This is a strange story from Los Angeles.
The leader of a charter school chain had to resign when confronted with evidence he encouraged principals and teachers to cheat on tests. Allegedly, I must add.
The schools were closed down.
But then he got a $245,000 going away gift..
Anyone understand this?
The perils of deregulation? The risks of high-stakes testing?
What’s with the bonus pay?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I don’t see what’s so hard to understand.
They didn’t pursue the allegations because that would be bad for the image of charter schools.
Since they chose not to investigate or prosecute, the chain-operator gets the benefit of being treated as the injured innocent.
Since the end-game is really the destruction of public schools, they don’t really care who gets the money so long as it isn’t the children, parents, or teachers.
Given the settlement, perhaps he would be able to establish a prima facie case of wrongful termination. Otherwise, he could have filed suit, lost, and ended up paying the legal fees for both parties.
In cases like this, there’s probably a lot we will never know. By the time legal issues hit the press, the actual facts tend to be distorted at best. The most surprising part to me is the confidentiality clause of the settlement mustn’t have specified non-disclosure of the dollar amount or non-disclosure that a settlement had even been made. Then again, it may have specified these things, and it got out anyway.
Of course it’s terrible and a miscarriage of justice.
But if you’re just wanting to understand the mechanics of the matter, he had a three year contract, and the board was remiss in how it handled the allegations. His contract probably had a clause allowing them to terminate for cause (if not, shame on them) but they failed to protect themselves in the process of exercising that clause. In the absence of that, the board owes him salary for the remainder of the three years.
So it’s not a bonus so much as “we hate you so much we’d rather pay you not to come to work” moment. And probably someone decided that the legal fees involved times the probability of a favorable outcome were not in the board’s favor.
Situations like this are found whenever someone has an employment contract rather than is an at-will employee, both in the private and public sector.
You’re absolutely right about that. What I find interesting is that he signed another contract that guaranteed only a month’s pay instead of a full buyout; however, he claims to have signed the new contract under duress. He would have to be able to show that he did indeed sign the new contract under duress and argue successfully that the old contract is still valid. Perhaps he would have been likely to do this successfully had it gone to court.
For a background on the whole Crescendo scandal, see:
LAUSD Creates Calamity for Crescendo Corporate Charters
http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2011/08/lausd-creates-calamity-for-crescendo.html
What’s so hard to understand? We see it time and time again. How much did they just pay JC Brizard to get out of Dodge? How much have all those CEOs of failing companies gotten in their golden parachutes? How much did all those “too big to fail” bank CEOs get in bonuses *after* the crash of 2008?
The Chicago Sun Times used to have a columnist, QT (Quick Takes) who would publish a bunch of short blurbs about all kinds of absurb things in the world. He had a running series on how much CEOs who bankrupted their companies got in their exit packages. He then offered to take over any company and run it into the ground for a mere million dollars (a bargain compared to what he was finding). Oddly enough, no company took him up on the offer.
The Sun Times, in one of the stupidest moves ever, later fired him. I’m pretty sure he didn’t get a million dollars. I haven’t read the Sun Times since.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/features/education/os-charter-principal-500000-payout-20121024,0,6968446.story
Charter school principal of a high school serving 180 students received a $500,000 payout upon the school’s closure. Her contracted salary was $300,000 per year.
A traditional high school principal with 3,000-4,000 students makes about $95,000-$100,000. According to the article, the highest paid principal in this district makes $116,000. The Superintendent of this district, which is the one of the largest in the country, makes $250,000.
It’s funny how this story broke the day after papers throughout the state wrote on Gov. Scott’s plans to expand charter schools.
Big amount involve to this scandal. Very strange story. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers!