Gulen Charter School--Lotus School of Excellence "Denial isn't Fair" WAAaaaaaaa

Call the Wambulance for Matt "Umit" Yapanel  
Matt, it isn't fair that you lie to Americans about your affilation with Gulen

http://www.stvrain.k12.co.us/boardOfEducation/meetingsMinutes/2009/11/04/3.2.3.pdf

E mail from Umit “Matt” Yapanel, Board president for Lotus School of Excellence and his anxious behavior sent email to the land development department of Boulder, desperately seeking another site.

St. Vrain Valley Unified School District has DENIED Lotus twice on their expansion.  By Matt’s own admission the school has not performed well, especially in English he gives the excuse of turnover.

There is controversy as they currently lease the old Lifebridge Church in Aurora, CO  and want to expand onto a second location in Longmont, CO where Lifebridge is attempting to build a 400 acre development with a church and community.  The other issue is the personal loans from the “brothers” for this school which according to Mattie were due in 2013 and were necessary because of renovations at the Lifebridge Church. 

Here is the latest “NOT FAIR” from Matt’s lawyer buddy who also stated that Academic improvement was not important.   What attorney’s will say for money.

Lotus: Denial wasn’t fairCharter applicant says SVVSD treated it differently

http://www.timescall.com/news_story.asp?ID=25601

By Victoria A.F. Camron
© 2011 Longmont Times-Call

The St. Vrain Valley School District held Lotus School of Excellence to a higher standard than others when it denied the charter application, the school’s attorney wrote in the latest appeal filing.



The Colorado Board of Education is scheduled to hear Lotus’ appeal of the denial on March 9. The St. Vrain school board on Dec. 8 unanimously denied the group’s application to open a charter school in north Longmont.

In the school’s opening appeal argument, filed Feb. 7, Erie attorney Jeffrey DiTolla wrote that the school district was holding Lotus to standards not found in the state Charter School Act.

He furthered that argument in Monday’s filing, quoting the law, “that greater consideration be given to charter school applications designed to increase the educational opportunities of at-risk pupils.”

But the school district didn’t give Lotus “any special consideration,” even though Lotus organizers plan to recruit minority and low-income students to the school, which would focus on math, science and technology, if the school is approved.

Besides ignoring that aspect of the law, St. Vrain has been more lenient with other charter school applications than it was with Lotus’, the lawyer wrote.

For example, the school board in 2009 approved Aspen Ridge Charter School, which will be a Core Knowledge school, to open in Erie, not far from Elementary School 26, which also will offer Core Knowledge.

“It seems like the district judged Lotus more harshly than some of its other charter schools,” DiTolla wrote.

DiTolla also refuted the St. Vrain district’s assertion — stated in its Feb. 22 response to the appeal — that money from the Longmont school could be spent on the Aurora school’s debt. Lotus operates a kindergarten through 11th-grade school in Aurora.

Lotus organizers wrote in the school’s application that they would not commingle funds between the two campuses, then provided the corporate bylaws that would prevent the commingling.

“If oral promises, written promises and corporate bylaws are not enough assurance for the district, it is not clear what else Lotus could do,” DiTolla wrote.

The response also explained why current and former Lotus School board members loaned money to the school. The St. Vrain district argued in its Feb. 22 filing that such loans were not in the best interest of the community or the school district.

When Lotus opened its Aurora campus in 2006, it “incurred unexpected facility renovation costs” that caused a $475,000 deficit, according to Monday’s filing. Because no banks would lend money to a new charter school, board members used credit cards or took out second mortgages on their homes to keep the school operating.

“This was an altruistic act by these individuals,” DiTolla wrote. Without those loans, the school would not have survived, he added.

The interest costs of these loans were passed on to the school, according to the filing.

Although Lotus School’s June 2010 financial report stated that the school owed $250,000 to these board members, the amount is now $160,000, according to Monday’s filing. The loans will be paid off by 2013, at the latest, the filing stated.  The other issue was the large turnover of teachers which Mattie claims is the reason for the poor English Scores, well what do you expect when you have ESL Teachers from Turkey teaching English? Or you advertise on Craig’s List for a teacher (HERE IS THE 2/17/2011) AD FOR TEACHERS ON CRAIG’S LIST:

Teachers and Support Staff At Lotus School For Excellence (Aurora, CO)

---

Date: 2011-02-17, 3:11PM MST
Reply to: principal@lotusschool.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

Lotus is a K-12 college prep school with strong emphasis on Math, Science and Technology. Successful candidates will be team players, energetic, passionate, creative, and patient. All candidates must be highly qualified according to NCLB, CO teaching license is preferred but not mandatory except if it is indicated.

Available positions are listed below:
Elementary School teachers (K-5)
Math teacher (6-12)
English teacher (6-12)
Social Science teacher (6-12)
Science teacher (6-12)
Computer Teacher
Art teacher (K-12)
Music teacher (K-12)
Special Education Teacher (K-12) with valid CO license
ESL Teacher with valid CO license
PE Teacher
Administrative Assistant (candidates who are fluent in spoken and written Spanish and English are preferred)
Para Educator with minimum of a Bachelors degree.

Please send your cover letter and resume to principal@lotusschool.org along with three professional references.
Please make sure to indicate which position you are applying for at the subject line of your email.

·         Location: Aurora, CO

·         Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.

·         Please, no phone calls about this job!

·         Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

PostingID: 2220133901

http://www.timescall.com/assets/pdf/020911Resolutioncharter.pdf 

REVIEW PREVIOUS MATTIE STORIES HERE:

http://gulencharterschoolsusa.blogspot.com/2010/11/matt-yapanel-lotus-school-for.html

http://harmonyparenttruth.blogspot.com/2010/11/gulen-school-fraud-colorado-lotus.html

http://gulencharterschools.weebly.com/lotus-school-for-excellence.html

http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2010/08/lotus-school-of-excellence.html

http://www.freerangelongmont.com/2010/11/14/incrementalism-in-public-education/

http://gulencharterschoolsusa.blogspot.com/2010/11/lotus-school-for-excellence-more-under.html

http://harmonyparenttruth.blogspot.com/2010/11/colorado-godfather-gulen-and-his-mafia.html

VISAS ISSUED FOR LOTUS SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE

http://www.myvisajobs.com/Visa-Sponsor/Lotus-School-for-Excellence/326631_Visa.htm

Matt Yapanel Lotus School for Excellence and his lame excuses

UPDATE 12/8/2010- SUPERINTENDENT HADDAD TO DENY LOTUS SCHOOL FOR EXCELLENCE http://www.timescall.com/news_story.asp?ID=24487

Ümit;gözyaşları Dur, sen Amerikalılarla kazanamazlar. Onlar başarısız ve Longmont arazi ellerine almak istiyorum.Lifebridge de Hıristiyanlar senden iyi alırsınız. Longmont şehri mal ve mülk sahibi olacak.bir bebek gibi ağlıyor dur, ben bir bebek bezi almak gerekir

After failing to make the grade and approval for an expansion, Matt Yapanel (aka Umit Yapanel) posted this letter to the newspaper comments in Colorado.  Seems Mattie thinks that excuses like a turnover of teachers is the reason for poor score results.   Cry babie Mattie, WAAaaaaa, WAAAaaaa, WAaaa

http://www.timescall.com/news_story.asp?ID=24255



I am Matt Yapanel, the president of the board of directors at Lotus.
 The comparison presented in this article is not fair. It only compares last year's CSAP results. Our reading/writing scores were not very good last year due to some staff turnover in our Language Arts department. Moreover, we tried a new approach which obviously did not work. This is all fixed this year and we are using state-of-the art intervention programs such as Reading Plus (www.readingplus.com) in order to help our struggling readers.
 New School Performance Framework Scores are posted in CDEs website. These reports combine last 3 years of data, are therefore more reliable and fair to compare.
 http://www.schoolview.org/documents/CDESchoolPerformanceFramework_flatfile_110410.xlsx

 In this document, our middle and high school ratings were combined so I am using an interim report we received from CDE that breaks down our middle and high school portion.

