Gulen "inspired" Schools are a danger to America

Magnolia Science Academy and the game of "switcharoo"

From it's early history of their first charter application which listed the applicant as "Dialogue Foundation"  Magnolia Science Academies, Magnolia Public Schools, Magnolia STEM have been changing names of officials to names of their partner in lobbying on the west coast Pacifica Institute.
These schools would never be approved under today's closer scrutiny of charter schools. 

The Gulenist operated schools are good at changing people's names or schools creating confusing, especially when under investigation.  Currently the last Turkic players "Mehmet Argin" and "Umit Yapanel" and the handful of Turkish principals and teachers are strategically playing the "mouse" game.  They are silently put to the side and more Hispanic Tools like Oswaldo Dias are put forward center.  Oswaldo thinks he is some sort of "image maker" and has had some continual dialogue with the district offices to save whatever is left of Magnolia Science Academies.

Oswaldo Dias was hired 2 weeks before the last board meeting in a last strategic effort to distance Magnolia from the Turkish Mafia aka Gulen Movement.  In light of the fact there is ongoing investigation, and a impending court cast that probably was a wise move.  Nevertheless it is lipstick on the pig and doesn't change anything about Magnolia Science Academy being part of the USA nightmare network of Gulenist owned and operated charter schools. 

They should be using their time wisely and fighting their charges in Turkey of being declared a National Security Threat and the current Arrest Warrant filed for Gulen and impending extradition that is going to get ugly.

Magnolia Science Academy #8 Denied renewal despite DESPERATE attempt to accomodate LAUSD

Magnolia Science Academy #8 in Bell, CA has only been open since 2010, they knew showing up to the 11/18/2014 LAUSD board meeting the recommendation would be DENIED.
On November 6, 2014 the PTF sat with the local representatives of the California Charter School Association (CCSA) on what points to drive home to reverse the impending DENIAL.
The school also tried to invoke the help of local politicans who will be "educated" on these schools.

 

DENIAL Announcement from LA School Report



http://laschoolreport.com/viramontes-criticized-common-core-confusion-5k-challenge/

 

 

Video of LAUSD here

http://lausd.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?clip_id=241 

Visable absent were ALL TURKS.  Mehmet Argin is no longer the CEO Murat Biyik is interim CEO

 

at 52:00 Jerry Simmons is the Magnolia Attorney he has submitted changes in writing to LAUSD.  "They are willing and able to make ALL necessary changes to keep the school open"

1) Will terminate contracts with Accord Institute

2) Stop all immigration hiring

3) Hired new director of Finance (See 1:00 "Mr. Dias)

4) that there is $9+ million in banking account and the schools are "solvent"

5) They agree to no longer transfer funds between central offices and the schools

6) Magnolia agrees to drop all court proceedings of Magnolia #6 and 7

Attorney Jerry Simmons of Young, Minney and Corr, LLP
http://www.mymcharterlaw.com/team_simmons.asp



55:36 Alfredo "School Director" aka Principal

mentions how their first year they had 48 school suspensions and how much they have improved in

just 4 short years. 

 

 

59:18 Kim Onisko (Hired liar) accountant

We will and have made all changes necessary to keep the schools open

$9+ million in checking account at Magnolia they are "solvent"

Mr. Onisko would you care to let taxpayers know where the $9 million deposit came from and if $6 million is from the state of California Facility grant received on 7/1/2014 and if the rest could possibly be money deposited by Accord Institute, Turkic American Alliance and TUSKON (All Gulen Front Groups) ACCOUNTABILITY Mr. Onisko, TRANSPARENCY.

one just doesn't become solvent overnight. 

 

1:00 Esualdo Dias, New Financial Director hired 2 weeks ago submitted new business plan

met with staff of LAUSD. 

 

1:04 William Grey History Teacher and Assistant Principal "blah blah'

 

 

1:09 to 1:29 a series of students, parents and 1 grandmother spoke some needed translators

1:29 Parent mentions that her kid's teacher is Turkish

 

1:50 Monica (Fat Ass) Garcia, LAUSD board member- brings up that the Denial has nothing to do with the amazing job they have done but a "Litigation" that cannot be discussed.  Dr.Cortines asks "if there is any kind of re visiting based on the changes the school claims they are making? Charter School Division speaks about the process of appeal.  Steven Zimmer played devils advocate that the renewal could be revisited should they find those changes have happened but the litigation is findings of fact.  That the denial doesn't effect the current school year,  but the 2015-2016 so they can finish up the current school year.

 

Magnolia Science Academy is desperate.  The court proceedings on #6 and 7- will continue and it will find they acted negligently and that LAUSD was just in denying their renewal and suspension. 

Magnolia is not in a position to be making "deals" with LAUSD it's now at the state level auditors office.

To Kim and Jerry, please continue billing Magnolia Science Academy for services and deplete their checking account of the $9 million. 

 

Sayanora, adios, Good bye!!!!!   

Magnolia Science Academies part of the Gulen Movement Business Empire - Apex Educational Technology E Rate Technology Grants

