After Duval charter school closes, many ask: Where's the money?
Founder shuttered two other schools, has prior record of bankruptcy
Dennis Mope’s dream of running a network of military-themed charter schools for at-risk students ended quickly and with little warning this month in Jacksonville and Orlando.
Two of Mope’s Acclaim Academy charter schools closed abruptly, displacing hundreds of students just three weeks before the end of the school year.
A third school in Kissimmee was supposed to close in March but Osceola County’s school district took it over last month and will keep it open until the school year ends in June.
Five other of Mope’s planned Acclaim Academies never got off the ground.
Although one received district approval to open in Palm Beach next August, the plan was scrapped. Four other charter school applications in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Volusia and Lee counties were all withdrawn, some before they were rejected by the school districts involved.
In Jacksonville, the fallout was immediate and unexpected.
Parents of 229 students scrambled over three days to find new schools for their children. Some students still had to take final tests or state-mandated exams at new schools.
Duval County School Board members said they are not sure why the school “ran out of money” and had to close, saying the children were hurt most.
“They should be focused on passing their exams; they shouldn’t have to worry about what school they’re going to go to,” said Becki Couch, a School Board member, “all because their charter school [operator] didn’t have its act together.”
Scott Shine, another Duval County School Board member wrote that “The actions of Acclaim are, at minimum, irresponsible and reckless. This could go much deeper,” in an email.
Acclaim’s teachers were shocked to find out that their last paycheck, issued late April or early May, was to be their last. Some teachers, who had arranged for the school to save parts of their paycheck to repay them over the summer, were told not to expect it.
Some Duval School Board members questioned what the school district knew, and when, about Acclaim Academy’s troubles.
“We knew they were beginning the school year under a deficit,” Couch wrote in an email to Duval Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.
“Do you think the Board should have been notified of the declining financial status of the school so we could make the determination how we wanted to proceed so as not to disrupt student academic learning during this pivotal time of the year? I am disturbed that we have been completely blind-sided by this when according to state statute the Charter School is required to provide an annual audit report and monthly financial statements.”
Vitti said that the early school closures were Acclaim’s decisions, not the district’s.
Unlike Osceola County, Duval schools was unwilling to take over the Jacksonville Acclaim Academy, even for the final three weeks, because that would cost about $500,000 plus the temporary hiring of school staff, which included teachers Duval had let go, Vitti wrote.
But Vitti is requesting that the district or the state conduct an audit of the school’s finances, “in case of malfeasance.”
Through it all, Acclaim Academy’s founder has yet to answer questions.
Dennis Mope, an Orlando-area businessman, said “no comment” to news crews on the scene of the Orlando school closure, and he did not return phone calls or emails about After Duval charter school closes, many ask: Where's the money? | jacksonville.com:
