At a time when Los Angeles is about to choose between a candidate who favors unlimited charter expansion (Nick Melvoin) and an incumbent who wants some accountability for charters, the state board just denied renewal to two L.A. charter schools.
“California’s State Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to shutter two Los Angeles charter schools run by a nonprofit that is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education and the inspector general for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
“Some parents and teachers at the schools cried through their testimony at an emotional hearing, which ended with the board declining to renew the charter petitions for the Celerity Dyad Charter School in South Los Angeles and the Celerity Troika Charter School in Eagle Rock. Explaining their vote, board members said they had lost confidence in the Celerity Educational Group, the organization that manages the schools, and expressed growing concerns about its governance structure and finances, as well as the potential for conflicts of interest.
“This seems to be a very troubling failure on the part of the adults who manage these organizations, rather than on the adults in the classrooms,” said board member Ilene Straus.
“The board’s vote comes at a time when charter school advocates are determined to increase the number of such schools in L.A., and it highlights the growing difficulty of regulating them. The state’s teachers union, which has fought against the growth in charter schools, has argued that all control over which charter schools are approved or rejected should rest with local school districts, rather than county or state boards.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Where are the leaders of the public community schools these students could attend? Why aren’t they at the hearing and offering to help these parents return their children to a community public school where teachers and staff will listen and be responsive to parent concerns for their children. If community public schools are to remain the backbone and strength of our democracy of diverse people, their school leaders and teachers will have to be experts in engaging parents in the teaching learning process.
LikeLike
Your expecting way too much from adminimals.
LikeLike
Here’s another thing regarding Celerity, the California Board hearing makes mention that Celerity, which previously had expanded through co-location, has, in recent years, purchased land for new Celerity schools through a new entity, also run by McFarlane. This represents a conflict of interest because Celeritry Global’s CEO Vielka McFarlane has control over both the Celerity company that rents the land to the Celerity school, and the Celerity school that’s renting the land.
As has happened with other corrupt charter schools in the past, the land-opening Celerity entity is free to charge a grossley inflated price — far above fair-market value — to the Celerity school, and there’s nothing that any authorizing entity can do to “bind” that “third party” — the Celerity land-owning entity — from doing so. Mind you, that’s taxpayers’ money that’s being moved around in this shell game, money that ends up as pure “profit” by the Celerity’s land-owning entity, and profit that can be paid to McFarlane, CEO of the land-owning Celerity entity..
A little Googling turned up the following: in Ohio, there is a Celerity school — not listed on Celerity Education Group’s website — that is operating in just such a corrupt arrangement:
http://www.ohio.com/news/local/ohio-charter-school-companies-amass-tax-free-real-estate-portfolios-supreme-court-to-consider-white-hat-case-1.524417
FROM the Akron-Beacon Journal:
“Lahoski said, under his group’s oversight, only one charter school, Celerity Tenacia Charter School in Columbus, pays rent to an out-of-state company that also operates the school.”
LikeLike
I just found a record of Celerity’s attempt to expand into the Arkansas city of Dollaway. It’s a proposal to open a charter school there:
Click to access Celerity%20Global%20Charter%20School%20Application%20April%202016.pdf
Go to PAGE 3 in this pdf, and you’ll see that Vielka McFarlane and the other five proposed Board members — should the charter get authorized — all live out of state. The school will be run from Los Angeles, with all its Board meetings (totally closed to parents and citizens, by the way)_ will be held in Los Angeles as well.
Five of them including McFarlane in California, and one in Louisiana.
Therefore …
Good luck trying to Dollarway (Arkansas) School Board that authorizes that Celerity charter … good luck, that is if hey want to have any kind of oversight, or hold this McFarlane and her accomplices to any scrutiny.
Good luck to any of the parents who wsh to be respected, or wish to provide input, or have any kind of decision-making power in the school’s governance. If they don’t like the way the school’s run, their only choice is the lame-ass vote-with-your- feet accountability option.
On that same PAGE 3 of the above pdf, you can read the following:
“Please note that Ark. Code Ann. §6-24-105 prohibits charter school board members from contracting with or being employed by the charter school except in certain limited circumstances.”
Well, it works the same way in California, but such a law didn’t seem to stop McFarlane and Celerity from doing exactly that.
LikeLike
I don’t know anything about these two schools or that CMO, but it’s disappointing to see the glee that your exclamation point implies at kids, families, and teachers losing their school, presumably through no fault of their own.
LikeLike
John,
Celerity has been in the news and I have written about it on this blog.
Startling misuse of public funds, leader uses school credit card for luxurious meals, hotels, clothing, chauffeur driven limos, and a salary of nearly $500,000.
Enough is enough.
LikeLike
John,
You feel disappointed. Sad. Here are a few of my feelings: I feel disappointed to see the support you show for a company and its CMO while they are under investigation by Homeland Security agencies. I don’t feel sorry for the families that will simply switch over to the two new Celerity scam locations that were approved just before the criminal investigations were opened. I feel good supporting justice and equality.
And just a few more, I feel tired and stressed out from managing middle school English classes of 40 students apiece due to the funding loss generated by overspending on charters, tests, and personal information collecting websites. I feel great loss and miss days when, with classes of 25 students, I was so much better able to provide so much more. I feel frightened of the effect all this reverse Robin Hood corporatization of public schools will have on the collective intellect of civilization. I feel that Celerity deserves and needs to be completely shuttered.
Diane,
I feel heartened by your support.
LikeLike
I don’t care about the company. I care about the students, families, and teachers. Nobody should feel joy about a school closing.
Everyone here likes to view charters as evil without recognizing that they consist of students, families, and dedicated educators, just like traditional public schools. Even at a for-profit charter (which I don’t support), the vast majority of employees are just working very hard for the benefit of kids.
LikeLike
Do you care so much when regular public schools are closed because they can no longer function when charters take their funding, or are closed so that charter schools have a larger market, a la Chicago, Detroit, or New Orleans?
LikeLike
Yes, I would never react with glee over any school shutting down. Look, if the school should be shut down then fine, it should be. And, we should be heartened by charter authorizers that take their jobs seriously and are willing to close down a school if it needs it. But nobody should be happy about it. To me, that shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what these schools are.
When people say they hate charter schools, I always ask them if it’s the students they hate, and the answer is no. The parents? No. The teachers? No. The administrators? No. The volunteer Boards? No. Well, in the case of not-for-profit charters there’s nobody left to hate then. It seems people have some juvenile vision of a roomful of evil privatizers or something. The vast majority of people in the vast majority of charter schools are in this for the right reason. The families are there by choice, (something many TPS can’t say). The closing of a bad charter is good for the charter movement, but causes a lot of personal tragedy, just as the closing of a traditional public school does, regardless of whether the closing is appropriate.
Maybe I should give Diane the benefit of the doubt that her exclamation point was happiness that the California board was willing to shut down a school, and if that’s the case, I agree that seems to have been the appropriate action here. But please, don’t be happy that kids and families have to change schools and teachers and admins have to look for jobs.
LikeLike
John,
The charter industry fights accountability. They defend charters that steal money, that abuse children, that commit fraud. What a disgrace.
The original idea of charters was that they would get autonomy in exchange for accountability. Now they want autonomy with no accountability. Disgraceful!
LikeLike
“The charter industry fights accountability. They defend charters that steal money, that abuse children, that commit fraud. What a disgrace.”
When you say “charter industry”, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Is it secret meetings between CMOs? Who defends charters that steal money, abuse children, and commit fraud? Examples, please.
LikeLike
Do you feel the same when public schools are closed to make way for privately-owned charters that operate on public dollars??
LikeLike
Yes
LikeLike
John,
Do you really care about public school students? You didn’t mention my nearly doubled class sizes. Don’t you feel anything about being able to “volunteer” to drain resources from the majority of students? You seem to only care about keeping charters open regardless of the cost to so many others, and expressing a desire to keep public schools open doesn’t cover the burden we bear keeping you open (without much spending transparency or higher quality).
LikeLike
LeftCoastTeacher,
Don’t you feel anything about being able to “volunteer” to drain resources from the majority of students?
No. Charters are less expensive per student than traditional public schools and typically offer longer school days and years.
Most school districts make money on every student that leaves for a charter, but only if they downsize as they lose students. Many don’t because of political pressures, causing their own financial problems. Charters, on the other hand, only get paid for the students that attend the schools.
LikeLike
Disingenuous double-talk, John. Charters schools cost far more in most places now. Charter schools (surprise!) have found that they cannot keep in business and make a profit without spending more money. Before you say, “Well, lots of charters are non-profit,” remember that the vast majority of charters are run by for-profit charter management organizations.
Slowly but surely, charter organizations in most states have demanding funding parity with public schools, and have mostly succeeded in getting legislatures to increase funding for charter schools, including use of districts’ property tax money.
And even when charter schools haven’t gotten access to that additional money, charters cost areas more money because services, such as administrative, clerical, custodial, counseling, etc. are duplicated. So the money doesn’t go as far, meaning that everything for two systems costs more.
You know this, but won’t admit it. You act as if you are an “agnostic” on this subject, but you won’t admit the facts.
LikeLike
Threatened Out West,
You’re wrong on just about every point.
87% of charter schools in the US are not-for-profit. The majority of those are single-site (non-CMO) schools.
