsourced to a group called Penn Systems Group (another Dr. Timothy Daniels’ brainchild). The bills for Penn Systems Group’s services in August alone totaled $7,475. That would be an additional $89,700 per year if that were to be the average monthly rate. In July 2010, Penn Systems Group was paid $7610. However, in June 2010, the monthly bill for Penn Systems Group was $19,068.30!!! So, if we average those three figures ($11384.33) and calculate an annual expenditure for Penn Systems Group, we’re looking at $136,613.19! That would increase the cost of running the Achievement House Cyber Charter School Technology Department to $377,113.19 for 2010-2011. So, the cost of running the Technology Department in October 2010, under the leadership of Dr. Timothy Daniels, is 451% of what it was in January 2010 while the October 2010 student enrollment is only 124% of what it was in January 2010! Mon Dieu! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? Way to go, Timmeroid!

How can department salaries quadruple in a mere ten months? Besides the addition of no-bid contracted services through Penn Systems Group, Dr. Daniels created a new position in the Technology Department. At the September 23, 2010 Board meeting, the Board approved the creation of another Dr. Timothy Daniels’ brainchild position - “Chief Information and Technology Officer.” The Board approved the creation of the position and hired Don Asplen to fill it at the same Board meeting in DEFIANCE of the Board’s own Staffing and Hiring Policy.

According to the Staffing and Hiring Policy, the new position must be advertised; yet, there was no advertising for the position! Don Asplen just materialized and was hired for this Dr. Timothy Daniels-created position. How did Don Asplen know that such a position was going to be created? What auspicious planetary alignment resulted in the need for that position to be created and for Don Asplen to suddenly know of that need and apply for this previously non-existent and unadvertised job opening and have both occur on September 23, 2010? I mean, Dr. Timothy Daniels wouldn’t have discussed hiring someone for a position he created PRIOR to receiving Board approval, would he?

I am going to guess that this was less a situation of planetary alignment and more a situation of Dr. Timothy Daniels hiring a friend for a custom-made job at an unannounced salary. I am going to guess that it has something to do with Dr. Timothy Daniels animated (for Tim Daniels’) statement at the October 19, 2010 Board Meeting, “You know Don!” One would have to suspect, Dr. Timothy Daniels, that actually YOU know Don! When I looked at Don Asplen and Timothy Daniels’ home addresses, I found that they live a mere two miles apart…a seven minute car ride.

Well, I’m not sure how auspicious the above referenced planetary alignment was for the taxpayers of Pennsylvania. Against Board policy, no salary was announced for the new position that Dr. Timothy Daniels created and filled at the September 23, 2010 Board meeting. Well, let me announce it now…

Don Asplen is being paid $110,000 per year to be the Chief Information and Technology Officer! That means that there are now two men on staff, each earning over $100,000 per year for doing only a portion of the job that was previously done by another employee for less money. The hiring of Don Asplen for Chief Information and Technology Officer occurred despite the fact that there was already a person (Ray Sobers) filling the administrative role in the Technology Department (Coordinator of Technology) for $46,000. Now, mind you, Ray’s title was not NEARLY as fancy as the one that Dr. Timothy Daniels devised, but, does the fancy title warrant paying $64,000 more per year than the title Coordinator of Technology?

At the October 19, 2010 Board meeting, Don Asplen was given some time to speak. He presented his “tactical and strategic framework”. Mr. Asplen presented some interesting ideas which were warmly received by Dr. Timothy Daniels and the Board. The difference in my perception of what Don Asplen presented and the perception of the Board is based on my knowledge of the history of the school. That is something that the Board completely lacks!

Don Asplen did present some excellent ideas. The same ideas had been presented by Ray Sobers, Technology Coordinator prior to Tim Daniels’ creation of the Chief Information and Technology officer position and his hiring of Don Asplen to fill that position. What is truly sickening to me is that Dr. Timothy Daniels had been present when Ray Sobers presented many of these ideas. Yet he did nothing to let the Board know that! I’m letting them know it now. Some of the ideas presented by Don Asplen had been presented as long ago as 2006 by Chuck Hawkins, the Technology Coordinator at that time. If Ray Sobers already presented many of these ideas to Dr. Timothy Daniels, why would Dr. Timothy Daniels have chosen to create a new position and hire Don Asplen, at more than twice Ray Sobers’ salary? Holy Frivolous Spending, Batman! Way to go, Timmeroid!

Boy is Dr. Timothy Daniels Creative…with Taxpayer Dollars!

Dr. Timothy Daniels is REALLY big on creating new positions. In fact, at the October 19, 2010 Board meeting, Dr. Timothy Daniels indicated that he would be presenting yet another newly-created position at the “next” Board meeting which should have been held December 7, 2010 but appears to have been held on November 22, 2010. Maybe I will be able to get a copy of the Board Meeting minutes and let you all know what the new newly created position is! It’s unlikely, however, that I will be able to tell you what the salary is since salaries are not announced at Board meetings.

Prior to his creation of the Chief Information and Technology Officer, Dr. Daniels created some other nifty new positions that cost the school, and the Pennsylvania taxpayers, some extra bucks!

For several years, there was a position known as “Book Services”. At the May 18, 2010 Board Meeting, Dr. Timothy Daniels announced the creation of a position called “Logistics Specialist” that would start on July 1, 2010 (the new fiscal year). I guess “Logistics Specialist” made Dr. Timothy Daniels’ pretentious little heart sing in a way that “Book Services” couldn’t. The Logistics Specialist position was in place and filled as of the June 15, 2010 meeting. The Logistics Specialist position, in keeping with its big fancy name, was a full-time position with benefits which replaced the more modest Book Services position, a part-time position without benefits. Do you think the pretentious Dr. Timothy Daniels-created title was worth the extra money? By the way, the position is now called “Shipping Logistics”.

Dr. Timothy Daniels likely also shared in the creation of the position of Director of Marketing and Pupil Services. That was a doubly creative moment for Timmeroid. There was no Marketing Department prior to his creation AND Achievement House Charter School always served students. Apparently, under the leadership of Dr. Timothy Daniels, the students of Achievement House Charter School have become the “pupils” of Achievement House Cyber Charter School! I hope they are keeping their eyes on the financial goings-on at the school!

