Kevin Ohlandt reports that the “Delaware Academy of Safety and Security” has closed down effective immediately.
The school leader has had problems with “ghost students” in the past, students who were counted but never attended. That’s called inflating enrollment for the sake of getting more money from the state.
Kevin wonders why the school wasn’t closed at the end of the last school year, in June. Now the students and families must find a new school, now.
The school was neither “safe” nor “secure.” It was a gamble. Why do parents gamble with their children’s lives? Are they so easily fooled into buying a shady deal?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I guess the school just couldn’t compete in that vaunted free market of fly by night schools, eh!
I’d bet a dime to a dollar that no one will spend any jail time for the educational atrocities committed and taxpayer’s dollars wasted. Hey, unregulated private charters are the best! Choice is the best! Where’s Betsy and her choice cheerleading when you need her?
I think it’s a vocational school. “Safety and security” refers to the industry.
Ed reformers don’t seem to be aware of this, but security guard is not a very good job and one doesn’t have to spend high school training for it.
Is this the plan? Have teenagers spend 4 years training for low wage jobs? Instead, how about the industry pays for their own employee training and the good people of Delaware can go back to funding education.
Do we really need another industry subsidy? Especially one that leads to a job that pays 12 dollars an hour? This is a horrible investment. It’s a rip off for both the kids and the taxpayers. The only winner is the security industry.
Yuh.
And really… Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t most who easily obtain “safety & security personnel” jobs retired cops?
Why did anyone ever think a hisch diploma from this charter would lead to employment upon graduation?
Of course my reasoning may not explain why they closed…
Maybe it was just that not many enrolled, because they realized they could grad from any old hisch & qualify for a lo-paid ‘security’ job driving donuts in a Walmart pkg lot…
Good Afternoon,
Please read…this is one of the emails I sent to DAPSS Board of Directors, DOE and Charter School Network.
Before The Head of School announced to the Parents they had a private meeting. Only 7 Members came and 5 left out saying they want no parts of this situation after all my emails exposed her. Especially to discover that she had put in for a modification to open ASPIRA High School an addition to her other school that she is also Head of School. Only 2 members of the Board came. One WHOM she appointed as the President which is her friend. The other because he wanted to be there for the Parents and Students.
Kevin received his information from a man who is mad at the old head of School for replacing his Wife’s Position.
Sent: Mon, Sep 24, 2018 02:20 PM
Subject: Board Meeting
Good Afternoon,
I am sending this email because I just read that there is a Special Board Meeting scheduled for tomorrow September 25th concerning the future of DAPSS.
It is so much clearer to me now to know why Mrs. Lopez-,Waite wanted me removed from the school. If you go and review the enrollment numbers I had DAPSS up to 229 students for 2018-19 school year.. Mrs. Waite had me to remove students out of DAPSS (E-school) if they did not attend school the 1st day.
DAPSS had issues with transportation the first week and parents were calling upset, instead of speaking with Parents Margie instructed me to release them and allow those students to attend a different school, even if they were under the 1st year Agreement with DAPSS, and for me it was not a just cause especially if we could work with the bus company for extra bus stops.
The rules from her and Debbie Panchsin was if they don’t want to be here remove them and let them go to another school. I never understood that because each student that came in with their Parent we gave a tour of DAPSS and spoke to the student/ students and their Parent about DAPSS,, Mrs. Kirby and I made sure that they felt that DAPSS was a good fit for them, we also explained the Letter of Intent to them making sure they understood it before signing.
I recall a student by the name of Zyaire Cooper who did not come to school the 1st day and Margie had me call his Mother. His mother said he ran away. I told Margie what his mother said. Zyaire happened to call DAPSS I believe the next day because he was back home, he wanted his HAC password to get his schedule, I told Margie who instantly said, No take him out the system and told me to call his Mother because he can not attend DAPSS. Margie’s decission was based on hear say, that he had to go to court. There were several students that we could have saved but I was instructed by Margie to remove them.
On August 30th Margie had a meeting with Mr. Sheldon and I regarding the Attendance. for those first 3 days at DAPSS. At that time our enrollment count was at 205. In that meeting she said to remove 12 students because those students had not attended school yet. She said to Mr. Sheldon and I that she was meeting with the Secretary of State the next day and that after I remove the 12 students that was going to take us down to 193 so that means THEY ARE CLOSING DAPSS. I had to look at her because I did not understand why are you still removing students who we have not spoke with yet it’s only the 3rd day of school.( If a student has not attended school by the 3rd day that’s when you notify the parent).Mrs. Margie than said, we are now going to be at 193 in her own words she said, “So I suggest you two stay and make phone calls and have me students before I meet tomorrow with The Secretary of State.
I feel that Mrs. Lopez-Waite knew that I was capable of getting students to attend DAPSS and having enough for enrollment to keep DAPSS Moving Forward.