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/11/education-inc/

Over the summer, FBI agents stormed nineteen charter schools as part of an ongoing investigation into Concept Charter Schools. They raided the buildings seeking information about companies the prominent Midwestern charter operator had contracted with under the federal E-Rate program.
The federal investigation points to possible corruption at the Gulen charter network, with which Concept is affiliated and which takes its name from the Turkish cleric Fetullah Gulen. And a Jacobin investigation found that malfeasance in the Gulen network, the second largest in the country, is more widespread than previously thought. Federal contracting documents suggest that the conflict-of-interest transactions occurring at Concept are a routine practice at other Gulen-affiliated charter school operators.
The Jacobin probe into Gulen-affiliated operators in Texas, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and California found that roughly $4 million in E-Rate contract disbursements and $1.7 million in Department of Education Race to the Top grantee awards were given to what appear to be “related parties.” Awarding contracts to firms headed by related parties would seem to violate the FCC’s requirement that the school’s bidding process be “competitive” as well as “open and fair.”
Unlike most charter schools networks, the Gulen charter network has received significant scrutiny in the US press, primarily because of the international profile of its Islamic cleric leader and xenophobic fears of “education jihad.” Such coverage distracts from what appears to be systemic corruption at the public’s expense, a predictable consequence of the US charter school model. This has nothing to do with Fetullah Gulen’s religious teaching and everything to do with the private management of public education dollars.
Like most big-time charter operators, the Gulen charter network has developed a growth model more reminiscent of a Fortune 500 company than a public school district. As the sociologist Joshua David Hendrick told Jacobin, the Gulen charter school movement links “private Turkish capital with a shared sub-economy that builds upon an initial educational venture and then expands from there.”
Armed with startup capital from Turkish foundations, the charter school network has quickly grown to over 130 schools in twenty-five states while employing the same business strategy: invest in lawmakers to win charter school contracts, import Gulen adherents to staff schools on H-1B teaching visas, and award school contracts to education resource firms led by former employees.
The cycle can then repeat itself as enriched former school employees donate to the plethora of Turkish foundations, securing political influence for individual charter school operators.

A Suspect Bidding Process 

Records indicate that Gulen charter schools nationwide may be regularly violating federal competitive-bidding laws by disbursing contracts and grants to firms owned by other Gulen schools or former Gulen school employees.
In August, the Chicago Sun Times reported that in Chicago alone Concept management may have engaged in nearly a million dollars worth of related-party transactions with E-rate contractor Core Group, Inc. An analysis of Core Group’s E-Rate program disbursement shows their only successful bids have come from Concept charter schools across the Midwest and that these fifty-eight bids amount to over $3.2 million.
More obviously suspect are the contracting deals sometimes crafted between Gulen chains. Apex Educational Services, for example, presents itself as a stand-alone education technology firm, but a 2013 IRS file from a Chandler, Arizona, branch of the Gulen-affiliated Sonoran Science Academy chain lists Apex Educational Services, Inc. as one of its properties.
Hence it is no surprise that nearly all of Apex’s forty-eight E-Rate bids have gone to Gulen-affiliated chains across California, Nevada, and Utah, and all four of Apex’s successful bids have come from Magnolia Science Academies, one of the country’s largest Gulen charter chains. To date, Apex has earned about $114,000 from Magnolia’s E-Rate disbursement.
Ties between other Gulen-affiliated chains and their E-Rate providers may also violate the FCC’s competitive-bidding requirements.
There appears to be an intimate relationship, for example, between Harmony Public Schools, a Gulen-affiliated Texas charter chain, and the telecommunications firm Brighten Technologies, which from 2010 to 2014 earned roughly $670,000 off of twenty-three Harmony’s E-Rate contracts. Set up and staffed by former Harmony computer-science teachers, Brighten Technologies exists almost exclusively for Harmony contracts (94 percent of Brighten Technologies’ E-Rate applications have been for Harmony Public Schools).
In an email to Jacobin, Harmony denied these practices constitute a conflict of interest, claiming that their contracting approach to federal grants is “fair and open.” Nonetheless, despite being unaware of their close relationship, the Universal Service Administrative Company – the independent agency responsible for reviewing E-Rate applications – has rejected thirteen of Harmony’s applications to contract with Brighten Technologies for failing to prove it had a competitive-bidding process.
Regarding their contracting with Brighten Technologies, Harmony officials wrote, “A range of factors, including price, product availability, and demonstrated ability to deliver are evaluated in selecting vendors, and all the criteria for ‘best value’ have to be met, not just low price.”
Such a response is telling; rather than simply explaining why no conflict of interest exists with Brighten, Harmony officials stressed twice to Jacobin that “low price” is not their only contracting criterion, a line they used to justify what appeared to be overly generous contracts to Turkish-owned construction firms three years ago.
Additionally, federal data does not support Harmony’s claim that Brighten Technologies offered any “better value” in lieu of its overcharging. In fact, most of Brighten’s applications were rejected for failing to provide basic planning standards. To date, only twenty-six of Brighten’s ninety-eight applications have been accepted. Had Brighten been competent enough to meet USAC’s basic requirements when applying for Harmony contracts, it could have netted well over $5 million from past applications alone.
But Harmony’s apparent competitive-bidding violations go beyond the E-Rate program. In February 2014, Harmony’s school newspaper announced that the Cosmos Foundation had secured a $29.8 million Race to the Top grant from the Department of Education to purchase Google Chromebooks for over 16,000 students.
Brighten Technologies received a roughly $905,000 Department of Education Race to the Top grant, secured for them by Harmony Public Schools — another potential federal violation of Race to the Top grant rules, which stipulate that recipients must foster “full and open competition” when contracting for goods and services.
Further analysis of the same Race to the Top grant shows that Harmony also awarded $805,000 in contracts to the Gulen-affiliated Texas Gulf Foundation for various consulting and instructional services. But as the New York Times reported in 2011, the foundation, like Brighten Technologies, was started by former Harmony employees and used to have its offices on a Harmony campus.
Harmony officials denied that this contract award violated competitive-bidding guidelines; Brighten Technologies has not returned Jacobin requests for comment.

Building Influence, Building Schools

Gulen-affiliated chains have grown most rapidly in the Midwest, Texas, Arizona, and California, where, as in Chicago, stories abound of Gulen-affiliated charter officials appealing to state authorities to override the contracting decisions of local school districts.
In Illinois and Texas, Gulen-linked Turkish cultural foundations have invited lawmakers on numerous trips to Turkey, and consistently fund the campaigns of those in a position to expand their fast-growing network. When the Chicago Public Schools declined Concept’s offer to build two more schools, for example, Concept appealed to the Illinois State Charter School Commission, an agency formed by Illinois Democratic Chairman Michael Madigan, among others. The commission overturned the school board’s decision and approved Concept’s expansion.
Madigan had taken four trips to Turkey that were hosted by the Niagara Foundation, whose honorary president is none other than Fetullah Gulen. From 2010-2012, the Niagara foundation paid for at least thirty-two sojourns for Illinois lawmakers.
In New Orleans, two members of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education traveled to Turkey at the invitation of the Gulen-affiliated Pelican Foundation. The trips prompted local rumors of a quid pro quo when one of these members was the sole dissenting vote against revoking Pelican’s right to operate Abramson Science and Technology Charter School, despite shocking stories of alleged mishandling of sexual-abuse cases.
Similarly, the Houston-based Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians, which a Stratfor email leaked by Wikileaks described as “definitely a nonprofit related to the larger Fethullah Gulen movement,” has been called into question for its lavish trips for Texas lawmakers. Prominent members of the nonprofit have close ties to Harmony Public Schools, Texas’ largest charter chain, and its 2012 IRS 990 form alone lists nearly $1.9 million in travel expenses.
The founder of Harmony Public Schools, Yetkin Yildirim, is also the Austin branch representative of the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians, a position from which he regularly lobbies local politicians.
And their influence may extend beyond their regional bases. On February 9, 2010, Kemal Oksuz, the president of the Turquoise Council, and Yildirim, the founder of Harmony Public Schools, both attended a White House “Briefing for Turkish American Leaders.” In a statement to Jacobin, Harmony Public Schools claimed to have no affiliation with the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians and denied any connection to the Gulen movement, despite several investigative reports that have linked the two.
Additionally, Buzzfeed reported this summer on the tens of thousands of dollars that Gulen adherents were pouring into Texas races, particularly to that of US Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. School officials denied these donations were part of a centrally coordinated influence-building effort. Nonetheless, in July, Harmony CFO Erdal Caglar admitted that Jackson Lee was helping the chain expand to a location in DC.

Education or Immigration?

Despite the financial success of many Gulen schools, several sites have driven themselves to bankruptcy, spending enormous amounts of public funding on immigration fees for fellow Gulenists. As the Atlantic recently reported, Utah’s Beehive Academy, a Gulen school, spent “about 50 cents to pay the immigration costs of foreign teachers for every dollar that it spent on textbooks.” This eventually caused the school to be temporarily shuttered.
In California, Magnolia Science Academies, a Gulen-affiliated chain, recently made headlines for allegedly misusing $3 million in public funds to cover the immigration costs of six non-employees. The Los Angeles Unified School District ordered the closure of two Magnolia schools, citing financial mismanagement, but a July court order reversed the decision.
For Gulen, it goes beyond financial impropriety. Gulen chains appear to use H-1B slots for teaching positions to facilitate immigration and further business expansion, rather than to improve teaching quality. According to Canadian consular officials, teachers being brought from Turkey to teach in Gulen schools on H-1B visas are often not credentialed. “While the H1B petitions were for teaching positions at charter schools in the United States,” wrote one Canadian official, “most applicants had no prior teaching experience and the schools were listed as related to Fethullah Gulen.”
Records indicate that from 2001-2010, Cosmos Foundation, the charter operator of Texas’ Harmony Public Schools, filed 1,157 H-1B visa applications and brought in 731 employees — higher than all other providers of secondary education combined.
In a statement to Jacobin, Harmony officials explained “the national shortage of math and science teachers” had pushed them to hire a “small percentage of international teachers” whose qualifications were “based primarily on academic professional credentials.”
The story of Brighten Technologies, the telecommunications provider closely linked to Harmony, illustrates how Gulen schools use H-1B visas not only to guarantee American residency to fellow Gulen adherents, but also to create in-house companies to profit off of federal and state grants.
Take Joseph Duzgun, the founder of Brighten Technologies, who came to the states sometime around 2002. According to his Linkedin page, Duzgun studied mathematics at Ondokuz Mayis University in Samsun, Turkey, though his profile does not include any information regarding teacher training.
Nevertheless, Duzgun served a short teaching stint at Harmony Schools from as early as 2004 to at least 2006. Two years later, he started Brighten Technology Solutions (later called Brighten Technologies), which has benefitted from numerous publicly financed contracts from his former employer, Harmony Public Schools.
Likewise, Turkish immigrant Gökhan Sancar was a computer teacher and technology instructor at Harmony Science Academy Lubbock from 2008-2009 and at the Harmony School of Ingenuity from 2009-2010. He joined Brighten Technology Solutions in 2010. He currently lists his position as Brighten’s VP of Sales. Neither Duzgun nor Sancar responded to Jacobin requests for comment.
Brighten Technologies exemplifies the Gulenist corporate expansion strategy. School officials bring over fellow Gulenists on H-1B teaching visas, keep them in Harmony schools for a few years, then organize them to found companies — which are guaranteed a profit from providing services to Gulen schools, often at inflated costs.