In an earlier blog entitled “Meteoric Rise to Director of Pupil Services and Marketing! How Did She Do It?” http://enigma-areyoukiddingme.blogspot.com/2010/05/meteoric-rise-to-director-of-pupil.html, I discussed the creation of this position and the concomitant increased cost to Achievement House Charter School. At that time, I attributed the creation of the position to a few of the Board members. Now, after hearing titles such as “Logistics Specialist” and “Chief Information and Technology Officer”, I am beginning to think that Dr. Timothy Daniels actually developed the “Director of Marketing and Pupil Services”.

Twila Smoker, who now fills this mouthful-of-a-position was hired part-time as Coordinator of Enrollment and Retention (position created solely for her by her friends on the Board of Trustees) for $200 per week. Twila was then hired to be a mentor for $33,000 per year in December 2009. In March 2009, Twila was placed, without Board approval, into the created-for-Twila position of Executive Assistant to the CEO at a salary of $43,000 per year. Then, at the May 18, 2010 Board Meeting, Twila was promoted to the newly created Director of Marketing and Pupil Services position without her salary for that newly created position being announced. Well, now we finally know what the salary is for that Dr. Timothy Daniels-created position…$60,275.02 per year! In less than a year, Twila Smoker had three job positions created for her – first by her friends on the Board then by Dr. Timothy Daniels – and her salary increased by 579.5%!! That outstrips the quadrupling of the Technology Department salaries!

Another nifty new position created by Dr. Timothy Daniels is “Center Operator Developer”. This position was approved at the September 23, 2010 Board meeting and Dr. Timothy Daniels had a gentleman named John Clark all lined up to fill the, as yet uncreated, job position WITHOUT ADVERTISING! There was a little hitch this time because no decision had been made about whether that position would be a staff position or a contracted position. There is nothing to indicate whether that position has yet been filled by John Clark but I don’t think that John Clark is terribly worried about it. In August, 2010, Achievement House Charter School cut five checks made payable to John Clark totaling $34,978.86.

Interestingly, these payments were made under a variety of accounting codes:

I would be interested to know why the school is paying someone to travel when they are not employed by the school and, apparently, do not have a contract with the school. What computers did the school purchase from John Clark? What "purchased services" did he perform? Why was he paid $5,000 under Constr./Repairs and an additional $28,990.00 under Purchased Services? Who is John Clark and what does he do?

If you calculate that figure over a year, John Clark’s annual take will be $419,746. 42. Wow! John Clark is being paid more than the CEO and the Chief Information and Technology Officer! What does one do to make that kind of money? Apparently, John Clark did the “make-over” of the Bolivar brick and mortar location. I thought that when a school was going to give work valued over $10,000.00 at a time that their needed to be public bidding for the contract? Hmmm.

Did John Clark ever get the position of Center Operator/Developer either as an employee or under a contract? Have more checks been issued to John Clark since August? Why would Dr. Timothy Daniels agree to issue over $30,000 in payments to someone prior to asking the Board if he could hire them?

Does Dr. Timothy Daniels Overspend in Areas Other Than Salaries?

“Heck yes!”, is that answer to that question. Let’s take a look at some other Dr. Timothy Daniels spending sprees.

1. Charter Choices, which has apparently taken over the responsibilities once handled by Charter School Choice but without the burden of a contract with the school, is being paid a net rate of $90.00 per hour to provide one of their employees to serve as the “Open Records Officer” of Achievement House Cyber Charter School. According to the Board of Trustees’ Right to Know Policy, that responsibility falls to Dr. Timothy Daniels, CEO. While Dr. Timothy Daniels is being paid $115,500 to serve as Open Records Officer and, instead, is paying Charter Choices $90 taxpayer dollars per hour to serve in this capacity! Way to go, Timmeroid!

2. The job description for Principal, a position Dr. Timothy Daniels does not handle although his predecessors did and he makes as much money as they did, states that the Principal “facilitates the development of curriculum/instructional programs based on theories, research findings, and needs assessments results.” Despite this requirement, Dr. Timothy Daniels rushed through a contract with an unnamed vendor at the August 17, 2010 Board Meeting to align the curriculum to the state standards. At that meeting, Dr. Timothy Daniels claimed that the cost of this service by a vendor never named at the public meeting (has anyone heard of the Sunshine Act?) would be $8,500 and that $6,000 of that $8,500 would be for FEES. So I suppose that only $2,500 of that cost would be for work performed?

Wouldn’t that be the responsibility of the Principal, Sue Stiver, who is being paid $76,874.98 annually? I recall clearly that Dr. Grande handled that when he was CEO/Principal! Why has Dr. Timothy Daniels decided to rush a contract through the Board to handle that when Sue Stiver should be handling it? I mean, Sue even has her very own administrative assistant! I guess Sue Stiver is too busy organizing ribbon-cutting ceremonies and union busting to deal with something as unimportant as curriculum alignment.

When I reviewed the check detail for August 2010, I came across these entries:

Why did Dr. Timothy Daniels rush the Board to approve a contract for $8,500 with an unnamed curriculum vendor then have checks issued in August 2010 for $10,500 to Curriculum Associates? Wouldn’t that be called a LIE? Isn’t it necessary to issue bids for contracts over $10,000? Don’t you find $10,500 additional dollars for curriculum alignment to be excessive spending when there is a CEO being paid $115,500 and a Principal being paid $76,874.98 each with an assistant being paid between $27,844 and $43,000. Hmmm….let’s average those two salaries….an estimate that the two administrative salaries total $70,844. That would mean that there was $10,500 spent by Dr. Timothy Daniels for curriculum alignment which should have been handled by a team of employees costing the school $263,218.98! Way to go, Timmeroid!

3. At the August 17, 2010 Board meeting, Dr. Timothy Daniels rushed through a few more contracts. There was a contract with Moodle Rooms for $36,000, a contract with Eluminate for $30,000, a contract with MMS for $23,000, and a contract with Wimba Pronto for $20,000. These contracts also included start up costs of 10%. These contracts, and the start up costs, would total about $123,200. These contracts, other than Wimba Pronto, were entered into prior to obtaining Board approval according to Dr. Timothy Daniels’ statement that he brought Wimba to the Board prior to entering the contract. Way to go, Timmeroid!

These contracts were entered into to be used as the educational platform which was being provided through a contract with Provost. The contract with Provost was in force through August 2011. However, Dr. Timothy Daniels was unconcerned with that contract apparently. Dr. Timothy Daniels felt the school should assume the cost of breaking the contract with Provost and enter new contracts with other providers. Ryan Scumm stated that “We owe Provost something, not the full $160,000.” Neither the Board nor Dr. Timothy Daniels seemed overly concerned about what silly little amount the school might pay to Provost in taxpayer dollars in order to break the contract. Ryan Schumm summed it up by saying that “A few dollar signs are associated with these products”. Apparently, Dr. Timothy Daniels isn’t terribly worried about increasing the cost to the taxpayers for a platform as long as he gets to have what he wants when he wants it regardless of the legal and ethical obligations which a contract entails.