Yes, charters are asking for funding parity, but most are not getting it, and nobody is getting more money than traditional public schools.
Duplication of services goes both ways. If traditional public schools are still overpaying for services based on the number of students they have, that is duplication.
LikeLike
When charters started, they claimed that they would get better results with less money.
They promised to close if they didn’t meet those goals.
That’s all forgotten now
LikeLike
What I call overcrowding and stripping of resources especially experienced, highly skilled teachers John calls downsizing. Company doublespeak. When public schools have to provide less, John reacts with glee. He’s in the anti-equality, anti-labor, anti-public education, anti-public good glee club.
LikeLike
John, my entire state (Utah) just went to “funding parity” for charters, including access to property tax money and building funds for public districts. You can’t tell me that it’s only my state that has done that.
If a school gives most of its money to a private charter management organization (and in my state, the vast majority do), then that school is “non-profit” in name only.
LikeLike
Don’t forget that the original promise of charters was that they would get better results for less money.
They would get autonomy in exchange for accountability.
Now we know that they want the same money to get the same or worse results.
And they reject accountability.
LikeLike
I’m glad you would not react with glee about public schools closing down, because a lot of people do. See Arne Duncan, Betsy DeVos, Rahm Emmanuel, many state legislatures, the Kochs, Eli Broad, etc.
LikeLike
I read Walton’s were involved? That Devos that sits with #45 now in DC. And who else started this BS system down there? Devos is trying to do this all over the USA.
LikeLike
And the California State Board of Education’s vote was unanimous.
This is impressive because, prior to this, the California State Board of Education motto previously seemed to be:
“We authorize any charter school, no matter how corrupt, criminal, or crappy, or how many other agencies previously turned them down.”
However, the case against Celerity was so totally overwhelming that even the the Cal St. BOE had to side against the charter industry in this instance.
I don’t know. Perhaps someone in the Federal investigation passed on a confidential tip to the BOE members about what was going to happen in next phase of the prosecution of Celerity’s leaders — indictments perhaps? — and the BOE said, “We gotta get on the right side of this, or we’ll look foolish and lose all credibility.”
Also, this determination was after a hearing before the California State Board of Education last week where Celerity’s lawyers laid out their defense against the accusations going around, and also included the lawyers’ arguments in favor of keeping the schools open. Apparently, they made a weak case, as again, the verdict closing the two Celerity schools was unanimous.
It’s gotten so bad for Celerity that even the pro-charter Walton Family Foundation, which last year poured hundreds of thousands into the Celerity organization, even chimed in their lack of support by sending Celerity a message, that, in effect, told them:
“Give us back our money.”
This is according to the L.A. Times (in the link for this thread):
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
“After donating $400,000 to help Celerity open its two new schools, the Walton Family Foundation recently asked the group to return any unspent money. The foundation declined to give its reasoning for the unusual request.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Keep in mind that, for these two Celerity schools at least, this the absolute end of the line as Celerity has exhausted all its options— no more appeals, no more other avenues of appeal to reverse the denials from LAUSD and the LACOE.
Stick a fork in ’em, ’cause they’re DONE.
The other question is … if the reasons for the closing of these two Celerity schools pertain — in whole or in part — to the problems that are system-wide in the Celerity organization, and with the overall corrupt governance and finances originating at the top — shouldn’t this lead to ALL of the Celerity Schools eventually being shut down by the authorities?
This is important, because parents and community members at both Wadsworth Elementary and Ascot Elementary, located in South Los Angeles, are up in arms at an impending invasion of Celerity. At each of these campuses, they are facing having a co-locating Celerity school being jammed down their throats, schools that will open on these campuses next fall. This is due to an earlier vote by the State Board of Education approving the two new Celerity schools —( the ones that the CA State BOE just closed are pre-existing Celerity schools.)
Mind you, these two new Celerity school authorizations happened after both LAUSD and the usually pro-charter L.A. County Board of Education (LACOE) voted against Celerity’s request to open these schools.
On top of that, in highly rare move, WASC, (Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges), the organization that provides accreditation to Celerity, just put out a letter, made public, that WASC was rescinding Celerity’s accreditation effective June 2nd, unless, by that date, Celerity provides detailed and satisfactory answers to WASC’s questions and concerns.
Read about that here:
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-wasc-celerity-schools-20170428-story.html
It’s interesting the the California Charter Schools Association’s (CCSA’s) comment on all this is essentially — “Celerity test scores are really high, so this other jazz shouldn’t really matter.”
http://www.ccsa.org/blog/2017/01/ccsa-statement-on-federal-investigation-of-celerity-schools.html
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
CCSA: “We do know that Celerity’s schools in Los Angeles continue to provide an excellent education for their students, including many from historically underserved student populations. Whatever the outcome, we hope this process takes the schools’ strong academic performance into account, as our foremost concern is, above all, that students receive a high quality education.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
If, on Tuesday, the corporate reform candidates Nick Melvoin and Kelly Fitzpatrick-Gonez win, this will make it almost impossible to rein in such charter school corruption, as per their corporate masters’ marching orders, they will approve any and all charter authorizations and re-authorizations.
VOTE for Steve Zimmer and Imelda Padilla.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Actually, both Celerity and CCSA provided statements to the pro-charter, charters-can-do-no-wrong LA SCHOOL REPORT — statements which I couldn’t locate anywhere else on the internet:
http://laschoolreport.com/two-celerity-charter-schools-lose-final-state-appeal-will-close-this-summer/
Celerity’s statement focused on how the schools’ closing “impacts real families – nearly 1,200 under-served students currently receiving an excellent education in a safe learning environment.”
CCSA’s statement also ignored the alleged malfeasance that prompted the closings, and instead said “it is a tragedy when high quality public educational options, like these two schools, are removed from our public school community.”
LikeLike
SO CLEARLY AND EXACTLY ARGUED: When corporate reform candidates win school board seats, they make it almost impossible to rein in charter school corruption. “As per their corporate masters’ marching orders, they will approve any and all charter authorizations and re-authorizations….”
LikeLike
SO Not true. So many small single charter schools in Los Angeles whose sole purpose is to provide quality education, usually for students who would otherwise be underserved. I could easily make a case against the teachers’ unions that require complete lockstep adherence to policies that hinder good tracing practices. This was my experience and the hidden perspective of many LA teachers who are too timid to rock the boat. Drawing black white lines serves no one especially when you lack information.
LikeLike
Wendy,
You have to realise that the end-game in all this will be the elimination of all of those mom-and-pop small independent charters you just cited, because — as a result of market forces and corrupt lobbying — they will be put out of business in favor of the big charter chains.
That’s what’s happened in New Orleans, and elsewhere.
Now, you and I both live in L.A. Have you been to any of the small independent drugstores lately, or seen any as you drove around?
No, I didn’t think so. It’s CVS, Rite-Aid, and Walgreen’s, and that’s all. It will be the same with schools. Once these half-dozen or so charter chains have established total dominance of the market and rule the day, you can kiss any and all parent decision-making power “Good-bye.”
These charter chains will all have private management, with board meetings closed to the public. At that point the only alleged “power” that those all Los Angeles parents will have will be the lame-ass “vote-with-your-feet” decision-making power, which means no decision-making power at all. You don’t like Walgreen’s charter school, you can to go Rite-Aid charter schoosl, or CVS charter schools.
And then, f these unregulated, non-transparent, unaccountable charter chain schools all suck — and they will — and if they are staffed by uncredentialed, untrained equivalents of Kelly Office Temps — not highly-qualified, well trained teachers — it will be too late to do anything about it.
You really want that here?
I don’t, and no Los Angeleno with a lick o’ sense does either.
Vote for STEVE ZIMMER and IMELDA PADILLA
LikeLike
Worse still, the LAUSD Board was about to approve several co-located charters by Celerity. How can this happen? It’s outrageous.
LikeLike
Diane,
I’ve been away for awhile. But have you seen this?
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/voucher-proposals-expose-rift-school-choice-movement-140206268.html
LikeLike
Dear Diane,
As usual your reporting is faulty. Both candidates support the closing of Celerity school and increased oversight of charter schools. Your narrative of the election and issues pits charter schools against “public” schools. Charter schools and a range of choices (Magnet, pilot, and other options offered by LAUSD) are all considered public schools in Los Angeles. In fact, a group of neighborhood schools that feed into a middle school and high school are all district charter schools.
The reality is that the incumbent has continued the district’s problems with lack of transparency for parents and a wasteful budget. He has garnered support from people like you who shamefully use the national agenda as a gaslighting opportunity to hide the real issues of this election.
LikeLike
Wendy,
Why are the Waltons of Arkansas and Bloomberg of NYC so interested in defeating Zimmer? Do you know who the Waltons are?
LikeLike
Maybe because people like you have falsely linked Melvoin to Trump and Devos? The unions have been as accurate as you have been and just as shameless.
LikeLike
Trump and DeVos support charters. The far-right Walton family spend $200 million a year to open new charters. Nick Melvoin gets millions solely because he supports charters. Those who support him are supporting the Trump-DeVos-Walton agenda. That is accurate.