A Charter to Steal

Harmony’s E-Rate and Race to the Top programs federal grants have netted Brighten Technologies over $1.57 million in dubiously legal related-party transactions. Such transactions appear to violate many federal grant application rules, and also occur at the state level, where such nepotistic practices are often even more difficult to regulate.
In Texas, where Harmony has quickly grown to become the largest charter school chain, nine regulators oversee the operations of 671 charter school campuses — a number that hasn’t changed since 2011, according to Texas Education Agency spokesperson DeEtta Culbertson. This regulatory force is so inadequate that in 2011, even Greg Richmond, president of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, admitted, “They don’t have the capacity at the state level to do the job.”
From 2009-2011, Harmony awarded thirty-five contracts worth a total of $82 million to Turkish construction firms with close links to school officials. Despite offering substantially lower bids for the same jobs, competitor firms were shocked to find out they’d lost.
Investigation into Harmony Public Schools’ contracting practices from 2009-2013 indicates that tens of millions in public dollars have continued to flow to closely associated Turkish firms. Since 2009, TDM Construction has brought home over $45 million, Solidarity Construction over $45 million, and Atlas Construction over $3 million, totaling well over $95 million from Harmony contracts alone.
To finance their massive construction projects, Harmony Public Schools has also issued hundreds of millions in bonds, which will rely heavily on public financing to pay off. A 2012 New York Times report, for example, found that Harmony has been granted $200 million in bonds since 2007, making it Texas’ largest charter school bond issuer by far. Last July, the city of Houston alone issued Harmony a $101,555,000 bond to build two more schools, renovate four existing ones, and refinance some of Harmony’s existing debt.
Harmony’s plan to finance their overall debts is projected to cost nearly half a billion dollars over the course of twenty-nine years, a plan which could come back to haunt taxpayers, given that in the last five years the Texas Education Agency has shut down eleven Harmony schools. And unfortunately for the people of Texas, the state’s permanent school fund will guarantee the principal and interest of these bonds, thus exposing Texas higher education funding to considerable risk.
While these sweetheart deals, guaranteed windfalls, and potential financial collapses are troubling, they are endemic to the charter school movement nationwide. The widespread corruption at Gulen charter schools is not due to the religion of Gulen charter school executives, but rather because doling out millions in public funding to private education operators with little to no oversight protects and encourages such fraudulent practices.
Indeed, despite the FBI raids this summer, Chicago’s Board of Education authorized Concept to expand to two more sites just one month later.
The move came as a shock to many Chicagoans, still recovering from the Chicago Board of Education’s historic move to shut down fifty schools last year, mostly in working-class black and Latino neighborhoods. As Chicago NBC reporter Mark Anderson lamented, “a federal raid on a company doesn’t seem to mean much anymore, especially if that firm is a politically connected charter school operator ready to take millions in taxpayer dollars to stay in business.”
The contracting practices of Gulen-affiliated charter schools appear to be not just nepotistic, but illegal. Such corruption, however, must not be ascribed to the ideologies of the Gulen movement, but rather to the structure of the charter school sector, which it has successfully gamed.
In addition, the Gulen expansion strategy should be viewed not as an outlier within the charter school movement, but as its most successful example. Gulen foundations invest in politicians to win charter contracts, and use the resulting public funding to import Gulen adherents on H-1B teaching visas. Though these employees do not necessarily have teaching credentials, they are often qualified to form education resource firms, which consistently earn generous contracts from Gulen schools across the country. The cycle then expands as employees of these firms give back to the very foundations that initiated the process.
It’s a process that enriches private actors and hurts students. But as long as US lawmakers push for private control over public education, the corruption and public plunder that Gulen schools exemplify will only continue.

Magnolia Science Academy makes a weak attempt to answer LAUSD and OIG charges

Gulen Movement is the catalyst for the charter schools

and the charter schools are the BUSINESS catalyst for Gulen Movement

 

 

Magnolia Public Schools responded this week to a report which accused the charter school operator of financial mismanagement and insolvency.
An attorney and an accountant for Magnolia admitted there had been bookkeeping errors but argued most of the discrepancies could have been cleared up if Los Angeles Unified school district officials had given them an opportunity to respond.
“We don’t want to get into a big fight with the organization that funds us. We want to get back into a dialogue so we can clear up some of these things,” said Kim Joseph Onisko, a certified public accountant representing Magnolia. “There’s no reason organizations with these type of academic results should be put out of business for bookkeeping boo boos.”
The school board voted in March 2014 to conditionally approve two Magnolia schools – Magnolia Science Academy 6 in Palms and Magnolia Science Academy 7 in Northridge.
On June 27, district staff sent a letter to Magnolia stating the charters for the two schools had not been renewed. The letter cited the findings of a forensic investigation by Vicente, Lloyd & Stutzman, although the full report was not released until last month.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin granted an injunction in July, allowing the schools to remain open. Lavin said the non-renewal decision should have been made at a public meeting.
The investigation summary focused on funds passed between schools and to the Magnolia Educational and Research Foundation, the charter operator. The summary also questioned the organization’s solvency due to “deficit spending.”
Onisko denied the schools were ever financially insolvent. Magnolia Public Schools has $9 million in net assets, he said, and none of the schools had deficits as of June 30, 2014.
“A lot of the financial issues in dispute between the parties relate to a question of whether Magnolia Public Schools should be treated as one single entity or whether it should be treated as 11 separate public schools and a separate charter organization,” said attorney Jerry Simmons.
Magnolia views the transfer of funds between schools the same as moving money from one department to another. Simmons said this is consistent with how other charter management organizations and other school districts operates. Simmons said they file one tax return and operate as a single entity for all other purposes.
The report also showed the school spent more than $200,000 for immigration fees over five years. The report stated the school paid for six non-employees, although Magnolia says it was only three.
Under federal law, the school is required to pay visa expenses for potential employees, so the immigration expenses for non-employees were for potential teachers who were denied visas. Magnolia has 20 foreign teachers.
The forensic review also raised questions about a field trip taken by students at two Magnolia schools. The school purchased the airline tickets and booked the hotels to save through collective purchasing, but all expenses were paid by student fundraising, according to Magnolia.
School officials also defended their relationship with the Accord Institute for Education Research which provides a variety of services, including curriculum development and professional training. Magnolia has paid approximately $3 million to the vendor. The auditors said the fee was 30 percent of the schools’ budget, although Magnolia states it is only 4 percent of the overall budget.
The schools have also faced accusations that they use their vendor agreements to pay for services they did not receive in order to support the controversial Gülen movement led by a Turkish Islamic scholar.
“Individual employees are free to do what they want on their own time, but as an organization, we have no association with any religious sect or movement and they have never received any funds from the school,” Magnolia stated.
Simmons and Onisko claim LAUSD did not follow state law when it conditionally renewed Magnolia’s charters. The Charter Schools Act only allows the board to vote for or against renewal, Simmons said. He argues the board should have renewed the charters and then started revocation procedures if new evidence was discovered.
Simmons said the revocation procedure would have allowed them an opportunity to respond at public hearings. Onisko said it is also unusual for an organization being audited to not have an opportunity to respond to the findings.
“It’s troubling if it’s true they relied on the report that wasn’t even issued until September to make a decision in June,” he said.
Although the school board voted in August to support the decision not to renew the charters, the Los Angeles County Office of Education stated the charters will remain renewed as long as the injunction remains in place. At this point, the district has not expressed any plans to ask the judge to drop the injunction. School board member Tamar Galtzan declined to comment due to the pending court action.
Magnolia now faces more investigations. LAUSD has expanded its probe to include all nine of Magnolia’s LA County schools, including Lake Balboa and Reseda. The state is also conducting an audit which is expected to take six months.