4. Here is an interesting little expenditure…why did Dr. Timothy Daniels spend $140 taxpayer dollars for SHREDDING services?

I must admit that $140 is really small potatoes next to most of Dr. Timothy Daniels’ expenditures. Yet, I can’t help but wondering…how much shredding needs to be done that the shredding needs to be outsourced??? What is being shredded anyway? Are these outsourced shredding costs going to become a new monthly expense?

Is This Excessive Spending Something New for Dr. Timothy Daniels or

A Little History on Dr. Timothy Daniels Pre-Achievement House

The information that I presented about increased spending might lead one to question whether or not Dr. Timothy Daniels has ever behaved this way in the past. There is information that seems to suggest that Dr. Daniels did have a problem with excessive spending in the past. The same information would also suggest that Dr. Timothy Daniels might have some other serious leadership and personality flaws.

Dr. Timothy Daniels had a one year contract to serve as Superintendent for the South Carolina Public Charter School District. The Board in South Carolina opted not to renew Dr. Daniels’ contract when that year was over. Besides not having his contract renewed, there were two separate lawsuits filed against Dr. Timothy Daniels based on his actions as Superintendent.

Kelly-Moser Consulting, a former vendor for South Carolina Public Charter School District, has apparently sued Dr. Timothy Daniels for libel.

Philip Willis, a former employee of the District, has sued Dr. Timothy Daniels for $2,000,000. Philip Willis’ complaint against Dr. Timothy Daniels says that during the course of Philip Willis’ work assignments, Mr. Willis found evidence of “serious mismanagement, including waste and excessive expenditures”, which Dr. Timothy Daniels should have disclosed to the Board in South Carolina. Mr. Willis disclosed that information to the Board but claims that Dr. Daniels and other members of the management team began a “hostile course of conduct” toward him. After the Board in South Carolina decided not to renew Dr. Daniels’ contract for the position of superintendent, Dr. Daniels fired Mr. Willis during the time remaining on his contract despite the Chairman of the Board in South Carolina allegedly recommending that Dr. Daniels allow the next superintendent to address Philip Willis’ employment. Mr. Willis is claiming that Dr. Daniels violated his First Amendment right to free speech and association and that Dr. Daniels acted with malice.

The possibility that Mr. Willis’ complaint is accurate would have given me pause were I a member of the Board considering whether to hire Dr. Timothy Daniels as CEO. I certainly don’t think that I would have approved a three year contract for him, were I a Board member. However, the Board did both those things. I have to wonder if the Board was informed about the lawsuits prior to hiring Dr. Timothy Daniels.

What Does the Staff Have to Say?

I suspect that if you were to interview the staff at Achievement House Cyber Charter School, especially the few staff members that remain from the period prior to Dr. Timothy Daniels’ reign of terror, this Leonard Cohen statement would summarize their thoughts nicely:

“Everybody knows that the boat is leaking.

Everybody knows that the captain lied.

Everybody’s got this broken feeling,

Like their father or their dog just died.”

I must admit that from my perspective, and the perspective of other former Achievement House Cyber Charter School employees, Philip Willis’ story seems quite believable. Within less than a month of Dr. Timothy Daniels’ hire he took away my livelihood in a reorganization that occurred in Executive Session in February 2010. Thomas P. Hogan, Jr., the solicitor, told the public that the reorganization would not be explained at the Board Meeting because it occurred in executive session and, even after being publicly voted, was still covered under privilege.

I guess Dr. Timothy Daniels knew that he had to get rid of me VERY quickly after arriving since my position, for which I received excellent reviews since my employment began in 2004, included being the confidential assistant to the CEO and communicating with the Board members. How could Dr. Timothy Daniels have hoped to keep any issues of “serious mismanagement, including waste and excessive expenditures” out of the eyes of Board members if his confidential assistant was competent and ethical and had open lines of communication to the Board?

I suppose that is why I was also offered a severance package which included a five year silence clause in exchange for the money and benefits offered. Needless to say, I refused the money and have been anything BUT silent. I guess the only lesson Dr. Timothy Daniels took away from his legal quagmire in South Carolina was that he should rid the staff of anyone who might expose his behaviors to the appropriate authorities, eh? Too bad he didn’t get the larger message that not engaging in “serious mismanagement, including waste and excessive expenditures” and not engaging in a “hostile course of conduct” against those who highlight those behaviors would better serve to keep him out of litigation. One can only hope that he will begin to grasp those lessons before Achievement House Cyber Charter School is bankrupted under his tutelage!

Even after getting rid of me, poor Dr. Timothy Daniels was still saddled with quite a few employees who had concerns about his management style. Their concern might have been provoked by his constant commentary in the first few weeks of his employment about his iron-clad contract with the Board. Dr. Timothy Daniels’ contract was apparently negotiated, in part, by his old high school buddy, Nick Vastardis, now President of the Board. The contract was then reviewed by the law firm of Lamb, McErlane, who serve as the solicitors not only for Achievement House Cyber Charter School but also for Great Valley School District. Nick Vastardis was a Board member of Great Valley School District prior to joining the Board at Achievement House Charter School (as it was then known). Nick Vastardis was recommended for the Board by an external vendor of the school, Ryan Schumm of Charter School Choice. Charter School Choice is represented by none other than Lamb, McErlane! Oh, what a tangled web!

This web becomes even more tangled when you consider the appointment of Jim Bowers to the Board. Jim Bowers was brought onto the Board at the March 2010 Board meeting. Jim was recommended for the Board by Nick Vastardis. When poking around on the internet one evening, I found this fascinating little tidbit on Facebook:

Jim Bowers was elected Treasurer of the Board at the July 20, 2010 Board Meeting. Isn't it disturbing that spending under Dr. Timothy Daniels is so very excessive AND the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees was nominated by a school buddy of Dr. Timothy Daniels AND the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees has two people who appear to be Dr. Timothy Daniels two older children listed as his friends on Facebook? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! These are some of the Board members who forced Cheryl VanBuskirk, the only remaining long-term Board member off the Board with the help of the solicitor!

