Turmoil at the Athenian Academy in Pinellas raise questions about the soundness of a similar school proposed for Pasco.
By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published October 23, 2004
Athenian Academy Charter School of Pinellas is losing its principal.
This has happened before. When Gay Hazlewood announced this week she would be resigning, she became the seventh leader toleave the school since it opened in 2000.
Despite four years of questionable financial audits and tumultuous administrative changes at the Greek-immersion school in Dunedin, Pasco County school officials are negotiating a contract with Athenian founders to open another campus, in New Port Richey.
The common denominator in the school's most significant troubles?
According to former employees and parents, it is George Poumakis, founder and president of the school's governing board - the same founder and president of the Pasco school's governing board. Poumakis' style, say those who know him, is autocratic and often abrasive.
"If Mr. Poumakis is involved, the same energy and instability is going to happen in Pasco that happened in Pinellas," said Lori Dugan of Pasco's Longleaf community, a former board member and parent at the Dunedin school. "If he can step back and let go, it could be a fantastic school."
Poumakis, 74, has heard the complaints.
One angry mother even stopped him this week and pointed a finger in his face: "She said, "You started this school and you're going to close it,' " Poumakis recounted. "I said, thank you very much.' If that's the idea of the parents, hey, they have their own opinion." He says he sometimes yells but said people need to learn to take criticism.
To Poumakis, the 102-student school's troubles boil down to conflicts that arise from having too little money. The real reason principals have come and gone is easy, he said: "Because the principals were no good."
Either way, he says, the Pasco County school will be different. "It's another entity," he said.
That's what Pasco school officials hope. Mick Magill, parent of a former Athenian student, was so concerned that the same problems the Pinellas school had might plague the Pasco school that he addressed the Pasco School Board Tuesday, warning them of disorganization and describing Athenian's board meetings as "abusive and violent."
Though student reading and math test scores have been very high at the Pinellas school in the two years data have been collected, administrative changes have been drastic.
Athenian shuffled through five directors its first year, according to the school's annual report. It kept principal No. 5, Melanie Fernandez, slightly more than two years before the board fired her in 2003 with a few days left of school.
Athenian hired its sixth principal, Tina Wilson, in the summer of 2003 and fired her a few months later. At that point, Poumakis' wife, Lemonia, took over as a volunteer.
Hazlewood joined the Dunedin school this summer. Her resignation, which Pinellas charter liaison John Lash said goes into effect Monday, will make her the seventh principal to come and go - her tenure on par with principal No. 1, Eva Poulakidas, who lasted two months.
Poulakidas discussed her experiences but later asked not to be quoted.
Neither Fernandez, Wilson nor Hazlewood responded to repeated phone messages left for them this week.
John Lash, charter school liaison for Pinellas County, said the administrative turnover is reason for concern. The school is also being monitored by the Pinellas County Health Department for being out of compliance with health codes. But with Athenian nearing the end of its five-year contract with the Pinellas County district, Lash said the area of most concern is school finances.
Four years of audits show Athenian has repeatedly been out of compliance with accepted accounting principles. According to the 2003 audit, checks and balances were questionable as limited staffing led to poor segregation of duties by those handling the finances. Other problems dealt with reporting: There was no accounting manual and no inventory, and donated assets were not recorded.
Max Ramos, charter school liaison for Pasco school district, said he plans to create a contract with Athenian that will not allow for the same missteps. "Even though we may have accepted the application, we are accepting it with our eyes open," Ramos said.
Poumakis has a charter school consultant and a financial firm to help set up the Pasco campus. Board members are primarily Pasco residents and include Stan Giannet, a dean at Pasco-Hernando Community College.
Giannet said he thinks the founders and board have a vested interest in establishing a structure that does not permit micromanaging: "I will do everything I can to prevent that from happening," Giannet said.
In the meantime, some at the Dunedin school said its board planned a 7 p.m. meeting Monday. But Poumakis refused to confirm that Friday.
He said he might retire from the Pinellas board. But even if he did, he said, he would remain with the Pasco school. Lash said that Hazlewood told him her future at the school might depend on what happens during the meeting.
Pasco has six months to design a contractual agreement with Athenian to open a school, according to state law.
