Newpoint Education Partners tonight said in a press release that it was caught off guard by Superintendent Malcolm Thomas’ recommendation for the Escambia County School Board to terminate its charters for Five Flags Academy, Newpoint Academy and Newpoint Pensacola High School.
NEP said that while Superintendent Thomas indicated to the media that the schools have been under investigation since May 2014, the Newpoint school board 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. Less than a month later, Newpoint was notified of the termination recommendations
“The Escambia County School District staff have had ample opportunity to communicate with the board about an investigation, including monitoring meetings in January 2015 and March 2015, where the schools’ board chair was present, a meeting with the Superintendent in February 2015, where a board member of the schools was present, and the school district’s investigator in attendance at the last two 21st Century Academy of Pensacola, Inc. board meetings which occurred within the last 45 days,” said Newpoint. “Yet, no one from the district communicated with the board about any on-going investigation or the need for such investigation.”
Newpoint claimed the termination recommendations are “the culmination of a subversive intent by certain employees of the district, to shut down these schools by not communicating and then exaggerating areas of concern that can easily be 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.
“If district staff spent even a few hours to work with the schools and communicate effectively and openly, any outstanding issues would have been addressed,” said Newpoint. “Unfortunately, that has not been the intent of these employees, even though charter schools are district schools and the students attending charter schools are the district’s students.”
The school said the district had failed to reply to its public information requests on a timely basis, after regular communications had broken down.
When the district began in October 2014 to cite areas of concern, Newpoint hired an external consultant to evaluate the policies and procedures at the school and to assist the school leadership in addressing any areas of concern.
“When the district learned of the hiring of this external consultant, they attempted to prevent him from providing assistance to the school. This individual has incredible experience in school leadership and administration which will only support the school and its students,” said school leaders. “The only apparent reason to try to prevent his participation would be because district staff did not want the school to succeed.”
The school said it fully cooperated with the district and the State Attorney’s office when it was informed of the whistleblower’s allegations in early April.
Newpoint said, “It is unconscionable for district staff to first indicate to the board that there are serious concerns at the beginning of April and one month later provide intent to recommend termination of all three charters. In addition to recommending termination of an ‘A’ school, the recommendation for termination includes Five Flags Academy, an elementary school that only opened this school year. No issues have been raised by the district regarding Five Flags prior to this notice of termination.”
The school responded to each of the reasons Superintendent Thomas gave for the terminations:
1. Attendance – the school failed to maintain accurate attendance records.
Newpoint Pensacola High School and Academy – the school can document many instances of challenges with accessing the district’s system in order to be able to enter the attendance in a timely manner. We have attempted to work with the district. The allegation that we do not keep accurate records is misleading. While there may be a need to improve record-keeping, any failure to do so has been partially the district’s fault due to the Student Information System.
Five Flags Academy – no one has ever indicated any issues with Five Flags attendance records.
2. Student Records – the school failed to maintain student records.
Newpoint Pensacola High School and Academy – During a site visit, district staff could not locate some student files quickly enough. The files were maintained, however, some files were not organized properly. This issue was addressed, the files were organized, and the district staff indicated a dramatic improvement during a subsequent visit. However, the documentation provided with the intent to terminate includes falsehoods about the status of the student records.
Five Flags Academy – this is the specific area where Five Flags was praised by the district for their exemplary record keeping. (Attachment C)
3. Discipline – the school failed to maintain a safe learning environment at all times
Newpoint Pensacola High School and Academy – this allegation is related to an accusation of not entering discipline referrals into the district system in a timely manner. The school can document many instances of challenges with accessing the district’s system in order to be able to enter the discipline referrals in a timely manner. The discipline was ultimately filed. The district also had concerns about students over 18 signing themselves in and out. As soon as this issue was raised, it was addressed and corrected.
Five Flags Academy – no issues related to a safe learning environment have ever been raised at Five Flags.
4. Expulsion – the school did not follow the guidelines for expulsion
Newpoint Pensacola High School– the documentation provided by the district for this item was not related to expulsion but rather to a student dismissed from the school for an incident with drugs. The school’s right to dismiss a student is included in the charter application which was reviewed and approved by district staff in the charter application process. Ironically, the district claims that the schools are not maintaining a safe environment, but when disciplinary actions are taken to maintain a safe learning environment, they find fault with it.
Newpoint Pensacola Academy – no students at Newpoint Pensacola Academy have been dismissed or recommended for expulsion.
Five Flags Academy – no students at Five Flags have been dismissed or recommended for expulsion
5. Academic Accountability – the school failed to make progress toward the achievement of the goals of the School Improvement Plan
Newpoint Pensacola High School – The school has always been an A rated school. No School Improvement Plan has been required by the district. No documentation has been provided to support a false allegation that the school changed grades to get an A. In fact, there is no correlation between the school grade and classroom grades for Newpoint. The implication is that the graduation rate is included in the school grade and this was the basis for alleged grade changing. A quick check of the school grading components will document the fact that due to the small size of the graduating class, graduation rates were not included in the school’s grade. Newpoint Pensacola has never had graduation rates included in its school grade calculation.