Dr. Timothy Daniels got rid of 46% of the staff that was employed when he hired. It took him only a matter of months. I think that should be a red flag to the Board that something is very wrong at Achievement House Charter School. If the termination of 46% of a dedicated staff didn’t send up red flags, shouldn’t the fact that, after getting rid of all those employees, Dr. Daniels has still managed to more than double the non-instructional/administrative salaries and quadruple the technology department costs! Some information garnered from South Carolina would seem to indicate that Dr. Timothy Daniels wasn’t satisfied with just getting rid of those who questioned his authority and practices, he also apparently condoned public funds being used to sue some of the former employees!

The Old Staff that Remains vs. Timmer’s Angels

In examining the salary spreadsheet, I can’t help but notice that the newer employees are doing substantially better financially than staff members with substantially more seniority. Let me give a few examples:

Diana DiNenna, a teacher who has been with the school since 2005 needed to receive a 12.2% raise in order to be making as much as the lowest paid new teachers at the school?

How about Angela Alderfer, the lead mentor? Angela, who received a 14.42% raise, is still only making $37,750 per year with four years more seniority than any of the other mentors, Cheryl Kern, Sheila Weimer, and Amy Shea. The lowest paid mentor is Amy Shea who makes $32,500 with four fewer years experience than Angela! Let’s add insult to injury for Angela Alderfer…Angela is a 12 month employee while the other mentors are only 10 month employees. If you calculate their salaries in that light, you will find that Angela is making $3,145.83 per month while Amy Shea is making $3,250.00 per month! So Angela Alderfer, who heads the mentoring department, is actually being paid less per month than the lowest paid person that she supervises!

How about Sarah Minnick, the lead teacher? While Sarah has one of the top 10 salaries at Achievement House Cyber Charter School, at least three teachers, two of whom came from PALCS, have been hired at a starting salary hire than Sarah’s although Sarah has the lead teacher responsibilities and 6 years seniority over the new hires.

Now let’s compare this group of long-term dedicated staff with the group I refer to as “Timmer’s Angels”. This group consists of Twila Smoker (Director of Marketing and Pupil Services) (Head of Timmer’s Angels), Deb Pearson (Special Education Director), and Sue Stiver (Principal).

Twila’s performance is almost as questionable as Dr. Timothy Daniels’ performance. With Twila as the Director of Marketing, the August 2010 expenditures for advertising were $28,584.75! That does not include software purchased from her friends at IEXP and an e-marketing software purchased from L-Tech Consulting to the tune of $4,935. That is a total of $33,519.75 in AUGUST ALONE! That doesn’t include the $59,037 spent between March and June of 2010. Gadzooks, she only went $22,746 over budget for advertising in 2009-2010. A quick review of the budget vs. actual financial reports for September 2010 show that following the period of July-September 2010, only 2% of the entire 2010-2011 advertising budget still remained! The Director of Marketing and Pupil Services seems to have managed to spend $88,224 taxpayer dollars in three months on advertising!

At this point you might be thinking, “Well, at least enrollment reached 502 by the end of September.” Well, let’s look at that figure also. The enrollment report presented at the October 19, 2010 Board meeting does show 502 active students. However, Dr. Timothy Daniels stated that 125 of those students are enrolled at the Bolivar location. That is how Dr. Timothy Daniels rationalized the need to rent YET ANOTHER facility in Western Pa. The Bolivar students primarily enrolled in Achievement House Cyber Charter School because the Laurel Valley School was closed by the district.

The new administration at Achievement House Cyber Charter School, led by the inimitable Dr. Timothy Daniels of South Carolina leadership fame, offered a completely different program to the students that enrolled in Bolivar. The new program included classes and tutoring being offered at a physical location which was staffed by live teachers and non-instructional staff. Does that sound like a cyber school to you? The new program also admits sixth graders despite the PDE limiting Achievement House Cyber Charter School’s enrollment to 7th to 12th graders! Now, there is a posting on the Save Laurel Valley School Facebook site which says:

Mary Robey ‎**Hey, anyone interested in Vo-tech the attends Achievement House, please contact Ms. Patty** Anyone thinking of enrolling your children at Achievement House but are holding back due to lack of Vo-Tech participation, Please Contact Ms. Patty at Achievement House. 724-676-5414.

So, live classes, live tutoring, class trips, 6th grade enrollment, and potentially a vo-tech program would definitely be a draw to get students whose school has closed, eh? Sadly, none of those programs are part of the charter that was approved by the PDE. What type of leadership chooses to defy PDE directives in order to recruit students? I guess the same type of leadership that chooses to spend $66220.26 of taxpayer dollars in a two month period to revamp a restaurant to house these unapproved programs. Almost $10,000 of that money was spent on new flooring!

If you acknowledge that those 125 enrollees are not really enrolled in the same school program as the other students in the state, then the enrollment at Achievement House CYBER (not blended) Charter School was actually only at 377 students as of the October 19, 2010 Board meeting. That would be 83 fewer students than were enrolled in April 2010 when Achievement House Charter School was still abiding by the charter that the PDE approved! GADZOOKS!

From July through October 2010, Achievement House Cyber Charter School enrolled 134 students. From July through October 2009, Achievement House Charter School staff enrolled 134 students for a fraction of the cost and without the advantage of a blended school being opened in the neighborhood of a district school that closed! How did the 2009 Achievement House Charter School staff manage that with half the staffing and far less than half the advertising expenditures and no captive audience or preferential programs?

Part of the 2009 Achievement House Charter School staff enrollment success was predicated on student retention. Another interesting tidbit from the enrollment report issued at the October 19, 2010 Board meeting is that, although 76 students enrolled at Achievement House Cyber Charter School from September 1 through September 30, 51 students WITHDREW! That is a net increase of only 25 students! The 2009 staff averaged a withdraw rate of 29.66 students per month from July through October 2009. That rate plummeted to fewer than 20 withdraws after October 2009. Twila Smoker, the Director of Marketing and Pupil Services has doubled the expenditures to enroll students while almost doubling the monthly withdrawal rate! Twila Smoker is making almost two times what any of the staff that she supervises is being paid despite the fact that she had only been employed by Achievement House Cyber Charter School for less than one year when that August salary list was developed!

Wow! Twila has been given one of the top 10 salaries and the highest salary increase at Achievement House Cyber Charter School with that performance?! Way to go, Twila! Way to go, Timmeroid! Way to reward staff financially for a less than stellar performance!

