Laboratory, Agora and Planet Abacus Charter founder indicted

[seand]

I am ok with them killing the school because of this. People need to start taking seriously corruption and the best way is for people to realize corruption directly impacts them. IT isn't an opportunity to just get control of a school yourself.

The schools from what I've read and heard had an, ahem, unusual model but one that appealed to some parents. Longer school days, piles and piles of homework, almost fanatical emphasis on academics (which also of course included a lot of test prep for state assessment tests) - on the plus side. On the negative side - outright theft and culture that castigated parents and teachers that asked to many questions about the administrators (who were helping themselves to money fraudulently apparently).

For the primarily (at least statistically more so than the district as a whole) African American parents who chose it, the heavy emphasis on discipline and testing and homework was something very appealing. I don't begrudge the parents who actually strongly preffered the no-nonsense, heavy homework, heavy testing approach. For some of them, the thought of their kids suddenly going to a way less structured and strict environment at their local catchment school I'm sure is quite distressing.

[annie]

I feel bad for the parents too and can see why the school appealed to some. But if the Board isn't going to do the right thing and step down and instead is going back the administrators so completely, there's really very little chance for the parents to take control and get a hold of the school's finances and administration. The district's hand is really being forced here.

[seand]

I feel bad for the parents too and can see why the school appealed to some. But if the Board isn't going to do the right thing and step down and instead is going back the administrators so completely, there's really very little chance for the parents to take control and get a hold of the school's finances and administration. The district's hand is really being forced here.

I agree. Their best bet is to start from scratch and put together a proposal for a new charter that has some of the things that appealled to them but whose governance is transparent and not built around the cult of personality of their kleptomaniac school founder. Of course some might say that should never happen in this current fiscal crisis.

[annie]

Good luck to them trying for a new charter but it sounds like at least some of the Laboratory "magic" was an application process nearing private school levels of exclusivity and the jettisoning of any students that might not perform well on the PSSAs:

Questionable application processes at Green Woods, other charter schools | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

According to the documents obtained by ELC, Laboratory Charter and Planet Abacus – both founded and operated by Dorothy June Brown, now under federal indictment on multimillion-dollar fraud charges – also mandated that their applications could only be completed at open houses.
The forms were not available in languages other than English, and applicants were asked to provide their race, eligibility for free lunch, birth certificate, baptismal certificate, and names of their parents’ employers, among other information.

This comment made my stomach turn:

This was my experience at Lab Charter - June Brown's school - in 2004. It also had (has?) a very restrictive admission process. Parents had to attend a night meeting that was in their suburban office. The meeting was originally schedule in January. There had been snow but I went because there was no way to find out if the meeting was canceled. When my 3 children and I arrived, there was a note on the door that the meeting was canceled and we (the parents) had to reschedule. I called and went to a meeting a month later. The child(ren) had to attend the meeting which was on a school night. The children sat in another room watching a video while Brown spoke. The application(s) has to be completed at the meeting. Then, Brown meet with each parent/child(ren) and put the application in one of two boxes. I assume the one box was "acceptable" applications and the other rejects. This process took about 3 hours (6 - 9 pm). Next, if entering kindergarten, the child attends the school for 1/2 a day for testing and observation. If the child was older, s/he attended for an entire day - again, for testing and observation. Then, the parent was told whether or not the child would be entered in the lottery.
I had to attend another meeting and was told my children were in the lottery and were accepted. I was given a summer packet which was about 100 pages of worksheets. We were reminded about our responsibilities to make sure the packet was complete and about the amount of homework during the year. (I was told two hours a night). The parent was responsible to make sure all homework was completed.
I chose not to send my children to Lab Charter. I had applied to about 8 charters, and 8 district schools, and went to the meetings. Some charter meetings were informational (e.g. Wissihickon Charter, Independence Charter) but Lab Charter was different. I assumed the process was similar to what happens at a private school. Brown was very boastful of her accomplishments and rude to some parents. She reiterated many times that since they offered a "foreign language," they did not accept students who couldn't learn a second language. (I assumed she meant students with learning differences/difficulties). The other message Brown reiterated was they did not have school bus service. If a parent wanted their child to attend, the parent had to get him/her to school.
While I don' t know the current Lab Charter process, based on the number of students with an IEP at the school, I assume it didn't change. I have a friend whose children attended the school. They were slightly tardy a few times. She was told her students could no longer attend because of tardiness. She assumed it was because of test scores. They weren't scoring "high enough" on predictive tests. They were dropped a few months before the PSSA. I assume this wasn't unique to my friend.