Please feel free to call me or email me for further information.
Thank You,
Tara Williams
Tara Williams tara_williams16@aol.com
With all due respect to Ms. Williams, who I just spoke with, some of her information is not entirely accurate. First off, she has no idea who any of my sources were at the school. She can assume she might know but those are baseless assumptions.
What Ms. Williams also failed to disclose to me when she contacted me on August 30th was that she herself had been let go by the school earlier that day. She just informed me she was let go for falsifying student enrollments. She denies it and claims the former Head of School, Herb Sheldon, had no part in this either. That is certainly her right to say that but frankly, I do not believe her.
I did send a FOIA request to the Delaware Dept. of Education for clarification on any modification request submitted to them from DAPSS from 1st, 2017 to September 25th, 2018.
There have been enrollment issues going on at this school for years. While Ms. Williams can make the claim that multiple students were dis-enrolled this year, that fails to explain the 36 students that were “ghost students” last year and the year before. Which prompted the Delaware Dept. of Education to do a surprise head count. This put the school on formal review for low enrollment and financial issues last year but this never came up during the formal review status. I heard about the school being in a $500,000 hole last year but I was unable to get verification on that until yesterday when Margie Lopez-Waite announced this to The News Journal.
Since Delaware education funding issues seem to have a massive cloud over them and the citizens of the state never seem to get the full story, we may never know what really happened at DAPSS. What we do know is many students had no school to go to today. Parents were left scrambling to find a new school for their children. Teachers and staff were unemployed as of last night. Whatever happened, all of them deserved better than this. Whether you are a fan of school choice or not, this should not have gone down like this. It should ALWAYS be about the kids and everything else should be secondary.
I have no doubt in my mind this school had more skeletons than the local cemetery in regards to enrollment and funding scandals. Delaware’s oversight of charter schools has been very weak and our state DOE only tends to act once something is made public or it is so big they can’t ignore it. By the same token, some of our traditional school districts have characters with education funding theft and abuse. I blame this on our laws and the severe lack of willingness to prosecute those who steal taxpayer money.
“Whether you are a fan of school choice or not, this should not have gone down like this. It should ALWAYS be about the kids and everything else should be secondary.”
But… you need to recognize that “school-choice” alt-schools have neither laws [in most states — apparently incl DE] — nor financial motivation to consider the welfare of kids first. It will always “go down like this” in a 2nd-tier sch sys structured to serve “free-market competition,” when a for-profit outfit has its back to the wall.
Sadly about the state of Delaware, both the Democratic and Republican candidates for governor like privatization. If only there wasn’t so much of the richest 0.1%’s money in politics.
It struggled last year to meet enrollment minimums as required by our state charter authorizers.
Parents are not choosing in sufficient numbers. Thirty students expected this year did not show up. I think that Chiara may have the other problem nailed. This sure sounds like a “career academy” for low wage jobs.
Ed reformers want to design vocational programs now, too.
It’s fashionable. This week.
They put Betsy DeVos and Ivanka Trump in charge of it, because who better to understand wage workers than two political operatives who have never held a job their family didn’t hand them?
Did either Ivanka or Betsy ever hold a job? You know, with a salary and regular working hours?
It’s sad to think we can only count on voters’ reps to vote w/ constituents based on their personally-lived experience. That there may be many in House & Senate who vote on ed issues based on their personal-bubble experiences, w/o reaching out to constituents to obtain a fuller picture. And so they are vulnerable to sales-pitches of ed-industry– & perhaps beholden to those views due to our [ludicrous] campaign laws.
But it is truly ludicrous to expect appointments — executive dept accessories– daughters/ wives– & even Exec Dept Sec’y’s appointed for no other reason than excess $donations & rwnj ideologies– all of whom have no particular ed/ background/ work experience– to make informed decisions regarding ed they never experienced & jobs they never held. Such folk — incl Secy of Fed Dept of Ed!– are not even vetted for scholarly background that could compensate for lack of personal experience & expand POV.
Academy of safety and Security?
What, were they training the kids to be cops, jailers and spies?
Essentially, yes. At least according to the charter. I know plenty of cops, EMTs, nurses and other first responders, and all went to regular high schools, either public or not. Not one needed to go to a charter designed for this line of work.
The school was not a vocational school and was not aimed at getting students prepared for minimum wage jobs. The goal of the school was to produce young adults who would be leaders in their communities–with the hope that some of these first aid/emergency skills would give them a vital sense of personal agency.
The sad part is that the school was really headed in the right direction. Teachers who had been there for years often commented how much better things were going under the new administration.
Source–I was a teacher at DAPSS this year.
https://exceptionaldelaware.wordpress.com/2018/09/26/forget-what-youve-read-the-dapss-closure-is-because-of-fraud-plain-and-simple/
I believe that this local blogger has an accurate depiction of what really led to the shutdown 😦