http://www.postperiodical.com/magnolia-public-schools-responds-lausd-report/

Magnolia Science Academy Gulen "inspired" school roster for LAUSD

Magnolia Science Academy #1

18238 Sherman Way

Reseda, CA     grades 6-12

Principal-Mustafa Sahin  and Varol Gurler

 

Magnolia Science Academy #2 (Birmingham High School- share campus)

17125 Victory Blvd

San Fernando Valley, CA   grades 6-12

Principal - Suat Acar

 

Magnolia Science Academy #3

1254 E. Helmick St.

Carson, CA  grades 6-12

Principal Selcuk "steven" Keskinturk

 

Magnolia Science Academy #4 (Daniel Webster School)

1130 N. Graham Pl.

Los Angeles, CA 90064  grades 6-12

Principal   Omar Polat

 

Magnolia Science Academy #5

18230 Kittridge St.

Reseda,CA  grades 6-12

Principal    Ismail Ozkay

 

Magnolia Science Academy #6

3754 Dunn Dr.

Los Angeles, CA 90034  grades 6-8

Principal   "john" Gurcan Terzi

 

Magnolia Science Academy #7

18355 Roscoe Blvd.,

Northridge, CA  grades K-5

Principal   Irina Erangey-Millard   (Only female principal in the USA works for Gulen Movement) 

Irina is "Central Asian" (Turkic)

 

Magnolia Science Academy #8

6411 N. Orchard ave.,

Bell, CA 90201   grades 6-8

principal  Alfredo Rubalcava token Mexican American

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDZJR1Zyu-A

Magnolia Science Academy "poor accounting, tight finances" = Organized Crime

LA Unified today finally released a report that confirming that two charter schools, Magnolia Science Academy 6 and Magnolia Science Academy 7, were operating with insufficient funds and for years and have been financially mismanaged.
The 78-page report, prepared by an outside firm for the district’s Office of the Inspector General, concludes that the Magnolia schools in Palms and Reseda are financially insolvent, spending more money than they’re bringing in.

Other accounting irregularities found on the OIG report included loans between schools, payment of immigration fees for unspecified persons, the possible use of school funds for a European field trip, and what seems like an unsustainable over-payment to a charter management organization providing services that are the purview of the charter group.
The review, which was completed in mid-June but withheld by the district, does not examine the Magnolia schools’ parent company, Magnolia Educational and Research Foundation, known as MERF, beyond June 2014 despite assertions by Superintendent John Deasy that the Inspector General would be looking into all eight of the district’s Magnolia schools.
The district’s Charter School Division based its denial of the two schools’ charter renewal petition on the findings of the report as presented to the school board over the summer. But the revocation of the charter was overturned in court and the schools were allowed to reopen this year. A court hearing is scheduled for January to determine whether they can continue to operate.

Officials from the Magnolia schools said they were heartened by the release of the report, saying that the detailed findings, now public, would help them mount a stronger legal case against the district in arguing to keep the schools open.
Kim Onisko, MERF’s accountant, sounded relieved after reviewing the executive summary. “Getting the numbers lets us trace back to where their figures came from to see if they’re right or wrong,” he told LA School Report.
“Basically the discussion is exactly the same as it was in June, it’s just we have more meat in this report so we can actually give a better response than we did to the prior report which didn’t tell us very much.”
What MERF officials contended then — and now — is that they operate as a company, not as individual entities, a difference that might show deficits at individual schools but not with the company.
“There is no inter-company borrowing because Magnolia operates as one entity, under one tax number. As such, you can not make a loan to yourself,” Onisko explained. “You can transfer money between departments, but there are no loans because you can’t contract with yourself.”
Onisko also denied the use of public money to fund a student field trip to Europe in 2011.
LA Unified officials declined to comment citing pending litigation.
Previous Posts: Magnolia schools remain open but relationship with Accord changes; Magnolia Charter troubles in LAUSD highlight larger concerns; Fiscal mismanagement’ cited in closing 2 Magnolia charters
http://laschoolreport.com/new-report-shows-same-findings-on-2-magnolia-charters-lausd/
78 page forensic report on Magnolia
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1311455-magnolia-oig-report.html

So who is Remzi Oten that donated $700,000 to MERF

Dr. Remzi Oten, of Sena Case  and Turkic American Alliance , California Turkish American Chamber of Commerce

Here is the photo of CATA (California Association of Turkish Americans) aka California Turkish American
chamber of Commerce which met on Sept 13 with a few memers of California legislature for future business ventures with Turkey and Gulen's TUSKON business man group of industrialists. 

Sena Cases owned and developed by Dr. Remzi Oten and later sold to Taurus
The $39,400 donated by Mr. Yilmaz Ak who is listed as principal of
Coral Science Academy in Reno, NV who is now has moved to California and
became principal of Magnolia Science Academy in Santa Clara, CA (But "There is
no organic connections".........Mehmet Argin quote from 2010 USA Today article)
 

Immigration fees of $206,489
Even though it's wrong using Education money for immigration
some were not even employees of Magnolia like Abdurrahnan Bayaktar
a teacher at "Gulen Inspired' Sonoran Science Academy in Arizona.

 

$24,000 expenditure for a trip to Italy and Turkey - Field Trip



 

Magnolia Public Schools are Fiscally Solvent per IRS definition More propaganda

Jeffrey HIll, CPA "independent" Financial auditor of Hill and Morgan = paid for by Magnolia Education and research foundation to look at a second set of books.



