Ross Launches Missile and Goes Ballistic

If you've been reading a lot at Ed Notes about Ross Global Charter and its founder Courtney Sale Ross, (Chutzpah Courtney Keeps Complaining in the Midst of RGC Chaos,  Treat Public Schools Like Ross Global Charter) this is because as Lisa Donlan put it, Ross is "the allegory of its time." When even slugs like Whitney Tilson and DFER's Joe Williams say Ross should be closed, we are in a battle royal. And even Tweed's attack dog Natalie Ravitz points out:

that more than 40 percent of Ross’s teachers left each year, including 77 percent last year....Ross Global Academy, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school with 400 students, was on its sixth principal during its brief existence.

“Ross Global Academy has failed to serve its students well — it has high turnover in its student body, very high teacher turnover, very high principal turnover, and it made the least progress of any lower school in the city last year.."

How Natalie comes to the conclusion that Ross has served its students well given her litany of limitations of RGC is beyond me.

The NY Times I'm quoting from above jumped into the Ross Charter School controversy with both feet ((NY Times on Ross Global Charter).

When the city provided a home five years ago for the Ross Global Academy, a charter school founded by the widow of a media executive, its opponents complained about what they considered preferential treatment for a member of the moneyed elite. But last month, the Department of Education announced that the school would be closed because of poor performance.

The attempts by Courtney Sale Ross, widow of Time Warner media magnet Steve Ross, to keep her failed charter school open is getting uglier and uglier as she launches missile after missile at other charter schools and their political influence. Which is very funny when you consider that Ross got her school in the first place due to political influence - supposedly Joel Klein's wife's friend. Which is why Joel was afraid to close them down years ago - afraid of his wife. Maybe that is why he resigned - so he won't be around to face the wrath of Ross. This section of the Times piece reveals the extraordinary influence Ross had with Klein.

The city has given free space in existing public schools to many charter schools, and in 2006, when Ross was created, the city originally planned to place it in a Lower East Side building belonging to a magnet school for gifted children [NEST]. Parents of that school opposed the move, and Mr. Klein relented, allowing Ross to temporarily use space inside the Department of Education headquarters on Chambers Street [Tweed]. After Ross was given space in another public school building on East 12th Street, it poured more than $3.5 million into renovations, which might now be inherited by Girls Prep.

Let me expound on this a bit. Ross tried to jump into the elite NEST school on the lower east side and really stepped in it as she came face to face with another diva [Celenia Chevere - except Chevere was a self-made woman while Ross just made Steve]. The NEST story is covered in NY Mag writer Jeff Coplon's amazing July 2007 piece of writing (NEST+m: An Allegory), truly a must read. Jeff describes the founding of NEST, an elite K-12 school by Chancellor Harold Levy in 2000. Here is Jeff's intro into diva 2:

The chancellor knew that his brainchild would need a lightning rod, a leader driven and unyielding. He chose Celenia Chévere, a petite firebrand with boundless energy, a blinding smile, and a hair-trigger temper. From her start as a lowly teacher’s assistant in the late seventies, she’d become one of the most coveted—and controversial—principals around.

After raising two daughters as a single mother (enrolling the younger one, at great sacrifice, at Calhoun), Chévere knew the value of a superior public school. In 1986, when a freestanding gifted program sounded radical, she founded Lower Laboratory in District 2. Ten years later, on East 106th Street, she opened the Young Women’s Leadership School, an oasis of Oriental carpets and nunnery quiet against the raging picket lines of now and the NYCLU. Yet despite her brilliance as a “starter,” Chévere never stayed in one place too long. She ran a building like Hubie Brown coached a basketball team, with an overbearing manner that soon wore thin. “If you did not conform,” says a source who worked with her in East Harlem, “she would destroy you.”

