In its press release today, Newpoint pointed out: “Over the past 4 years of operation, Newpoint Pensacola High School and Academy have had numerous levels of oversight which indicate solid operations. Some examples include: AdvancED Accreditation review, monthly financial reports submitted to the district, annual external audits, annual compliance reviews from the charter school office, federal grant reviews, among many others, and never has an issue been raised.†(see PNJ)
The charter schools are required to give quarterly reports to the school board and attend the board’s workshop. The last one was March 16. I went back and viewed the video of that workshop.
Nothing was said by Superintendent Malcolm Thomas or Director of Alternative Ed Vicky Mathis about issues at the Newpoint schools —even though the district’s internal reports show the staff had discovered several issues at the school and discussed it with Newpoint on March 4.
The school board was completely out of the loop. School Board member Jeff Bergosh complimented Newpoint. School Board chair Patty Hightower suggested the principals no longer needed to attend the workshops since everything was running so smoothly.
She asked of the charter schools and district staff, “Is there anyone here who believes we would not be doing our due diligence if you were not here once a quarter?”
No one said anything.