McEwen- Is a "FORMER" Criminal investigator as in past tense



Kim Onisko- Another paid forensic auditor, Kimberly (such a strange name for a man) name is not on

Magnolia Science Academy's 990 IRS tax returns., where is the CPA firm that signed your tax return?

Kimberly is another paid liar. 



This is bias and will not help the Gulen Movement.

Magnolia Science Academy Magnolia Families Unite! Propaganda video

Julian Lopez, is currently the IT person for Magnolia Public Schools.  He has

bounced around from UC Berkeley to UC Merced (he claims) but the registrars

at those two schools have no record of a Julian Lopez.

Magnolia teaches Ottomans' POV of Armenian Genocide, to be "well-rounded"

Mehmet Argin linked to Tom Horne Attorney General of Arizona exposed as a...

Gulen Politicians - aka "Useful tools of Gulen": Tom Horne Attorney General of Arizona exposed as a...: Over 3 years ago,when Tom formally the State Superintendant of Schools of Arizona.  Tom was in the pockets of the Gulen Movement Charter ...

Magnolia Science Academy, how to get awarded $6 million in bonds 4 days after closure notice?

Why High-Yield – The Untold Story of a California Charter School Bond Issue

Charter schools form a growing and lucrative part of the municipal finance landscape. As we learned recently, charter school bonds can have stories beyond those told in their offering documents.  Here is one uncovered by Bitvore for Munis.
Last month, the California School Finance Authority issued $6.02 million in bonds for the benefit of Magnolia Science Academy in Reseda, California.  The Academy is one of a dozen schools operated by Magnolia Educational and Research Foundation, a not-for-profit charter school operator. Magnolia is using the bond proceeds to purchase and upgrade the facility in which the Science Academy currently operates. Because charter schools are tuition-free, the debt will be serviced primarily from aid payments received from the State of California and the Los Angeles Unified School District in which it operates.
The BB-rated bonds pay generous coupons ranging from 5.25% to 7.00%. The school has been operating since 2002 and is virtually full, suggesting a relatively secure source of repayment. Bondholders should be fine as long as LAUSD continues to renew the school’s charter, which is next up for renewal in 2017.
Shortly after the bonds were issued, this benign scenario took a major hit – as Bitvore users recently learned. A local education news site reported that LAUSD shut down two other Magnolia schools. According to the report, the district decided to close the schools after receiving the results of an audit from its Inspector General. If two Magnolia charters in LAUSD have financial irregularities, it is reasonable to wonder whether others – including the Reseda-based Science Academy – have similar issues.
Another challenge for Magnolia is its association with the Turkish Islamic Gulen movement. Reports on 60 Minutes and elsewhere have featured accusations that Gulen-linked charter schools rake off public funds by obtaining visas for Turkish immigrant teachers and then requiring these teachers to kick back a percentage of their salaries.
The internet holds an incredible wealth of information and some of it may impact the value of your bonds. Finding that information and linking it to bonds you hold or are considering buying is the job of Bitvore.
http://bitvore.com/2014/07/why-high-yield-the-untold-story-of-a-california-charter-school-bond-issue/



$6 million in California School Finance Authority School Facility Revenue Bonds
issued on 7/1 /2014  4 days after LAUSD issued an official letter that Magnolia #6 and 7
would not be renewed.

 

 

Within a few days the Magnolia School web site is boasting about a new schools but notice the

name on the school is under Pacific Technology not "Magnolia Schools" which is Where the

money was granted.

 

 



 Learn how Accord Institute is connected to Faruk Taban and
Turkish Lobbying http://gulenpoliticians.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-gulen-boys-are-at-it-againthis-time.html

 

Magnolia Science Academy- California State Auditor launches extensive investigation

This is from Educational GURU Diane Ravitch's blog http://dianeravitch.net/2014/08/15/california-investigating-magnolia-charter-schools/

Another scoop by KPCC’s Annie Gilbertson. The California State Auditor is investigating four of the state’s 11 Magnolia Science Academies, part of the Gulen charter chain.
“After sampling transactions from Magnolia campuses in 2012, L.A. Unified found over $43,000 in duplicate payments to vendors, flagging those as potential misuse of funds.
“The Los Angeles Unified school board ordered a second audit in 2014, voting to close two of the schools if any fiscal problems arose.
“The audit, which the district is calling a “forensic review,” revealed that schools sent $2.8 million to the network’s management organization. The funds were poorly documented loans, and much of the cash was never paid back to classrooms, according to L.A. Unified.
“District auditors found the management organization met the definition of insolvent, operating on a $1.7 million deficit.
“Magnolia refutes much of the findings.”

LEARN HERE HOW ACCORD INSTITUTE IS RELATED TO FARUK TABAN AND TURKISH
LOBBYING
http://gulenpoliticians.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-gulen-boys-are-at-it-againthis-time.html

Mehmet Argin formerly of Paragon Science Academy now Magnolia Science Academy CEO "No Organic Ties" REALLY?

Mehmet Argin is a loyal Gulen Follower and will go anywhere to grow the share
of power for the Gulen Movement. 

MEHMET ARGIN, WE CHALLENGE YOU TO STOP
LYING ABOUT THE CHARTER SCHOOLS AFFILIATED
WITH EXILED IMAM FETHULLAH GULEN

2010 USA Today Article "Objectives of charter schools with Turkish ties questioned"
 http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-17-turkishfinal17_CV_N.htm

in this article Argin is quoted:

that Daisy Education Corporation "has no legal or organic ties" with other schools.  He cautions against linking charter schools founded by Turkish-Americans directly to the Gulen Movement "just because Turkish Americans may be inspired by Mr. Gulen"
Quote by Mehmet Argin

4 years ago 2010 Mehmet Argin was with the Sonoran Science Academies /Paragon Science in Arizona.  He made a statement that none of these schools opened by Turkish Americans have "organic ties".  Mehmet Argin even put out the usual Gulen endorsement of Paragon Science Academy.

 

Fast forward to 2014 Mehmet is now in California working as the CEO Superintendent of the Gulen-Inspired operation Magnolia Science Academy.  Here is his glowing endorsement of the California schools.  If you compare with the Paragon video above you will hear the same words.

