Despite protests by the Gulen Marketing (with T Shirts, Signs, protestors bussed into the school board meetings) the School board ordered in October 2013 to not renew the Gulen Managed Truebright Science Academy in Gulen's backyard of Pennsylvania which join new application failures of (Young Entepreneur Academy in Lancaster and Allentown Science Academy) Sounds like Pennsylvania doesn't want the Gulenists or their schools, Truebright had been riddled with poor academic performance and discrimination lawsuits filed by American staff. The Gulenists have hired an attorney to try and fight this closure at the state level,. but lets see how far their money gets them when they have no community support except for what is paid for.
The School Reform Commission voted unanimously Thursday
night not to renew the charters of Community Academy and Truebright Science
Academy Charter School. Both remain open pending expected appeals to a state
board.
All four commissioners present voted to terminate the
charters. SRC Chair Pedro Ramos was not in attendance.
Both schools have been in bitter battles with the
District.
The commission had previously voted to start the
non-renewal process at both schools. Thursday's SRC action followed months of
hearings in which Truebright
and Community
Academy got to present a case for why they should stay open.
Community Academy is the oldest charter in Philadelphia,
and grew out of a school that started more than 30 years ago. Originally a high
school that operated under contract with the District, it was founded to serve
near-dropouts. After becoming a charter it expanded to a K-12 school.
Grounds
for the non-renewal include academic underperformance and a questionable
financial history, which founder and CEO Joseph Proietta has vociferously
disputed.
When the non-renewal process started with a vote
by the SRC in January, Proietta vowed a long legal fight. He was not
present Thursday night. He has been in court with the SRC since 2011, when only
two of the four sitting SRC members voted to renew the charter, which the
school contends was a majority.
The resolution adopted Thursday night said that if a
court determines that the charter was renewed through that vote, the SRC now
intends for the charter to be revoked.
Truebright has been facing closure since an initial non-renewal
vote by the SRC 18 months ago.
A contingent from Truebright was present. Two teachers
and the school's attorney, Brian Reinhouser, disputed the reasons for
terminating the school's charter.
“As a faculty member I have never felt as valued as I do
at Truebright,” said teacher Nicole Thuestad.
The school intends to appeal to the state Charter Appeal
Board (CAB).
"Truebright will remain in operation and continue to
enroll new students up to and beyond our vindication at CAB," said a
statement from the charter's board.
He said that other schools with similar or even worse
records have been allowed to stay open.
"Truebright is being treated differently," he
said. Truebright is one of more than 130 charter schools that have been linked
to a controversial Turkish imam. Many of its board and staff are Turkish.
Commissioner Joseph Dworetzky countered that even if it
is true that charters of comparable performance have been renewed,"we
would not compound that error. Our job in each case is to make the best call
for each school. ... If we made errors in the past, that doesn’t mean we are
bound to make them in the future."
MEANWHILE AMERICAN TEACHERS SETTLE DISCRIMINATION CASE
AGAINST TRUEBRIGHT SCIENCE ACADEMY IN MAY 2013
By Martha Woodall, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: May 14, 2013
A former English teacher from
Truebright Science Academy Charter School who alleged the North Philadelphia
school discriminated against her on the basis of national origin and gender has
reached a settlement in her civil rights suit.
U.S. District Court records show
that Regenna A. Jalon, a former head of Truebright's English department, and
the charter school ended the suit last Friday because of the settlement.
Jalon, who worked at Truebright
for four years, alleged in a suit filed in February that the school had engaged
in a pattern of hiring, promoting, and paying less-qualified Turkish nationals
more than American-born educators who were certified and had more experience.
Terms were not disclosed.
Neither Jalon's attorneys nor
Truebright's lawyers returned calls or responded to e-mails Monday seeking
comment. Jalon had sought $150,000.
Truebright had denied Jalon's allegations.
She was one of at least nine
Truebright staffers who filed discrimination complaints with the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission in 2011. She filed her suit after the EEOC
issued a letter in January saying she could proceed with a suit.
Truebright is one of more than
130 charter schools across the country linked to Fethullah Gulen, a
controversial Turkish imam who lives in the Poconos.
Truebright's board, top
administrators, and a third of its teachers are Turkish. Many are working in the
United States on nonimmigrant visas.
Truebright officials have said
the school has no ties to Gulen.
In her suit, Jalon had contended
Truebright engaged in "a concerted effort to deprive" non-Turkish
staffers of the ability to earn as much as the Turkish male employees.
She resigned in late November.
