Veteran teachers calling it a career | The Columbus Dispatch

Veteran teachers calling it a career | The Columbus Dispatch:

Veteran teachers calling it a career

Changing pension, testing requirements discourage educators from continuing in classroom

 Ohio teachers have been heading to the exits in large numbers in recent years, propelled by changes in the state’s teacher-pension program.

Leaders of the State Teachers Retirement System anticipate another uptick in teacher retirements this year with new rules taking effect in August. But several teachers offer another explanation for their departure: a changing education climate that relies on more testing.

“I don’t know if I was ready to leave in some ways,” said Jack Minot, a science teacher at Bexley High School who is retiring after 33 years. “But I do feel affected by the new rules of testing. I feel like that’s become the dominant priority. I don’t feel like it’s something I’m willing to accept as a dominant priority.”

Ohio schools started administering new state assessments this year that are tougher and take longer to complete than the tests the state previously used. That’s in addition to other exams that educators give, such as district tests that identify student skills and help teachers better focus their instruction. Many also have to administer assessments that measure student growth, as part of their teacher evaluations.

“I just don’t have the energy to do the good teaching the way it needs to be done and jump through the increasing number of hoops the state government and the district administration are requiring,” said Ellie Wiseman, an English teacher at Pickerington Central High School who is retiring after 43 years in the classroom.

STRS doesn’t track the reasons that educators are retiring, but 2015 looks to be a year when a lot of them will wrap up their careers, spokesman Nick Treneff said.

According to STRS, fiscal years 2012 and 2013 were peak years, with 7,613 retirements and 7,658 retirements, respectively. Fiscal year 2014 dropped to a more typical pace of 5,875 retirements.

Workers are waiting for retirement applications for June and July but note that, so far, fiscal year 2015 is tracking closer to the 2013 pace.

Teachers have been able to retire at any age and get full benefits if they have worked for 30 years. But the age and years-of-service requirements rise in August under changes in the STRS pension-reform plan approved in 2012. Teachers who want to retire early would take a bigger hit financially if they do so after the changes take effect.

As a result, districts were bracing for a retirement flood. In some places, such as Hilliard, Gahanna-Jefferson and Worthington, it wasn’t quite as big as administrators expected.

“We were anticipating a large number,” said Roy Walker, director of human resources at Hilliard schools. Walker expected the teacher retirement numbers to reach 50 this year; so far, 36 have announced their plans. There were 39 retirements last year.

Some teachers who were eligible to retire said they couldn’t afford it and needed to work a few more years before calling it a career, Walker said.

Columbus, however, is facing 217 retirements — the most in the past five years. Spokesman Jeff Warner attributes that to the changes in teacher pensions.

School leaders in Bexley, Pickerington and Whitehall also have noticed an uptick in the number of retirees this year.

Several retiring teachers offered their reasons for heading to the exits.

Phil Peters, who taught social studies in Gahanna-Jefferson for 35 years, is retiring because he has hit a “sweet spot” with STRS. (Also, he wants to do some hiking while his legs still work.)

Tim Jones, a special-needs teacher at Groveport Madison South Middle School, still plans to stay in education after 30 years of teaching. He recently published a book, The Caring Teacher: Using Compassion To Connect With Kids, and hopes to provide professional development to educators.

Carolyn Dougherty, a social-studies teacher at Hilliard Tharp Sixth Grade School, knew it was time to stop.

“I did not want to be one of those teachers that kept on teaching because I can,” said Dougherty, who has taught for 36 years. “The demands that are being made on teachers today are extremely difficult, and the amount of time that we spend on testing is ridiculous.”Veteran teachers calling it a career | The Columbus Dispatch:

cboss@dispatch.com

At NYSUT convention, members blame Cuomo | Capital New York

At NYSUT convention, members blame Cuomo | Capital New York:

At NYSUT convention, members blame Cuomo

BUFFALO—During her annual “state of the union” speech, New York State United Teachers president Karen Magee saluted an instigator who motivated the organization’s 600,000 members over the last year.

“Of course, we had some unexpected help in mobilizing members,” Magee said on Friday night, addressing 2,000 local union delegates gathered for the group’s annual convention, held this year in downtown Buffalo. “I would be remiss if I did not pause for a moment to acknowledge the greatest union organizer in modern New York state history: Governor Andrew Cuomo.”

The crowd first laughed and cheered, then quickly turned to booing. Some attendees hissed. One screamed, “Loser!”