The 3 year old Coplon article is an attack on an elite concept of schools that often turns racial, but that is not the point of this blog post. I'm interested in how Chevere, who had been a Klein target - he went after public school diva principals of both sexes while loving charter school diva operators -  was brought down by her conflict with Ross, which on first look she won, but ended up losing the war. Coplon writes:

And then...came a more-formidable invader: Ross Global Academy. The battle was great theater while it lasted, class warfare behind a scrim of cognitive dissonance. In one corner, the platinum-coiffed Courtney Ross, two-time member of the Forbes 400, now paladin of the Lower East Side families she’d recruited for her charter school; in the other, NEST’s pugnacious principal, a generation removed from poverty in Puerto Rico, now raising the moat at her middle-class bastion.

Playing their zero-sum game, the NEST community jitneyed to picket Ross’s school in East Hampton and stalked the mayor at City Hall. More than 500 parents and students banged drums and maracas outside Cipriani Wall Street, where Klein was keynoting the black-tie Graham Windham Bicentennial Ball. The PTA officers filed a lawsuit—not merely to challenge the “hostile takeover,” but to revoke Ross’s charter.

Can you imagine how livid Joel Klein was at Chevere for going after his wife's supposed pal Courtney's guts? (I'm not taking Chevere's side here as she was also a piece of work.)

When the DoE’s auditors came to check the school’s capacity last spring [that would be 2006], according to Tweed, Chévere shuttled students from class to class, à la Mack Sennett, to show there was no room at the inn. It became clear, Klein says, that the principal “was not leading the school in good faith. Look, nobody likes to share space, but we have space needs—we’re in this as a city.” Improbably, NEST had made Courtney Ross an underdog. Even those allergic to charter schools wondered if NEST’s parents, deep down, feared that their darlings would get jostled en route to algebra by some poor black and Latin children. (It didn’t help when a reporter overheard a young NESTer ask his father, “Will the Ross kids be loud?”)

The game was up when NEST enlisted its godfather, the one person who could trump Bloomberg and Klein: Sheldon Silver. By a matter of yards, NEST fell inside the Assembly Speaker’s home district—geography turned destiny once more. With Silver controlling the fate of a bill to lift the charter school cap, a mayoral fixation, Klein couldn’t afford to antagonize him. (According to Armstrong, the line in the sand was drawn at a tense meeting in the NEST library: “Shelly stood up and pointed to Houston Street and said, ‘My district ends here, Joel.’”)

Finally, the chancellor blinked, sticking Ross into a guest room at his Tweed Courthouse. Victory, though, was Pyrrhic for NEST. “The chancellor was so pissed at Celenia that she was gone,” says a former Chévere supervisor. “How can you run the system if a principal can defy you like that?” Last June [2006], the DoE disclosed that Chévere had been charged with misconduct—in connection with her building’s audit—and that her tenure at NEST was done.

OMG. Klein had to insert Ross Global right into the belly of his own building. And what a mess that turned out to be. When I was at Tweed for press events I witnessed just how wiggy a school RGC was. When people who worked there looked at you their eyes would sink deeper into their heads. Klein finally tossed Ross into another space on E. 12 St.

And here is where it starts to get even uglier (and so much fun.) The NY Times article is more than a little revealing as Ross targets another sleazeball charter operator - Girls Prep.

In a letter to state education officials this week urging a reversal of the city’s decision, the school says that its newly renovated building on East 12th Street has been promised to Girls Prep, another politically connected charter school on the Lower East Side that has long been yearning for better real estate. The letter also questions whether there was any connection involving Girls Prep’s chairwoman, Sarah Robertson, the daughter-in-law of the prominent financier Julian Robertson, and $25 million in contributions made in recent years by the Robertson Foundation to three entities closely associated with the former schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein.

the school’s decision to publicize its fight throws into the open, in raw and awkward fashion, the tight relationship between the city, which has promoted the creation of charter schools in general, and the wealthy patrons of some of those schools.

