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| Mean Turkish Gulen Prinicipal was escorted off this campus by police County Takes Over Charter School Police Remove Director From Hanover Campus By Daniel de Vise Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, March 30, 2006 At the root of the dispute, sources said, is a clash of cultures and genders among the school staff. A charter school in Hanover has effectively ceased to exist as an independent entity following the removal of its director earlier this month by police at the request of the Anne Arundel school board. Public school officials closed the Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School on Monday. The campus reopened Tuesday with a new bell schedule, three new teachers and a changed lesson plan. Two administrators imported by the school system are running the school, and its founders say they have been shut out. An investigative report on the ouster of Jon Omural, the school's director, is due to be made public at week's end and may help settle the issue of whether the school board's actions were justified. In a news briefing Tuesday, Superintendent Nancy Mann and School Board President Konrad Wayson said intervention was necessary to correct mounting problems at the privately run public school. Their investigation began with a union grievance and uncovered evidence, they said, of teacher harassment, seesawing class sizes, spotty attendance by students and teachers, and unkept facilities. "We had some teachers who didn't understand that they had to be there the entire day," said Ken Nichols, acting deputy superintendent of schools. "The part-time teacher was teaching more hours than some of the full-time teachers." The unrest at Chesapeake sets back the struggling charter education movement in Maryland. Charter schools have been slow to spread in the state; a dozen of them have opened in Baltimore, two in Anne Arundel and one in Frederick County. Many of them have squabbled with the school boards that granted their charters, including the Knowledge Is Power Program, an established, successful charter-school network that opened near Annapolis last fall. Chesapeake's founders allege, among other things, that the Anne Arundel school board has played favorites with KIPP, whose middle-grades operation has been allowed to function without interruption. Mann, the superintendent, contends that KIPP's experienced leaders "knew what to do" and dealt with a handful of start-up problems "immediately." Founders of the Hanover school contend the school system has been against them from the beginning. They say that the complaints against Omural are petty, and that the remaining concerns were trumped up to justify a hostile takeover. "We don't have anyone in the school as of today," said Al Aksakalli, a member of the charter school's board. "If they want to make this work, they have to let us in." At the root of the dispute, sources said, is a clash of cultures and genders among the school staff. Chesapeake was founded by a group that included several Turkish-American scholars, some of them professors at local universities. The director and four teachers were Turkish-American men, while the instructional leader and three remaining teachers were native-born American women. The three female teachers filed a grievance two months ago with the county teachers union, alleging mistreatment by Omural. They said Omural allegedly retaliated against them. Among other things, the teachers accused Omural of denying them access to the Internet and of treating them as if they were of an inferior sex. Kisha Webster, the dean of students, said Omural narrowed her duties after she spoke out at a meeting of the charter school's board. School leaders deny that. Webster abruptly resigned in February, telling students in hand-delivered letters that she had "no trust and definitely no respect" for Omural and describing him as "inept." On March 3, representatives of the teachers union met with school system officials and described deep "relationship problems" between the director and the female teachers. "The picture that was painted was fairly vivid," Nichols said. On March 6, three police cars arrived at the Hanover campus to relieve Omural of command. The school board imported a retired educator as acting principal. A subsequent investigation found teachers being assigned too many students, working erratic hours or assigned administrative duties, Nichols said. The rented classroom space allegedly required three days of cleaning because it was so dirty, he said. "The only thing they did was buff the floors," Aksakalli said. The three teachers who filed the grievance were replaced. They were "insistent that they no longer be at the school," Nichols said. Founders of the charter school say the case against them doesn't amount to much. They consider the allegations against the Turkish-American leadership by the non-Turkish teachers trivial at best, prejudiced at worst. They point out that most of the parents remain loyal, even after the disruptions of recent weeks. Eleven students have withdrawn since Omural's removal, leaving enrollment at 108 at the middle school. Aksakalli says the school still has a waiting list. A handful of parents have complained to the school board; board members concur that most seem satisfied with the academic program. School founders say the school system used the union grievance as a pretext to dismantle the school, essentially locking out its independent board, canceling after-school activities and clubs and installing a new class schedule that more closely resembles that of a standard middle school. "We've asked for a meeting at least 15 times in the last two weeks. They're not giving us an appointment," Aksakalli said. "They're not telling us what the charges against Jon [Omural] are. We don't have a list; we don't have anything." FOOTNOTE: JON OMURAL NOW WORKS FOR ERBU TV, THE FAMILY GULEN CHANNEL AS A PUBLIC RELATIONS MANAGER.
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MEDIA CONTACT: | |
Jon Omural | |
VP, Business Development & HR, EBRU TV | |
732 560 0800 (office) | |
http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/chesapeake-point-charters-fate-school-board
Chesapeake Point Charter?s fate up to the school board
By: 02/23/08 5:00 AM
Examiner Staff Writer
The fate of Chesapeake Science Point Charter School now rests with the school board. One month ago, Superintendent Kevin Maxwell gave the Hanover school until Feb. 23 to "cure" several shortcomings at the school, including hiring and retaining a qualified special education teacher and submitting plans on how it utilizes program spaces.
"I think it?s certainly fair to say there?s been significant progress in the last month and increased communication with the school," said school system spokesman Bob Mosier on Friday.
School system officials are now analyzing the progress to determine what the school has actually accomplished.
The school, which opened in 2005 and enrolls 218 sixth- through ninth-graders, has been on probation since the 2006-2007 school year.
Maxwell will now formulate a recommendation for the school board to consider on March 5, ranging from keeping the school on probation to closing the school.
Regardless of the decision, the school will remain open at least through the end of the year, Mosier said.
School spokesman Spear Lancaster remains optimistic that the school has addressed the school system?s concerns. The school, for instance, has hired two part-time special education teachers for about five students with special needs.
"We?ve got them pretty much covered," he said.
Besides improving special education, the school needed to provide plans on how they utilize their current building, and submit documents for a new facility they hoped to attain to expand to ninth and 10th grades.
Lancaster said next year?s plans to acquire a new building or even expand the building, however, were abandoned for cost concerns.
The school will now only enroll middle school students in sixth through eighth grade next year, thus eliminating the need for building documents.
Parents share Lancaster?s enthusiasm at the school?s potential for staying open.
"It was a wake-up call to the Chesapeake Science Point governing board," said Cheri Winterton, of Severn, parent of a sixth-grader at the school. "Now, it?s time to go back and focus on the education at the school."
jkowalkowski@baltimoreexaminer.com
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/chesapeake-point-charters-fate-school-board#ixzz1PeyJQJRo
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