Now for the other Gulen Liar- Mr. Umit (Matt) Yapanel, who is currently the Superintendent of the

California Schools.  Matt (Umit) was formerly the Principal in Colorado of the Gulen "inspired" school Lotus School of Excellence.  Matt failed to get an expansion in CO, because of poor scores and hired an attorney to take his case to the state board of education EPIC FAILED. (does that story sound familiar California People?)

http://gulencharterschoolsusa.blogspot.com/2010/11/matt-yapanel-lotus-school-for.html

 

SOMEONE IS TELLING A FIB

From Colorado to Arizona to California

These are all connected and part of the Gulen Movement

 

 

Paragon Science academy in Chandler, AZ where Mehmet Argin CEO of Magnolia Schools came from

American Students dancing and learning Turkish culture on American taxpayer's dime

This is Mehmet Argin's old school.  Mehmet Argin is currently CEO of Magnolia Schools

Magnolia Science Academy Elton San Juan performs at Turkish Olympiad

My cousin, Elton Sanjuan performing a Turkish poem at the 6th Turkish National Olympiad in Long Beach,CA . Has been 1st place from his school, then 1st place from Los Angeles and once again 1st place of California. Made it to the Top 5 and after this great perfomance, he was able to take 4th place home. Good job, primo.
.
School: Magnolia #8 Middle School
Teacher: Mr. Veli

Magnolia Science Academy closes one school, opens another 16 miles away

Magnolia Public Schools aka Magnolia Science Academies aka Magnolia STEM Schools moved from one location to another 16 miles away. In doing this, they abandoned the families that went to the old school and LIED to the new community they went to by saying "it was a new school"

Magnolia Schools Opening ends close business relationship

As one of the conditions for allowing Magnolia Science Academy 6 in Palms and Magnolia Science Academy 7 in Van Nuys to remain open, Superior Court Judge Luis A. Lavin ruled last week that the parent company, Magnolia Public Schools (MPS), could no longer do business with Accord Institute for Education Research. That effectively ended a close business relationship.

LEARN HOW ACCORD INSTITUTE IS CONNECTED TO GULEN MOVEMENT POLITICAL LOBBYING VIA FARUK TABAN

 http://gulenpoliticians.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-gulen-boys-are-at-it-againthis-time.html

 

 A very close business relationship. Magnolia Public Schools, the parent of the two charters, is located at 13950 Milton Ave in Westminster, Suite 200A. Accord is located at 13950 Milton Ave in Westminster, Suite 200B. Close ties are also evident in two of Accord’s three board members who previously served on the board for MPS and were intimately involved in launching a few of the charter schools. The Accord website says current board president Ertan Salik was a “key figure in the charter school development team for Magnolia Science Academy, where he served as the board president from 2002 to 2005.” Another Accord board member, Suat Utku Ay, was on the board of directors for Magnolia Science Academy 1 in Reseda from 2005 to 2007. He was also the lead petitioner for Magnolia Science Academy 2 in Van Nuys.

In ruling against LA Unified, which wanted to close the schools over financial concerns, Lavin listed six conditions that could not be violated for the schools to remain open. One was an end to MPS’s outsourcing core administrative services for all eight of its LA Unified schools to Accord. Accord provided professional training, human resource and financial support, curriculum development, teacher evaluations and other academic support services for MPS. LA Unified contended that transferring those responsibilities called into question MPS’s accountability in the operations of its schools. While Lavin did not explain his reasoning for insisting on the breakup, in a June 27 letter to MPS, Jose Cole-Gutierrez, head of LA Unified’s Charter School Division, said the overlap of services provided by MPS and Accord “raises the question of the purpose of (MPS) and the management fees it receives from the schools when it appears that Accord is providing wholesale operations to the school.” LA Unified concluded that MPS spent nearly 30 percent of its total 2012 spending in payments to Accord and 26 percent in 2013. Between 2010 and February of 2014, the district said MPS paid Accord about $3 million. MPS denied all accusations of impropriety and argued that the $3 million represents a only 2.75 percent of the parent company’s five year, $110 million revenue stream, according to Mekan Muhammedov, Chief Finance Officer of MPS.

But Mehmet Argin, MPS CEO, told LA School Report, “We will comply with all the conditions” set by Lavin. “I believe the judge made a fair decision.” Lavin’s prohibition against the MPS-Accord business relationship struck at least one other charter executive as curious. David Hyun, Chief Financial and Operating Officer for Alliance College Ready Public Schools, which will operate 26 district charter schools when schools open in August, says Alliance would avoid the perception of a conflict interest but that there is nothing inherently illegal in what MPS is doing. “I don’t think the location matters; I think it’s about control,” he told LA School Report. “If the Accord board members are not on the board of Magnolia anymore, and they are two separate legal entities, then I don’t see where the conflict lies. Now if that board member was on Magnolia and Accord, at the same time, then I see the conflict.” It is unclear whether MPS or another outside company will now assume the responsibilities once performed by Accord. http://laschoolreport.com/magnolia-schools-opening-ends-close-business-relationship-lausd/

IF JUDGE LAVIN ORDERED MAGNOLIA TO SEVER TIES WITH ACCORD INSTITUTE
WHY IS THEIR LOGO STILL ON THE WEB SITE?

Temporary Injunctive Relief granted to Magnolia Science Academy with stricter controls on financials

Till January 2015....

Magnolia Science Academy a Gulen operated Charter school goes to court

07/24/2014 at 01:31 pm in department 82 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Order to Show Cause Re Prelim Inj MAGNOLIA IS PROVIDING A BUS TO SUPPORTERS TO THE COURTHOUSE. WHO IS PAYING FOR THIS BUS--TAXPAYERS?

MAGNOLIA PARENTS ON A TAX PAYER SUPPORTED BUS HEAD OVER TO COURTHOUSE TO SAVE THEIR SCHOOL

In Chicago the Gulen Movement rounded up homeless people from a rehab center, bused them in and gave them free t shirt and lunch. LOL. Its the middle of the afternoon why aren't these parents at work?