An internal Department of Education planning document indicates that the intermediate grades of Girls Prep, a single-sex school whose lower grades are located in a public school on East Houston Street, would indeed assume Ross Global Academy’s space by September. The girls prep middle school is currently in temporary, rented space

But the city vigorously denied any kind of ulterior motive.

 Now this is where it gets delicious:

David M. Steiner, the state education commissioner, is weighing the petition by the academy to overturn the city’s decision not to renew the charter. To bolster that petition, Ross Global Academy notes that from 2003 to 2008, the Robertson Foundation donated $5 million to the Department of Education; more than $11 million to the New York City Charter School Center (on whose board Mr. Klein sits); and $8 million to the Fund for Public Schools, which was established by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein. Information on donations for 2009 and 2010 was not available.

Remember old Julian Robertson and his son Spencer (Sarah's hubbie) who was given part of PS 15 in Red Hook for his PAVE charter school? Our pals from CAPE became activated by all of this and have been firm GEM allies, so it was not all bad. CAPE has pointed to these donations for years but were ignored. But when Courtney makes the charge, the NY Times jumps. 

CAPE/GEM's Julie Cavanagh comments:

Well this is truly ironic. Wonder if Ms. Ross and her PR/legal team are interested in defending ps 15 (in Red Hook, BK)... Robertson's son is squeezing out our SUCCESSful public school from our building and no one was interested when we cried foul and preferential treatment or even raised an eyebrow when we brought up Robertson's contributions. (Of course in Ross' case the claim is baseless bc their school is clearly a horrible place for kids.) Also, are we calling our schools "lower schools" now a la Cathleen Black? (See Ratvich statement) No thanks.

Followed by Lisa Donlan

Irony of ironies- they could all have avoided this mud slinging, mud wrestling, tattle taleing pr battles in the media, temper tantrum meltdowns, protests and wrenching apart of communities if they'd JUST BUY OR RENT THEIR SCHOOL BUILDINGS. Sure goes to show that just because these guys got rich doing business does not mean they are smart or even strategic (look at Bloomberg!).

But the blame goes right on Klein and his team who offered the lure of "free" rent to these monied start ups.

So, now we are witness to a pissing contest between the rich spoiled clueless CMO's duking it out over market share and a real estate shortage ( and another 100 charters to go), while they find innovative ways to make money off of other people's money and other people's children.

Don't you miss the days when education reform was about teaching, learning, pedagogy, educational philosophy?

Couldn't you really enjoy a good old fashioned polemic overmath manipulatives or inventive spelling just about now?

 We are so far into the world beyond the looking glass we may never get back to kids and helping them learn about the world.

 Data, data measurement.  data warehousing, data manipulation, technology, innovation, school of one- NOTHING BUT SNAKE OIL, FOLKS. Isn't this really another way to separate the fools from their wallets, just like always?

We been had, and we been had bad.

And then there's this from charter school parent and leader of the independent NY Charter Parent Association Mona Davids, who comments on this point made in the Times piece about James Merriman:

Ms. Ross was deeply disappointed in James D. Merriman, chief executive of the New York City Charter School Center, whom she had consulted as recently as a month ago about the fate of her school. “She had no idea at the time that this was all about getting her building to Robertson’s daughter-in-law,” Mr. Little said. “She feels betrayed by Merriman because she had regarded him as a confidant and a supporter of the school.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Merriman, Kerri Lyon, said, “The conspiracy theory suggested in the letter is a sad and desperate attempt to divert attention from the fact that there are legitimate questions about whether this school should remain open.

Mona says:

James Merriman tried his best to hijack NYCPA and when he couldn't get it, tried his best to undermine our organization, even creating a fake grassroots organization run by the charter center. He opposes PA/PTA's in charters. He says it erodes the autonomy of charters. There's no need for the charter center to exist anymore other than to pay Merriman's salary. There are many consulting companies and the NY Charter Schools Association which provide support and services to applicants and school leaders.

