Charter school principal got paid $824K; only $324K was spent on instruction. 180 students.

[HiPointDem]

An Orange County charter school that gave its principal a $519,000 departure payout was an academic failure that struggled to provide its students with basic materials and qualified teachers, an evaluation by the school district shows.

In 2011-12, NorthStar High School's directors paid Principal Kelly Young more than twice as much money as they spent on the school's educational program.

Including her annual salary, bonuses and payout, Young took home at least $824,000 in taxpayer money that year, not including payments she continues to receive for winding down the school's operations.

By comparison, the school spent $366,042 on instruction, including teacher salaries, last school year, according to an audit paid for by the school...NorthStar's lavish payment to their principal was not an isolated instance. In 2010-11, when Young's contract called for $305,000 in pay, the school spent $372,009 on instruction. Her pay made up a third of the school's budget that year.

The school lacked computers, a library or cafeteria services at its facility in concrete portables on Curry Ford Road. According to the January report by Orange County Public Schools, the school's reading teacher was not certified in reading and NorthStar didn't have someone certified to teach English language-learners.

The school, which operated for 11 years, was never an academic standout. It's last grade from the state was a D, but it was losing ground last year... A February letter signed by Young accused the district of denying the school's request to be evaluated on a less rigorous standard because they served a struggling population, and of "being set up to fail."

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-10-25/features/os-troubled-orange-charter-northstar-20121025_1_charter-school-charter-law-english-language-learners

Florida...

So the cost of educating each student was $6377, but only $1800 went to instruction -- the rest was the principal's pay.

[mnhtnbb]

1. Reinforces the notion that charter schools are simply opportunistic mechanisms

for right wingers to help themselves to tax dollars.

[HiPointDem]

2. I think the opportunism is equal-opportunity.

[Starry Messenger]

3. Well that's is certainly innovative.

I can see why that was worth breaking the union over.

[HiPointDem]

4. lol. yeah, charter schools will make einsteins of us all with innovative ideas like paying the

principal 75% of your revenue.

my brain grows larger just thinking about it.

[Starry Messenger]

7. That's over twice what the President of the US makes.

I hope the people who call us "charter haters" will allow that to sink in for a moment.

I recall during the Rhode Island firings, many people begrudged the teachers the princely sum of $75,000 a year. I'm sure this thread will bring all those people back in to express their shock and horror at this admin making several hundred times over that.

*crickets*

[Starry Messenger]

13. Kick.

[Enrique]

14. yes, it is a fresh way of thinking

it is outside the box, it is breaking free from the tired old ways of doing things. just the thing to save our school system!

[Starry Messenger]

21. More money to administration, less to students.

What fools we've all been, I see the light now!

[theaocp]

5. Charter schools are. not. innovative. at. all.

If you disagree, I'm sorry, but you're wrong. They are funnels to steal from the public. Kids getting educated in them is a fluke.

[HiPointDem]

6. what?

[Bluenorthwest]

9. Post says charter schools are not innovative. To think that they are is incorrect.

They are a device to steal from the public, and any education children might get is more accident than intent.
You really could not understand that just because of the odd style? I did.

[HiPointDem]

16. what? i understood what he said, just not why he seemed to think i'd made some assertion to the

contrary in the op.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. That should be considered fraud.

Disgusting.

[NewJeffCT]

10. No wonder Republicans love them

pay one person a ton of money and everybody else is out of luck.

[Roland99]

11. Guess we know why transparency hasn't existed wrt these schools >>>>

Because Republicans have ruled (er, ruined) this state for YEARS!

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. You get $300,000 for running a 180 student school?

What in the motherfuck?



What a scam.

[Enrique]

15. what an embarrassing scam

if school reform is not stopped, every crook in the world is going to try to run a school. It is just going to be an endless series of stories of giant ripoffs like this one.

[Baitball Blogger]

17. It's the lack of accountability that allows these abuses to continue.

[Initech]

18. More executive criminals - they're everywhere it seems.

[randome]

19. There they go again. Conservatives throwing more and more money at our problems.

When will they learn?

[SoCalDem]

20. Close that school..asap and put that money into real schools

or just give those parents that $6611.34 and let them send their kids to a real school if public schools are "not good enough" for their little darlings..

and make that person reimburse the "extra" money she kept..