Gulen Minnesota School of Science closed, Re opens under Minnesota Math and Science Academy

Gulen (Concept Schools) operated Minnesota School of Science was closed, among many scandals but their worst abuse was denying education to special needs children.  This landed them in hot water and on the local news plus the Huffington http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/01/minnesota-school-of-scien_n_1729305.html  Fast forward 1 year, the Gulen Movement purchases a old industrial building for $1 million and pumps another $2 million into renovations under their construction and management company New Plan Learning, http://www.newplanlearning.com

After being evicted, the the Minnesota School of Science is re opening under a new name Minnesota Math and Science Academy. http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/220751321.html

More information here, which led to them closing down and being denied space at MPS buildings. http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2013/06/17/n-mpls-charter-school-closing-amid-allegations/     http://horizonparentstruth.blogspot.com/2013/08/concept-schools-gulen-management-loses.html

A charter school plans to convert a nearly 50-year-old light industrial building in St. Paul into an elementary school focused on math and science.

The Minnesota Math and Science Academy is opening Sept. 2 in a 1966 warehouse at 169 Jenks Ave., which was once owned by Stillwater-based Modernistic Die Cutting.

The school will initially be home to 300 pupils from kindergarten through the sixth grade, said Yasar Bora, superintendent of West Concept Schools for Concept Schools Inc., a Des Plaines, Illinois-based charter school management company. From there, the school plans to add one grade per year until it has 790 students between kindergarten and the 12th grade.

The charter school facility organization New Plan Learning, also of Des Plaines, Illinois, bought the property June 3 for $1.8 million, according to the certificate of real estate value. The organization has hired Schreiber Mullaney Construction of St. Paul to undertake a $2.1 million renovation of the building.

New Plan Learning will own the building, and the Minnesota Math and Science Academy will be the tenant, Bora said in an e-mail interview.

The school selected the industrial building, which is southwest of the Interstate35E and Maryland Avenue interchange, because no vacant school buildings were available, Bora said. The old Modernistic Die Cutting building offered an affordable option that had both a good location and a building in good condition.

“We did not have a lot of options,” he said.

Finding space is a perennial challenge for charter schools, said Jessica Johnson, project manager lead with the Charter School Facilities Initiative in Denver. They can’t always depend on local school districts to provide space, and building their own schools from scratch can be costly.

Nationwide, about 25 percent of charters used buildings owned by local school districts, said Katherine Bathgate, a spokeswoman for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools in Washington, D.C. An additional 17 percent use space provided by nonprofits unrelated to the charter.

About 9.5 percent of charters use space owned by related nonprofits, as is the case with the Minnesota Math and Science Academy.

This forces charters to get creative when looking for space, said Johnson, who’s also the director of policy and legal initiatives for the Colorado League of Charter Schools. When the economic downturn hit, charters snapped up former big box locations and warehouses that had closed. SkyView Academy, for example, opened a location in a 110,000-square-foot former Home Depot in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

These sites are all about the shell inside, not what’s on the outside, she said. Whatever type of facility they use, schools still have to make sure they’re compliant with relevant codes and building standards. In many ways, these alternative sites are ideal because they allow the school plenty of flexibility to put in classrooms, gyms, a kitchen and other features, she said.

“When you have that big, open space, it’s kind of an empty canvas that you can do whatever you want with,” she said. “I think people are embracing that charter schools are taking some of those spaces that would otherwise go unused.”

The old Modernistic Die Cutting building isn’t quite as big as SkyView Academy’s facility. The 4.36-acre site has 73,508 square feet total: 60,428 square feet of warehouse space, 7,000 square feet of office space and 6,080 square feet in an adjacent pole barn.

Bora said the renovation is costly and time-consuming but that the building allows the school to create the facility it needs.

“You may convert the building to a school however you plan the school,” he said.

Read more: http://finance-commerce.com/2014/06/charter-school-will-occupy-industrial-building-in-st-paul/#ixzz35DJRoY9j

More about Concept Schools property management and construction firm New Plan Learning http://www.newplanlearning.com/properties/

19 Gulen Charter Schools managed by Concept Schools under Federal Investigation in 3 states

Turkish News having field day with American FBI raid on 19 schools, here is Hocaefendi Fetos
superimposed with the ill-fated FBI raided Indiana Math and Science Academy.

The FBI and two other federal agencies conducted raids in Illinois and two other states at charter schools run by Des Plaines-based Concept Schools, FBI officials said Tuesday.

READ MORE about links to Turkish Gulen Movement:

http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/fbi-raids-concept-schools-illinois-2-other-states/tue-06102014-557pm

and here is the article on FBI raid at Quest Charter Academy in Peoria, IL

 PEORIA — Quest Charter Academy was the subject of a multi-state raid last week in an investigation of charter schools run by Des Plaines-based Concept Schools, according to the FBI.

Read more: http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140610/News/140619838#ixzz34RvaComB

 



Concept Schools FBI Search and Seizure extends to 19 Schools Horizon Science

FBI, FCC, and DOE search and seizure under the E-Rate technology grants expands to 19 Gulen operated Concept Schools mostly in Ohio.  See below for staff e mails to warn teachers, parents what to say to media.  

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Federal authorities in Cleveland are examining an Illinois company that manages the local Horizon Science Academy schools and several others in the Midwest, and they have seized documents from several locations in the past week, including here in Ohio.