 In the middle school, there are three areas;

 25% of the scoring comes from raw achievement which means how many students are proficient and advanced in each subject area. This portion really depends on the incoming level of students into our 6th grade. Since APS students are very low-achieving to start with our achievement scores are low at this point. However, achieving higher growth means that these students will catch up to the state level shortly as they are learning more.

 50% of the scoring comes from growth (CO growth model)

 25% of the scoring comes from closing the achievement gap (also referred to as growth caps). This portion is defined as having more growth in minority students compared to white students, more growth in Free-reduced lunch (FRL) eligible students compared to non-FRL students, more growth in ESL (English Language Learners) compared to native speakers and more growth in IEP (Special Ed) students compared to general education students.

 The second and third criteria are critical. Second criterion refers how well students are growing and the third one refers how successful school is in closing the achievement gap.

 For high schools, there is a fourth criterion 'Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness' which is measured by CO-ACT. Since Lotus did not have any 11th graders last year, this score was not calculated. The overall percentages are 15% Achievement, 35% Growth, 15% Growth Caps, and 35% Workforce Readiness. Skyline high school can still be compared to Lotus (in the first 3 criterion) as we are running the same program in the high school. Below a fair comparison table is presented.
 As you can see, Lotus is the highest overall scoring school amongst all neighborhood middle schools used in the article. Its growth is very high and it is the most successful school in closing the achievement gap amongst all.
 
 School Data Window Final Plan Type TOTAL SPF
 Lotus Middle 3-year Performance 65.3%
 Trail Ridge 3-year Performance 60.0%
 Longs Peak 3-year Improvement 53.5%
 Heritage 3-year Priority Improvement 44.9%
 
 Lotus High 1-year Performance 73.8%
 Skyline High 3-year Improvement 58.7%
 
SEE OUR OTHER GULEN "CRY BABY" AWARD AT:
http://magnoliascienceacademy.blogspot.com/2010/12/latest-gulen-cry-baby-award-goes-to.html

UMIT (MATT) YAPANEL CRIES TO BOULDER COUNTY DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT ABOUT EXPANDING IN ANOTHER COUNTY
http://www.stvrain.k12.co.us/boardOfEducation/meetingsMinutes/2009/11/04/3.2.3.pdf

Lotus School for Excellence more under the surface

Besides the crappy test schools that once again leave Lotus School for Excellence left to fix their issues, there seems to be an intanglement with the LifeBridge Church 420 Acre Village Subdivision in the town of Longmont.  The LifeBridge people have rented space to the Gulen Managed Lotus School for Excellence in Aurora, CO and have enticed Matt Yapanel (Umit) et al to rent space temporarily in Longmont, CO until they can BUILD a school on the subdivision.  You got to be kidding Matt, do you think the Americans are going to allow you to expand?   Get real you pompous Ass!  Next post will be to discuss those PERSONAL LOANS from Hizmet brothers.
There is an interesting controversy at the St. Vrain Valley School District concerning the approval of two new charter schools. According to the district’s accountability and accreditation committee Lotus School of Excellence and Skyview Charter School fail to meet the minimum standards for approval.
As a former teacher, parent and grandparent, I recognize the importance of a superior education. The institution of free public education to all children in the United States is something that we should treasure – forever.
A public education serves many purposes. It provides the foundation necessary to succeed in a complex society. I am reminded of the saying that “we learn to read in order that we might read to learn.” It prepares us for citizenship, not just as Americans but as citizens of a larger world.
As a society we have concluded that an educated population is of benefit to all of us and accordingly we have agreed to tax ourselves to achieve this. Regardless of age or family status education benefits us individually and collectively.
Raising and educating children has always been and will always be a challenge. We are all of us individuals with differing levels of intellect and talent. We learn through different methods and we have individual interests.
As Americans we have had many choices to educate our children. We can send them to public schools, private schools or religious schools. If we choose the latter two, any costs associated with those choices are our individual responsibility.
In recent decades public charter schools have gained cachet. Declining student performance has caused us to examine reasons and solutions. That is as it should be. However, there is an absence of purity of purpose in our efforts. Superior performance should be the only goal, but that is not and perhaps never has been the sole motivation behind this changing emphasis.
As such, the move toward public charter schools needs to be examined for motives beyond a high quality education.
One of the underlying motives for pushing charter schools is a hatred of teachers unions by some individuals and segments of our society. Our public school teachers have been demonized simply because they belong to a union. Certainly there are good and bad teachers as there are good and bad electricians, plumbers, accountants, lawyers, analysts, financial advisors, and so on. That will always be the case. However, the quality of our teachers is only one component of poor pupil performance, and very probably not the most important component. The student, the parent, peers and broader societal conditions all bear some responsibility.
Americans are resistant to change, especially sudden and drastic change. They have demonstrated that over and over again. For this reason, we need to be especially concerned about incrementalism, movement in slow and subtle steps to an outcome that would not be acceptable if it were to take place all at once.
There are those whose goal is to privatize all education. There are those who seek tax credits and/or vouchers for private, religious and homeschooling. All of this flies in the face of our agreed upon social goals and the reasonable sharing of the cost.
In the case of Lotus School of Excellence there is a further complicating issue. Lotus plans to rent space at LifeBridge Christian Church, located in unincorporated Boulder County just north of Highway 66.
The Times-Call has had two articles this week on the controversy of approving the applicants. Several readers commented on the articles. Amongst them is Matt Yapanel, president of the board of directors of Lotus.
He writes the following about the relationship between Lotus and LifeBridge.