LikeLike
You can check your facts here. No millions for Melvoin https://ethics.lacity.org/disclosure/campaign/totals/public_election.cfm?election_id=53#S216
LikeLike
FYI, the Walton Family Foundation is NOT the same as the Walmart. It is run by a bunch of liberals. They are big ed reform supporters. They also give to Otis College of Arts here locally and all kinds of good causes. They like charter schools.
Sent from my iPhone
LikeLike
Wendy,
you are misinformed. The Walton Family is Walmart. They are anti-union, like the Walmart stores. They are one of the most rightwing foundations in the nation. They give $200 million a year to charters, more to charter advocacy, and about $25,000 to the public schools in Bentonville, Arkansas. They are huge supporters of privatization, including vouchers.
LikeLike
Yes. Familiar with the Waltons. Maybe because people like you and the tracers unions continue to smear all charters and link Melvoin falsely with the current White House policies and politics.
LikeLike
Why didn’t Melvoin return the Walton’s money if he didn’t want to be associated with their hyperGOP, anti-union, anti-liberal views?
LikeLike
The link between Melvoin and DeVos is clear and solid. They both want unregulated charter schools. That makes them aligned. That they haven’t exchanged political donations, furtive glances at dinner parties, or Valentines Day gifts doesn’t change their aligned agenda. That Mevoin is the son of a wealthy Hollywood producer who takes money from wealthy ultra-conservatives just makes him look all the more dubious, and even more in sync with the DeVillianaire.
LikeLike
You disappoint. I long respected your desire to find the truth and willingness to change when you were on the wrong path. Your statement throw a fog over important distinctions. In spite of my belief that we anti-Trumpers must stick together, I decline the opportunity to support your organization I’m out.
LikeLike
Make that, “…Hollywood producer, taking money…”.
LikeLike
LIBERALS run the Walton Foundation????? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pardon my laughter, but what universe are you in, Wendy???
LikeLike
My guess is that Wendy knows a bunch of people at Walton and that you don’t. Nobody here will ever admit it, but the vast majority of people working in charters and ed reform are progressive liberals even if a lot of the money behind the movement is conservative. In fact, the conservative voices in ed reform are feeling a bit lonely these days.
LikeLike
That’s ridiculous.
What defines the Waltons and their foundation is where the money goes.
Not to Planned Parenthood.
Not to the ACLU.
Not to People for the American Way.
Not to public schools.
Only to charters and advocates for school choice.
Walton claims to have funded 1/4 of all charters.
Non-union.
Walton loves TFA, KIPP, and Eva Moskowitz.
LikeLike
Just had to add this for all you Zimmer fans that continue to assert that he is the good guy. Guess who contributed to the Republican efforts. NOT MELVOIN. Not sure how to post a photo but I have one with Zimmer’s signature
LikeLike
Wendy,
That sounds like the anonymous letter I got saying scurrilous things about Melvoin. I threw it out.
LikeLike
Reforminess cheerleaders are corporate Dems or Wall Street Dems, not progressives or liberals. They are neoliberals. They lean a little left on social issues and far right on economic ones, and their support of school privatization is the tell.
LikeLike
Ooops!
After all that work, I embedded the wrong video in the above post (multiple times! … sheesh!).
The video in the above post to which this post is REPLYing is the from a March 2017 California Board of Ed Meeting. — the most recent available AND NOT THE ONE MY POST IS ABOUT… which is the
NOVEMBER 3, 2016 – California State Board of Education Meeting
Could someone please correct this, and replace all the above embedded videos in the above post with this one:
NOVEMBER 3, 2016 – California State Board of Education Meeting
NOVEMBER 3, 2016 – California State Board of Education Meeting
If this isn’t possible, you can just read the above post and use this video as you read along.
LikeLike
BELOW I’m going to re-do that post — the one to which this post is replying — with the right video embedded in the right places.
Then perhaps somebody can delete the one above — again, that’s the one to which this post is replying.
LikeLike
THIS IS RE-POST OF THE ONE ABOVE — with the correct video embedded.
x x x x x x x x x x x
If you want a deep dive into the Celerity debacle, you can watch this highly entertaining video of this California State Board of Education hearing from last Novermber 3rd, which resulted in the the State BOE reversing LAUSD and LACOE’s denials of the opening of two new Celerity charter schools in South Los Angeles: (with captions for the deaf & hard-of-hearing)
Watching LAUSD’s Robert Perry tear into Celerity (BELOW) is a real treat … something out of a John Grisham movie’s courtroom scene.
First up is Cindy Chan, Director of Charter Schools for the State Board of Ed (California Department of Education — CDE)
( 2:07:07 – )
( 2:07:07 – )
Chan argues that the State BOE’s / CDE’s impending approvals of the two new Celerity Charter Schools — i.e. reversals of the two prior denials by LAUSD and L.A. County BOE (LACOE) — do, in fact, take into consideration and impose conditions addressing the reasons given for the prior denials, reasons related to Celerity’s convoluted governance structure, with multiple non-profit organizations in charge of Celerity’s governance and finances.
To address all that, the State BOE (CDE) demands that Celerity, to earn the approval/reversal of earlier denials regarding two new Celerity schools, must adhere to two prior conditions, as well as eleven technical revisions that the state will impose on the appeal:
1) Celerity Educational Group and Celerity Global must:
— a) respond in a timely fashion to any inquiries into both groups operations (gives a comprehensive list of what “comprehensive” means) and
— b) fully cooperate in any investigation of its operations;
and
2) the two new Celerity schools (Himalia & the other one) must adhere to the terms and conditions of the State BOE’s conditions for operating a charter school.
She then goes into more detail about this. She’s totally aware of the problems with the current questionable and allegedly illegal practices of the current Celerity entities operating in Los Angeles and Compton — ones that prompted a federal raid and prosedcutions — and describes them in detail, but then, instead of denying the charters getting approved, Chan offers a torturous explanation of how the State BOE can make it all work.
Next, a female Celerity representative, wearing a Muslim hijab head scarf (nothing wrong with that, btw, just helping out anyone skimming through the video), immediately gets up and plays a slick promo video about “A Day in the Life of a Celerity Scholar.”
( 2:17:27 – )
( 2:17:27 – )
Ohhhh-kay. That was nice.
She then sells the schools as the greatest thing since sliced bread, but doesn’t really address the concerns or conditions that Ms. Chan addressed earlier.
Celerity CEO Grace Canada then gets up, and tries to make Celerity’s case.
( 2:25:08 – )
( 2:25:08 – )
In the process, Canada makes a bizarre and totally contradictory claim:
… one entity Celerity Global — totally under the control of Celerity’s Vielka MdFarlane — has the power to appoint and remove any and all Celerity CEG Board members, but Celerity Global simultaneously promises that, in the future, that Celerity Global will not interfere with any decisions made by these board members, or exercise any control over those same Board Members, or any control over the schools themselves — even though those decisions made by Celerity CEG include multi-million-dollar contracts to Celerity Global — which is run by one person, Celerity’s Vielka McFarlane, who can personally profit from those contracts.
Incredibly, the State BOE/CDE Board has bought — and until last week at least — continued to buy into this patent nonsense. Whew! Glad that’s all over!
Next, Robert Perry, an officer from LAUSD’s charter school division, gets up to argue against approving the opening of two Celerity schools — i.e. in favor upholding LAUSD’s and LACOE’s denials.
In his southern drawl and gentlemanly manner, Perry blasts away at Celerity … and proceeds not to leave any meat on the Celerity carcass, so to speak: (what follows is riveting stuff, reminiscent of a John Grisham movie)
( 2:28:41 – )
( 2:28:41 – )
ROBERT PERRY:
“We come here today, representing LAUSD, to bring you from the (LAUSD) Board facts for your consideration, relating to the two Celerity items on the agenda. Our main concerns are around the consistent lack of transparency, which has impinged on the (LAUSD) District’s ability to fully institute its statutory charge, to oversee charter schools, which it authorizes.
“This lack of transparency is evident in two over-arching areas: fiscal management and governance.
“The Petitioner (Celerity CEG) operates under the name of ‘Celerity Education Group,’ and although it is the non-profit education group legally responsible for operating its own charter schools, there are OTHER SEPARATE but AFFILIATED legal entities that participate in the operation of the same (Celerity CEG) charter schools.
“For example, Celerity Global Development provides day-to-day management and administrative support to Petitioner’s (Celerity CEG’s) charter schools, according to their affiliation agreement. That agreement specifically states that (Celerity) Global ‘does not comply with The Charter Schools Act (of 1992), nor The Public Records Act. ‘
“This is concerning, since the (LAUSD) Charter Schools Division has identified potential conflicts of interest (on the part of Celerity CEG & Celerity Global officials, JACK) and the co-mingling of financial transactions between Celerity Education Group and (Celerity) Global and its other SEPARATE but AFFILIATED legal entities, including a one-time transfer of over $2 million from two separate accounts from Celerity Education Group to (Celerity) Global … to Global WITHOUT appropriate documentation.
“Through on-going oversight, LAUSD Charter Schools Division’s Fiscal Team has determined that the (Celerity CEG) organization has demonstrated that it has insufficient controls and policies to address potential misuse of public funds.
“When Petitioner’s (Celerity CEG’s) credit card statements were reviewed, (LAUSD) District staff identified purchases that were either redacted, and appeared to be inappropriately used for non-educational purposes.