“You didn’t think I’d forget him, right?” Magee said.

That wasn’t the first or last time teachers disparaged Cuomo at NYSUT’s convention this weekend. The governor was the target of virtually every criticism, the butt of every joke, the villain in every anecdote.

Magee and other speakers offered little criticism of the state Board of Regents and education department, as the union has in the past. The governor, after his recent push for stricter teacher evaluations and more charter schools, among other reforms, is it.

The position of the union's No. 1 enemy was, arguably, held previously by former state education commissioner John King.

King is no longer the commissioner; he left the role at the end of 2014 for a federal post. But there was no mention of his deputies, who have carried on the implementation of his agenda throughout the search for his replacement. And there were few, if any, mentions of Board of Regents chancellor Merryl Tisch, who, with King, has become a lightning rod in the controversy over the implementation of the Common Core standards, related testing and teacher evaluations based on students’ scores.

Rather, Magee and other leaders celebrated the election of new regents to the powerful education policymaking panel and pledged to work collaboratively with them to improve the evaluation system. The recent state budget gave Tisch and her colleagues some power in developing the ratings.

Union leaders mentioned King a few times, but their mocking lacked the energy of previous years. They apparently credit themselves with his decision to leave.

“One of our first actions a year ago was to deliver this body’s unprecedented vote of no confidence to [King],” Magee said during her speech. “He was ultimately ‘inspired,’ brothers and sisters,” she said, using air quotes, “to relocate to Washington, D.C.”

The crowd laughed.

American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, who addressed the crowd on Saturday afternoon, thanked NYSUT members “very much for sending him down to D.C.”

Their few mentions of Tisch’s powerful education policymaking panel revolved around the union’s intention to work with the board to mitigate the harm of Cuomo’s evaluation system on teachers.

“Now consider this: in no small part because of our advocacy, today, New York state has four new regents—every single one of them with actual experience as educators in New York public schools,” Magee said during her speech. “Imagine that.”

Catalina Fortino, NYSUT vice president, who works most closely with the regents on education policy, said the union would “bring the state to the table for a new accountability system."

“A new system that includes authentic and multiple measures, one that rejects junk science and one that advances professional growth for quality teaching and learning,” she said during a Saturday afternoon speech. “So as we push forward in our collective work, we know that we will be on the right side of history.”

At one point during the convention, when organizers held a drive to raise voluntary donations from members to support the union’s political activism, a NYSUT leader sold a life-size cardboard cut-out picture of Cuomo to a member who pledged $100.

When discussing a resolution regarding how to address bullying teachers might experience from their supervisors in schools, a member rose to argue that Cuomo has been the ultimate bully.

And at a Friday afternoon outdoor rally that kicked off the convention, the president of a group representing SUNY professors wore a black T-shirt displaying a picture of Cuomo’s face and one word: “Wrong.”

“That’s why we are here today—to tell Andrew Cuomo and all of his wealthy friends that he is wrong,” Fred Kowal, United University Professions president, said while showing off his apparel to a crowd of mostly teachers but also auto and steel workers who gathered steps from Buffalo’s city hall for the sunny protest.

If the union continues their fight, “not only will Andrew Cuomo be wrong,” Kowal At NYSUT convention, members blame Cuomo | Capital New York:

Outside Influence: Despite big spending, vouchers remain banned in Tennessee - The Commercial Appeal

Outside Influence: Despite big spending, vouchers remain banned in Tennessee - The Commercial Appeal:

Outside Influence: Despite big spending, vouchers remain banned in Tennessee

 After years of lobbying, millions of dollars from in-state and out-of-state advocacy groups and the support of the governor and other legislative leaders, school vouchers are still banned in Tennessee.

Republican lawmakers and conservative groups are more likely to support what they call “opportunity scholarships,” public funds to offset the cost of private school education for some students. And with the GOP supermajority at the General Assembly, many issues backed by conservative groups have become law.

But not always in education. Apart from a limited program to allow vouchers for special-needs students passed this year, there have been just enough Republican lawmakers to join with Democrats in beating back vouchers. The bill to let parents choose to transform their school into a charter school — known as the parent trigger bill — also failed.

“Unfortunately, (the voucher) bill was stalled for a number of reasons. Lobbying groups representing district school boards, for instance, claimed budgetary concerns while groups like ours pointed to school choice having a positive educational impact for students,” said Ted Boyatt, spokesman for an organization calledStudentsFirst.

