No, this sleepy tight knit community of West Springfield, MA (28,000 pop) is prepared for Gulen
charter school and educating themselves
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/04/west_springfield_mayor_will_re_25.html
WEST SPRINGFIELD -- Mayor William C. Reichelt is seeking support against a new charter school that he believes will have a "deleterious impact" on West Springfield Public Schools and lead to higher taxes for city residents.
The Chicopee-based Hampden Charter School of Science has received approval from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to open a western branch at a former Catholic Church compound on Main Street in West Springfield. The new school poses a direct threat to West Side's finances and school system, according to Reichelt, who is encouraging people to ask the state education commissioner to reconsider allowing the school to open at 475-485 Main St.
"While it may not be my place to wade into the school choice debate, or to say whether all charters are necessarily good or bad, I can say with great confidence that the West Springfield Public Schools are working and are providing excellent education to our students. The opening of HCSS threatens that progress," the mayor said Tuesday.
Publicly funded charter schools are tuition-free, privately managed facilities that are generally staffed by non-unionized teachers and personnel. A common fear is that charter schools, which tend to outperform some urban public schools, siphon money and students from public schools, particularly in cities.
In Massachusetts, voters rejected a 2016 state ballot question that would have raised the cap on charter schools, creating more openings for students seeking an alternative to regular public schools.
HCSS-West, as the new school will be called, is slated to open in September 2018 and will accommdate students in grades 6-12 from West Springfield, Agawam, Holyoke and Westfield. With the addition of the West Side campus, the original school in Chicopee will now be called HCSS-East.
The 9-year-old Chicopee school has a waiting list to get in, "but we don't have the seats," said Tarkan Topcuoglu, CEO of the school. That is why HCSS officials sought to establish a second campus in Hampden County, settling on the West Springfield site after the original state-approved location in Westfield apparently fell through.
"I believe this school will complement the West Springfield public school system," Topcuoglu told The Republican / MassLive.com on Tuesday.
But Reichelt says he and others do not support HCSS taking over the former Immaculate Conception-St. Frances Xavier Cabrini property, which is owned by the Roman Diocese of Springfield. HCSS has signed a purchase-and-sale agreement with the diocese for the 3.3-acre property on Main Street, which includes a church, school, convent, rectory and two-car garage.
"Not only will the opening of HCSS have a deleterious impact on our public finances and lead to tax increases, as the State of Massachusetts does not fully reimburse charters, but it will also place enormous pressure on the already high-performing West Springfield Public Schools, which recently reached all-time bests in both graduation and dropout rates," Reichelt said.
The mayor cited the book, "Empire of Deceit: An Investigation of the Gulen Charter School Network," as another reason why he has concerns about HCSS. The book alleges that HCSS and similar Massachusetts charter schools in Everett and Saugus have connections to Apple Education Services of New Jersey and Ace It Education of Boston, both Turkish-related entities with alleged ties to Fethullah Gulen, a controversial Turkish cleric and multibillionaire who lives in Pennsylvania.
Gulen has been accused of trying to destabilize Turkey and overthrow its democratically elected government from the safety of his 26-acre gated compound in the Pocono Mountains, where he has lived for almost two decades. Gulen has denied any part in a July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, which the Turkish government has blamed on the "Gulen movement" -- a designated terrorist organization, according to the Republic of Turkey.
Gulen's followers say he is a strong voice for moderate and tolerant Islam -- an antidote to the extremism that has dominated U.S. headlines since 9/11 -- who oversees a worldwide network of charities and charter schools. However, critics say the schools, businesses and nonprofits linked to his name constitute a "vast criminal enterprise," USA Today reported in the wake of the 2016 coup attempt.
Gulen comes from a tradition of Sufism, a mystical Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God.
As far as Topcuoglu is concerned, none of this international intrigue is relevant to the state-approved charter school that is poised to debut in West Springfield in September.
"There are no financial ties to any movement," said Topcuoglu, a native of Turkey who moved to the U.S. in 2003.
