Imagine schools' real estate deals fuel company growth
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Students arrive for school at Imagine Academy for success Friday Oct. 21, 2011. Parents rave about the approach of Imagine schools in the St. Louis area despite their low performance compared to St. Louis Public Schools; which could hasten their closure. Photo by Christian Gooden, cgooden@post-dispatch.com
ST. LOUIS • When students first entered Imagine Academy of Academic Success four years ago, their school was already entangled in a complex series of real estate deals — ones that would divert dollars from their education.
By the time they were on their first summer break, their brown brick building at 1409 East Linton Avenue had been sold three times, the final price nearly 10 times higher than the first. In the process, the company running the school — along with a small group of other players — cashed in.
Imagine Schools Inc., the nation's largest charter school operator, runs six charter schools in St. Louis. Together, their performance on state standardized exams is worse than any school district in Missouri.
Nevertheless, those schools are generating millions of dollars for Imagine and a Kansas City-based real estate investment company through real estate
Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/article_dbf9b959-0c73-586c-97e7-6fca3a729b39.html#ixzz1cOPj97VO