Ed Notes Online: Eddie Calderon-Melendez

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:

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2012/01/09/city-seeks-to-close-two-charter-schools/

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 Eddie's charter should have been revoked before the ink was dry.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:

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

Education Notes: The Title of "The Worst Charter in the World ...

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 ...

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

Brooklyn middle school students squeezed out of study space by 3 ...

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. ...

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/

Ohanian on Brooklyn Charter School Thug

Jun 04, 2010

Charter $$ probe

AG eyes 3 schools in W'burg

By YOAV GONEN, Education Reporter

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Online

Ed Notes Extended