Recently Milwaukee’s Mayor and Common Council approved a charter elementary school for next year run by American Quality Schools. In addition, AQS also came to Milwaukee Public Schools with a proposal to open a secondary school, but a school board committee looked deeper and decided not to advance the proposal. AQS will not contest the committee’s recommendation at the full school board meeting.
What tipped committee members to AQS problems was an article in Fort Wayne’s daily paper, The Journal Gazette. The Dec. 13, 2011, article highlighted the AQS’s poor academic grades in Indiana. Financial audits brought out more problems.
Wrote reporter Karen Francisco: “A quick survey of AQS’s financial oversight is not reassuring. A March 2011 State Board of Accounts audit for East Chicago Urban Enterprise Academy shows a laundry list of accounting errors: overdrawn cash balances, fund transfers not approved by the school board, incorrect postings on loan payments, negative disbursements, official bonds not filed with the county recorder, incorrect reporting of enrollment, receipts not issued, and claims paid and checks issued prior to school board approval.” Other AQS schools had similar problems.
I asked MPS Chief Accountability Officer, Robert DelGingaro, to take a look. DelGingaro just didn’t stop at the audits; he made phone calls to Indiana state officials. It was an unflattering picture of AQS.
A Ball State University educational audit of Indiana’s charter schools showed that all of AQS’s secondary schools were receiving poorer grades from the state from one year to the next.
On Nov. 15, all this evidence was presented to a committee of the Milwaukee School Board. This committee turned down AQS. What the committee did not know was another bombshell was going off at AQS’s Thurgood Marshall Academy in Fort Wayne, Ind.
The Journal Gazette Nov. 13th headline was “Marshall academy chief quits.” After less than six months on the job, its principal, Nicole Chisley, quit the school. Although Marshall officials boasted in July that they would reach their goal of 225 students, Marshall opened with only 130 students.
This forced the Urban League, who actually holds the charter, to take out a $150,000 loan to keep the school afloat. But enrollment got worse, not better. Acting Principal Tameka Wilson admitted that the school was losing students, enrollment was now down to 100 students, and the school faced major discipline problems.
A Nov. 13th editorial by The Journal Gazette slammed Marshall Academy: “The city’s newest charter school missed all of its announced enrollment targets and already lost its first principal.” The paper blamed much of the schools failure on its inability to get community support. “A hearing on the charter application overwhelmingly drew opponents.”
Nor would the paper place the blame on its principal, Nicole Chisley, who was quickly hired by the public schools. “’People should reach their own conclusions concerning what Ms. Chisley’s departure says about Thurgood Marshall’s ability to retain quality teachers and administrators,’ said FWCS [Fort Wayne Community Schools] board President Mark GiaQuinta.”
The blame game is about to begin. The Urban League holds the charter, and if the school closes, this organization is likely to be stuck with tens of thousands of dollars in bills. AQS, who manages the school, will likely get its $88,000 in management fees and will probably blame the school’s failures on The Urban League.
The City of Milwaukee’s charter with AQS may produce an excellent school, but the city is taking a big risk. City officials must focus on improving roads, providing police protection, and picking up the garbage. I’m not sure they should determine who can teach our children.