Charter schools get around 30% less funding then regular public schools. That’s why we have to be extremely careful with our spending. Creating an efficiently run school is the goal and we make even pennies count toward improving student achievement. With less money, most charter schools are providing better opportunities for their students. I can tell you that we have achieved this in our Aurora campus which was a previous church/private school facility. When we leased space from the church, they were in financial trouble; they had another project to build and move but were not able to sell their existing facility. As a charter school, that facility was very suitable for us to serve as our permanent campus. We purchased the facility, co-existed in the building sharing the mortgage payments in which time Lotus improved its enrollment to fully support the facility when the church has moved out. Meanwhile church has built their great new home and moved there ultimately. Both entities got what they needed to the best possible extent; it was a win-win situation for both parties. Lotus took over the full facility this year and opened an elementary school to serve 610 students, 65% of which are free-reduced lunch eligible and 80% are minority students. Because of the shared use of the space, we saved hundreds of thousands of dollars, which we put right back into the classroom. Therefore, sharing space with a church is a fiscally very responsible move. We are a public school simply sharing space with a church, that’s what most charter schools do as they establish their program and work to acquire a permanent campus. It is challenging to be able to pay for a facility when you get 30% less dollars. However it is not the quality or appearance of the facility that matters, it is the programs running in that facility that matters the most.

Although Mr. Yapanel was speaking about the Aurora situation, those who are aware of circumstances surrounding LifeBridge will see strong similarities in both situations.
LifeBridge mortgaged it’s properties at Highway 66 and those in Weld County between Union Reservoir and Highway 119 for $26 million dollars in July of 2007. They planned to build a waterfront community of homes with a substantial religious campus as well as commercial enterprises. Their intent was to annex the Weld County properties to Longmont. There is also a history of attempts to annex to Longmont the church’s existing facilities and properties. None of those efforts came to fruition because of resistance within the Longmont community for many reasons and from many interests.
In December of 2009 LifeBridge refinanced its debt to the Church Development Fund (CDF) and turned approximately half of its Weld County properties over to CDF as deeds in lieu of foreclosure. The LifeBridge project was derailed by the economic conditions that have resulted in massive declines in both residential and commercial development, amongst other changing financial circumstances.
With LifeBridge in need of money and Lotus in need of a location, the two entities have joined forces. One of the concerns that the St. Vrain Valley School District with which it is wrestling is indirectly supporting the financial needs of LifeBridge Church through taxpayer dollars that would go to support Lotus. This is a slippery slope towards violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
If Lotus can overcome its low score in the accreditation assessment, it would do well to find a location other than a church to house its school. In today’s economic situation, I’m confident that there are options for its location that would not place the SVVSD in the precarious position of de facto supporting a church.
All of us with a concern for the education of our children, need to take a step back and ask further: Are charter schools really the answer to our needs or are they a step towards privatization? If our schools are substantially privatized, what happens to the education of those who cannot afford private tuition? If tax dollars are used to support school privatization as they are in so many other instances, who then decides what is taught and how it is taught?
There is a place for public, private and religious schools. But only public education deserves taxpayer support. We can fix what’s wrong without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

