PS podcast: Bergosh on Newpoint scandal

Escambia School Board member Jeff Bergosh yesterday said on “Pensacola Speaks” that news that Newpoint Education Partners had fired its entire Pensacola Staff hit him like “a ton of bricks.”

However, he was pleased that Superintendent Malcolm Thomas was taking action that could ensure the teachers received the remainder of their salaries. Thomas said he would withhold the final payment due Newpoint.

Bergosh said, “It’s my understanding, after speaking with Superintendent Thomas, that it’s his intention to hold that money back, about $140,000, until he’s satisfied and the school board is satisfied that they’ve met their financial obligations, which I think is a good thing.”

Teachers are usually given the option of being paid their salaries divided in payments during the school year or have them in 12-month increments. Bergosh said Newpoint teachers were only given one option.

“Many of them weren’t just given that option but they were dictated that that was the schedule that they were going to be under,” he said. “Those are the ones that I’m concerned about. The ones who are not implicated in any of these allegations, the ones who were coerced into taking a 12 month pay schedule and then suddenly the rug is pulled out from under them.”

The school board member was surprised that Newpoint was firing its teachers at Five Flags Academy, its elementary school.

“I was very surprised about that, because it seemed of the three, that that was the one that had the most going for it, in terms of they didn’t have as egregious of contract violations as the others and that those students and those parents appeared to be doing well and they had the best chance at making a shot of it, so I’m very surprised about that.”

Bergosh still is concerned with the district’s lack of supervision of the Newpoint.

“Why in the world would we ever allow the governor of our state just two and a half months ago to come and give them a check? How did that happen? How could that happen? That’s the question I’m never going to stop asking, Rick,” he said.

“What Newpoint has allegedly done, yeah, that’s bad, but a lot of this stuff, how do those who are empowered to act on behalf of the taxpayers, how did they act when they knew what they knew? That’s a question I’m never going to stop asking and people are not happy about it, but I don’t care. I’m going to get to the bottom of it.”