Imagine Schools
The chief of national charter-school operator Imagine Schools advocates controlling school boards and limiting their authority in an e-mail obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Dennis Bakke, who is CEO of the Arlington, Va.-based company, told his employees in the September 2008 missive that they should select board members who will "go along with Imagine." He also recommends in the three-page e-mail that employees obtain undated letters of resignation from school board members "that can be acted on by us at any time." (Read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story.)
The e-mail from Bakke appears to violate a primary tenet of the charter school movement, which is that schools should be independently governed by local leaders. It also appears to run afoul of nonprofit law and state charter school statutes.
"That is appalling. I am appalled," Jocelyn Strand, Missouri's state director of charter schools, said after reading the memo.
Bakke notes in the e-mail that it is just his "thoughts, observations and suggestions," not "an announcement of official policy" for the national company. It says on its Web site that it runs 74 public charter schools in 12 states, including Missouri, as well as the District of Columbia.
His executives said the company followed the law in each state and that the memo was nothing more than a discussion item.
The chief of national charter-school operator Imagine Schools advocates controlling school boards and limiting their authority in an e-mail obtained by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Dennis Bakke, who is CEO of the Arlington, Va.-based company, told his employees in the September 2008 missive that they should select board members who will "go along with Imagine." He also recommends in the three-page e-mail that employees obtain undated letters of resignation from school board members "that can be acted on by us at any time." (Read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story.)
The e-mail from Bakke appears to violate a primary tenet of the charter school movement, which is that schools should be independently governed by local leaders. It also appears to run afoul of nonprofit law and state charter school statutes.
"That is appalling. I am appalled," Jocelyn Strand, Missouri's state director of charter schools, said after reading the memo.
Bakke notes in the e-mail that it is just his "thoughts, observations and suggestions," not "an announcement of official policy" for the national company. It says on its Web site that it runs 74 public charter schools in 12 states, including Missouri, as well as the District of Columbia.
His executives said the company followed the law in each state and that the memo was nothing more than a discussion item.