Outside spending

California-based StudentsFirst was created by former Washington, D.C., school chief Michelle Rhee, the former wife of polarizing Tennessee education head Kevin Huffman. The organization also goes locally by the name Tennessee Parents/Teachers Putting Students First, and has advocated for vouchers since the end of 2012.

It spent as much as $213,907 on lobbying in 2014, with its political action committee spending $573,917 during the two years leading up to the 2014 election, according to state finance records.

Washington, D.C.-based Tennessee Federation for Children, the state chapter of the American Federation for Children, spent as much as $150,000 on lobbying in 2014 and $606,345 during the 2014 campaign cycle, according to campaign finance records.

It didn’t work. One Democrat, former Rep. Gloria Johnson, was ousted, but other Democrat targets — including Nashville Reps.Darren Jernigan and Jason Powell — survived campaign onslaughts from outside groups.

Although Tommy Schultz, a spokesman for the Tennessee Federation for Children, argued the money helped elect “school choice” candidates, the voucher bill continues to die in a House finance subcommittee.

“Our public education system is the bedrock of our communities and their success and it is not for sale,” said Lyn Hoyt, a spokeswoman for Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence, a group advocating against vouchers. “Citizens see through a lot of this paid PR agenda to sway public opinion if they are experiencing the changes in the system. The changes have been so swift and painful, Outside Influence: Despite big spending, vouchers remain banned in Tennessee - The Commercial Appeal:

Play of the Day: Barack Obama Wants At Least One Child Left Behind - Oversight - GovExec.com

Play of the Day: Barack Obama Wants At Least One Child Left Behind - Oversight - GovExec.com:

Play of the Day: Barack Obama Wants At Least One Child Left Behind

 Late-night television hosts were still processing Vermont Senator Bernie Sandersentrance into the 2016 race over the weekend. Real Time's Bill Maher joked about Sanders' socialist affiliation and his unique biography, while The Tonight Show's Jimmy Fallon showed video of a particularly uplifting speech.

Last Week Tonight's main story Sunday covered the practice of standardized testing in American schools. Host John Oliver looked at the federal mandates placed on schools by George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind plan, including comparing the program's name to loving a puppy.

Speaking of education, President Barack Obama visited a DC school last week and was interviewed by a student. The student cut the president off, promoting both Saturday Night Live and Fallon to joke about the kid's educational prospects after insulting the American leader.

Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association: Justice Alito’s Invitation Accepted | ACS

Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association: Justice Alito’s Invitation Accepted | ACS:

Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association: Justice Alito’s Invitation Accepted

More Legal Attacks on Teachers

by Ann C. Hodges, Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law

In a blog post following the Supreme Court’s decision last term in Harris v. Quinn, I predicted that the constitutionality of union fair share fees would soon be back at the Court. It took little prescience to make such a prediction and indeed, the plaintiffs in Friederichs v. California Teachers’ Association worked mightily to get the case on the Court’s docket as quickly as possible. The Court will decide whether to grant cert in the near future.

Although this issue will no doubt return repeatedly to the Court, it should decline to hear the case. The 1977 decision of the Court in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education correctly concluded that fair share fees are constitutional, and the decision should not be disturbed.Abood allows the union to charge for its mandated representational duties, but not for political expenditures. In this context, the objectors’ first amendment interests are reduced and the interests of the government employer that has entered into an agreement with the union enhanced. Justice Alito suggested in Harris, however, that all union activity in the government sector implicates the highest first amendment interests. This is at odds with the Court’s cases on the first amendment interests of public employees following Abood.

In recent years, the Court has held that the government has stronger interests in restraining speech when it acts as an employer. Accordingly, when employees speak pursuant to their job duties, their speech is unprotected. Additionally, when an employee’s speech is about an internal workplace grievance, it is similarly unprotected by the first amendment. It is precisely these grievances that the union is obliged to handle for all employees regardless of membership.  If speaking about the grievance is unprotected, why is compelling the unwilling employee to pay for this otherwise unprotected speech an interference with first amendment rights?  Further, Justice Alito’s Harris opinion suggests that when one employee asks for a raise, the speech is unprotected but when the union asks for a raise on behalf of all employees, it is high order political speech which the employee cannot be compelled to support.  As Justice Kagan pointed out in the Harris dissent, the fact that it takes more money to pay multiple employees does not transform the character of the speech when the substance, asking for a raise, is the same.

