Comments on: Oakland Charter Academy principal named to state board of education

By: Philip Hawes

Philip Hawes — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 04:59:58 +0000

Yes sometimes they went overboard- by today’s standards. My parents went to one-room school houses in Missouri and got their knuckles beaten bloody by mean school marms with rulers. Things change. The Lopezes are not up with what is socially acceptable today because they grew up in the ghetto; I guess that is their fault and society’s fault.
Anyway the kids at OCA learned a lot and were under a lot of stress, just as a lot of Asian kids are. I don’t think it’s healthy or good for society but neither is the crap that is going on at the public schools-kids getting a high school diploma but don’t know anything.
Well I am NOT teaching ever again. I am promoting my new tutoring site (www.tutoringhub.com) though. It’s a simple way for people to get a deal/discount on tutoring from top companies. People need tutors because kids don’t learn much in most schools (public AND private) these days.

By: teacher123

teacher123 — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:18:56 +0000

“laws were broken were mostly silly ones”……. I hate bureaucracy as well, but the laws they were breaking were the moral and ethical boundaries of a good person. If the boys talked to much in class they would say routinely “Oh if you like each other so much and need to flirt in class why don’t you stand up and hold hands in front of the class?!!? Now you’re going to stay like that until I say so”………mock homosexuality as a means to publicly humiliate adolescent boys???

As for his financial woes I’m glad his scam has finally caught up with him. He was cooking the books and finally got caught. His sham of an attendance rate now reveals itself for what it was, a way to create the illusion of a higher number of children therefore justify the move to bigger location that was financially linked to his partner in crime and mentor, Ben Chavis.

By: J.R.

J.R. — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:24:15 +0000

I should mention that I am not pro-charter(nor pro-NCLB for that matter), but I am “Pro-what works”. For certain kids these schools are perfect, rigid discipline to combat disrespect(a little like the military break down and rebuild concept). Teach the whole person to be contributors to society(like bees and ants who are productive)and not like slugs who pretty much just exist and take up space.There are too many “bred to be takers” in our society, and not enough “bred to be productive givers”. Therein lies the real core reason for our collapse.

By: Philip Ross Hawes

Philip Ross Hawes — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 23:50:50 +0000

I am on my cell so forgive my mistakes.
I have forgiven the Lopezes because I think the evil that they do do is for a good cause. Whatever laws were broken were mostly silly ones. They are on a mission and they have made mistakes along the way, some in the pursuit of justice and some in the pursuit of money.
As far as the accounting scandal, I can attest he has a sloppy accountant. My w-2s were riddled with errors, ss no., address, etc. Lopez might be an innocent in the whole thing. I do not know.

Philiphawes@yahoo.com

By: teacher123

teacher123 — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:23:44 +0000

The teachers were worse than the principal. It was a situation where ignorance bred a cycle of abuse. Teachers, parents, and the community – those charged with protecting and caring for their children willingly engaged in it. In fact they often boasted how proud they were of how “real” the school was and how their children were finally getting what they needed from a school…..authority. Yes I’m with you, “authority” was a thing disguise for emotional, and psychological abuse. There was a serious lack of personal responsibility among the staff – in fact they are still acting that way today. I came across one the other day. He now works at Santa Fe Elementary. Some how they find schools that function just like the one described above. He is still yelling, demeaning, and intimidating children. However this time they are even younger and it’s at a public school instead.

By: Sub Teacher

Sub Teacher — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:28:00 +0000

This message is to Lucia Moraes. Please look around there are like 5 blacks in the whole entire school. Now think about it – that school is located on International Blvd. Where there is a high amount of black folk. They are your neighbors, people walking on the street, employees who work behind the counters……but they certainly aren’t your peers at school are they? Now where could they be and who is responsible for not including them in your school?

By: Sub Teacher

Sub Teacher — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:22:44 +0000

The principal cheats the tests by hand picking the students, kicks out any kids that talk back, forces teachers to give faulty progress reports, and the protocol is to mark all students present (that would explain his bogus 87% attendance record improvement).

Jorge Lopez is not only a liar, but he also runs an emotionally abusive punitive system.

By: Sharon Higgins

Sharon Higgins — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 18:11:24 +0000

That’s right, Robert. The charter school movement has given birth to new forms of greed. It turns out that a free-market educational system means that more regulatory institutions and overseers, as well as more local, state, and federal investigators will be needed.

In Minnesota:

“The charter school movement in Minnesota is at least temporarily on the ropes, reeling from a series of recent revelations in the Star Tribune that focused on how some of the state’s approximately 150 charter schools have misused funds or failed to provide adequate oversight and accountability when it comes to leasing the buildings they occupy.

“Over the course of its investigation, the paper revealed that the state’s lease-aid payments to charters-funds targeted to help charter schools buy or build facilities-has skyrocketed from $1.1 million to $42.4 million in the past decade. Some of these payments have been tainted by blatant conflicts of interest among charter school administrators and builders, and by other attempts to derive private profit from loopholes in a state law originally intended to give these experimental schools more freedom to pursue innovations in education.”

http://politicsinminnesota.com/blog/2010/01/scandal-rocked-charter-movement-looks-to-future/

This was interesting, too: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/13/AR2008121302079.html

More and more charter schools is coming to mean the need for more and more charter school regulatory layers, as well as extra FBI and Justice Department folks, who are savvy to all the permutations of greed and can tease out all of the schemes. I wonder how much that monitoring and investigations is going to cost.

Charter schools are innovative after all. Just google “charter school misuse of funds”

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 04:07:00 +0000

Sharon-
here’s an article about Philly’s charter school problems…
http://www.examiner.com/a-2568983~Report__Philly_charter_schools_risk_taxpayer_money.html
excerpt is below… does this sound like it could be happening here? Should the Oakland Charter’s be looking out for this here?

….Investigators also found numerous charter schools with unusually high salaries for CEOs; “rubber stamp” trustee boards; failure to comply with the state’s right-to-know law; and shady leases with nonprofits tied to school executives.

“These arrangements bring into question whether the leasing agreements were negotiated at arm’s length and how the leasing costs were determined,” the report says.

The report’s recommendations include establishing an independent audit system; creating policies on conflict-of-interest, nepotism and fair-market value; and posting board minutes, contracts and annual financials on charter schools’ Web sites.

Butkovitz has said the investigation was prompted in part by the recent probe of a city charter school by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. That case sent two school officials to prison last year, essentially for taking kickbacks; a third committed suicide during the investigation….

By: Lucia Moraes

Lucia Moraes — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 04:21:08 +0000

Well…I GO to that school (im in 6th grade right now) and he is really hard working. He makes us belive that we can do it even if we are mexicans,black,chinese, or anything, and its true! He also makes winter tutoring,p.e tutoring, and etc. He might tell us to work hard and punish us for something we didnt do, but we are a class like Ms.Almasy says ”we are one whole, if someone talks that distracts someone and makes they’re focus on something else”..And YES Mr.Lopez did humiliate kids, But NOT me because i put my focus on my teachers and ALMOST everyone comes to school thats why we have a 90% attendance rate.LAURA you must have been a pretty BAD teacher , because if you dont push your students , they will wander off.Laura i wish you woul go to that school and say it in my face, i would give you the FACTS straight .And who ever HATES Mr.Lopez say it in his face. I’ll be glad to watch you getting proved wrong.Wanna contact for more info email me at:lucia0423@myspace.com i’ll be glad to help!