Oh, what fun this is turning out to be. Remember when Mona was part of the crew favoring PAVE just 15 months ago and has now become a staunch ally and resister and one of Julie's and Lisa's best pals? Wait till the Harlem charter schools not part of the favored Democracy Prep, Harlem Success or KIPP start to get squeezed out of the picture. We may have to push our new allies off the resistance boat with a stick.

Chutzpah Courtney Keeps Complaining in the Midst of RGC Chaos

Dictionaries have been updating their graphic for "chutzpah" with Courtney Sale Ross. Let's see now. Six principals, all of whom needed byouts, 75% teacher turnover, parents pulling kids out in droves, the use of one public building after another (including the use of Tweed handed over by Ross' pal Joel Klein), public tax money supporting a wasted institution, etc, etc, etc.

For a howl of a read, check out the New Yorker. Courtney even blames the UFT.

Here is Lisa Donlan's take:

Blue print for fighting school closings:
1. be sure to have a gazzilion dollars to throw at lawyers

2. Use your power, money and connections to generate lots of media stories (even if they make you sound loopy or paranoid!)

3. Blame everyone and everything for your poor management- except your own Board/leadership!

BUT, since our schools have no money or power or connections at the top-

1. Sue, sue, sue and sue- mayoral control is governance by lawsuit (thanks to Sens Squadron/Padavan and the rest of the legislature that passed this most recent flawed version).

2. Use the media to explain how inept DoE is, how they are unable to support schools, and how closing a school makes little sense if the charters that were designed to live/die by accountability get second chances, via legal loopholes and reprieves.

It means no one believes that closing a school is a solution- not even the folks who have made fame and fortune peddling this so-called "accountability."

3. Rather than blame the DoE, the UFT, the hedge funders with connections and everyone under the sun, look closely at the school's successes and challenges. There is surely a narrative beneath the data that needs telling/clarification.

If CSR would look at the results her school has produced in terms of the schools demographics, she would see that RGA has indeed done a lousy job running a school as compared with schools with many greater challenges.

The teacher/students/principal turnover tell a tale of a culture of fear and blame; a lack of support; an arrogance and a lack of caring.

The fancy furniture and works of art are not a replacement for a solid pedagogy, collegial collaboration, support services for all kinds of minds, a safe and predictable environment and consistent vision.

Lisa

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Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Treat Public Schools Like Ross Global Charter

More charter school scandal stuff flying around. Ross Global is fighting to survive and is will to pass the dirt on how other charter chains survive by political influence. Oh, what fun! In the meantime, failing charter Harlem Day School founder is leaving and they are passing the lemon the Seth Andrews' Democracy Prep, which it self was thrown out of Rhode Island recently (Permalink). A report has come in that all of Harlem is being reserved for 3 charter chains: Dem Prep, Eva's Harlem Success and KIPP. Oh, poor Kitchen Sink and other independent charter vultures who get caught in the monopoly squeeze of so-called market- based forces.

From Lisa Donlan

We are trying to send a message that if DoE is closing our community schools based on "accountability" per the very premise of charter schools, but then keeping the really bad charters open and closing our struggling schools, then there is no reason to justify the very existence of charters.

Let's remember that charters were granted all types of extra freedoms and advantages in exchange for being "accountable" to the terms of their performance contracts, called "charters".

This is the premise that has allowed the drive to hold district schools accountable, and to be closed down.

The biggest difference is, the DoE is fully in charge of how community schools are run, what resources they have access to , and the terms of accountability. But if a charter school "fails" it is the fault of their Board, which manages these privately run institutions with public dollars by terms they agreed to and set themselves.

If our community schools struggle, it is entirely due to the conditions imposed by DoE.

To treat them as equals is highly unfair.

Then, to give a poorly run school like Ross "extra innings" when for 5 years they have not provided a high quality education to kids is just perverse and makes a mockery of charter schools, doing a huge disservice to the kids. Furthermore it underlines just how uneven the very playing field is in this market-style competition.