“In response to (LAUSD) Staff’s concerns, Petitioner (Celerity CEG) stated that many of the questioned charges DID NOT BELONG to Celerity Education Group (Celerity CEG), and were incurred by one of their affiliated organizations (i.e. Celerity Global).
(This is what Harry Truman called “passing the buck.”)
“The District has discovered that Petitioner loans funds between its current charter schools without appropriate documentation OR adequate explanation. This is particularly concerning since Petitioner operates multiple charter schools within AND OUTSIDE of California.
“The (LAUSD) District has concerns and other potential authorizers SHOULD HAVE concerns when it cannot verify, through appropriate oversight that all public funds are being used for an educational purpose as they were intended to be.
“The organizational structure — including but not limited to the administration and leadership of Celerity Education Group and its affiliated organizations — remains unclear. While CEG changed Chief Executive Officers in the past two years, (LAUSD) Staff notes that the prior CEO (Vielka McFarlane) now leads Celerity Global, the sole statutory member of Celerity Education and active contracts remain …”
x x x x x x x x x x
And on it goes with with Perry detailing LAUSD’s total failure to get any cooperation from Celerity in LAUSD’s oversight of Celerity … a bravura performance on Perry’s part. Perry missed his calling; he should have been a prosecutor.
Next up is Dina Wilson, from the Los Angeles County Board of Education, who picks up where Perry left off and continues with the exposure of Celerity’s perfidy.
( 2:33:45 – )
( 2:33:41 – )
Wilson details a prior charter school petition made by Celerity CEG to LACOE and to Wilson. In this prior situtaiont, Celerity CEG declined to proceed with a charter school when Wilson’s County BOE (LACOE) required Celerity CEG to accept certain conditions — conditions virtually identical to the ones above that the State BOE now (November 2016) seeks to impose on Celerity CEG. (She projects the quotes side-by-side on a wall in the room)
Now, however, she points out that Celerity CEG has somehow managed to agree to those same conditions— again this time required by the state BOE / CDE — even though, in a prior letter to the County, Celerity CEG indignantly claimed that it was illegal for any charter authorizer to offer a conditional approval. An authorizer either approves or denies. No third alternative.
A second reason for refusal of those conditions is that Celerity CEG claimed to LACOE is that, Celerity CEG has no power to “bind” a “third party” not involved in the charter contract to these conditions, as requested by the the LA County BOE. Now, however, Celerity says it does possess the power to “bind” this third party.. (A copy of Celerity CEG’s letter is projected on the wall at the hearing, with the relevant portions — the ones saying that Celerity CEG has no power to control that “third party” — highlighted in YELLOW.)
Who’s that “third party”? Celerity Global, which effectively exercises total control over Celerity Educational Group (CEG). (Again, their earlier response to the county is what Harry Truman called “passing the buck.”)
Wilson also details how, when questioned, Grace Canada, the CEO at Celerity CEG lied to her about the real relationship between Celerity CEG and Celerity Global. When Wilson and LACOE asked for a copy of the Celerity CEG corporate by-laws, Celerity officials, led by CEO Grace Canada, deliberately deceived LACOE and provided LACOE with Celerity CEG’s 2012 by-laws, when it was the 2014 by-laws that were in effect at the time of Wilston’s / LACOE’s request (2015), those same by-laws that give Celerity Global total control of Celerity CEG — a fact that Celerity was desperately trying to conceal from LACOE.
The changes to the by-laws were designed to give the (totally false) appearance that Celerity’s found and top dog, Vielka McFarlane, had stepped down in favor or Grace Canada, when in fact, McFarlane merely continued her absolute control of Celerity CEG through her total control over the newly-created entity — Celerity Global.
Canada somehow thought that she could hide all this in perpetuity. Nope. Indeed, when questioned about Celerity CEG’s misappropriation of funds for non-educational purposes, Canada would “pass the buck” and say, “We at Celerity CEG didn’t make those purchases; Celerty Global did, so we’re off the hook.”
Oh no, you’re not.
Robert Perry, at this moment, nods his head in agreement with Wilson as he stands behind her in the video frame.
The rest of the video isn’t as exciting. A couple Celerity officials come up and fail to defend or refute any of the accusations made against Celerity.
Amazingly, however, the State BOE (CDE) ends up going along with Chan’s plan to approve Celerity’s two new schools, with that conditions that Chan argues will make it all work.
In the intervening six months, however, Celerity HAS TOTALLY AND UTTERLY FAILED TO BE MORE TRANSPARENT AND COOPERATIVE WITH EITHER LAUSD or the California State BOE (CDE) — the very conditions that Chan insisted were an absolute requirement of the approvals. That failure on Celerity’s part is a big part of what drove this week’s closure of the two other Celerity schools …
… so the question must be asked:
WHY ARE THE NEW CELERITY SCHOOLS BEING ALLOWED TO OPEN?
WHY ARE ANY CELERITY SCHOOLS ALLOWED TO REMAIN OPEN?
LikeLike
The rest of the California Board of Education meeting authorizing two new Celerity schools is more intriguing than I had first thought.
Check out this:
( 3:05:15 – )
( 3:05:15 – )
In the above time frame, there’s a full half-hour where the State BOE members repeatedly and desperately try to get the answer from Celerity Education Group to the question:
“Is Celerity Global — which is under the total control of former Celerity Education Group (CEG)’s former CEO Vielka McFarlane…
… a vendor ..
OR
… part of Celerity Educational Group (CEG)’s governance structure?”
In a maddening, Kellyanne-Conway-esque performance, the various Celerity representatives and its lawyer shuck and jive and duck and weave when posed with this question.
Don’t you guys get it? Yeah, we admit that Celerity Global does appoint and remove all of Celerity CEG’s Board members, but no, it’s not part of Celerity CEG’s governance structure. Got that?
Huh?
The answer that the Celerity folks won’t give: Celerity Global is both — it’s a vendor that in practice, and also according to the by-laws, exercises total control over Celerity CEG, while Celerity CEG has no control over Celerity Global.
Indeed, a letter from Celerity CEG’s CEO Grace Canada to LACOE— produced earlier in the hearing — says that Celerity CEG is has no power to “bind” Celerity Global to anything, and this is referenced in a line of questioning from the Board to Ms. Proctor, Celerity CEG’s lawyer.
Under repeated questioning, Celerity CEG lawyer Proctor eventually concedes that the only power that Celerity CEG has over Celerity Global is to cancel or not cancel its contract with Celerity Global, while Celerity Global, while that contract is in effect, can basically just do whatever the hell it wants whenever it wants to do it — i.e. including exercising the sole and total authority to appoint and remove all Celerity CEG Board members — with Celerity Global having no obligation to provide any transparency or accountability to anyone or any government educational entity.
State Board of Ed. Member Patricia Rucker politely but firmly pursues this line of questioning to the Celerity representatives and lawyer, and she constantly has to point out: “That’s not the question I asked.”
The Celerity representatives and lawyer eventually fall back on the ultimate defense, and, in effect, they tell the California BOE:
“Look, folks. It’s ‘technically legal’ to do all this, so could y’all just shut up and approve the two new Celerity schools so we can all go home?”
The whole Celerity-CEG-Celerity-Global governance a totally ridiculous, deliberately confusing, utterly deceitful, if “technically legal” construction. (The federal investigators that raided Celerity earlier this year have a far different opinion regarding all of this being “technically legal” by the way. Look for indictments in the near future.)
It would be like … well, let’s call it the Smallville Board of Education (BOE) contracts with Staples, yet Staples, according to the Smallville BOE by-laws, and the Smallville BOE’s contract the Staples, Staples exercises total control over the governance, operations, and finances of the Smallville BOE, Staples has total control to appoint and remove Smallville BOE members, and when some governing authority wishes to inspect contracts, itemized purchases, checks written to Stapes, neither Smallville BOE nor Staples has no duty to respond to any of these requests (???!!!)
During this nearly five-hour meeting, here’s one question that no one on the California Board asked anyone: (paraphrasing a kids’ show)
“Where in the world is Vielka McFarlane?”
… sort of like the recent SNL sketch about Kellyanne Conway:
I mean, Jesus, she’s the whole mastermind of this total freakin’ fiasco. Shouldn’t McFarlane be here at the California Board of Education answering questions? Shouldn’t that be a baseline requirement of any approval of any new Celerity CEG schools? For some reason, no one even mentions her by name, as if the very mentions of her name would call forth upon one’s self a curse or something
In the clip below, the lawyer for the L.A. County Office of Education reveals that, during her investigation, she discovered multi-million dollars worth of Celerity CEG checks written to Celerity Global … checks signed by … wait for it …Celerity Global’s new CEO Vielka McFarlane(!!!) at a time when then-Celerity Global CEO McFarlane was supposedly NO LONGER EVEN PART OF THE CELERITY CEG ORGANIZATION, McFarlane having resigned in favor of new CEO Grace Canada, and again, becoming the CEO of the newly created, Celerity Global.
In essence, McFarlane wrote multi-million dollars worth of checks … to herself.
( 3:19:10 – : )
( 3:19:10 – : )
LACOE LAWYER: “Why is the CEO of Global (Vielka McFarlane STILL) signing off on checks when she had (supposedly) resigned? So we went and started counting the checks, and when we looked back at the checks, there was a total of 47 (Celerity CEG) checks (signed off on by McFarlane) between July, August, and September of 2015 where the CEO of Global (Vielka McFarlane) signed off on checks, single signature — $ 1.8 million.
