Teachers don't show after charter fails to pay them
A new Columbus charter school failed to pay its employees last week, leading some educators to walk off the job, its founder said yesterday.
The 40-student Barnett Academy of Columbus-East, at 4300 Kimberly Parkway N. on the East Side, is trying to work out a plan to pay its staff, said founder Thurron E. Barnett, 42. He wouldn’t say what led to the financial problems.
“Currently, we are working on that to get that resolved this week,” Barnett said.
The state paid the school about $84,000 through last month, Ohio Department of Education spokesman John Charlton said. The state estimates the school would receive $337,500 this school year. The department has fielded complaints about the pay situation, which it reported to Barnett’s sponsor to resolve, Charlton said.
That sponsor, the North Central Ohio Educational Services Center, is the same organization that sponsored two Columbus charters shuttered about two weeks ago by the state, which said that conditions were deplorable