"We are an independent public school. We are not a religious school at all. It's not the purpose of this school. We are a college prep school," said Topcuoglu, who has worked in the education field for over 20 years, including as a teacher and principal and now as CEO of the Chicopee and West Springfield charter schools.
If anything, HCSS is best known for its strong math, science, engineering and technology curriculum. Any concerns about how HCSS spends its money should be directed to the state, which conducts regular A-to-Z audits of the Chicopee charter school and is expected to do the same for the West Side school when it opens this fall, according to Topcuoglu.
"Every penny that we receive is being spent on education here," he said.
Topcuoglu says the Hampden County schools have no formal or financial ties to the Turkish-influenced charter schools in Everett and Saugus. That said, the Western Massachusetts schools do communicate with the Eastern Massachusetts schools.
"We share some best-practices and collaboration with them because we are all charter schools," Topcuoglu said.
Attorney Robert Amsterdam, whose law firm Amsterdam & Partners LLP has been retained by the Republic of Turkey to pursue a global investigation into the "suspicious activities" of Gulen, urged the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to reject the application for a new Hampden Charter School of Science in Western Massachusetts
"With the full awareness of Hampden's ties to some of the most controversial charter schools in the business, known for systemic abuses and misrepresentation, it would be a mistake for the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to approve this request. And citizens should let them know it, too," Amsterdam wrote in an "Open Letter to Massachusetts Parents" in February.
The law firm's probe into the Gulen movement produced "Empire of Deceit," which includes a detailed breakdown of the alleged evidence tying the Turkish-linked charter schools in West Springfield, Chicopee, Saugus and Everett to Gulen supporters. Amsterdam's firm has also filed a civil suit against Gulen, alleging human rights abuses against the cleric.
According to an earlier investigation by the Boston Globe, the charter schools in Saugus and Everett -- respectively known as the Pioneer Charter School of Science I and II -- have spent over $84,000 in Massachusetts taxpayer dollars on H-1B visas to recruit teachers from Turkey, but today most of these specialized and highly educated workers are no longer employed at either school.
There are also signs of systemic financial misappropriations by the Pioneer schools, according to Amsterdam, noting that the schools have paid $128,000 in consulting fees to the Turkish-owned Apple Education Services and another $218,000 to several "front" companies registered at the same address as Apple.
For Reichelt, an attorney who began his second term as mayor just over three months ago, it comes down to having faith in the same West Springfield Public Schools that he attended as a kid.
"Many parents that I've spoken with are confused as to why such a drastic change would be introduced to our district, threatening the public school system right at a moment of excellent performance, and potentially weakening the quality of education we can provide for our city's children," he said.
From Diane Ravitch's Blog
he Republican-dominated State Board of Education in Massachusetts approved a Gulen charter school in the Springfield area.
The Mayor of Springfield is not happy about it. He read Robert Amsterdam’s exhaustive report about the Gulen schools “Empire of Deceit”), and he knows that the public schools will lose funding to this charter chain operated by allies of the Fethullah Gulen Movement.
Of course, the Gulen charter school says it is not a Gulen school at all. It is just happenstance that the CEO of the school is a Turkish national. Gulen schools always deny any connection to Gulen, who now has a charter chain of about 160 schools. As usual, follow the money. If the landlord is Turkish, if contracts for construction go to Turkish firms, if a significant number of its teachers are Turkish, if the majority of the board is Turkish, it is a Gulen school. Chances are, as one fallen-away Gulen teacher told 60 Minutes, that the teachers are tithing their salary to Gulen. And th school is paying rent to a Gulen Corporation.
The mayor understands that the charter will drain funding from the local public schools, where the overwhelming majority of children are enrolled.
Why do we allow a religious sect to operate what are supposed to be public schools?
In 2016, the voters of Massachusetts overwhelmingly rejected a state referendum to expand the number of charter schools in the state. Why is the State Board still increasing their number? The chair of the State Board donated large sums to the pro-charter side. He lost.
Is the State Board determined to undermine one of the top-performing states in the nation?
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/04/west_springfield_mayor_will_re_25.html
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