Imagine, Inc. Charter School Leaders Fired

How would you like to send your child to a school paid for with tax dollars where the principal and another administrator get fired, and no one will tell you why? Were they molesting children? Were they stealing money? Were they harassing teachers? This is the new no-oversight reality of charter schools, brought to you by the market solutionists and the corporate socialists.

From the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette:

The school leader and another administrator at Imagine MASTer Academy were fired last week, but a director with the school’s parent company would not disclose any details.

The terminations of Head of School Bruce Greening and Jennifer Murray, who served in a variety of administrative roles, are effective immediately, Guy Platter, regional director of Imagine Schools, said Saturday.

“It’s my job as regional director to determine what’s in the best interest of the school in terms of the direction and the vision and the mission of the school, and I made those two decisions with that in mind,” Platter said.

He declined to say why the two administrators were fired.

Imagine Schools, based in Arlington, Va., is the charter school management company behind two Fort Wayne charter schools: Imagine MASTer Academy, 2000 N. Wells St., and Imagine Schools on Broadway, 2320 Broadway.

Or were these edu-businessmen in charge at the Imagine MASTer Academy simply urinating on a crowd from a balcony during a Grateful Dead tribute concert? Like this charter school CEO in New Jersey. Now that's what I call oversight!

A drunken Jersey City Councilman Steve Lipski, who is also the head of a charter school, has been charged with urinating on a crowd of concertgoers at a Grateful Dead tribute in Washington, the Daily News is reporting.

Lipski, 44, was hauled out of the club about 9:50 p.m. Friday after relieving himself from the second-floor balcony of the popular 9:30 Club, the paper reported, and was charged with simple assault, police said.

Lipski is also the head of CREATE, a charter school on Lembeck Avenue.

To round out today's crime log, how about this bit of pranksterism in California, where teacher retirement money has somehow not been deposited in the State Retirement Fund since 2004. And San Bernadino officials would probably still be in the dark on this one had it not been for two employees of the ASA Charter School coming forward to spill the beans:

SAN BERNARDINO - Limited fiscal oversight of charter schools has some San Bernardino school district officials nervous about potential liability should one go under.

In the last year, the San Bernardino City Unified School District has had issues related to finances with two of its charter schools, the most recent being an investigation of ASA Charter School.

The district is looking into allegations that the charter school operators have failed to remit around $500,000 in employee retirement contributions to the state system since the school opened in 2004, officials said.

"The district is still investigating the issue and no decisions will be made until all of the facts have been gathered," said spokeswoman Linda Bardere.

Gil Navarro, a San Bernardino County school board trustee, said he has asked the county superintendent of schools to investigate as well.

Two ASA employees notified the district about the retirement issues, officials said. . . .