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State stops school opening
columbus
The state has stopped the Portage County Educational Service Center from opening what the state says was a new charter school under LEAD Academy’s old identification number.
The PCESC is not allowed to open any new charter schools, and opening a new school under an old identification number is against the law.
The Ohio Department of Education says the PCESC “so completely disregarded” state laws that it is reporting its superintendent, Dewey L. Chapman, and its executive director, Cheryl Emrich, to the state’s Office of Professional Conduct. The office investigates alleged misdeeds by educators.
Punishment could range from a letter of admonishment to suspension or revocation of their licenses, said ODE associate director of communications John Charlton.
“Additionally, any waste, fraud, abuse of tax dollars or alteration of student enrollment data will be immediately reported to Auditor of State David Yost,” the ODE said in a prepared statement released Aug. 27.
The PCESC, which had been trying to set up a charter school called Hope-4Change Academy in Cincinnati, denies it was opening a new school and says on its Web site that it was allowed to bring LEAD, which it sponsored after it left the Liberty Local School District in 2011, out of suspension to re-open there.
The ODE contends, however, that LEAD’s contract with the PCESC had expired in June 2013. Charlton told the Vindicator this week that the school is only in suspension until it meets criteria for closing. LEAD and another conversion school called LEARN that operated with it in Liberty from 2009 to 2011 do not exist, he said.
The ODE does not allow PCESC to open new schools because eight they have open now are performing poorly, Charlton said.
He also said it would be against the law for the PCESC to open a school in a district that isn’t contiguous with its own.
Maria Limbert Markakis, attorney for PCESC, said Chapman and Emrich would have nothing more to say besides what is on the Web site.
“PCESC has been open and clear with ODE that LEAD Academy was being allowed to re-organize and resume operation as Hope4Change Community School under the sponsor’s authority to lift school suspensions,” the Web site says, citing an Ohio law section that allows a school to resume operation after problems that initially caused a suspension have been addressed.
The PCESC says it tried to open Hope4Change Sept. 2 but then took steps to halt the opening.