“And of those 47 checks, 10 of those checks, amounting to $1.2 million, were written to Global, and any of these other Celerity (contracting) enttities: (Celerity) Attenture, Celerity Development… and that’s when we started looking … we looked back and said,
” ‘So when did she (Celerity Global CEO McFarlane) leave?’ And we went back and looked, she left April 2015 (months after McFarlane resigned from and left Celerity CEG), but she still had the authority (Celerity CEG) checks (to Global and other Celerity entities)?”
LACOE’s DINA WILSON: “There’s also a transfer of assets in 2012 It’s important to point out that …”
Wilson then talks about how Celerity Global was described to her as “the parent” of Celerity CEG, and that LACOE has no right to any internal financial information of Celerity Global.
LikeLike
PLEASE delete the above post, as it’s a duplicate posted in error,
and then delete this as well.
Thank you ind advance.
LikeLike
The rest of the California Board of Education meeting authorizing two new Celerity schools is more intriguing than I had first thought.
Check out this:
( 3:05:15 – )
( 3:05:15 – )
In the above time frame, there’s a full half-hour where the State BOE members repeatedly and desperately try to get the answer from Celerity Education Group to the question:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
“Is Celerity Global — which is under the total control of former Celerity Education Group (CEG)’s former CEO Vielka McFarlane…
… a vendor ..
OR
… part of Celerity Educational Group (CEG)’s governance structure?”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
In a maddening, Kellyanne-Conway-esque performance, the various Celerity representatives and its lawyer shuck-and-jive and duck-and-weave when posed with this question.
Their response:
Don’t you guys get it? Yeah, we admit that Celerity Global does appoint and remove all of Celerity CEG’s Board members, but no, it’s not part of Celerity CEG’s governance structure. Got that?
Huh?
The answer that the Celerity folks won’t give: Celerity Global is both — it’s a vendor that in practice, and also according to the by-laws, exercises total control over Celerity CEG, while Celerity CEG has no control over Celerity Global.
Indeed, a letter from Celerity CEG’s new CEO Grace Canada to LACOE— produced and projected on the wall earlier in the hearing — says that Celerity CEG is has no power to “bind” Celerity Global to anything, and this letter is referenced in a line of questioning from the Board to Ms. Proctor, Celerity CEG’s lawyer.
Under repeated questioning, Celerity CEG lawyer Proctor eventually concedes that the only power that Celerity CEG has over Celerity Global is to cancel or not cancel its contract with Celerity Global, while Celerity Global, while that contract is in effect, can basically just do whatever the hell it wants whenever it wants to do it — i.e. including exercising the sole and total authority to appoint and remove all Celerity CEG Board members — with Celerity Global having no obligation to provide any transparency or accountability to anyone or any government educational entity.
State Board of Ed. Member Patricia Rucker politely but firmly pursues this line of questioning to the Celerity representatives and lawyer, and she constantly has to point out: “That’s not the question I asked.”
The Celerity representatives and lawyer eventually fall back on the ultimate defense, and, in effect, they tell the California BOE:
“Look, folks. It’s ‘technically legal’ to do all this, so could y’all just shut up and approve the two new Celerity schools so we can all go home?”
The whole Celerity-CEG-Celerity-Global governance a totally ridiculous, deliberately confusing, utterly deceitful, if “technically legal” construction. (The federal investigators that raided Celerity earlier this year have a far different opinion regarding all of this being “technically legal” by the way. Look for indictments in the near future.)
It would be like … well, let’s call it the Smallville Board of Education (BOE) contracts with Staples, yet Staples, according to the Smallville BOE by-laws, and the Smallville BOE’s contract the Staples, Staples exercises total control over the governance, operations, and finances of the Smallville BOE, Staples has total control to appoint and remove Smallville BOE members, and when some governing authority wishes to inspect contracts, itemized purchases, checks written to Stapes, neither Smallville BOE nor Staples has no duty to respond to any of these requests (???!!!)
During this nearly five-hour meeting, here’s one question that no one on the California Board asked anyone: (paraphrasing a kids’ show)
“Where in the world is Vielka McFarlane?”
… sort of like the recent SNL sketch about Kellyanne Conway:
I mean, Jesus, she’s the whole mastermind of this total freakin’ fiasco. Shouldn’t McFarlane be here at the California Board of Education answering questions? Shouldn’t that be a baseline requirement of any approval of any new Celerity CEG schools? For some reason, no one even mentions her by name, as if the very mentions of her name would call forth upon one’s self a curse or something
In the clip below, the lawyer for the L.A. County Office of Education reveals that, during her investigation, she discovered multi-million dollars worth of Celerity CEG checks written to Celerity Global … checks signed by … wait for it …Celerity Global’s new CEO Vielka McFarlane(!!!) at a time when then-Celerity Global CEO McFarlane was supposedly NO LONGER EVEN PART OF THE CELERITY CEG ORGANIZATION, McFarlane having resigned in favor of new CEO Grace Canada, and again, becoming the CEO of the newly created, Celerity Global.
In essence, McFarlane wrote multi-million dollars worth of checks … to herself.
( 3:19:10 – : )
( 3:19:10 – : )
LACOE LAWYER: “Why is the CEO of Global (Vielka McFarlane STILL) signing off on checks when she had (supposedly) resigned? So we went and started counting the checks, and when we looked back at the checks, there was a total of 47 (Celerity CEG) checks (signed off on by McFarlane) between July, August, and September of 2015 where the CEO of Global (Vielka McFarlane) signed off on checks, single signature — $ 1.8 million.
“And of those 47 checks, 10 of those checks, amounting to $1.2 million, were written to Global, and any of these other Celerity (contracting) enttities: (Celerity) Attenture, Celerity Development… and that’s when we started looking … we looked back and said,
” ‘So when did she (Celerity Global CEO McFarlane) leave?’ And we went back and looked, she left April 2015 (months after McFarlane resigned from and left Celerity CEG), but she still had the authority (Celerity CEG) checks (to Global and other Celerity entities)?”
LACOE’s DINA WILSON: “There’s also a transfer of assets in 2012 It’s important to point out that …”
Wilson then talks about how Celerity Global was described to her as “the parent” of Celerity CEG, and that LACOE has no right to any internal financial information of Celerity Global.
LikeLike
PLEASE delete the above post, as it’s a duplicate posted in error,
and then delete this as well.
Thank you in advance.
LikeLike
The rest of the California Board of Education meeting authorizing two new Celerity schools is more intriguing than I had first thought.
Check out this:
( 3:05:15 – )
( 3:05:15 – )
In the above time frame, there’s a full half-hour where the State BOE members repeatedly and desperately try to get the answer from Celerity Education Group to the question:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
“Is Celerity Global — which is under the total control of former Celerity Education Group (CEG)’s former CEO Vielka McFarlane…
… a vendor ..
OR
… part of Celerity Educational Group (CEG)’s governance structure?”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
In a maddening, Kellyanne-Conway-esque performance, the various Celerity representatives and its lawyer shuck-and-jive and duck-and-weave when posed with this question.
Their response:
Don’t you guys get it? Yeah, we admit that Celerity Global does appoint and remove all of Celerity CEG’s Board members, but no, it’s not part of Celerity CEG’s governance structure. Got that?
Huh?
The answer that the Celerity folks won’t give: Celerity Global is both — it’s a vendor that in practice, and also according to the by-laws, exercises total control over Celerity CEG, while Celerity CEG has no control over Celerity Global.
Indeed, a letter from Celerity CEG’s new CEO Grace Canada to LACOE— produced and projected on the wall earlier in the hearing — says that Celerity CEG is has no power to “bind” Celerity Global to anything, and this letter is referenced in a line of questioning from the Board to Ms. Proctor, Celerity CEG’s lawyer.
Under repeated questioning, Celerity CEG lawyer Proctor eventually concedes that the only power that Celerity CEG has over Celerity Global is to cancel or not cancel its contract with Celerity Global, while Celerity Global, while that contract is in effect, can basically just do whatever the hell it wants whenever it wants to do it — i.e. including exercising the sole and total authority to appoint and remove all Celerity CEG Board members — with Celerity Global having no obligation to provide any transparency or accountability to anyone or any government educational entity.
State Board of Ed. Member Patricia Rucker politely but firmly pursues this line of questioning to the Celerity representatives and lawyer, and she constantly has to point out: “That’s not the question I asked.”
The Celerity representatives and lawyer eventually fall back on the ultimate defense, and, in effect, they tell the California BOE:
“Look, folks. It’s ‘technically legal’ to do all this, so could y’all just shut up and approve the two new Celerity schools so we can all go home?”
The whole Celerity-CEG-Celerity-Global governance a totally ridiculous, deliberately confusing, utterly deceitful, if “technically legal” construction. (The federal investigators that raided Celerity earlier this year have a far different opinion regarding all of this being “technically legal” by the way. Look for indictments in the near future.)
It would be like … well, let’s call it the Smallville Board of Education (BOE) contracts with Staples, yet Staples, according to the Smallville BOE by-laws, and the Smallville BOE’s contract the Staples, Staples exercises total control over the governance, operations, and finances of the Smallville BOE, Staples has total control to appoint and remove Smallville BOE members, and when some governing authority wishes to inspect contracts, itemized purchases, checks written to Stapes, neither Smallville BOE nor Staples has no duty to respond to any of these requests (???!!!)