The second of Timmer’s Angels is Debra Pearson, Special Education Director. I have not had the pleasure to really get to know Debra. However, I have heard from former staff members, folks who were formerly Debra’s co-workers, a parent or two, and one or two other external sources that Debra Pearson has a real difficulty controlling her temper. It has been reported to me that she tends to scream at and verbally abuse fellow employees. I also know that Dr. Timothy Daniels chose to hire Debra Pearson over the objections of other members of the department who, according to Board policy, should have been involved in the decision to hire Debra Pearson. I know that at least one former Achievement House Charter School employee was forced to seek a different job because of the physical ailments she began to suffer as a result of the verbal abuse she received from Debra Pearson. When that employee sought help in the situation from Dr. Timothy Daniels and Sue Stiver, Debra Pearson’s supervisors, she was basically told that she needed to deal with it. I hear rumors that a similar situation is occurring now with another employee. I certainly cannot say that I have witnessed any of these behaviors (remember, Dr. Timothy Daniels and the Board broke the Sunshine Act to get rid of me quickly with the support of the solicitor). However, I can’t imagine that staff members and parents whom I have known for years would intentionally misrepresent a situation to me so consistently. All of their stories match. That’s something that I’d love to see from Dr. Timothy Daniels!

There is really not much to say about Sue Stiver, another of Timmer’s Angels. I suppose that since Sue Stiver is actually part of the original staff that Timmer doesn’t give her as much leash as he gives to Twila and Deb Pearson. The most interesting thing that can be said for Sue Stiver at this juncture, other than that Dr. Timothy Daniels has paid a vendor $10,500 to do part of her job, is that she is a union buster. Despite the fact that she committed to supporting a union being brought into Achievement House Charter School, and the fact that she is a member at large of the PSEA, Sue Stiver suddenly decided that she would send emails to the Achievement House Charter School staff telling them not to bring in a union. Her emails contained misrepresentations of the cost of joining the union and proclaimed that joining a union was not in the best interest of the staff. Shortly after Sue Stiver began her union busting campaign, she was promoted to Principal, her salary almost doubled, she was issued an employment contract by an “at will” employer, and she was eventually given an assistant. Golly Gee Willigers!

Sue sure was richly rewarded for her union busting by Dr. Timothy Daniels, wasn’t she? He wanted her to get the Principal position so badly that he LIED in a public Board meeting about her being a founding teacher. It also appears that he LIED to the Board about at least one recommendation he claimed to have received for Sue Stiver to be Principal. I wonder if the employees who are being paid so poorly when compared to Twila Smoker are wishing that they had voted for the union to come in back in April? Are they wishing that they had not listened to Sue Stiver when she said that they should not join the union? I wonder if the staff that she supervises resents what she has done to them? I wonder if Dr. Timothy Daniels keeps this Timmer’s Angel at arms’ length because he knows she became a union buster despite her membership in a union? I wonder if the staff that Sue Stiver kicked to the curb will finally decide to organize that union that they allowed to escape them in April? I wonder if the staff knows that they will get tons of external support to form that union?

Are those staff members wishing that a salary schedule had been approved by the Board? I know there was a salary schedule developed, as ordered by the PDE by December 2009. Yet, when I gave Tim Daniels a copy of the salary schedule upon his hiring, he completely ignored it and decided that all he would present to the Board was the recommendation to increase the salaries of the lowest paid staff to be in line with those staff members who were paid at the bottom of the average salaries! I questioned Tim Daniels about that decision when he said that he was going to do that, reminding him that the PDE ordered that a salary schedule be developed. See what happens to those who question Dr. Timothy Daniels?

Another nifty little twist for the employees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School was revealed by Dr. Timothy Daniels at the October 19, 2010 Board meeting when he was presenting ANOTHER new position for Instructional Aide for Bolivar. Despite Dr. Timothy Daniels’ constant statement that Bolivar is NOT a BLENDED program, Dr. Timothy Daniels explained to the Board that a person needed to be hired to address the special needs of some of the students that come into the NOT BLENDED program in Bolivar. Dr. Timothy Daniels then told the Board that the new aide would be hired not be hired as full-time but rather for 37 hours per week in accordance with the Board’s wishes. Didn’t Wal-Mart have a major problem with utilizing that practice to avoid offering medical insurance to its employees? Do the current employees still think that it’s not time for a union?

A little tip for Dr. Timothy Daniels regarding his management of staff:

To lead people, walk beside them ...
As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence.
The next best, the people honor and praise.
The next, the people fear;
and the next, the people hate ...
When the best leader's work is done the people say,
"We did it ourselves!"
Lao-tsu

Practices and Policies

I guess with the excessive spending, the lack of leadership in managing staffing issues, the no-bid contracts, and the inequitable salary situation, the need for “confidentiality” and the silencing of the staff that Dr. Timothy Daniels displays would be an absolute necessity. Dr. Timothy Daniels has recommended some policies in his first year which truly highlight this need for covert operations.

Shortly after the reorganization of February 2010, the Board passed a policy that precluded the public from attending Board meetings by teleconference. Since 2005, the public had been permitted to attend Board meetings by teleconference because Achievement House Cyber Charter School students come from all over the state of Pennsylvania. Therefore, there are members of the public who might have to make a ten hour round trip in order to attend the Board meeting. In order to encourage participation in governance, the original policy permitted attendance by teleconference. The new policy does not allow the public to attend the Board meetings by teleconference but it does allow the Board members and the CEO to attend by teleconference. Isn’t that interesting?

Dr. Timothy Daniels doesn’t seem to want the public present at Board meetings. Maybe Dr. Daniels assumes that if the public does not attend the Board meetings, then the inconsistencies in information from one month to the next will not be noticed. Maybe he feels that if the public isn’t present no one will notice that there is a constant rush to pass motions because actions are taken prior to the Board meeting. Maybe Dr. Daniels is just so enamored of confidentiality that he would even exclude the very people that the school exists to serve?

Dr. Timothy Daniels also recommended a policy to stop the staff and Board from communicating. He claimed that this was “standard practice”. “Standard practice” seems to be the phrase that Dr. Timothy Daniels uses when there is absolutely no solid reason for making the decision that he would like the Board to make.

