Showing posts with label Eddie Calderon-Melendez. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Eddie Calderon-Melendez. Show all posts

Monday, January 9, 2012

Breaking: Williamsburg/Believe Charter with Slimeball Leader Eddie Negron - Charter Revoked

UPDATED: 9:30PM

NY Times:

Gotham School: City moves to close two charter schools, citing mismanagement

RED FLAG ALERT!
 Most of the charges center on founder Eddie Calderon-Melendez, who earned $478,000 last year as the CEO of the Believe Charter Network, which has run Williamsburg and two other high schools.
That's rights folks - Almost half a million for Eddie - but you know he's doing it for the kids.

Here is my comment at Gotham:
What a joke. They're still giving Eddie a month to clean up his act?
Like, did they find out yesterday about Eddie? Ed Notes has been following this story for years. We broke the story of the $100 bounty they were offering kids if they brought in a sucker -- er recruit --- years ago. In the comment section teachers were screaming out in outrage but also in fear of Eddie and his thuggish behavior. He once threatened Susan Ohanian with a "visit" because she had mentioned his poodle business. In the corporate ed deform world it is ok for Eddie to make almost half a million while scamming us taxpayers for years.

Where are John King and Merryl Tisch who are quick to condemn people who fight to keep their schools open as "supporting failure" while a school that clearly was engaging in shady tactics for years was allowed to continue. Eddie's charter should have been revoked before the ink was dry.

As for Penninsula Prep out here in Rockaway where even the sea breezes coudn't wash away the smell of scandal from St Sen Malcolm Smith's equivalent of Rosemary's baby. How about those earmarks he got for the school he founded? I bet they don't end up in a public school in Rockaway. How about giving it to PS 215 which they are closing?
 3:30

Unconfirmed - from good source in District 14:

Lindsey Christ at NY1 confirms and also ads Rockaway's Penninsula Prep - a school founded by NY State Senator Malcolm Smith - talk about conficts of interest even though he claims not to have anything to do with the school. I do hope someone in the media digs into how these schools were founded on the use of political pull.

No time to put up links but use the "search blog" function to find scads of articles we've done on Eddie the Slime. This is the charter that pushed the teacher out of the library at IS 126 after she renovated it. We actually shot a bunch of footage for The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman in front of this charter to highlight the corrupt charter practices but we decided we didn't have room in the film to get into that aspect.
Believe North & Believe South are chartered through the State Education Department (SED ---- where have you been all these years Merryl Tisch, John King, etc?
Watch these clowns take credit for closing down the charter despite waiting for years and letting children's education be destroyed for years. Message to Merryl, who challenges parents at closing schools who fight to keep their schools open with "you are supporting failing schools" - with a reframing: Merry Merryl, why are you supporting failing school policies?

Also confirmed by Mona Davids at New York Charter Parents Association (NYCPA)
NYCPA warned parents about this charter just as we have about others that have been shut down.  Parents have been disrespected, students' IEP's violated, staff harassed for speaking up for students for many years and the DOE's charter office did nothing.
Then NYCPA broke the story on the new buidling the Believe Network, the Charter Management Organization (CMO), which runs Williamsburg, Believe North & Believe South High School, couldn't pay AND signed a 30 year lease when charters are renewed every 5 years.
Believe North & Believe South are chartered through the State Education Department (SED).  Those schools and Believe Network are under investigation by the State Attorney General's office too. 
NYCPA talked about the corruption of the board, the intermingling and incestuous releationship between board members of the three schools and the CMO.
DOE should have stepped in a long time ago.  As usual they do nothing until the stench of corruption, mismanagement and cronyism, reaches outside of the DOE office to other agencies.
This is why we are pushing charter parents be allowed under law to fire school leaders and replace their boards if they're mismanaging the schools.  If 51% of parents vote to remove leadership, the parents can bring in new leaders and reconstitute the board.
We have good charters and bad charters just as we good public schools and bad public schools.  Parents be vigilant, attend your board meetings, request monthly copies of your school's financial reports, get a copy of your school's charter and by-lays.  Protect your children's education, hold your charter accountable and ensure they're doing right by your children.
Best regards.
Here are a few quick links from a quick search on the web for background:

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Joy to the world -gangsta charter investigated - NY Post

"It's about time the AG's Office takes a look around -- they'll have a lot to work with," said one ex-staffer. "Mr. Melendez always likes to say that finances and compliance are the two things he and the board handle exceptionally well, but this doesn't pass the laugh test." 

Just desserts in today's NY Post article (below) by Yoav Gonen for Believe Charter network founder Eddie Calderon-Melendez who harassed Susan Ohanian with threats after she wrote about his chater takeover of the library at IS 126. Teachers who left the school had been in touch after Ed Notes wrote about the school but were very afraid to talk. We broke the story in May 2010 of the $100 reward recruitment poster that Jenny Medina at the NY Times picked up on. There is no better example of inequity that these schools are still open -

Here was a comment from a teacher at the school:
I'm currently a teacher under the Believe network and would love to whistle blow... once I am no longer employed by the network. In fact, Melendez received public criticism a few years ago for firing a teacher without due process who circulated the DOE pay scale among her WCHS colleagues and mentioned the dirty u-word. No one at the school who hopes to continue to work there for more than 48 hours would dare approach the UFT or even think about doing so, since firings come fast and furious. Right now our best hope is that someone who made it out can fight the good fight (from a safe distance) 
I've been in touch with the teacher who is now teaching in another state and I think I asked her to contact Yoav who has been following up on the story for months. I imagine some of the hordes of former teachers are talking to Yoav, who used Ed Notes source material as part of his investigation.

Here are some links to Ed Notes articles:
Dismantling the IS 126 Library

May 09, 2011
Ultimate charity fund-raising event: A roast of Eddie Calderon-Melendez. Charge $50 a plate and invite current and former employees (mostly former). We'll make enough to cure cancer. Williamsburg Charter High School has ...
Oct 06, 2009
Eddie Calderon-Melendez , founder of the Believe High School Network, which runs the charters, said the use of shared space is negotiated every year. ...
Jun 04, 2010
Ultimate charity fund-raising event: A roast of Eddie Calderon-Melendez. Charge $50 a plate and invite current and former employees (mostly former). We'll make enough to cure cancer. Williamsburg Charter High School has been unfairly ...

Charter $$ probe

AG eyes 3 schools in W'burg