Newpoint Pensacola Academy – in its first year of operation (4 years ago), the middle school earned an F grade. At that time, the school implemented a School Improvement Plan approved by the Escambia County School Board and reported monthly to the Escambia County School Board on progress on the School Improvement Plan. During the second year of operation and since then, the middle school has earned a C grade. Therefore, the School Improvement Plan from 4 years ago was effective and the school obviously made progress.
Five Flags Academy – Five Flags is in its first year of operation. No School Improvement Plan was required and the school has not even received a grade to base progress on.
6. Specialized Services and Provision of Services – the school failed to provide services and accommodations to students with disabilities.
Newpoint Pensacola High School and Academy – The schools have always worked closely with the district ESE staff to ensure that we are in compliance with the rules and regulations related to ESE students. The district serves as the LEA in all issues related to IDEA compliance. The documentation provided by the district with the intent to terminate includes some inaccurate information in regard to the ESE teacher’s schedule and availability to provide services. However, the Compliance Monitoring Review document from March, 2015, included in the district’s documentation, indicates all areas related to ESE services are in compliance (Attachment B).
Five Flags Academy – this issue has never been raised as a concern at Five Flags.
7. Education Management Organization Agreement – The contract between the school and the EMO shall require that the EMO operate the school in accordance with the terms stipulated in the school’s charter.
At any time the EMO has been aware of any issues or concerns, they have been addressed swiftly and appropriately.
Prior to this school year, EMO representatives were copied on emails from the district to the school administration which allowed the EMO to closely monitor compliance and any concerns that might be raised. At the beginning of this school year, the EMO representatives were no longer copied on emails. This seems a deliberate act to be able to say that the EMO was not assisting. In March 2015, the EMO representatives specifically asked to be copied on emails to the school leadership. In addition, it was only in January 2015 that anyone from the EMO was contacted about any concerns. Immediately after the EMO was contacted, action was taken to address the concerns raised.
Immediately after the EMO was notified of two issues, one related to an employee’s background check and another related to an inappropriate video being show in a class, the parties involved were removed from campus.
8. The school provided employment to person(s) whose criminal background check disqualified this person from employment in a charter school.
Newpoint Pensacola High School and Academy and Five Flags – This allegation is in relation to one person, a custodian hired this school year. He was fingerprinted and went through the normal procedure for background checks. The school administration received an email that did not indicate that the person was not cleared, but indicated that additional information was needed. This email was inadvertently overlooked by the school administrator. This was an error on his part, which he admitted. When it was determined that the employee’s background check was not clear, immediate action was taken to remove the person from campus. The issue that required more information in his background check was an incident from more than 15 years ago which was not an offense that would be implied to cause him to be a threat to students’ safety .
Once we were aware of this oversight, we took immediate action to remove the employee from campus and worked with the district to develop a procedural plan to assure that this will not occur again.
9. Background check – same as number 8
10. The school failed to deliver instructional programs or curricula identified in the charter school application
Newpoint Pensacola High School, Newpoint Pensacola Academy, Five Flags Academy – The curriculum indicated in the charter application is the curriculum being used at each school. There is ample documentation of this fact and multiple on-site visits by district staff where the curriculum implementation was evident. This issue has never been raised at any of the schools prior to including it here in the notification of the intent to terminate.
11. School failed to comply with all applicable federal state and local laws, rules or regulations
This is a loosely redundant listing of other items on this list. The schools’ board requests an expanded listing of the other items, if such exist, regarding failure to follow federal, state, and local laws
12. The School failed to obtain all necessary licenses, permits, zoning, use approval, facility certification and other approvals
Newpoint Pensacola High School and Academy – this item is only related to a delay in payment for a Food Hygiene permit which was addressed and corrected. However, it is important to note that after this year’s initial inspection from the Health Department, shortly thereafter, the Health Department returned for another inspection. During the inspection, one of the Health Department staff asked the other why they were at the school again. The second staff member stated that they were there a second time as a “favor†to one of the district staff. This individual will testify to this fact if necessary. This interaction highlights the actions of the district in attempting to find anything possible wrong at Newpoint Pensacola.
Five Flags – this allegation is not true for Five Flags Academy
13. The school failed to provide Exceptional Student Education Programs – same as number 6
14. The school failed to secure the health, safety and welfare of the students. – previously addressed in numbers 3, 8 and 12.
In addition to the issues addressed in numbers 3, 8 and 12 above, the other issue referenced in number 14 is an inappropriate video shown by a teacher at Newpoint Pensacola Academy. While the school Director took action, the action was not as thorough as was warranted. As soon as the EMO was notified of the situation, swift action was taken to remove the teacher from campus and to begin a thorough investigation. During the investigation, the teacher resigned prior to being terminated. The Department of Children and Families was contacted, and they conducted an investigation, and the teacher was referred to Professional Practices with the Department of Education.
Read Termination Response.