If the charters get a second chance, then all the closing schools should as well!

Otherwise, this is a pure "who you know" situation! If only all our schools had connections and high priced lawyers like Ross Global!

Lisa Donlan

Below please find a new petition to the Regents saying if RGA is given an extension and not shut down, the same extension should be given to all district schools.

Signing this petition will immediately send email letters to the State Legislators, the Governor and every member of the Board of Regents. This petition is started by Lisa Donlan. Kindly forward widely.

The online link to sign is:
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/we_want_all_our_schools_to_be_given_more_time_to_prove_themselves_just_like_ross_global_charter

-------
PETITION TEXT

"We want all our schools to be given more time to prove themselves, just like Ross Global"

Greetings,

If charters are not held to their performance contracts, DoE cannot justify closing any school.

We want all our schools to be given more time to prove themselves!

Charter schools, unlike our regular community schools, were designed to offer innovative programs designed to improve the academic performance of high need students by increase the choices available beyond those offered by the regular school districts.

Charter schools are thus uniquely held accountable through the terms of five-year performance contracts, called "charters" that outline their goals and performance targets.

Ross Global Academy Charter School has not shown either significant improvement during its 5 year charter nor has the organization demonstrated the ability to overcome out sized problems with high
attrition rates for staff, students and principals, poor management or low student performance.
RGA Board member and Founder Courtney Ross has nonetheless petitioned the Board of Regents to overturn the DoE's decision not to renew this 5 year charter.

Should the Regents or the SED Commissioner grant any form of an extension to Ross, then the same or greater flexibility must be offered to the 25 other schools DoE has slated to close.

If the Board of Regents decide to give Ross Global a second chance, then the same leeway should be offered to our community schools, that manage to do much more with less, and deserve another chance too!
-----

The online link to sign is:
http://www.change.org/petitions/view/we_want_all_our_schools_to_be_given_more_time_to_prove_themselves_just_like_ross_global_charter


Check out Norms Notes for this related item:

Harlem Day School Charter Passes the Lemon to Democracy Prep

Is Courtney Sales Ross More Evil Than Eva?

Public Education defenders have been rolling with laughter over Ross Global Charter's fight to remain open despite being rated as one of the worst schools in the city, even filing suit and asking for a year to get things in order. How pathetic.

I am going to do a bunch of stuff on Ross this week, mostly commentary by parent activists Lisa Donlan and Mona Davids who are really in touch with the situation.

But for this post, just a note about Courtney Ross. She is the mult-millionaire widow of famed Steve Ross who went from running a funeral home to Time Warner. Some bios call Courtney his "trophy" wife. That she has so much money and wants to start a school for disadvantaged kids would not be so bad, but that she wants it to be a charter school so she could suck at the tit of public money is what makes her so outrageous. Also her relationships to Joel Klein and other people of note. More on the situation later as the decision will be made tomorrow by the Regents.

In the meantime, I've been putting up articles and some commentary over at Norm's Notes - just type in "Ross" in the search panel on the righthand panel and there must be 20 items over the years. Here are just a few blasts from the past.

Garth Harries Email on Ross Charter

Jun 03, 2008

c) Ross siting at Physical City : given that reality, the Ross siting is an incubation, to take advantage of the remaining years on the lease and to allow Ross and us to continue to push for an appropriate site in D1. ...

Ross Charter Kids Flying Out the School

Feb 22, 2010

This school year alone, 91 of 410 students of those enrolled at Ross Global Academy have left, according to the Department of Education. It continues an unprecedented trend in which the East Village elementary and middle school has shed ...

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Mona Davids on Ross Global Charter School

Mona is quoted in an article on Ross Global, Ross Global Charter: In Battle Over NYC Charter School, It's Heiress vs. Parents which I posted on norms notes. Here is a follow-up comment from her. Of course we disagree about the concept of charters which Real Reformers oppose as destructive of public education.