There are many other reasons for the Court to deny cert. Abood has been settled law for almost 40 years, Justice Alito’s efforts notwithstanding. As Justice Kagan ably pointed out inHarris, principles of stare decisis, including the reliance interests of thousands of employers and unions and millions of employees, counsel restraint. Moreover, as I have argued in earlier posts, fair share agreements are an essential pillar of the system of labor relations that has served our country well for 80 years.  And finally, as pointed out in the opposition to cert, the record in this case has not been developed, as the plaintiffs rushed to accept Justice Alito’s invitation for an opportunity to overrule Abood.

When one takes a step back from the details of the cases and looks at the big picture, it is clear that the issue of fair share fees is about power and politics. While some may philosophically object to the requirement to pay fees despite the union’s legal obligation to represent all employees, many are looking for a way to reduce union resources.

Whether the ultimate desire is to reduce the size of government, to elect more Republicans, or to implement more conservative policies, limiting the power of unions is one route to success.  And today, the more powerful unions are government unions, which represent more than one third of the government workforce, as compared to private sector unions with less than 7 percent representation. Despite the high representation rate in the public sector, however, the power of the unions is dwarfed by the opposition. 

The cases challenging union fees are not financed by employees, but by powerful conservative interest groups. In an ironic twist on the theme of attacking the fair share fee requirement, fee payers, represented by a powerful law firm that typically advocates for employers, recently filed a different kind of first amendment challenge. These plaintiffs complain that their speech rights are violated because they cannot obtain the benefits of union membership without paying full dues, which subsidize activities objectionable to them. The goal of all these challenges is not to enhance speech, but to reduce it.  Individual voices are far less powerful alone than when exercised collectively. If the vehicle for collective voice is silenced or diminished, the power of opposition groups is increased.

Despite efforts to portray the union fee cases as involving the special interests of powerful unions, those who value speech should be deeply concerned. Those who fear the consolidation of corporate power should be concerned as well.  We may be heartened by the Court’s failure to overrule Abood in Harris v. Quinn. It is clear that Justice Alito and others are itching to send Abood to the dustbin, but apparently did not have sufficient votes inHarris.  One hopes that the better part of wisdom will prevail and that it was not merely the vehicle that led to the result. The relentless attacks on union fees will continue to return to the Court, however, because of the powerful interests pushing them. Those concerned about preserving multiple voices in our society must be vigilant.

Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association

 Pending petition

Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
14-915	9th Cir.	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD

Issue: (1) Whether Abood v. Detroit Bd. of Ed. should be overruled and public-sector “agency shop” arrangements invalidated under the First Amendment; and (2) whether it violates the First Amendment to require that public employees affirmatively object to subsidizing nonchargeable speech by public-sector unions, rather than requiring that employees affirmatively consent to subsidizing such speech.

SCOTUSblog Coverage

• Petition of the day

Date	Proceedings and Orders
Jan 26 2015	Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due March 2, 2015)
Feb 19 2015	Order extending time to file response to petition to and including April 1, 2015, for all respondents.
Feb 24 2015	Brief amicus curiae of Pacific Legal Foundation filed.
Feb 27 2015	Brief amicus curiae of National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund filed.
Feb 27 2015	Brief amicus curiae of Mackinac Center for Public Policy filed.
Feb 27 2015	Brief amicus curiae of Goldwater Institute filed.
Feb 27 2015	Brief amici curiae of Consitutional Law Professors, et al. filed.
Feb 27 2015	Waiver of right of respondent Elliott Duchon to respond filed.
Mar 2 2015	Brief amici curiae of Former California Governor Pete Wilson, et al. filed.
Mar 2 2015	Brief amici curiae of Kaneland, Illinois Unified School District #302 Administrative Support Staff filed.
Mar 2 2015	Brief amicus curiae of The Cato Institute filed.
Mar 2 2015	Brief amici curiae of Michigan and Eight Other States filed.
Mar 30 2015	Waiver of right of respondent Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General of California to respond filed.
Apr 1 2015	Brief of respondents California Teachers Association, et al. in opposition filed.
Apr 14 2015	Reply of petitioners Rebecca Friedrichs, et al. filed.
Apr 15 2015	DISTRIBUTED for Conference of May 1, 2015.
Apr 27 2015	Response Requested . (Due May 27, 2015)

Update The Buzz on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Standardized Testing (HBO)

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Standardized Testing (HBO)

American students face a ridiculous amount of testing. John Oliver explains how standardized tests impact school funding, the achievement gap, how often kids are expected to throw up.