Magnolia Science Academy linked to reclusive Turkish Imam face closure

https://nonprofitquarterly.org/policysocial-context/24545-ca-charter-schools-linked-to-reclusive-turkish-imam-face-closure.html A fiscal audit of two Los Angeles charter schools for fiscal mismanagement has led to concerns about the two charter schools’ parent organization. The audit led to the closing of Magnolia Science Academy-6 and Magnolia Science Academy-7 for reasons, according to L.A. Unified district, that included “a number of irregularities.” However, the audit also apparently revealed that the charters’ parent, Magnolia Public Schools, may itself be insolvent. The news about the two Magnolia schools in Los Angeles has been noticed by other localities that host Magnolia charters. The Santa Clara County Office of Education last year renewed a charter petition for a Magnolia school outside of Cupertino, but is now concerned. “We will pay attention to this—we wouldn’t want to find out that our [Magnolia charter] school would have to close because other [Magnolia] schools are in trouble,” said Don Bolce, Santa Clara’s director of special projects. “We recognize that with a charter school that is part of a charter management organization, a problem at one school could impact other schools – if there is a problem, it endangers the system.” Magnolia’s charter school in Santa Ana, according to L.A. School Report, “has been of concern to school and county officials in Orange County despite winning approval for $18 million in facilities bond money.” The Magnolia charter school system has had its ups and downs over the years, with some schools closed in other districts. But the 11 operating Magnolia schools, including eight in the Los Angeles Unified School District, are not ordinary charter schools, assuming there is any such thing. A Turkish newspaper, the Daily Sabah, indicates that the Magnolia schools are affiliated with a Turkish movement called the Gülen Movement. A website for the Gülen movement, also called “Hizmet,” describes the movement as “a faith-inspired, non-political, cultural and educational movement whose basic principles stem from Islam’s universal values, such as love of the creation, sympathy for the fellow human, compassion, and altruism,” establishing schools and universities around the world to carry out the beliefs of Gülen. The Daily Sabah, supportive of Turkish government authorities, has a much more negative characterization of Gülen. “The movement is led by a controversial imam living in rural Pennsylvania in self-imposed exile, who is at odds with the Turkish government over the influence he wields inside the Turkish police forces and top judiciary. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently requested the extradition of Fethullah Gülen both privately and publicly from the Obama administration and accused Gülen of plotting a judicial coup against the Turkish government before the local elections last March.” The Hizmet Chronicle, a news outlet that is supportive of the movement and critical of the Turkish government, has charged that the press has smeared Gülen schools, with the Erdoğan-connected Turkish press playing a role in headines about other Gülen-related schools. Another website provides a somewhat dated list (as of 2011) of Gülen-affiliated public schools, numbering perhaps as many as 140, including 44 in Texas and 19 in Ohio, though it seems that they aren’t all part of the same network or management. Why charter schools? A 60 Minutes piece on Gülen schools makes the connection to the Gülen belief system: Living in exile in a gated retreat in Pennsylvania’s Poconos, “the Turkish imam Fethullah Gülen…tells his followers that to be devout Muslims they shouldn’t build mosques—they should build schools; and not to teach religion, but science. In sermons on the web, he actually says: ‘Studying physics, mathematics, and chemistry is worshipping God.’ So Gülen’s followers have gone out and built over 1,000 schools around the globe - from Turkey to Togo; from Taiwan to Texas.” We certainly don’t know enough to comment pro or con about the Gülen movement and the insinuations against it lodged by the Erdoğan government. However, there have been criticisms, highlighted in the 60 Minutes coverage, that the Gülen charter schools are, according to a whistleblower, basically a money-making operation and a ruse for getting Gülen’s Turkish acolytes visas. If the Gülen schools are business ventures first and educational institutions second, the shutting down of Magnolia schools in Los Angeles suggests that the business plan might not be working in some geographies. But without taking a position regarding Gülen versus Erdoğan, we can suggest that creating charter schools that overtly or covertly pursue a specific quasi-religious message, even to the point of one linked to a cultish leader like Gülen, shouldn’t be part of the K-12 public school system. Even if Gülen’s reported vision of Islam is positive with its emphasis on science, to the extent that it is tied to religion and doing battle with other interpretations of the Koran, it doesn’t really belong in a public school system—Rick Cohen

LAUSD orders 2 Gulen Magnolia Science Academies closed, parents vow to fight despite being in the dark over finances

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/07/21/la-charter-schools-face-closure-amid-financial-questions/ LOS ANGELES (AP/CBSLA.com) — Los Angeles Unified School District officials have decided to close two charter schools, based on the finding of a draft audit that has not been made public. District administrators last month revoked the charters of Van Nuys’ Magnolia Science Academy 7 elementary school and its sister institution, Magnolia Academy 6 middle school in Palms, The Daily News reported.

Just months earlier, the district board “conditionally” approved renewing the schools’ charters. The California Charter Schools Association says the district’s approval and sudden revocation violates state law. “With little warning, no chance to respond and with only six weeks until the start of the next school year, LAUSD informed us that they are not renewing two of our Charters, based on findings that are either factually incorrect or grave misinterpretations,” Magnolia Education and Research Foundation’s Mehnet Argin said.

A judge will consider issuing an injunction Thursday that could stop the district from closing the schools, at least temporarily. About 300 students who attended Magnolia Science Academy 7 and another 140 students at Magnolia Science Academy 6 will have to find new schools to attend for the fall session, according to LA School Report. According to The Daily News, there had been questions in the past as to whether schools as small as the Magnolia academies were financially viable.

Read here how Magnolia Science Academy's Accord Institute is related to Faruk Taban and Turkish Lobbying.http://gulenpoliticians.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-gulen-boys-are-at-it-againthis-time.html

NPR Radio Los Angeles talks about Magnolia Science Academy Closures

http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2014/07/21/17031/audit-finds-missing-misused-funds-at-la-charter-ne/