NOTE THE PERSONAL LOANS GIVEN TO THESE SCHOOLS

Lotus School for Excellence: Evidence of Affiliation with the Gulen Movement

Lotus is a publicly-funded charter school in Aurora, Colorado.


Hakan Batan

• Former Lotus School for Excellence board member
• Loaned Lotus School for Excellence $132,000 at 9.5% interest rate in May, June 2007.  Loans mature in Oct 2013.
• President Colorado Turkish American Chamber of Commerce, a.k.a. CO-TA  (this Gulenist organization has connections with the Northern Lights Society and the Niagara Foundation of Minnesota, both also Gulenist non-profits, through Murat Ergen)

Adnan Doyuran 

• Principal, Lotus School for Excellence
• Principal, Momentum Middle School, San Diego  (Gulen charter school which has since changed its name to Magnolia Science Academy San Diego)
• Magnolia Educational and Research Foundation, California  (Gulenist non-profit)
• Dean of Academics at Magnolia Science Academy 1, Reseda, California (Gulen charter school)
• Petitioner, Sequoia Academy of Science, Gulen charter school proposed in 2006 by the Dialog Foundation (Dialog, a Gulenist non-profit, is now the Magnolia Educational and Research Foundation)
• Petitioner, Orange Science Academy, Gulen charter school proposed in 2006 (other petitioners: Ertan Salik, Saken Sherkhanov, Ali Gurel)

Varol Gurler

• Principal, Lotus School for Excellence, Aurora, Colorado
• Principal, Sonoran Science Academy Phoenix  (Gulen charter school)
• Principal, Magnolia Science Academy 1 Reseda  (Gulen charter school)

Alptekin Kavi

• Board member, Lotus School for Excellence
• Loaned Lotus School for Excellence $145,970 at interest rates up to 8.5%
• Tour guide on Gulenist Turkey trip (see travel blog of Alan Gottlieb, publisher of Education News Colorado)

Timur “Tim” Saka

• Founder, Lotus School for Excellence
• Teacher, Beehive Science and Technology Academy  (Gulen charter school)
• Teacher, Magnolia Science Academy 1 Reseda  (Gulen charter school)
• Principal, Magnolia Science Academy Santa Clara  (Gulen charter school)

Emrah Turgut

• Petitioner, Lotus School for Excellence Longmont (proposed Gulen charter school)
• Rumi Club, University of Colorado (Gulenist organization; its website contains references to Fethullah Gulen and mentions that the club founders are inspired by him)

Zhandos Utegulov

• Founder, Board Member, Lotus School for Excellence
• Author, Fountain Magazine  (the main US publication of the Gulen Movement; Fethullah Gulen writes the lead article of each issue)
• Multicultural Mosaic Foundation  (Gulenist nonprofit)
• Member, Niagara Foundation Nebraska  (Gulenist nonprofit)
  

Umit “Matt” Yapanel

• Founder, Board President, Lotus School for Excellence, Aurora
• Loaned $40000 to Lotus School in 2007 at 9.5% interest rate; loan matures Oct 30, 2013
• Petitioner, Lotus School for Excellence Longmont
• Petitioner, Lotus School for Excellence Jefferson County
• Director, Multicultural Mosaic Foundation   (Gulenist nonprofit)
• Accord Institute for Education Research  (Gulenist nonprofit)

 LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW GULEN THE GOD FATHER WANTS TO MAKE COLORADO A DEAL


http://harmonyparenttruth.blogspot.com/2010/11/colorado-godfather-gulen-and-his-mafia.html