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Panel votes no on charter schools

A review committee says the applications by Academies of America contain serious flaws including unbalanced budgets.

In 10 single-spaced pages, Pasco County school officials have detailed a slew of reasons they won't be recommending on Tuesday that the School Board approve two charter school applications from Academies of America.

The schools' proposed budgets aren't balanced.

New Port Richey was spelled "New Port Richie."

An employee handbook appears to have been written for another business and includes references to those hired before and after July 1, 1998, even though the school wouldn't open until fall 2004.

"The application was rife with errors and grammatical mistakes," said Max Ramos, charter school liaison for the Pasco County school district. "If you turn in something that's rife with all these mistakes, what business do you have running a public school?"

Charter schools are publicly funded schools that operate similarly to private schools, with policies set by their own governing boards and limited oversight from the sponsoring public school district.

Along with sister company Academies of Excellence, the Ormond Beach-based Academies of America submitted 19 charter school applications to 10 Florida counties last month.

In Pasco, it proposed opening one elementary and one middle school, both in the New Port Richey and Trinity areas.

The company currently does not have any charter schools in operation.

Doug Jackson, founder of both companies, did not respond to messages left at his workplace this week concerning Pasco's recommendation.

Besides the nitty-gritty inconsistencies, the district's 11-member charter application review committee questioned the ethics of several business partnerships outlined in the Academies of America applications.

Jackson and other board members are also leaders, directors and employees of businesses that would assist the schools in one way or another.

"The applicants stated that most of the services and products would be donated, however the budget refers to a corporate management payment up to 8 percent of total revenues," the report stated. "It is our opinion that there is a strong likelihood that the related companies will benefit from these payments since the founding board members/board members of the schools and the related companies are the same individuals."

Academies of America will have the opportunity to appeal Pasco's decision to the state, if indeed the five-member school board votes down the application during its 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday.

The state Charter Schools Appeals Commission traditionally has sided with charter corporations over school districts - a fact even state Board of Education Chairman Philip Handy alluded to this week while addressing the state's Eighth Annual Charter School Conference in Orlando.

But Ramos said the district feels the need to be cautious.

"We've had some bad experiences with people who don't have solid applications," Ramos said.

Two years ago, Pasco approved an application for a school called Infinity that never opened because of early cost overruns. And two weeks ago, when Deerwood Academy charter school in New Port Richey closed because of finances, it did so owing thousands of dollars to the district.