Dr. Timothy Daniels also seems to have an utter disregard for the Sunshine Act. Dr. Daniels and the Board seem to love to have conversations in Executive Session which apparently belong in public session. At the October 19, 2010 Board Meeting, leases for two new properties (ARE YOU KIDDING ME?) were presented to the Board in Executive Session. Dr. Daniels then said, in Public Session that the Board “should talk about leases in Executive Session”. Well, let’s see what the law has to say about that. Under 65 Pa. C.S.A. § 708(a)(3) one of the exceptions to the requirement for information to be discussed in public is “[t]o consider the purchase or lease of real property up to the time an option to purchase or lease the real property is obtained or up to the time an agreement to purchase or lease such property is obtained if the agreement is obtained directly without an option.”

Now, just interpreting that with the eye of a layperson, it would seem to indicate that the fact that the lease was already in the possession of Dr. Timothy Daniels and that he wanted those leases signed quickly (rushing Board decisions AGAIN!), would mean that “an agreement to purchase or lease such property [had been] obtained directly without an option”. If that is accurate, doesn’t it appear that those leases were required to be discussed in public session? Does Dr. Timothy Daniels purport to be an expert in which matters are permissible for discussion in Executive Session? If he does not, would it not be best if he did not comment that the discussions which occurred in Executive Session were appropriate when that is clearly a questionable stance?

Let’s consider my personal favorite in the “confidentiality” game plan…the absolute and utter defiance of the Pa. Right to Know Law displayed by the administration at Achievement House Cyber Charter School. I have posted several blogs discussing this issue, so I will not belabor the point. Suffice it to say that an employee of Charter Choices, who does not have a contract with Achievement House Cyber Charter School, is being paid $90.00 per hour to fulfill the responsibilities of “Open Records Officer”, a responsibility of the CEO according to Board Policy. That employee of Charter Choices, Ryan Schumm, has defied direct orders from the Office of Open Records to release public information in accordance with the Right to Know Law.

Why would the administration continue to withhold information to which the public were entitled if there were nothing questionable about the information? Is this a leadership style? One would think that Dr. Timothy Daniels who has no problem with increased accountability for poor performing and scandal ridden schools would display behaviors which showed his respect for accountability, not these covert actions. I hope that Dr. Timothy Daniels will reflect on the words of Theodore Roosevelt which I presented earlier in this blog, “The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert.” Is it so important for Dr. Timothy Daniels to feel he is “the boss” that he is incapable of being “the leader”?

I guess if the information that I were being asked to release to the public were going to reveal that the cost of running the Technology Department had more than quadrupled in one year under my leadership, I would also pay Charter Choices (a company with no contract with the school) $90.00 per hour to find ways to avoid releasing that information to the public! Even if the methods used to hide that information appeared to be obstructionist! When you’re quadrupling expenses and showing only limited growth in revenue, you HAVE to be OBSTRUCTIONIST or the taxpayers will realize you’re not a good steward of their money and request that the Board remove you from your position!

I Have A Solution! Ask the Board to Remove Him!

Wow, let me do that right now….as a taxpayer in Pennsylvania, I am requesting that the Board of Trustees of Achievement House Cyber Charter School, even Dr. Timothy Daniels school buddies and Facebook friends of his children, remove Dr. Timothy Daniels from his position as CEO of Achievement House Cyber Charter School immediately!

There, it has been so moved. Anyone out there want to second it? Do you think that we can get the Board to look at it in public session? Apparently the South Carolina Public Charter School District Board was able to come to the decision not to renew his contract!

A Few Suggestions for the Administration and Board

I have received some comments on the blog, which is a free speech zone, that intimate that I should leave Achievement House Cyber School alone. I gave some serious consideration to these suggestions. However, as I’ve been reviewing the tape of the October 19, 2010 Board Meeting and documents related to AHCCS and the South Carolina lawsuits against Dr. Timothy Daniels, I've come to believe that the administration of the school must sincerely crave the attention that they get on this blog. If they didn’t want the attention, I can think of at least a dozen actions that the administration and Board could take to stop me from having any content to discuss with all of you! I have to assume that Dr. Timothy Daniels realizes that these actions would increase transparency and leave me with little to discuss, yet he continues to endorse policies that are the antithesis of these transparent actions. Maybe if the Board is reading this blog, they will consider the following suggestions:

1. Permit the public to attend Board Meetings via phone or video conference

2. Video tape the Board Meetings and post the video

3. Post minutes of the Board Meetings

4. Present consistent information

5. Post agendas, financials, enrollment figures, proposed policies, and budget revisions prior to the Board Meeting

6. Respond promptly and fully to Right to Know Requests in compliance with Pa. law

7. Post Board approved policies on the website

8. Update the website regularly

9. Discuss public information during public session at the Board Meetings

10. Abide by the charter

11. Develop a salary schedule as directed by the PDE

12. Be fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars

I would sincerely hope that the next Board meeting agenda might actually address some of these issues. I would hope that there would be meaningful public discussion. I would hope that there would be appropriate advertising if the Board and administration decide to reschedule another Board meeting or add a Special Board Meeting.

Lady Voldemort

When is a 6th Grader NOT a 6th Grader - Only at Achievement House (Cyber) Charter School!

2010-11-14T09:06:00.000-08:00

When is a 6th grader not a 6th grader? (Only, at AH(C?)CS!) Is this like my father's riddle - "when is a door not a door?" For anyone wondering, the answer is when it's a jar! Sadly, the 6th grader question is NOT a riddle and is NOT the least bit amusing!

Hello Avid Readers and Blogvillers! Once again, one of you has provided excellent information which requires dissection and analysis. Rumors among the ex-patriot employees of Achievement House Charter School have been circulated for several months, and it now appears that those RUMORS MAY BE TRUE: Achievement House Charter School has enrolled 6th graders into its 7th grade program in Bolivar.

If you'd like to see the article which exposes this conundrum, please follow this link:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_708419.html

Well, good for the school and good for those students who now have access to a cyber education, you may say. Let's look at this more closely and see who this move REALLY benefits.

Most of the cyber programs in the state offer elementary programs which enroll 6th grade students. Elementary? I thought this was middle school, you say! No, according to the venerable Pennsylvania Department of Education, 6th grade is considered elementary level, with cognitive, emotional, and social needs of their own. Teachers receive certification in either Elementary (K-6) or Secondary (7-12) Education in the state of Pennsylvania. In bricks and mortar settings, even though 6th graders may be part of the middle school, their academic and co-curricular activities are generally kept separate from those of the 7th and 8th grade students in recognition of their unique needs.

