I am glad to see the Miami-Dade district holding this school accountable. The owner recently called the parents ignorant and uninformed when they questioned his leadership.
At times recently it seems like only public schools and their teachers are held accountable, so this might be a wake-up call to those who are using taxpayer money in careless ways.
Troubled Coconut Grove Charter School Loses Funding
According to CBS4 News partner The Miami Herald, the school district is withholding more than $185,000 from the Academy of Arts and Minds charter school in Coconut Grove because the school failed to provide some services for children with special needs which is a violation of state and federal law.
School district officials said the school had failed for weeks to provide evaluations and update education plans for more than two dozen students with special needs, as required by law and the school’s charter. In addition, two students were denied services from a speech language pathologist, school district officials said.
There is a video at the link. Not only were there not enough textbooks, the school was photocopying some of them. That is not exactly acceptable conduct.
Last month, the school, which has 460 students, was also slapped for illegally charging fees to students for basic classes. The school has faced plenty of criticism from parents lately including claims that the school lacks teachers and books and claims that the school failed to conduct required background checks on employees.
Alonso-Poch is the schools founder, owns the management company that runs the school, owns the food service company that provides breakfast and lunches to the students, and owns the building, collecting $77,000 a month in rent from taxpayers.
A former principal of the school speaks out in the video. He says Alonso-Poch would not pay him his last salary when he left.
It's interesting to look at the background of some of the people who are starting charter schools, hoping to benefit from public money.
There is a 1998 article from the Miami New Times about Manny Alonso-Poch. He apparently had a ship he owned sunk as a reef. The article indicates he was out of options about it. He was also involved in an eatery and in a hotel expansion that irritated many Coconut Grove residents.
From 1998:
Manny Alonso-Poch Finally Abandons Ship...how one man's financial sinkhole became the area's newest artificial reef
During the past year, Alonso-Poch has irked a lot of people. Coast Guard officers have pressed him to move the vessel from its downtown mooring. They fear that a hurricane or other bad weather could cause the Ocean Freeze to break free, crash into the nearby bridge to the Port of Miami, and kill hapless motorists. City of Miami leaders contend the ship has interfered with construction of the American Airlines/Miami Heat arena. And the Bayfront Park Management Trust has sent notices of overdue payment because Alonso-Poch stopped paying dockage in May 1997. Nearly everyone considers the blue and red rusting hulk an eyesore. Local scavengers have gutted the ship, stealing copper wire, tubing, and other salable items.
Authorities have tried to dig into Alonso-Poch's wallet to make him move the vessel. The Coast Guard fined him $25,000 late last year, which he is appealing. The city upped his daily docking fee in February from $125 to $3000. Manny still didn't man the ship.
Much more to the story at the link.
Another setback came May 14 when the Miami City Commission voted to sue the lawyer and the crewmen for dockage fees. In a May 18 letter to the defendants, City Manager Jose Garcia-Pedrosa criticized Alonso-Poch for inadequately maintaining and securing the vessel. Garcia-Pedrosa recommended that he donate the vessel to the Atlantic Gamefish Foundation, a nonprofit group that had offered to sink it for an artificial reef. Past dockage fees would not be voided, the manager wrote. On Friday, May 22, the city attorney put together the complaint against the crewmen and Alonso-Poch. The total amount: $382,107.20.
That very night, Alonso-Poch donated the vessel. "We were on the phone about 11:30 at night and I was telling him he had to avoid future liability," says Cliff Kunde, executive director of the Gamefish Foundation. "He finally agreed."
Doesn't sound like the gift was as much charitable as it was out of financial necessity.
Now it looks as though Miami-Dade is holding another charter accountable, stopping payment to it as well. That school, Balere, was operating as an adult night club at night.