This is a poor performing, mismanaged, badly governed charter. There are many more out there in NYC.

Even the DoE's charter school office (which provides poor oversight of schools they authorized, which is why NYCPA got the legislature to strip them of authorizing new charters) said,

"The Ross Global Academy Charter School has not achieved sufficient academic success, and is not a sufficiently viable organization," education officials wrote in the report.

Read the full report submitted to the Regents last week at:
http://www.nypost.com/r/nypost/2010/12/23/news/media/NYCDOECSORGARenewalReport2010.pdf

It's unfortunate it took five years for the DoE to act. There are DoE authorized charters in their 2nd, 3rd and 4th year that need to get shut down now. With the same issues as RGA, poor academic achievement, high student attrition, teacher turnover, leadership turnover, financial mismangement, cronyism, huge conflicts of interest and dysfunctional boards.

DoE is going to let those corrupt failing charters continue to operate with public funds even though they're failing our kids - because these schools have 5 years to experiment and destroy our kids futures.

Lastly, there are good charters in NYC, but you don't hear about them because they're busy educating all our kids, respecting parents and student rights, and working with their communities.

Best,
Mona


Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/

Calls from Parent Activists to Shut Down Ross Global Charter School - Sign the Petition

CEC One Parent Leader Lisa Donlan:

It is sad to hear all these Ross Global Charter School parents say they love their school and want to keep it open, even though the school has off the charts leadership (7 principals in 5 years) and teacher instability, student attrition (over 20%/year self reported) and was ranked 1,140 out 1,140 NYC public schools per the progress reports.

The entire premise of charter school is they have 5 years to get it right or they must be closed down.

RGA has NOT outperformed schools in their peer group/with similar demographics, and in 5 years has not been able to overcome systemic management and pedagogical issues.

How ironic would it be if a lousy charter school were to have its charter renewed while the DoE is trying to close down 25 of its own schools- several of which are new small schools?

And for the record-

District One offers all students/parents plenty of educational choices.
Our district is all choice- no zoned schools.
District One has two elementary schools ( one a K -8th ) that offer Mandarin.
District One has always offered small class size- even though it is getting harder and harder to maintain them, with the budget cuts these days.
District One schools offer the type of enrichment and support families are looking for.
District One is full of small collaborative learning communities.

And District One schools will open their doors to these kids and families, welcoming them into our school community.

NY Charter Parent Association Leader Mona Davids:

RGA is outraged that DoE had them participate in the hearing when they'd already decided to shut it down.  Amazing how they forgot Courtney Ross' robo-call where DoE and Courtney were colluding on not allowing the public to speak.

What a joke of a charter school.  NYCPA says SHUT IT DOWN!!   SHUT IT DOWN!!   SHUT IT DOWN!!

Please sign NYCPA's petition demanding this failing, bad, charter school be shut down at:  http://www.change.org/nycharterparents/petitions/view/do_not_renew_ross_global_academys_charter_-_it_is_a_failing_bad_charter_school

Here's the latest RGA lying email to their parents [Ed Note - I will spare you the pain].  If they cared about parents and students, they wouldn't have had the extremely high student attrition rates and teacher turnover.  AND, Courtney Ross wouldn't have told parents if you don't like how we run RGA, get out.

DOE is not taking away their right to choose a "Ross Education".  DOE is finally cleaning up it's act and doing it's job as an authorizer.

 MORE BACKGROUND ON ROSS GLOBAL

Ross Global Charter to be Closed Along with 11 Public Schools

DOE Warns Courtney Ross at Ross Gobal Charter: The Real Reformers are Coming, The Real Reformers are Coming

Courtney Sales Ross' Robocall Warning of Anti-Charter School Attendees at Meeting. Ross' charter school was tossed out of Tweed and many consider it in the running for one of the worst schools in NYC with countless principals and other problems. There are stories that Ross is a pal of Joel Klein's wife. He authorized the opening of the school and it has been protected despite the poor results.