During this nearly five-hour meeting, here’s one question that no one on the California Board asked anyone: (paraphrasing a kids’ show)
“Where in the world is Vielka McFarlane?”
… sort of like the recent SNL sketch about Kellyanne Conway:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=where+in+the+world+is+kellyanne
I mean, Jesus, she’s the whole mastermind of this total freakin’ fiasco. Shouldn’t McFarlane be here at the California Board of Education answering questions? Shouldn’t that be a baseline requirement of any approval of any new Celerity CEG schools? For some reason, no one even mentions her by name, as if the very mentions of her name would call forth upon one’s self a curse or something
In the clip below, the lawyer for the L.A. County Office of Education reveals that, during her investigation, she discovered multi-million dollars worth of Celerity CEG checks written to Celerity Global … checks signed by … wait for it …Celerity Global’s new CEO Vielka McFarlane(!!!) at a time when then-Celerity Global CEO McFarlane was supposedly NO LONGER EVEN PART OF THE CELERITY CEG ORGANIZATION, McFarlane having resigned in favor of new CEO Grace Canada, and again, becoming the CEO of the newly created, Celerity Global.
In essence, McFarlane wrote multi-million dollars worth of checks … to herself.
( 3:19:10 – : )
( 3:19:10 – : )
LACOE LAWYER: “Why is the CEO of Global (Vielka McFarlane STILL) signing off on checks when she had (supposedly) resigned? So we went and started counting the checks, and when we looked back at the checks, there was a total of 47 (Celerity CEG) checks (signed off on by McFarlane) between July, August, and September of 2015 where the CEO of Global (Vielka McFarlane) signed off on checks, single signature — $ 1.8 million.
“And of those 47 checks, 10 of those checks, amounting to $1.2 million, were written to Global, and any of these other Celerity (contracting) enttities: (Celerity) Attenture, Celerity Development… and that’s when we started looking … we looked back and said,
” ‘So when did she (Celerity Global CEO McFarlane) leave?’ And we went back and looked, she left April 2015 (months after McFarlane resigned from and left Celerity CEG), but she still had the authority (Celerity CEG) checks (to Global and other Celerity entities)?”
LACOE’s DINA WILSON: “There’s also a transfer of assets in 2012 It’s important to point out that …”
Wilson then talks about how Celerity Global was described to her as “the parent” of Celerity CEG, and that LACOE has no right to any internal financial information of Celerity Global.
LikeLike
PLEASE delete the above post, as it’s a duplicate posted in error,
and then delete this as well.
Thank you in advance.
HOWEVER, PLEASE DO NOT delete the one just below, as it’s the one with the right embedded videos.
LikeLike
The rest of the California Board of Education meeting authorizing two new Celerity schools is more intriguing than I had first thought.
Check out this:
( 3:05:15 – )
( 3:05:15 – )
In the above time frame, there’s a full half-hour where the State BOE members repeatedly and desperately try to get the answer from Celerity Education Group to the question:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
“Is Celerity Global — which is under the total control of former Celerity Education Group (CEG)’s former CEO Vielka McFarlane — …
… a vendor ..
OR
… part of Celerity Educational Group (CEG)’s governance structure?”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
In a maddening, Kellyanne-Conway-esque performance, the various Celerity representatives and its lawyer shuck-and-jive and duck-and-weave when posed with this question.
Their response:
Don’t you guys get it? Yeah, we admit that Celerity Global does appoint and remove all of Celerity CEG’s Board members, but no, it’s not part of Celerity CEG’s governance structure. Got that?
Huh?
The answer that the Celerity folks won’t give: Celerity Global is both — it’s a vendor that in practice, and also according to the by-laws, exercises total control over Celerity CEG, while Celerity CEG has no control over Celerity Global.
Indeed, a letter from Celerity CEG’s new CEO Grace Canada to LACOE— produced and projected on the wall earlier in the hearing — says that Celerity CEG is has no power to “bind” a “third party” such as Celerity Global to anything, and this letter is referenced in a line of questioning from the Board to Ms. Proctor, Celerity CEG’s lawyer.
Under repeated questioning, Celerity CEG lawyer Proctor eventually concedes to the Board that the only power that Celerity CEG has over Celerity Global is to cancel or not cancel its contract with Celerity Global, while Celerity Global, while that contract is in effect, can basically just do whatever the hell it wants whenever it wants to do it — i.e. including exercising the sole and total authority to appoint and remove all Celerity CEG Board members — with Celerity Global having no obligation to provide any transparency or accountability to anyone or any government educational entity.
State Board of Ed. Member Patricia Rucker politely but firmly pursues this line of questioning to the Celerity representatives and lawyer, and she constantly has to point out: “That’s not the question I asked.”
The Celerity representatives and lawyer eventually fall back on the ultimate defense, and, in effect, they tell the California BOE:
“Look, folks. It’s ‘technically legal’ to do all this, so could y’all just shut up and approve the two new Celerity schools so we can all go home?”
The whole Celerity-CEG-Celerity-Global governance a totally ridiculous, deliberately confusing, utterly deceitful, if “technically legal” construction. (The federal investigators that raided Celerity earlier this year have a far different opinion regarding all of this being “technically legal” by the way. Look for indictments in the near future.)
It would be like … well, let’s call it the Smallville Board of Education (BOE) contracts with Staples, yet Staples, according to the Smallville BOE by-laws, and the Smallville BOE’s contract the Staples, Staples exercises total control over the governance, operations, and finances of the Smallville BOE, Staples has total control to appoint and remove Smallville BOE members, and when some governing authority wishes to inspect contracts, itemized purchases, checks written to Stapes, neither Smallville BOE nor Staples has no duty to respond to any of these requests (???!!!)
During this nearly five-hour meeting, here’s one question that no one on the California Board asked anyone: (paraphrasing a kids’ show)
“Where in the world is Vielka McFarlane?”
… sort of like the recent SNL sketch about Kellyanne Conway:
I mean, Jesus, she’s the whole mastermind of this total freakin’ fiasco. Shouldn’t McFarlane be here at the California Board of Education answering questions? Shouldn’t that be a baseline requirement of any approval of any new Celerity CEG schools? For some reason, no one even mentions her by name, as if the very mentions of her name would call forth upon one’s self a curse or something
In the clip below, the lawyer for the L.A. County Office of Education reveals that, during her investigation, she discovered multi-million dollars worth of Celerity CEG checks written to Celerity Global … checks signed by … wait for it …Celerity Global’s new CEO Vielka McFarlane(!!!) at a time when then-Celerity Global CEO McFarlane was supposedly NO LONGER EVEN PART OF THE CELERITY CEG ORGANIZATION, McFarlane having resigned in favor of new CEO Grace Canada, and again, becoming the CEO of the newly created, Celerity Global.
In essence, McFarlane wrote multi-million dollars worth of checks … to herself.
( 3:19:10 – : )
( 3:19:10 – : )
LACOE LAWYER: “Why is the CEO of Global (Vielka McFarlane STILL) signing off on checks when she had (supposedly) resigned? So we went and started counting the checks, and when we looked back at the checks, there was a total of 47 (Celerity CEG) checks (signed off on by McFarlane) between July, August, and September of 2015 where the CEO of Global (Vielka McFarlane) signed off on checks, single signature — $ 1.8 million.
“And of those 47 checks, 10 of those checks, amounting to $1.2 million, were written to Global, and any of these other Celerity (contracting) enttities: (Celerity) Attenture, Celerity Development… and that’s when we started looking … we looked back and said,
” ‘So when did she (Celerity Global CEO McFarlane) leave?’ And we went back and looked, she left April 2015 (months after McFarlane resigned from and left Celerity CEG), but she still had the authority (Celerity CEG) checks (to Global and other Celerity entities)?”
LACOE’s DINA WILSON: “There’s also a transfer of assets in 2012 It’s important to point out that …”
Wilson then talks about how Celerity Global was described to her as “the parent” of Celerity CEG, and that LACOE has no right to any internal financial information of Celerity Global.
LikeLike
So John and Diane, where do you put your money?? What banks do you use? What are you funding? I won’t patronize Walmart but the foundation is doing some good things. So are charter schools. I just hope that your rage and hyperbole will be focused on public school reform. That is what we need.
LikeLike
Walmart is pure evil.
With the exception of migrant farm workers, their employees’ working conditions and lives are as close to that of pre-Civil War slaves than any other class of workers in U.S. history:
Watch this and get back to me:
Wendy, the whole so-called “corporate education reform” movement is, at bottom, the attempted Walmart-ization of public education. When it’s reached fruition through the expansion of vouchers, and the proliferation of privately managed unregulated charter schools, and voucher-funded schools — all of these staffed by unqualified untrained pseudo-teachers.
At the point, every single subgroup, except one, will be worse off:
— the students will be worse off, as they will be subjected to godawful, rote, scripted education-on-the-cheap
— the parents will be worse off because their kids will be uneducated, and unskilled and unemployale
— the community as a whole will be worse off, because of having an uneducated citizenry;
— and yes, the non-union teachers will be worse off, as their working conditions and lives will approximate that of Walmart workers.