FBI agents in Cleveland, along with the U.S. Department of Education and the Federal Communications Commission, searched 19 locations, including three in Northern Ohio, regarding Concept Schools, according to interviews and published reports.

Vicki Anderson, an FBI agent in Cleveland, said the search warrants involved "a white-collar matter,'' but she would not specify. The search warrants are sealed.

Anderson said the case "did not involve violence or threats against the school, faculty or students.'' She would not identify the places searched.

The Indianapolis Business Journal reported last week that authorities are looking at financial records from schools managed by Concept Schools, an Illinois-based company.

Almost two-thirds of the 30 schools are in Ohio. Most are science and technology-themed schools, including several Horizon science academies in Northeast Ohio.



In addition to a highly regarded campus of an elementary, middle and high school near E. 60th Street and Interstate 90's Marginal Road, there is a Horizon elementary and middle school on Columbus and Denison avenues in Ohio City. 

Concept also runs Noble Academy at 1200 E. 200th St. in Euclid.



The federal education department named Horizon Science Academy in Cleveland a Blue Ribbon School in 2009, one of eight Ohio "Needles in a Haystack" - schools that succeed even in difficult urban areas.

In 2010, it was cited by the Thomas Fordham Institute. In 2011, the Ohio Department of Education made it one of 122 "Schools of Promise.''

Teachers and educators from across Concepts School were just in Cleveland in March for the network's annual STEM conference.

 On May 30, Eric Waldo, executive director of Michelle Obama's Reach Higher initiative, spoke at the school's graduation ceremony.

The Indianapolis Business Journal quoted a spokeswoman from an Indianapolis school, who said agents requested documents that were part of an audit the U.S. Department of Education was conducting of federal "e-rate'' grant programs.

"Earlier this week we were asked to provide information to U.S. Department of Education officials as part of a larger federal audit of e-rate technology grants," the school official said in a statement.

"Those officials indicated they are auditing the funds dispersed to various schools to verify that work paid for with e-rate grants was completed as reported.''

Plain Dealer reporter Patrick O'Donnell contributed reporting for this story.

http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2014/06/fbi_agents_in_cleveland_examin.html

 

PLEASE READ CHARTER SCHOOL WATCH DOGS ARTICLE

http://www.charterschoolwatchdog.com/the-starting-point.html

http://www.charterschoolwatchdog.com/

 

Gulen operated charter school Indiana Math and Science Academy latest FBI raid under sealed search and seizure

Federal agents collected documents from the Indiana Math and Science Academy on Wednesday afternoon under a court-ordered search warrant.

The search warrant was issued by a federal court in Ohio as part of a "white-collar" investigation being conducted by the Cleveland office of the FBI, the U.S. Department of Education and the Federal Communications Commission, according to FBI spokeswoman Vicki Anderson. She could not divulge any other details about the investigation.

Indiana Math and Science Academy is managed by Concept Schools Inc., an Illinois-based organization that manages 30 charter schools. Nine of those schools are in the Cleveland-Dayton area of Ohio.

Concept Schools operates three charter schools in Indianapolis, with combined enrollment of nearly 1,400. The school that was searched in Indianapolis is located at 7435 N. Keystone Ave. It enrolled 591 students in the most recent school year, which concluded last month.

Katherine Beckwith, a spokeswoman for the school, said in a prepared statement that the documents were part of an audit the U.S. Department of Education was conducting of the federal “e-rate” grant program.

The e-rate program provides money to help K-12 schools pay between 20 percent and 90 percent of the cost of phone and Internet service. Participating schools must conduct a competitive bidding process to select the most cost-effective providers of phone and Internet services, according to the U.S. Department of Education, which administers the grant program.

"Earlier this week we were asked to provide information to U.S. Department of Education officials as part of a larger federal audit of e-rate technology grants,” Beckwith said in a statement. “Those officials indicated they are auditing the funds dispersed to various schools to verify that work paid for with e-rate grants was completed as reported. We were happy to provide them with records and supporting materials detailing how e-rate grants were spent at our IMSA North school, so that they can successfully complete their audit."

http://www.ibj.com/federal-agents-seize-documents-at-charter-school/PARAMS/article/48023

 

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/fbi-investigates-local-charter-school

 

Horizon Science Academy downtown Toledo, OH has closed

Toledo school has announced it will close its doors for good at the end of the current school year.
Horizon Science Academy Toledo Downtown has decided to voluntarily close its 425 Jefferson Avenue facility in June.
The public charter school's board of directors made the decision after considering the best interests of students and parents and the desire to educate students in the best possible facilities.
Administrators feel the current downtown location does not allow them to adequately fulfill their promise to parents and students. TARTA no longer stops directly across the street from the school, posing a problem for students traveling to and from the facility.
The K-8 students will be given the option to transfer to one of Horizon's two other locations: Horizon Science Academy Springfield and Horizon Science Academy Toledo.
"Both locations are housed in exceptionally well-equipped facilities that contain the state-of-the-art science laboratories, regulation-size gymnasiums, outdoor play spaces, and technology-rich computer labs that the administrators feel their students rightfully deserve," according to a statement from the school.
HSA Toledo Downtown opened in 2010. During the 2013-2014 school year, the location served 275 K-8 students.

http://www.northwestohio.com/news/story.aspx?id=1049820#.U4uT-OkU_mR