Ross is the widow of deceased Time-Warner head Steve Ross, whose bio I read and was a fascinating figure (grew up around Newkirk Ave in Brooklyn- look what his inheritance has unleashed on the world.)

Read Lisa Donlan's account of the meeting as it scrolls over Ross' call to parents to come out. 

Here is the you tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CJTnWjv_cc

Also see at Norms Notes 

Council for District One On Ross Global Academy charter school DoE authorized charter renewal hearing 11/22/20120

Here is what Lisa wrote that is scrolling:

The unconscionably unfair and undemocratic manner in which last night's public hearing on the Ross Global Academy Charter School charter renewal was conducted, has left grave doubts about the integrity of the DoE's charter renewal process. We have material evidence and 5 eye witness accounts that demonstrate the hearing protocol was not respected and that RGACS commandeered the public hearing to turn it into a pep rally and spectacle, rather than the somber review of the school's merit and progress that a charter renewal hearing is intended to be.

The DoE hearing notice (below) made clear that speaker sign up was from 6:00- 6:30 pm, and the hearing would begin at 6:30pm.

 Yet the RGACS entrance was covered in signs that declared that the hearing doors opened at 4:30.

 Stationed at the entrance, RGA staff in "I Heart RGA" T-Shirts insisted that attendees sign in with them, and give over their personal contact information to RGACS staff.

 I refused to do so, stating that I would only sign in with the DoE as a speaker but the school principal harassed me until I signed in with RGACS.

 Thereafter, the RGACS staff began addressing me by name, and shadowing my movements, in an attempt to intimidate and dissuade me and other parents from participating in the public hearing.

 Most troubling was RGACS's bold act of overtly lining up their own speakers as early as 4:30 pm, such that by 5:30 pm there were more than 50 speakers, and by 5:45 there were well over 65 speakers in "line."

 RGACS staff also wrongly offered to collect written comments from speakers on their index cards. They told attendees that entering the auditorium would nullify their chance to speak, and that only lining up behind the 50 or so parents- to whom snacks, juice boxes and T-shirts had been provided- would allow an attendee an opportunity to speak.

 Furthermore, those of us who waited in the auditorium for DoE's arrival with the real sign up sheet were pushed aside by a gentleman from RGACS with a walkie talkie who blocked all access to the sign up sheet except for his group of 60 odd RGA supporters.

Attendees that arrived at hte hearing shortly before 6 pm were thus placed in the mid to high 60th place on the speaker list, due to this subversion of the sign up process by RGACS.

The DoE Charter School Office staff was duly informed of these antics and agreed they were unacceptable.

 However, the DoE employees refused to do anything to correct their own inability to manage the process, effectively handing over the hearing to the RGACS staff.

At that point 6 of the non RGACS parents and electeds who had come to testify deemed the hearing a farce, and we chose to leave, rather than participate in a tainted hearing.

It is interesting to note that the founder of RGACS, Ms. Courtney Sales Ross was allowed to speak first, and at length. while all other speakers were alloted 2 minutes apiece. Had we deemed to stay through the hearing, those of us with numbers in the high  60's would have had to wait another 2  1/2 hours or more, past 9 or 9:30 pm, in order to speak at a hearing we'd arrived at at 5:30 pm.

I attach here the testimony I would have delivered on behalf of the CEC for District One, and am counting on all those copied here to please ensure that it is registered and duly recorded.

 I look forward to hearing back from all of you exactly the remedies and consequences you will prescribe to ensure that a democratic and safe hearing for this and all charter sitings, revisions and renewals will be the rule, as called for by law.

Without your oversight and correction, the charter hearing process, and thus the results, are a mere sham.

Lisa Donlan

 CEC One

President

Lisa Donlan also has done some research:

Comparisons of RGACS performance as measured by NYS assessment with peer group schools