The only group that will benefit? The bosses, including the Walton family, who will clean up financially and add yet more billions to their to their already obscene net worth.
Wake up, sister, and smell the Walmartization.
Seriously, Wendy, do you honestly think that out-of-state billionaires like the Walton family (and in-state ones like Netflix Reed Hastings and Eli Broad) and Wall Street hedge fund managers are pumping in all this money to elect Nick Melvoin because those folks care so much about the education of kids in Los Angeles?!!!!
You really think they are NOT seeking a big money return on these multi-million-dollar campaign donations to Nick and Kelly?
Does that pass the smell test?
Can you provide an example of JUST ONE TIME in the past where the Waltons and others poured in this kind of cash to something … no strings attached, and with no expectations of return?
If, as Nick Melvoin, Kelly Gonez, and their supporters claim … that some of those supporters who are the most ruthless capitalists that have ever walked the Earth — are now kicking in this kind of cash to elect Nick and Kelly merely because they care about children’s education …
… and if they are NOT about their profiting through the privatization of public schools brought about by the expansion of privately-run charter schools that will occur if and when Nick and Kelly get elected,
… then I’m sure that, you Wendy, or one of Nick’s’/Kelly’s supporters could GOOGLE and find a past example where those biliionaire/Wall Street backers have done something similar .. .again out of generosity… with no expectation of an eventual monetary return…
Something like …
“Well, back in 2000-something, or 1900-something, these same folks donated $20 million to the (INSERT CHARITABLE CAUSE HERE).
“Here’s the link that proves this.”
Nick and Kelly and their supporters run from inquiries about this campaign funding, and say crap like…
“We need to talk about the kids, not the adults.”
Well, keeping money-motivated scum from raping and pillaging Los Angeles public schools IS CARING ABOUT THE KIDS, Wendy! (By the way, those are many of the same folks who raped and pillaged the housing/mortgage industry a decade ago … go watch the film THE BIG SHORT to get up to speed on that … they’ve just moved on to the realm of public education, a new place to plunder.)
So the real question is:
To whom do the schools of Los Angeles belong?
The citizens and parents who pay the taxes there?
OR …
.. a bunch of money-motivated out-of-state billionaires and Wall Street hedge fund managers who are trying to buy them via the elections of corporate reform puppets like Nick and Kelly, and the resulting expansion of privately-managed charter schools which they control, or also profit from their on-line and digital learning products that will be sold to these charter school chains?
If you believe the former, THEN FOR GOD’S SAKE,
Vote for STEVE ZIMMER and IMELDA PADILLA
LikeLike
Jack,
Does LA “belong” to charter families as well?
As for Waltons, AFAIK, they have given about 200k to most charter schools in this country and have never asked for anything in return. It’s not the investment in public education that you would make, but so what? You can say that Walmart benefits indirectly if unions are weakened, but I hardly think the Walton Family Foundation needs to donate millions to K12 ed in order to sway that debate. There certainly is no quid pro quo.
As far as hedge fund philanthropists, deniers have to come up with rationalizations for why they donate to charters because they have to explain why they don’t donate to traditional schools. So, they make stuff up about “return” on “investments”, which is nonsense. Hedge fund folks donate to charters because they represent change, and an opportunity for low income kids to get some of the same kinds of breaks that they got as children. It’s fine to disagree with it, but not fine to just make stuff up.
LikeLike
The only thing the Waltons expect from their charter schools is that they are non-Union.
LikeLike
And yet they’ve never asked, and never said anything.
I think this is a motive that you are ascribing to them.
I haven’t seen it, an my school has been a beneficiary of their philanthropy.
LikeLike
John,
Does your school have a teachers union?
Walmart does permit unions.
They invest in charters to bust unions.
LikeLike
” … never asked anything in return … ”
You are either the most naive person in the world, or a fool, or maybe just easily deceived. I’m not sure.
What the Waltons (and Broad and Reed Hastings) want is what they got in New Orleans — the total elimination of traditional public schools, and the total eradication of democratic control of public schools.
In other words … privatization.
The Walton’s want this privatization and the ability to replace public schools with schools run by themselves — schools which resemble the Walmart stores, from which they will profit. They want a nation of schools that are totally unaccountable to the public, totally non-transparent to the public, and which doesn’t educate all the “public,” eschewing, based on those precious “free market” principles, the kids most expensive and troublesome to educate as they require smaller class size, or extra staffing … special ed. kids, second language learners, homeless kids, foster care kids, kids with disruptive behavior problerms.
Hey, maybe you should go and try to visit a traditional public school in New Orleans… Oh, that’s right. You can’t do that because THEY LONGER EXIST. Or if you’re a parent or citizen in New Orleans, and you want to exercise your decision-making power and vote for a school board… oh, that’s right … you can’t do that either. All privately managed charter boards are closed, and staffed by business people such as the Waltons.
Check out this article about Carrie Walton-Penner promoting Walmart-affiliated charter schools — in New Orleans and elsehwere:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
MERCEDES SCHNEIDER:
“Given their penchant for the lowest bottom line possible regardless of ethics, laws, or even human decency, it is no surprise that the Waltons support chiefly non-unionized charters staffed with TFAers who will not stick around long enough to care to unionize or to require pensions and company-invested, long-term health care benefits.
“Education on the cheap, which is no problem for Walmart in the long run: Students who cannot cut it at those “no excuses” charter schools will potentially provide ample exploitable labor for the thousands of Walmart stores nationwide.
“The Waltons invest in what benefits the Waltons.
“Let us consider the December 2014 Forbes article promoting Carrie Walton Penner as a benefactress to American education. Lest anyone should risk missing this blatant Walton-as-savior sale, the article is entitled, Sam Walton’s Granddaughter Has Plans to Fix Public Education in America.
“According to the article, ‘point person on education issues’ Penner is here to exercise her will as ‘arguably the most powerful force in the charter school movement.’
“In other words, the Walton ‘fix for public education’ is to replace the community school with test-score-driven, corporate-reform charters.
“No big surprise there.”
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
And on it goes.
LikeLike
“The Walton’s want this privatization and the ability to replace public schools with schools run by themselves”
Jack, Walton doesn’t run schools, nor do they tell schools what to do in any way. They also don’t profit in any way from the schools they have supported. it’s a story that you and others tell as a rationalization.
Also, parents who attend schools with 50% graduation rates don’t care whether their school boards are elected.
As for New Orleans, one could wish you’d care as much about achievement as you do about governance. The average school performance score in NOLA has risen by 41% since 2004-05. 5.7% of students attend a failing school, down from 65%. The senior dropout rate at non-selective high schools has been cut by more than half since 2005.
High school graduation rates have increased by 25 percentage points since 2004. According to 2012 cohort graduation rates, nearly 78 percent of New Orleans seniors graduated on time.
Would you like to go back to the way NOLA was?
LikeLike
NOLA is one of the lowest performing districts in Louisiana, which is one of the lowest-performing states in the nation.
There is no NOLA miracle.
Many of the poorest children who were in the NOLA schools before Hurricane Katrina never returned. No way to compare then and now.
LikeLike
John, opening charter schools is a way to bring about the destruction of public schools — an artificially induced Katrina, if you will, in terms of its effect on schools. The master plan of the Walton’s and others is all been exposed for people to see, and impossible for you to deny.
In districts where there is still an elected school board, people like Reed Hastings, Bill Gates, Eli Broad, etc. finance the campaigns of corporate puppets like LAUSD’s Monica Garcia and Ref Rodriguez — and most recently Nick Melvoin and Kelly Fitzpatrick Gonez — so they will then be placed on the school board — to carry it out this Smarick-ian brilliance that Andy shares with us.
BELOW corporate education reform strategist Smarick details this plan of using a slow, stealth charterization to cause the collapse of public school districts and public education overall:
http://educationnext.org/wave-of-the-future/
(If any privatization ever tries to claim that they want charter schools to complement the public school system, or co-exist with public schools to provide parents with “a family of different school options—public, charter private”… RE-READ THIS BELOW, THEN SHOW IT TO THEM
The privatizers don’t want co-existence with the pre-existing public schools that have existed for centuries; they want to conquer and devour all… and don’t you forget it—check out New Orleans… THE WALL STREET PRIVATIZERS / CHARTERIZERS WANT IT ALL).
(CAPS MINE and parentheticals () mine, Jack)
————————-
——————–
ANDY SMARICK:
“Clearly we can’t expect the political process to swiftly bring about charter districts in all of America’s big cities. However, if charter advocates carefully target specific systems with an exacting strategy, the current policy environment will allow them to create examples of a new, high-performing system of public education in urban America.
“Here, in short, is one roadmap for chartering’s way forward:
“FIRST, commit to drastically increasing the charter market share in a few select communities until it is the dominant system and the district is reduced to a secondary provider. The target should be 75 percent.
“SECOND, choose the target communities wisely. Each should begin with a solid charter base (at least 5 percent market share), a policy environment that will enable growth (fair funding, nondistrict authorizers, and no legislated caps), and a favorable political environment (friendly elected officials and editorial boards, a positive experience with charters to date, and unorganized opposition).
“For example, in New York a concerted effort could be made to site in Albany or Buffalo a large percentage of the 100 new charters allowed under the raised cap. Other potentially fertile districts include Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Oakland, and Washington, D.C.
