Recently in Schools K-12 Category

Source: Policy Matters Ohio, May 2010

Imagine Schools, Inc., is the nation's largest for-profit charter school management company, with 71 schools nationwide and 11 in Ohio.

This report found that Imagine has a poor record of performance in Ohio and a business model that includes elaborate school real estate transactions, high management and operations fees, overlapping business relationships, low spending on classroom instruction, and tight control of school finances and board relationships. These problems have led to Academic Emergency ratings for five of the company's six rated Ohio schools for the 2008-09 school year (the sixth was in Academic Watch). Because of the management company's poor academic record in Ohio, it was barred from opening new schools for the 2010-11 school year. Board members have resigned in frustration with Imagine practices, facility costs dramatically exceed recommended guidelines from charter experts, and teacher salaries are below those of other charters.

A record of the charter schools which have been publicly charged with, or are highly suspected of, tampering with admissions, grades, attendance and testing; misusing local, state, and federal funds; engaging in nepotism and conflicts of interest; engaging in complicated and shady real estate deals; and/or have been engaging in other unethical, borderline-legal, or illegal activities. And other unsavory tidbits.

Source: By Jennifer Coffman, Ann Arbor News (MI) May 8, 2010

Ann Arbor Public Schools Board of Education meeting (April 28, 2010): The most recent regular school board meeting of the Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) ended the debate over privatization of the district's custodial and maintenance workers - it's not happening.

The board's ratification of an agreement between AAPS and local members of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union retains the 164 workers and their seven supervisors as AAPS employees. In return, custodial and maintenance workers agreed to lower wages, less vacation time, and almost double the cost of health insurance premiums.

Source: By The Saginaw News (MI) May 09, 2010, 3:15PM

 In an attempt to save money, Mount Pleasant school officials are looking to privatize the district's custodial and transportation services.

Board of Education members are considering a contract with Grand Rapids Building Services for janitorial services and First Student, a national transportation provider that operates more that 60,000 buses, Superintendent Joe Pius said.

 ...... Officials for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union, which represents custodians, and the Michigan Education Association, which represents school bus drivers, oppose privatizing those services

Source: WANE (IN) Tuesday, 09 Mar 2010, 6:24 AM EST

Dozens of Fort Wayne Community Schools custodians showed up to the district's board meeting, Monday, in opposition of recent proposals to outsource services including custodial work.

 ..... "We are your first defense against illness and intruders. We are a big part of the support system in place at FWCS," said Michelle Tribolet. Tribolet is the president of local 561 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. It represents custodians at FWCS. Tribolet says the staff is "very anxious and very worried."

Source:  By Jeffrey Anderson THE WASHINGTON TIMES, January 26, 2010

A company that serves meals to 2½ million schoolchildren daily in more than 500 districts nationwide, with multimillion-dollar contracts in both Washington and Chicago, has a history of marginal quality and food-safety scares amid concerns over the nutritional content of its school menus, according to school and company records.

Chartwells-Thompson School Dining Services, a subsidiary of the Charlotte, N.C.-based Compass Group, owner of Burger King, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, is one of North America's largest school cafeteria operators -- its contracts with the Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2009 totaling more than $289 million and a D.C. operation that could net the firm as much as $140 million from 2008 to 2013.

By Laura Mead, Daily Press (MI) January 19, 2010

GLADSTONE - Although the Gladstone School Board has made no decisions regarding the privatization of janitorial services within the district, concern continues to grow. A Teamsters steward came to Monday's meeting armed with letters that included the signatures of over 1,000 community members, petitioning against privatization.

Source: By George Morse, EastBayRI.com (RI), 12/3/09 

EAST PROVIDENCE - In a split vote Tuesday night the East Providence City Council approved a new, three-year extension to a collective bargaining agreement with Local 2969 Rhode Island Council 94, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, a unit representing school department custodians and maintenance personnel.

..... By the time an agreement was reached, the union's concessions made them cheaper than private contractor SSC Service Solutions (a bidder for the job) by as much as $117,000 a year. Also, Mr. Barham said that since the school department looked at private groups, parents have "vehemently" opposed having private workers in schools.

Source: Bill Turque, Washington Post, (DC), Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The District has fired the contractor hired to build a $12 million data repository for critical information about D.C. schools, citing missed deadlines, software defects and failure to make available the personnel it promised, officials said Monday.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and State Superintendent of Education Kerri L. Briggs announced the dismissal of Williams, Adley & Co. , an accounting and management consulting firm, at a late afternoon news conference. The firm was awarded a contract early last year to create the Statewide Longitudinal Data Warehouse, which was to compile information about student academic growth, teacher quality and graduation rates and make it available to policymakers and parents.

Source:  By Howard Blume and Jason Song, Los Angeles Times (CA), 11:16 PM PDT, August 25, 2009

In a startling acknowledgment that the Los Angeles school system cannot improve enough schools on its own, the city Board of Education approved a plan Tuesday that could turn over 250 campuses -- including 50 new multimillion-dollar facilities -- to charter groups and other outside operators. ..... For the charter school operators, the biggest prize is 50 new schools scheduled to open over the next four years. ...... Charters are publicly funded but independently operated and free from some regulations governing the traditional administration of schools. They also are not required to be unionized.