John Oliver Explains Why Standardized Tests Are Bullsh*t http://uproxx.it/1bWAkhM

John Oliver Rips Education Process Every Student Experiences: ‘Fastest Way to Terrorize Any Child’ http://bit.ly/1bWxTvF

Watch John Oliver Give Failing Marks to Standardized Testing | TIME http://ti.me/1bWy8H7

John Oliver Explains Everything That's Wrong With Standardized Testing http://huff.to/1GVbFI6

John Oliver Rips Standardized Testing With Help From a Dancing Monkey on ‘Last Week Tonight’ - Speakeasy - WSJ http://on.wsj.com/1bWyIEG

John Oliver perfectly sums up everything that’s wrong with standardized testing - Salon.com http://bit.ly/1bWzcL7

Palm Beach County student’s words send John Oliver on testing rant | Extra Credit http://pbpo.st/1bWziCy

John Oliver Puts Standardized Testing To The Test On 'Last Week Tonight' And It Fails Miserably : T-Lounge : Tech T... http://bit.ly/1bWzrG7

John Oliver Rips Education Process Every Student Experiences: ‘Fastest Way to Terrorize Any Child’ http://bit.ly/1bWxTvF

Let John Oliver Explain How Standardized Testing Makes Kids Anxious and Vomit Under Pressure | Mother Jones http://bit.ly/1bWAaXL

John Oliver jumps in the fight against standardized-testing mania http://bit.ly/1bWAsxH

Fraud, Waste, and Lies: Charter Schools Cheating Communities Out of Millions of Dollars | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

Fraud, Waste, and Lies: Charter Schools Cheating Communities Out of Millions of Dollars | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community:

Fraud, Waste, and Lies: Charter Schools Cheating Communities Out of Millions of Dollars

New report warns that, due to lack of oversight, 'vast majority of the fraud perpetrated by charter officials will go undetected'

 Accepting and soliciting bribes. Diverting public funds for personal profit. Lying about the number of students. These are just a few examples of the fraud and malfeasance committed by charter school officials—cheating communities out of millions dollars that were supposed to go to education, a new report finds.

The Tip of the Iceberg: Charter School Vulnerabilities to Waste, Fraud, and Abuse (pdf) was released Tuesday by the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS) and the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD).

It concludes that, in 15 states alone—a third of states with charter schools—such waste cost more than $200 million.

This number is significantly higher than estimates released last year by CPD, which identified at least $136 million lost to fraud and waste. The revised figure of $203 million includes "all of the cases from the 2014 report, $23 million in new cases, and $44 million in additional cases not included in  the 2014 report," the study states.

"Charter schools act like they have a 'get out of accountability free' card," Jonathan Stith, spokesperson for AROS, said in a press statement. "Two-hundred-million dollars that was supposed to go to schools and classrooms is just gone. And that's likely to be the tip of the iceberg, given the lack of transparency or standards applied to charter schools."

However, the report warns, "The number of instances of serious fraud uncovered by whistleblowers, reporters, and investigations suggests that the fraud problem extends well beyond the cases we know about. According to standard forensic auditing methodologies, the deficiencies in charter oversight throughout the country suggest that federal, state, and local governments stand to lose more than $1.4 billion in 2015."

"The vast majority of the fraud perpetrated by charter officials will go undetected because the federal government, the states, and local charter authorizers lack the oversight necessary to detect the fraud," the report adds.

 The report cited numerous examples of such transgressions in charter schools from California to Ohio, including the case of a Washington, D.C. institution, highlighted in asummary of the findings:

The DC Public Charter School Board unanimously revoked the charter of Dorothy I. Height Community Academy Public Charter School—which enrolled 1,600 students across three campuses and an online academy—after the school’s founder, Kent Amos, was accused of diverting funds from the school for his personal profit. Despite evidence that Amos—who is currently being sued by the 

Fraud, Waste, and Lies: Charter Schools Cheating Communities Out of Millions of Dollars | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community:

Charter school dissolves amid charges of nepotism, fiscal mismanagement, enrollment fraud - News - recordnet.com - Stockton, CA

Charter school dissolves amid charges of nepotism, fiscal mismanagement, enrollment fraud - News - recordnet.com - Stockton, CA:

Charter school dissolves amid charges of nepotism, fiscal mismanagement, enrollment fraud

STOCKTON — Renew Virtual Academies, a charter school in the New Jerusalem School District, has been dissolved and its roughly 80 students absorbed into other sites amid allegations of fiscal mismanagement, nepotism and enrollment fraud against the school's founder.