“THIRD, secure proven operators to open new schools. To the greatest extent possible, growth should be driven by replicating successful local charters and recruiting high-performing operators from other areas (see Figure 2).
“FOURTH, engage key allies like Teach For America, New Leaders for New Schools, and national and local foundations to ensure the effort has the human and financial capital needed.
“LAST, commit to rigorously assessing charter performance in each community and working with authorizers to close the charters that fail to significantly improve student achievement.
“In total, these strategies should lead to rapid, high-quality charter growth and the development of a public school marketplace marked by parental choice, the regular start-up of new schools, the improvement of middling schools, the replication of high-performing schools, and the shuttering of low-performing schools.
“AS CHARTERING INCREASES ITS MARKET SHARE IN A CITY, THE DISTRICT WILL COME UNDER GROWING FINANCIAL PRESSURE. The district, despite educating fewer and fewer students, will still require a large administrative staff to process payroll and benefits, administer federal programs, and oversee special education. WITH A LOPSIDED ADULT-TO-STUDENT RATIO, THE DISTRICT’S PER-PUPIL COSTS WILL SKYROCKET.
“At some point along the district’s path from monopoly provider to financially unsustainable marginal player, the city’s investors and stakeholders—taxpayers, foundations, business leaders, elected officials, and editorial boards—are likely to demand fundamental change.
“That is, EVENTUALLY THE FINANCIAL CRISIS WILL BECOME A POLITICAL CRISIS.
“If the district has progressive leadership, ONE OF TWO BEST-CASE SCENARIOS WILL RESULT:
“THE DISTRICT COULD VOLUNTARILY BEGIN THE SHIFT TO AN AUTHORIZER, developing a new relationship with its schools and reworking its administrative structure to meet the new conditions.
“Or, believing the organization is unable to make this change, THE DISTRICT COULD GRADUALLY TRANSFER ITS SCHOOLS TO AN ESTABLISHED AUTHORIZER.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
(In other words…
Bye, bye, traditional public schools! You know, the ones accountable and transparent to the citizen-taxpayers, and that are mandated to teach and meet the needs of all students, no matter what the disability or challenging circumstances !
Hello, total privatization of schools where the public loses all input and decision-making power to the private sector, and only some kids are guaranteed a right to an education! Andy Smarick’s (& Reed Hasings’ —- SEE BELOW) wet-dream-come-true!)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
ANDY SMARICK: (continued) “A more probable district reaction to the mounting pressure would be an aggressive political response. Its leadership team might fight for a charter moratorium or seek protection from the courts. Failing that, they might lobby for additional funding so the district could maintain its administrative structure despite the vast loss of students. Reformers should expect and prepare for this phase of the transition process.
“In many ways, replacing the district system seems inconceivable, almost heretical. Districts have existed for generations, and in many minds, the traditional system is synonymous with public education.
“However, the history of urban districts’ inability to provide a high-quality education to their low-income students is nearly as long. It’s clear that we need a new type of system for urban public education, one that is able to respond nimbly to great school success, chronic school failure, and everything in between. A chartered system could do precisely that.”
————————–
That’s the billionaire privatizers’ gameplan that, if elected, useful (and well-paid) privatization puppets like LAUSD Board members Monica Garcia and Ref Rodriguez will execute as they follow the orders of their corporate masters. In short, there’s no New Orleans’ Hurricaine Katrina to go all “Shock Doctrine” on the public school systems in other cities like Los Angeles, so what’s a privatizer to do?
Just induce a financial and political crisis that didn’t otherwise exist, a crisis that will eventually destroy the public schools (re-read Smarick’s plan above). Again, it’s straight out of Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine.”
Eventually, as the percentage of traditional LAUSD public schools shrinks, and the percentage of charter schools within LAUSD grows, the cost of maintaining the district’s salary, health benefits, retirement, etc.will cause the district to collapse from within.
The end game is then to replace our current board (and democratic system) with a small pseudo-“board” whose sole function is to rubber stamp charter school authorizing… and which has no actual control over charter schools’/charter chains’ functions after doing so… no transparency to the public, no accountability to the public, and that can and will refuse to educate all of the public—i.,e. those who are expensive to educate, and who will not produce high scores on tests… special ed., English language learners, recent immigrants, homeless, foster care.
That’s why out-of-state billionaires, Wall Street hedge fund charter proponents, etc. are pumped millions into the campaigns for LAUSD of Nick Melvoin and Kelly Fitzpatrick-Gones.)
Again, for a short video summary of Smarick’s plan, watch this speech from arch-privatizer and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, delivered to the 2014 California Charter Schools Association Convention: (NOTE: Hastings has poured $4.5 million into Nick Melvoin’s campaign … so Hastings is placing a Trojan horse on the board to bring about the abolition of the very board Melvoin’s running for… it’s so cynical and disgusting):
LikeLike
A couple other points you made:
“Walton doesn’t run schools,”
Oh yes they do.
“Nor do they tell schools what to do in any way.”
Oh yes, they do. They run and and fund the Boston-based the Boston-based Building Excellent Schools, a program for training administrators in the Walmart way of school management, which bears a striking resemblance in the way its Walmart stores are run, and how its employees/ teachers are (mis)treated.
“They also don’t profit in any way from the schools they have supported.”
Not from all charters which support, of course, but many of them.
“It’s a story that you and others tell as a rationalization.”
No, it’s the truth.
“Also, parents who attend schools with 50% graduation rates don’t care whether their school boards are elected.”
I think you meant to say “parents whose children.”
Actually they do, just as much as parents whose children attend schools with 100% graduation rates. They want the power to elect the same way they want their presidents, governors, senators, congressmen/women, mayors, and on and on.
Sitting politicians and politicians running for office have to be responsive to voters, or risk being kicked out. As Jennifer Berkshire put it, when people are given a choice between a “vote-with-your-feet-vote” and an actual “vote-vote”, the insist on the latter.
You know Hitler said about elections? “How could I ever get anything done if I had to worry about losing an election?” That’s right, Adolf. Democracy is a drag for unaccountable charter school charlatans and dictators alike.
Also John, as for your “God’s in heaven and all’s right with New Orleans,” you need to read some critical and dissenting views of what’s gone on there the last 12 years.
Here’s a start:
http://www.salon.com/2015/08/03/reform_makes_broken_new_orleans_schools_worse_race_charters_testing_and_the_real_story_of_education_after_katrina/
And read this:
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/17/koch_brotherscharter_school_nightmare_white_kids_get_to_go_to_a_school_with_a_montessori_approach_while_children_of_color_get_eye_control/
And this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mercedes-schneider/new-orleans-recovery-scho_b_7099226.html
LikeLike
Jack,
“Walton doesn’t run schools,”
Jack says:Oh yes they do.
Please name one school that the Walton Family Foundation “runs”.
“They also don’t profit in any way from the schools they have supported.”
Jack says:Not from all charters which support, of course, but many of them.
Please name one school from which the Walton Family Foundation “profits”.
“It’s a story that you and others tell as a rationalization.”
Jack says: No, it’s the truth.
Hardly. Provide data for the two items above and then we can talk about truth.
Jack says: As Jennifer Berkshire put it, when people are given a choice between a “vote-with-your-feet-vote” and an actual “vote-vote”, the insist on the latter.
This is purely because “vote-vote” allowed suburban voters with no stake in urban schools to deny “vote-with-your-feet” to urban parents. Those same voters voted with their real estate purchases and privilege. That they denied charters in areas they won’t set foot in, let alone live in, is disgusting.
I’m quite familiar with the NOLA data, the vast majority of which is positive as is the trend. Those who don’t want it to be successful grasp at a small and decreasing number of straws. To whit, Diane’s insistence on saying NOLA has the lowest scores in the state in order to obfuscate the huge improvement.
LikeLike
John,
Walton is one of the most rightwing reactionary foundations in the nation. They use charters to bust unions. Either you are a dupe or a reactionary or you are blinded y Walton money to your school.
I have been in the board of rightwing foundations. They support only what advances their agenda, in this case, the destruction of public education and the creation of an education marketplace. They and DeVos and Trump are on the same page.
LikeLike
John,
You may have missed Andrea Gabor’s excellent article about New Orleans.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/23/opinion/sunday/the-myth-of-the-new-orleans-school-makeover.html ?
Her key points:
“But the New Orleans miracle is not all it seems. Louisiana state standards are among the lowest in the nation. The new research also says little about high school performance. And the average composite ACT score for the Recovery School District was just 16.4 in 2014, well below the minimum score required for admission to a four-year public university in Louisiana.
“There is also growing evidence that the reforms have come at the expense of the city’s most disadvantaged children, who often disappear from school entirely and, thus, are no longer included in the data.”
You may be the last person left who thinks NOLA is a model. We now know that its gains are accompanied by high attrition, high segregation, and high selection into the “best” schools.
LikeLike
Jack. I am not pro charter but the Ravitches have made this election about charters. I am pro- courage for change. I am pro quality public education. Zimmer is for business as usual and is not above making deals for special interests. Look into Playa Vista. Zimmer will be 51/2 years of no hope.
LikeLike
SEE my post above.
LikeLike
“The Ravitches?” Sounds like a name for a rock band.
LikeLike