Jumoke Academy, once the star charter school of Governor Malloy and State Commissioner of Education Stefan Pryor, paid over $1 million to the husband of an executive for renovations, according to the Hartford Courant.
“HARTFORD — The Jumoke Academy charter school organization, now facing a state probe into allegations of nepotism, directed more than a million dollars in construction work to the husband of one of its executives, a Courant investigation has found.
“Jumoke’s payments to HSK Home Improvements included at least $85,000 in state grant money used to renovate a Victorian mansion and convert its second floor into an apartment later occupied by the charter group’s longtime leader, Michael M. Sharpe. The apartment, built in 2012 to Sharpe’s specifications, featured a new $12,000 master bathroom with a custom glass shower door.
“State records show HSK Home Improvements is owned by Kenneth Hollis and operated out of his East Hartford home. His wife, Anette Hollis, served as Jumoke’s facilities director and later became chief operating officer of Family Urban Schools of Excellence, the charter management group that ran Jumoke’s schools after Sharpe founded FUSE in 2012.
“Anette Hollis, who lost her job when FUSE collapsed this summer, said in August that she had no role in any of the work her husband performed for Jumoke, “because it was obviously a conflict of interest.”
“But Jumoke financial records show more than $26,000 in purchase orders for HSK that bear her name; among them, a $1,615 job in July 2011 that included painting her office. Anette Hollis did not respond to a subsequent request for comment.
“Kenneth Hollis was most active at Jumoke in 2012 and 2013, when his company received about $540,000 from the state-funded charter operation. But records obtained from Jumoke through a Freedom of Information request show that HSK has performed work for the organization dating back to at least 2000 and has been paid more than $1 million in total.”
And this too: teachers are scraping for supplies while Sharpe showers and shaves in style. Thanks to Stefan Pryor and Dannel Malloy who looked the other way.
Former Jumoke teacher Michael Martin said he spent about $3,000 of his own money to buy supplies during the 2012-13 school year and often had to make copies of math worksheets.
“I had several parents say, ‘What’s your math textbook?'” said Martin, who taught fifth-grade math and language arts. “I would say, ‘We don’t have any.’
“I was surprised that we would pay to house the CEO, who makes what he makes, and then we’re not getting materials,” Martin added. “I didn’t understand how that could work.”
Another former teacher at Jumoke’s Hartford Conservatory school recalled Sharpe and Jumoke school administrators telling staff in August 2012 that space in the Queen Anne building would be used for music and dance classes.
“They lied to us,” said Ebony Murphy-Root, who became an outspoken critic of charter schools. She left the Jumoke job after 12 weeks.
Let’s not forget the ringing endorsement of “Dr.” Sharpe made by the former Chair of the Bridgeport Board of Education, Kenneth Moales. He was quoted on ConnCAN’s website stating “Sharpe’s credentials are beyond reproach.”
What would one expect from the very same Reverend Kenneth Moales that was caught overbilling the BBOE for daycare slots while he was the chairman of the BBOE? And of course, he completely FORGOT to share the over billing with the eight (8) remaining board members.
Nothing but shysters, scammers and scumbags!
But, but, but … isn’t that operating the schools like a business?
the problem is Capitalism…………..
Gee…wonder what does other charter schools are doing with tax payer dollars??
OOPS!! Sorry typed too fast…..wonder what other charter schools are doing with tax payer dollars??
When will they start investigating Achievement First, the charter company co-founded by now-CT ed commissioner Stefan Pryor and former TFA Dacia Toll?
If nothing else, there is the letter by Dacia Toll’s husband Jeff Klaus praising Michael Sharpe in the Booker T. Washington New Haven charter school application; plus the Diggs construction letter–a construction company with ties to the pastor promoting Booker T. recommending a charter school which it will certainly help to build. Now Achievement First is getting money from the state of CT to help run the Booker T. Washington charter school, ever since the previously approved partner, Michael Sharpe and Jumoke/FUSE have been having legal problems.
I’ll bet there is more on Achievement First in New Haven, but that is such a closed shop, run by the strong-arm mayor.
Stefan Pryor worked briefly for DeStefano when DeStefano was first elected in the 1990s… just as Achievement first was being founded and growing to be the largest charter company in CT.
Stefan Pryor, through his “Commissioner’s Network” legislation, encouraged stressed school districts to sign on with a “lead partner” like Michael Sharpe of Jumoke–who presented a CT State Department of Education-sanctioned Workshop to applicants to the Commissioner’s Network. Sharpe got the Milner deal shortly after–while his deluxe bathroom was being remodeled.
You couldn’t make stuff up any more damaging and reprehensible to the privatization movement… Except that it doesn’t seem to impact the true believers in the least…
It’s just par for the course. How many businesses cheat their taxes and make their employees “private contractors” to avoid getting them healthcare. Think about it. That is America! If you have money, you pay your employers next to nothing and treat them like dirt. Make them buy their own slave uniforms. All the money goes to the top (like any U.S. corporation). That is the way it’s done. Of course some will get caught, but who cares! That person still made their money, and so did the wolf of Wallstreet and all those other bankers. Morality is for the weak. You sell homes to people that will never be able to pay, and just kick them out. You sell cars to people with no credit and repo them a month later. That is our system. That is legal. You make your money, and who cares about those who get hurt. Think about it.
“Morality is for the weak.”
There you go getting all Nietzschean on us!!
Your tax dollars…
It won’t make any difference. Privatization is the way it’s going to go, and there is no stopping it now. The elites have decided on this years ago. It has just taken time to get going. Eventually the whole system will be private and students will be “customers” who will be manipulated for profit. Why would there be “killer Capitalism” for everything else, and then feel-good, socialistic public schools. It was always just a matter of time. Everything is about profit and the survival of the fittest. This is America. We all came here to “take” land, kill and exploit the natives, (and bring in some slaves) and get rich.
And then comes the revolution. . . . . torches and pitches to start with.
School Choice…….”It’s about the kids.”
This seems to be common practice. A “private enterprise” kind of thing.