So, if 6th grade programs are available at other cyber schools, why have parents enrolled their 11- and 12- year old students in a program which otherwise serves students from 13 through 18+? That answer is easy enough to provide. You see (and, you will recall from earlier blogs), the Bolivar Center/Western Office of Achievement House Charter School is a blended center. Whoops! It was originally advertised as a blended center on the www.achievementcharter.com website in August. Then, it became a cyber school again (at the September board meeting). And, finally, at the October Board meeting, Tim Daniels himself introduced policies which were deemed necessary in the bricks and mortar facility in Bolivar. So, I suppose that we can conclude Bolivar provides bricks and mortar environment for students who do their schoolwork online. That's it! If I were a parent, I would be delighted to be able to drop my student off at this facility. It’s almost like a “real school”, my family can avoid the politics in Laurel Valley (not to mention that long bus ride!), and my family won't have the responsibility to monitor our student at school!

Gee, those must be exceptionally prepared and talented teachers (not to mention Principal Stiver who keeps her school office in Bolivar kitchen) to be able to keep students engaged and learning in such a diverse atmosphere. Funny, one of the biggest arguments against promoting students above their age/grade level is because of the social difficulties (possible bullying and exposure to social experiences which test their social savvy). I hope that there's plenty of supervision of these students. I hope that the parents are fully aware of the ramifications of 11 year-olds and 18 year-olds interacting on a daily basis. It is a big responsibility for the staff and the Board to uphold.

Wait, I just mentioned the Board! Where have they been in this situation? I don't believe I've heard any discussion of how to provide for 6th graders in a bricks and mortar school, let alone approval for their enrollment at any Achievement House Charter School Board Meeting. Why haven't we heard from Don Fraatz, our Board member with extensive elementary education experience (he was the principal of General Wayne Elementary School in Great Valley School District)? Certainly, this wouldn't have been discussed in Executive Session, would it? (If you are an avid reader, you well know the scope and limits to Executive Session. If not an avid reader, just take a look at past posts!) If enrollment of 6th graders were only occurring in Bolivar (no matter how illicit that may be), isn't it discriminatory to AHCS students throughout the state of Pennsylvania?

Hmm. It seems to me that somewhere in Achievement House Charter School's past, that there was interest in opening the school to 6th graders. Ah, yes, Blogvillers and Avid Readers, this is true! In the 2008-2009 school year, Achievement House Charter School applied to the Pennsylvania Department of Education requesting the addition of 6th grade. THIS APPLICATION WAS DENIED. (The March 31, 2009 Board Meeting Minutes states that there had been no response to the application for the addition of a 6th grade, and the April 21, 2009 minutes cites the denial of this request – planning was proceeding for the addition of 7th and 8th grade only - which had previously been approved at the time of the Charter Renewal.) That's right! I'll say it again: 6TH GRADE WAS ACTIVELY SOUGHT BY AHCS AND DENIED BY THE PDE!

Now, not being on staff at PDE and not being privy to their response to the proposal, I do not know why this was denied. However, I would hope that PDE will become mighty interested in what is going on at AHCS, in particular, at the Bolivar office/center/blended school/bricks and mortar school (can AHCS administration ever make a decision and stick with it?)

To summarize:

1. Pittsburgh Tribune reports on November 9, 2010 that “several sixth-graders were accepted into Achievement House Cyber Charter School as seventh-graders.” This article makes the statement in conjunction with discussion about larger cyber school enrollment in the area, so one can draw the conclusion that these enrollments pertain to AHCS's Western office.

2. Sixth-grade enrollment is offered at other cyber schools – why are parents enrolling their students at AHCS in 7th grade? Answer: It is a convenient alternative to local bricks and mortar school.

3. Educating 6th graders with secondary students is generally regarded as poor educational practice due to differences in cognitive, social and emotional development. In fact, PDE specifically rejected AHCS's application to do so as recently as Spring 2009.

4. WHO IS REALLY BENEFITING FROM THE 6TH GRADE ENROLLMENT IN BOLIVAR?

I know you'll be shocked to hear this – IT'S TIM DANIELS! According to his contract with AHCS, TIM DANIELS will receive A BONUS OF $12,500 if school enrollment exceeds an average daily enrollment of 500 students by June 30!

There you have it, Avid Readers and Blogvillers! Once again at Achievement House Charter School, money triumphs! Greed induces “certificated educators” to defy the Pennsylvania Department of Education AND “standard operating procedure”, possibly putting young students at academic risk, and more! Parents – I hope you fully understand the ramifications for your children. Board – please ask that this subject be added to the December agenda for discussion. PDE – please use our tax dollars to visit AHCS Western office/center/blended school/ bricks and mortar school to see firsthand what is happening here. My friends – YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK LINING THE POCKET(S) OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? I don't know about you, but I've had enough. And, once again, I invite you to a free, open, uncensored discussion of these issues in the comment section below.

Have a wonderful day!

Lady Voldemort

A Brief Follow-Up on Right to Know Request - Does Anyone See Obstructionist Tactics Here?

2010-10-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

Good morning, Blogvillers and Avid Readers!

I received the following email from Ryan Schumm today in response to my email seeking Right to Know Requests spanning as far back in time as April 21, 2010:

Ann,

Please find information related to the Right to Know Request response's below. My text is in blue italics.

Documents for all requests that have been granted subsequent to 07.16.10 are being held until outstanding fee's are received by the school. Currently, $4.50 is due to the school. A copy of the Right to Know Request response that accumulated these charges is attached. These charges are related to the documents that were produced in response to your request dated 07.16.10.

Best Regards,

Ryan Schumm
2763 Limekiln Pike • Glenside, PA 19038
tel: 215.481.9777 x.126 • fax: 215.481.9651

April 21, 2010 - Granted, documents provided on 10.11.10. Original e-mail with documents re-sent today.
May 10, 2010 - Granted in part, denied in part, documents provided 08.24.10. Original e-mail with documents re-sent today

May 21, 2010 - Granted in part, denied in part, documents provided 08.24.10. Original e-mail with documents re-sent today.
July 28, 2010 - Granted - response sent 08.24.10. Documents held pending payment due to school.

August 24, 2010 - Granted - response sent 09.30.10. Documents held pending payment due to school.

August 25, 2010 - Granted - response sent 09.30.10. Documents held pending payment due to school.

August 26, 2010 - Granted - response sent 09.30.10. Documents held pending payment due to school.

September 2, 2010 - Granted - response sent 09.30.10. Documents held pending payment due to school.

September 8, 2010 - We did not receive a request on this date, or a request with this date. The last two request that we received from you were dated 09.02.10 and 10.22.10.