Among the charges were that CEO Ellen Ringer hired her son, Deputy Executive Director of Business Services Christopher Walenta, at an annual salary of nearly $100,000 and paid other relatives without disclosing the relationships, New Jerusalem School District officials confirmed.

Ringer and Walenta were forced by trustees of the Renew Virtual Academies board to resign earlier this year after district officials discovered budget discrepancies late last year and looked further into the charter school’s management, New Jerusalem Superintendent David Thoming said. Criminal charges potentially could follow.

“By the first week in January, we realized that they were over-reporting the amount of students they had in order to make their budget work,” he said, adding that Ringer reported enrollment to determine state Average Daily Attendance funding “roughly double” the actual number of about 80 students. The school’s original charter petition projected 200 students in the 2014-15 school year; her son’s director position was not included in the proposal.

“At that point we questioned why she still had on her payroll a chief financial officer who was making a pretty decent amount of money, and we received an email back from her telling us how great this individual was and how indispensable to the organization he has been to start, and the last sentence in the email said, ‘and this has nothing to do with the fact that this is my son,’ ” Thoming said. “And at the point we realized that we had a much bigger problem.”

Ringer, of Rocklin, declined an interview request, responding to questions submitted by email.

“Neither myself nor any of the leadership of RVA did anything illegal or immoral," she said in an email Thursday.

Ringer approached New Jerusalem in 2013 about granting a charter targeting “those students who are really kind of the forgotten students in our community, the teenage mothers, the students that drop out in their senior year, the students that get forgotten by the traditional system,” Thorning said.

In a letter and job offer to Walenta dated March 1, 2014, Ringer wrote that he had been working as an independent contractor for the school and earning $7,500 per month since January 2014, and offered him an annual compensation of $96,000 plus executive-level benefits as well as permission to telecommute for two weeks of each month from his Lone Tree, Colorado, home.

Chase Bank statements listed under the Renew Virtual Academy name, the same account where grant funds were deposited, show charges for airplane tickets, hotels, restaurants and other expenses that Ringer declined to explain when contacted.

In an email Wednesday, Ringer said her son’s salary was “approved independently by RVA's Board of Directors and determined by an outside agency … (that) based his salary on his qualifications and experience.” Walenta’s résumé lists no educational experience, but it does list “guest relations” and “customer service” management positions at the Elephant Bar and Chili’s and a supervisorial position at Sprint for the DeVry University graduate.

Three of the four members of the charter school’s board were appointed by Ringer, state documents show, including a co-founder of the company run by Ringer. A fourth, Delta Charter Schools Superintendent Jeff Tilton, who served as authorizing representative and ran for San Joaquin County superintendent of schools last year, said he never was informed of the relationship between Ringer and her son or other family members and resigned immediately when he found out.

In addition, Walenta’s wife, Corey, was approved for $10,000 for independent contractor work in January 2014 from funds received from the federal Public Charter School Grant Program, a contract agreement shows.

“We found out not only had she hired her son, she had also hired her daughter-in-law, her sister, and there are some payments that we can’t quite figure out to the father of her son — the level of nepotism there is astounding,” Thoming said.  

In addition to state funding of $926,435, Ringer reported in 2014-15 documents filed with the state, Renew Virtual Academy was awarded a $375,000 Public Charter Schools Grant Program Planning and Implementation Grant in September 2013, the California Department of Education reported, and an additional $250,000 loan from the Charter School Revolving Loan Fund Program in 2013-14. Coming in at more than $1.5 million, that’s nearly $20,000 per student, roughly twice what the school should have received for 80 students.

In light of their discoveries, New Jerusalem officials asked the San Joaquin County Office of Education to investigate; the county office has requested an audit from the state’s Fiscal Crisis Management Assessment Team, a quasi-governmental agency created by the Legislature.

“If (that team) suspects illegal activity when they’re done, they’ll refer findings to the D.A.’s Office,” said Zachary K. Johnson, a spokesman for the county office. “When a school closes midyear, it is a disruptive thing,” not just to the students but to their families and teachers."

New Jerusalem tried to keep the school open but realized its finances were “too far upside Charter school dissolves amid charges of nepotism, fiscal mismanagement, enrollment fraud - News - recordnet.com - Stockton, CA: