Final Showdown is the biggest: Malcolm Thomas vs. Newpoint Education Partners

In a week filled with showdowns, the last one—Superintendent Malcolm Thomas vs. Newpoint Education Partners—could be the biggest.

At 1:30 p.m. today, the Escambia County School Board will hear the superintendent’s case to terminate the charter contracts for the three schools run by NEP. The Newpoint administrators, teachers and students are expected to attend the workshop and defend the schools.

Earlier showdowns involved city of Pensacola:

Community Maritime Park Associates Board vs. Pensacola City Council – CMPA won a split decision

Downtown Improvement Board vs. Downtown bars and restaurants – Draw, with both sides bruised but friendly

City Council & Mayor vs. Local commercial film and photography industry – Fight postponed.

The school showdown is much more serious. At stake for NEP is nearly $70,000 in payments from the school district and it’s ability to open other charter schools in Florida. Earlier this week, the Florida Department of Education denied NEP’s grant request to open two new schools in Bay County.

Newpoint’s problems came to light in late March when a school employee contracted School Board member Jeff Bergosh with allegations of grade tampering and other improprieties at the Newpoint Academy and Newpoint Pensacola High. Furthermore, the whistleblower claimed that Superintendent Thomas had known about the allegations in May 2014 and done nothing.

Bergosh went to the superintendent. He said Thomas got “livid” with him. Bergosh said the superintendent said he was jumping to conclusions, and “that I was dead wrong about the school, their grade, and the bonus money they received from Gov. Scott on March 16th. I was wrong, and it would be proven so with emphasis, Supt. Thomas told me.”

The allegations were so serious and the documentation provided so compelling that Bergosh took the information to the State Attorney’s Office, which has opened an investigation.

On May 8, the superintendent notified the school board and Newpoint that he was recommending the terminations.

While Thomas claimed that the school district had been investigating the school for months and provided minutes of several monitoring plan meetings with school officials as proof, Newpoint officials have said—through a press release sent out last night—they had not been informed of a formal investigation until early April 2015 when a letter was delivered to the school regarding the intent to conduct an on-site investigation.

The Newpoint officials have asserted that certain district employees have worked to shut down it schools by not communicating about the investigation and then exaggerating areas of concern that Newpoint believes could have been easily addressed and corrected.

The school said that it had tried to meet with the district staff over the last several months, but the staff had refused to communicate with school leaders. The district had failed to complete a public record request made in April on a timely basis.

NEP said that it has addressed mistakes made by staff and students when they happened. It said its record isn’t much different than other public schools.

“In fact, we challenge the district and the public to find one Escambia County district school that has not had errors made by staff or inappropriate actions taken by students,” said Newpoint. “The important point is that when mistakes are made, they are corrected, and steps are taken to prevent them from occurring again.”

“While we prefer a non-adversarial relationship with all district staff members, even those who struggle accepting that charter schools are authorized under Florida Law, and desire a professional relationship with the district staff in order to foster the education of all students, we will not be intimidated by those who refuse to work collaboratively with us.”

Thomas has told the media that his staff could have kept the school board better informed.

On 1620 News Radio, he said, “We should have brought the school board in when we decided to bring in the monitoring plan, and we’ve corrected that…That should have happened. That didn’t happen.”

Thomas said that his staff had tried to work with Newpoint. “You’ll see in the backup that’s posted on the school board website. You’ll see meetings that are outlined to the charter school administration and the corporate administration from Newpoint. You’ll see meetings that are discussing these issues, trying to get them to work through it, trying to get the school to step up and solve issues.”

The decision could boil down the hard evidence proved by Thomas and by NEP to the Escambia County School Board. The district should give its evidence for termination and the NEP will need to provide its rebuttal.

Both Superintendent Thomas and NEP will have to make their cases. It will take more than well-written press releases and emotional pleas to win over the school board.