It seems as if this is all is in order, doesn't it? Just a mistake on my part combined with an unwillingness to pay the school for public documents, right?

I've included my response below. I think my response might clarify how much of this is not in "apple pie order", to borrow a phrase from Dr. Timothy Daniels.

Nothing in the emails that you sent today is related to my April 21, 2010 Right to Know Request. I will assume that there is confusion on the part of Achievement House Charter School about having fulfilled the April 21, 2010 Right to Know Request. I have again attached a copy of that request. That request include, in addition to basic requests for Board meeting documents, the employment contract for Sue Stiver; a resume for Sue Stiver; a resume for Tim Daniels; a resume for Tom Hogan; a draft of the 2010-2011 budget as submitted at the April 20, 2010 Board meeting; and the contract with the Lukesh Group approved at the April 20, 2010 Board meeting.

In addition to the documents which you forwarded related to the May 10, 2010 Right to Know requests, there were additional Right to Know Requests submitted on 5/10/10. The Office of Open Records found in my favor and ordered the release of the documents or an appeal by the school within 30 days of their ruling on July 14, 2010. To date, I have not received the documents ordered for release by the Office of Open Records. I have attached a copy of the Right to Know Request and the Final Determination from the Office of Open Records. The items on the 5/10/10 Right to Know Request which the Office of Open Records ordered released by August 14, 2010 include:

Any and all correspondence between Board members, solicitor, and CEO or any combination of those parties related to the reorganization at the February 16, 2010 Board Meeting.

Any and all correspondence between Board members related to Tim Daniels hiring as CEO.

Any and all correspondence between Board members, the solicitor, and CEO or any combination of those parties related to the new Board/Staff Relations policy approved at the March 16, 2010 Board meeting.

Any and all correspondence between Board members, the solicitor, and CEO or any combination of those parties related to the new Public Participation policy approved at the April 20, 2010 Board meeting.

I also did not receive all items included on the May 21, 2010 Right to Know Request related to job descriptions for staff positions. Is Achievement House Charter School taking the position that no job descriptions exist for these positions?

I will also attach another copy of the September 8, 2010 Request which you claim in your notes that the school never received.

I am also waiting for an itemized invoice for the $9.75 which the school charged me for previous Right to Know Request fulfillment. I will also now need an itemized invoice for the $4.50 which the school is claiming I owe for scanning/copying charges (which have already been disallowed by the Office of Open Records).

In your email you state that the fees are related to documents produced to fill Right to Know Requests. That information does not indicate which specific documents Achievement House Charter School claims not to have had available in electronic format resulting in charges being incurred by me. I need to find out which 57 pages of documents Achievement House Charter School is claiming were unavailable in electronic format prior to my Right to Know Request being processed.

I would be far more comfortable continuing to submit payment for public documents which the school claims do not exist in electronic format if the school would issue invoices to indicate which public documents they are claiming were not in electronic format.

Additionally, you indicated in your responses to my Right to Know Requests that the documents requested would be released when the payment of $9.75 was made to the school. Instead of releasing the documents as agreed, you released one set of documents and stated that I owed the school $4.50 for those documents and that you would continue to withhold additional public documents which should have been released upon payment of the $9.75. It is unreasonable to expect payment without an itemized invoice when the school has not abided by its own statements that documents would be released upon payment of $9.75. This appears to be an obstructionist tactic.

I will arrange to make payment in the amount $4.50 in the interest of enabling the public to see the documents which I requested on Right to Know Requests spanning back in time to July 2010. Will the school commit to releasing all Right to Know requests immediately upon reciept of the $4.50 which the school claims it is owed? Does the school intend to then release the July 28, 2010 request, claim that there is money owed without issuing an itemized invoice, and refuse to release all subsequent Right to Know Requests until I pay the school whatever sum the school chooses to charge for the July 28, 2010 request?

In order to make my statement about obstructionist behavior on the part of the school a little clearer, let me quote to you from one or two responses which I received from Ryan Schumm related to my Right to Know Requests:

On September 30, 2010, Ryan Schumm responded to a Right to Know Request issued on August 24, 2010 for which Achievement House Charter School had requested a 30 day extension (told you he loves those!). After their 30 day extension period passed, Mr. Schumm stated that the August 24, 2010 request "was granted, to the extent that documents exist that are responsive to your request."

He further stated that "a response will be provided to you as soon as the applicable fees are received that are related to several prior requests. Currently, there are fees due to the school totaling $9.75 ($3.75 from your 5.10.10 request, $1.25 from your 5.21.10 request, and $4.75 from your 6.24.10 request)."

The same information was included in another letter dated September 30, 2010 responding under the same conditions (YUP! A 30 day extension!) to an August 25, 2010 request.

Similar information was included on a letter dated August 24, 2010 in which Ryan Schumm was responding to a Right to Know Request dated July 28, 2010 following the proverbial 30 DAY EXTENSION! There was a difference, though. A difference probably doesn't mean much to a wealthy organization like Achievement House Charter School but which sincerely impacts an unemployed person like me. In this letter dated August 24, 2010, the school only claimed that I owed $5.00 rather than $9.75. If the $4.75 difference was charged because of a request issued on 6/24/10, how could the school have not included that charge in a letter generated on August 24, 2010 responding to an Right to Know Request issued on July 28, 2010?

Don't forget, everyone, Achievement House Charter School is paying Charter Choices $90.00 per hour net for Ryan Schumm to handle the Right to Know Requests!

Can everyone see my hesitancy in being forced to decide if I will pay the school an arbitrary amount of money that they claim it cost them to email me copies of public documents without receiving an itemized invoice showing the related costs?? My only other choice is to allow the public documents to remain hidden from public view! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I can see from the way that multiple costs are assumed by the school for similar services and posh new office space is leased, and privacy fences are installed, and ribbon-cutting ceremonies are held that Achievement House Charter School doesn't really feel concern about spending money. I do, however! Especially when there is no invoice to explain why I owe the money!

So, I finally paid the $9.75, which I might or might not have incurred, in order to get the documents promised by Ryan Schumm in response to several Right to Know Requests including the August 24 and August 25 requests which I used as an example above.

Yet, after receiving the $9.75, Ryan Schumm issued one single, solitary, lonely little Right to Know Request, assigned arbitrary costs to that request without invoicing for them and withheld ALL THE OTHER REQUESTS which were PROMISED by Ryan Schumm upon payment of the initial arbitrary $9.75!

Does that sound obstructionist to anyone besides me?