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Sunday, April 26, 2015

How Sweet It IS…to be Phalen Leadership Academy | gaylecosby

How Sweet It IS…to be Phalen Leadership Academy | gaylecosby:

How Sweet It IS…to be Phalen Leadership Academy








 2015-4-28 IPS_PLA_1321 Agreement

I just had to make you all aware of the sweetest deal in the history of sweet deals.  Next week IPS will be briefed (Tuesday night at 6pm) and vote (Thursday night at 6pm) on a contract with Phalen Academy to take over the operations of school 103, on Indy’s far east side.
For more history on how this deceptive deal came to pass, please see my previous blog post on the Innovation Network Process.
Let’s dissect this agreement, shall we?
What IPS provides: A free building, complete with water, sewer, electricity, heating and cooling, snow removal and lawn maintenance, factilities maintenance, security services,transportation.
IPS even throws in a few copier machines for good measure.
IPS also will provide the staffing and oversight for ALL SPECIAL EDUCATION and ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER programs.
WHAT IPS PAYS:  This is where the contract gets a little murky for me.  If you are a mathmetician or a lawyer, and I’ve made a mistake reading the contract, please let me know.  Here is what I gathered from the document:
$635.91 PER MONTH, per student, payable on the first business day of each month (CONTRACT DOES NOT SPECIFY DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR, SO I’M ASSUMING 12 MONTHS PER YEAR) $7630.92 per student.  That is equivalent or more than the entire financial allotment per student that IPS would be receiving based on the funding formula.
PLUS:
A “FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT FEE” Which Begins at 10% of the Monthly Payment amount, then decreases by 1% each year following… So add $63.51 per student per month…
In case you didn’t think the deal could get any sweeter than that…
PLUS:
$175,000 “PREOPERATIONAL FUNDS” TO GET STARTED WITH!!
I’m beside myself. If we poured this many resources into ANY OF OUR schools, we’d all be passing the stupid tests.  What are we doing that mirrors this for our own teachers in our own buildings??
As always, if you have comments or questions – email me at gayle_cosby@yahoo.com
Thoughts are my own, not reflective of official district viewpoints…obviously.
If you’re as pissed as I am, come to the board meeting.  Sign up to be a delegate by calling 226-4418 (although we might have missed the deadline on this one, folks).How Sweet It IS…to be Phalen Leadership Academy | gaylecosby: