CFO - Ernany "Nanie" Montijo while at Centinela Valley School District put on paid leave #Embezzlement

The scandal in the Centinela Valley school district is widening, with two mid-level managers being placed on paid leave as several investigations continue into the excessive compensation of Superintendent Jose Fernandez.

In the two weeks since the school board put Fernandez on paid leave on April 9, district administrators have issued the same order for Patrick Au, director of information management services, and Ernany Montijo, director of fiscal services.

Meanwhile, teachers union President Jack Foreman said there is no chance Fernandez will return to the district.

“Absolutely zero,” he said. “The corruption is too extensive. There’s nobody in that district who supports him.”

Entire article here https://www.dailybreeze.com/2014/04/19/two-more-managers-in-centinela-valley-school-district-put-on-paid-leave/

and in the LA Times

Based on the board's action, these top officials will have to pay any additional fees on their own. The same goes for four school board members who benefit from $150,000 in life insurance purchased by the school system.

Aside from Fernandez, two senior administrators were placed on leave, the district said Thursday: Patrick Au, who was in charge of information technology, and Ernani Montijo, director of fiscal services.

Interim Supt. Bob Cox said he could not comment on why the two administrators had been removed from their positions.

Full Article here http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-centinela-insurance-20140418-story.html

Ernany "Nanie" Montijo RESUME

Caprice Young 3750 Lankersheim Blvd., Los Angeles, CA #CapriceYoung

Blah Blah Blah, our school is failing because we had to move 4 years ago
yakitty yak yak, we are family and you at LAUSD don't want us.  Wahaaa Waaaa
"it's all politics"  Blah Blah Blah.   STFU 

Magnolia Science Academy #5 Denied Renewal by LAUSD Caprice Young

Magnolia Science Academy #5 application to LACOE is on this link it's very
long but the relevant areas start pg 22 for the Statement of facts of denial from LAUSD and the
application to LACOE starts at pg 36

Magnolia Application & Denial CLICK HERE

1 excerpt

MAGNOLIA SCIENCE ACADEMY #5 asked for an extension at their December 19, 2017
January 23, 2018 is the date set for the renewal hearing.  The school has been recommended for denial but as last time the county school board can override the decision of their staff.

Magnolia Santa Ana Campus has ground breaking ceremony for new Gymnasium

Where did Magnolia get the funds for the 3 new building projects?

#1 - RESEDA repairs to Gymnasium and other buildings

SANTA ANA - New Gymnasium

SAN DIEGO - New campus

In Magnolia's minutes they mention not able to get funding but they voted in intra-company loan (basically loaning money to themselves) or did they get money from Texas

Backgrounder on state of affairs at Magnolia Science Academy

Why is there Turkish Language teachers at Magnolia?

Magnolia Science Academy on state statistics shows its over 70% Hispanic and ESL

So we beg to ask.............why is Caprice Young wasting our tax dollars on Turkish Language teachers?

NAACP calls for investigation of all Gulen Charter Schools

Did you know that Muhammed Fethullah Gülen Hocaefendi (pictured), an Imam who exited Turkey and is sequestered in rural Pennsylvania, is operating the second largest affiliated network of charter schools in the United States? (Yes, this is the same Gülen that Michael Flynn allegedly was trying to have extradited from the United States)

In the past I have blogged about the Gülen-affiliated charter schools in the posts Bad Charters, Bad Charters, “Whatcha gonna do when they come for you” and Gulen-affiliated charter schools are bad apples? and Empire of Deceit says charters squandering taxes and violating immigration laws.

When I watched the film Killing Ed, I was skeptical, as I am paid to be. So when I was in Houston to give a talk at Rice University, I ran into a former Gülen Harmony student and asked a few questions.

Q: Was it true that the Gülen schools were populated with many teachers from Turkey who had difficulty speaking English

A: Yes

Q: Was it true that some students didn’t actually do their own science projects as alleged in the film Killing Ed.

A: Yes

I spent more time confirming with the student some of the other allegations about lack of playgrounds, self-dealing, and aberrant behavior from administrators. I was shocked their behavior was being allowed in Texas.

So, I am announcing today, in addition to getting the negative attention they deserve from law enforcement and the media, the California NAACP has now stepped up to the plate with a resolution to call for an investigation of ALL the Gülen charter schools.

RESOLUTION #16 CONCERNING THE IMPACT OF GÜLEN CHARTER SCHOOLS

WHEREAS, there exists over 200 schools in the United States operated by the Gülen Organization, teaching over 80,000 American students. This organization operates under the names Magnolia Science Academy (CA), Horizon Science Academy (OH , IL), Harmony Science Academy (TX), Sonoran Science Academy (AR), Coral Academy of Science (NV), Dove Science Academy (OK), as well as others.

WHEREAS, audits having been conducted in LAUSD, the State of Oklahoma, the State of Georgia (resulting in their closure), the State of New York, have resulted in a pattern of massive accounting irregularities involving without limitation the use of Gülen related landlords such as Terra (NY, NJ), the Sky Foundation (OK), Harmony Public Schools (TX), Concept Schools (IL, OH), the use of Gülen Related Management Companies such as Accord (CA), Concept Education Services (OH), Apple Education (NJ), Terra Science and Education (NY), as well as others.

WHEREAS, Gülen schools; such as Magnolia (CA) have targeted the African American and Hispanic communities as shown in the documentary film Killing Ed.

WHEREAS, all 200 Gülen schools recruit teachers from Turkey under the H – 1B Visa program thereby replacing fully qualified American teachers.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the California NAACP urges federal, state and local authorities to conduct forensic audits of both the schools, and the management organizations operating them.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the California NAACP further urges that these investigations be conducted by state and federal auditors as opposed to state boards of education, as well as other relevant investigations necessary to evaluate fully the apparent, suspect financial dealings, visa misuse, and highly suspicious conduct.

If you want to understand depth, breadth and shocking nature of the alleged malfeasance against Gülen-affiliated charter schools, I highly recommend you check out the film Killing Ed. (Also, check out the Empire of Deceit website) As shown in the film, the Gülen-affiliated charter schools are some of the worst proverbial bad apples in the charter sector.

What is really disconcerting about charter schools is that they stick together like glue no matter the malfeasance shown to them. They use their charter lobbying associations in California, Texas and elsewhere to fervently protect these bad apples regardless of alleged illegal activity. While charter schools, their leaders, and supporters say vehemently in public that they support transparency and accountability, the $$$$$$$ that they spend in legislatures says loudly otherwise.

Incidentally, one of the Gülen-affiliated Magnolia schools petitioning for re-authorization was rejected recently by the LA school board. Although, the LAUSD board did broker a political deal to allow many, many other charters through. However, in the past the LA County board has overruled LAUSD’s local-control to keep the “embattled” Magnolia.

Please stay tuned to Cloaking Inequity for the other education resolutions passed by the California NAACP. Also, here is another controversial resolution we passed at the convention— but right and important. California NAACP seeks to remove ‘Banner’ as anthem, supports Kaepernick

Please Facebook Like, Tweet, etc below and/or reblog to share this discussion with others.

Democracy Under Attack: Fethullah Gülen School and Magnolia Bag Man

@9:00 Yunus Avcu is interviewed as being the Cash Man for 2 years that moved money

via cash from 1 charter school to another as described in LA Weekly Article

http://www.laweekly.com/news/did-a-california-charter-school-group-fund-an-effort-to-overthrow-the-turkish-government-7666698


EXCERPT HERE:  

Recommendation for Denial of Magnolia Science Academy #4 and #5, slated for Nov 7, 2017

An unprecedented number of charter school petitions could be denied next week because Los Angeles charter leaders are standing up against district policies they say require increasing amounts of time and money to satisfy and take away resources from the classroom.

While the district says the policies are needed to hold charter schools accountable, a coalition of charter leaders say the rules unduly limit the autonomy afforded charter schools under state law and their ability to offer a high-quality education.

The district’s charter schools division has recommended that 14 schools’ petitions be denied, including three new schools that could have accommodated 2,000 students. The existing schools recommended for denial, many of them high-achieving and serving low-income and minority students, have nearly 4,600 students.

While the schools could appeal any rejections to the Los Angeles County Board of Education, they must first go before LA Unified’s school board, and board member Nick Melvoin is hoping the district will reach a compromise with the charter leaders before Tuesday’s meeting.

http://www.killinged.com

In an interview, Melvoin said he wants to move from a “compliance-driven mindset to one of creativity and collaboration,” so that charters will be held accountable but also will have room to innovate.

“It’s been a problem that’s been exacerbated over the course of a decade as that mistrust and division have grown. We’re trying to heal it,” he said.

“My hope would be that district and charter partners can reach an agreement that puts kids first.”

PREPARING PARENTS

Already, schools throughout the district are preparing parents, teachers, and students for the news on Tuesday that their schools may be denied, and explaining that the schools won’t be closing and can be authorized by the county or the state after LA Unified rejects their petitions.

Meanwhile, a coalition of charter groups continues to work behind the scenes with the school district’s charter division to figure out ways to simplify the procedures and language for the largest charter authorizer in the country. Independent charter schools are publicly funded but are authorized by their local school districts, counties, or the state. Each entity has its own required policies for charter schools it authorizes.

“The district is working on a list of policies that could relate to charter schools that is non-exhaustive,” said Emilio Pack, founder and CEO of Stem Preparatory Schools, who has helped lead efforts since April to work with district officials to change the charter language. “I am hopeful, and we are still working on it, and we want to get to a ‘yes’ to approve all the schools.”

Pack found out this week that a new school he is seeking to open in South LA, STEM Prep Elementary School, had been recommended for denial by the school district’s charter division staff because he wasn’t including language that the district requires — including agreeing to the district’s ability to change the rules at any time.

“It would be irresponsible for me to include language in our school charter that would include policies that the district hasn’t even invented yet,” Pack said Thursday in a media call.

In a statement signed by the charter schools, they said, “After working for many months with LAUSD to solve these issues, we stand by the reasonable policy updates we’ve proposed that are simply necessary for us to keep providing a high-quality education to our kids. We are committed to running schools that put student and teacher needs ahead of bureaucratic demands.”

Four of the seven members of the school board were elected with the support of charters, and they form a majority that could reject the staff’s recommendations and approve the schools, even without the required language.

But last month the board unanimously voted to turn down a renewal petition for Lashon Academy, a high-performing charter school that offers the only Hebrew-language dual immersion program in the city. The district staff had recommended denial because Lashon’s petition didn’t have the district-required language. Lashon has appealed the decision to the county Board of Education, which is seen as having less stringent requirements than LA Unified.

Magnolia CEO Caprice Young has two schools facing denial on Tuesday, which could affect nearly 600 students.

‘BIG DISRUPTION’

“Having something like this happen to our schools is a big disruption, and there’s a lot of concern, but the parents know we are doing something right with the students,” Young said.

Pack’s STEM Prep and the two Magnolia schools are among the schools working to change the district’s language for charters, along with Equitas, Alliance, and KIPP schools. Eight Alliance schools are recommended for denial, as is a new Equitas school.

Empire Of Deceit click here

Six KIPP schools are up for a vote Tuesday, and they all have been recommended for approval, as well as KIPP’s proposal for a new school planned for more than 1,000 students in District 5 in East Los Angeles. It is one of only two new charter schools that the district staff has recommended approving. The other is for PRIME School, to serve grades 6-12 in Local District South.

“We have 14 charters in LA Unified and we want to continue to stay within LA Unified,” Marcia Aaron, CEO of KIPP LA Schools, said on a media call Thursday. “I would not be spending hours and days and weekends and evenings trying to negotiate if I didn’t want to be.”

Aaron said KIPP has three full-time staff members just to focus on LA Unified, and 10 who work on compliance issues.

Aaron’s schools are being approved with the caveat that they meet “benchmarks,” which are changes they have to make to their petition and re-submit it in a month, but she said the district has still not made those clear.

“There are things that we don’t understand,” Aaron said. For example, the district asked to include language that KIPP schools would form school site councils, which they already have.

School site councils include equal numbers of teachers and parents to help decide how to spend discretionary money coming to the school. “We’ve been doing that all along, so I’m confused about that. We don’t understand many of the benchmarks they have put forward.”

The school district, in anticipation of Tuesday’s meeting and questions for the charter division, issued a statement saying, “As the nation’s largest authorizer of charter schools, LA Unified has established positive and collaborative relationships with our charter operators. At the same time, we must ensure that the independent charters we oversee are safe, publically accountable and provide learning environments that support student success. While we cannot speculate on what will happen at Tuesday’s board meeting, we remain committed to providing options for our students and families.”

Cassy Horton, managing director for regional advocacy for the California Charter Schools Association, said the whole process remains murky with the district.

“We are looking for a stable authorizing environment,” Horton said. “No matter what happens on Tuesday, folks are committed to making improvements to policies that we believe are reasonable and straightforward.”

So far, those discussions have not included filing a lawsuit, as the charter group has had to do in the past with LA Unified.

‘A LOT OF UNCERTAINTY’

One of the requests the charters are seeking, Pack said, is allowing an approved charter school to co-locate on a district school’s campus for the duration of its five-year approval, rather than having to apply every year for available space on district property.

“It causes a lot of uncertainty not knowing how many classrooms we’re going to have,” said Pack, who said the current policy keeps charters from working collaboratively with district schools or applying for grant money to improve facilities.

Pack said the charters and the district have been able to reach compromises in language involving health and safety, transitional kindergarten, special education, and insurance issues.

One sticking point is an increased authority that the district gives its own Office of Inspector General, which helps the charter division investigate charters when they are up for renewal.

The charter schools want the OIG office to stay within state and federal guidelines. Some of the charter groups said they feel that the district’s OIG office has investigative overreach comparable to the FBI, and that is unnecessary.

Aaron said that KIPP is not pushing back on the OIG issue and that it could be a reason for the recommendation for approval for all the KIPP petitions.

In the statement signed by the charter schools, they said, “We have known that seeking better policies could cause complications for our petitions — this is a risk we have been willing to take.”

http://laschoolreport.com/la-charter-schools-risk-denials-by-lausd-rather-than-accept-bureaucratic-demands/

LA Weekly Article Did Magnolia fund Turkish Coup

Magnolia Science Academy #4, Statement of Facts for Denial from Gulen Cemaat

Magnolia still under investigation, up for renewal of 2 schools wants to change the Charter School regulations they cannot abide by.

November 7, 2017 is the renewal schedule of #4 and #5

Two of the schools up for renewal in November are  Magnolia Public Schools. Three of their schools were rejected last year, despite  increasingly strong test scores, based on the charter division’s recommendations, which said Magnolia failed to provide auditors and financial overseers with necessary documents. The three schools then were authorized by the Los Angeles County Board of Education.

LA Unified’s inspector general’s office is also still conducting a three-year-old investigation of fiscal mismanagement, but Magnolia Chief Executive Caprice Young has yet to be informed about what is being investigated. Two years ago the district reported that it had so far spent $125,282 on investigating Magnolia, and that much of the investigation had to be outsourced. But it didn’t reveal what it was investigating. The district would not provide an update on what has been spent.

“This is still a shadow over our schools,” said Young, who has five schools remaining under LA Unified’s authorization. “We don’t know what is being investigated, or when it will end, and we keep asking but get no response. This affects our ability to get philanthropy and for us to be able to recruit kids to our schools. Parents want some certainty that the schools will be there.”

Young was on the school board when it gave the district more investigatory powers because the board members thought it would be helpful in getting bond measures passed to build schools. “It turned out to be a big waste of money,” she said.

“When I first was on the school board there were 17 charters, and when I left there were 50,” said Young, who served from 1999 to 2003. “The bureaucracy thought of charters as kind of a curiosity and not particularly threatening. It was a good place to stash your annoying educational innovators.”

Young doesn’t know yet whether the district staff will recommend against her two schools that are up for renewal in November.

“I’m not holding my breath, but I don’t know,” Young said. “I will find out when the agenda is published when everyone else finds out, and then there will be a mad scramble for 72 hours to see what they say about why we didn’t meet their criteria and find out what’s true and what isn’t true.”

http://laschoolreport.com/charter-schools-are-negotiating-with-lausd-on-major-revisions-to-school-renewal-petitions/

Robert Amsterdam Presents "Empire of Deceit: An Investigation into the Gulen Charter Schools

EMPIRE OF DECEIT book can be downloaded from website

http://www.empireofdeceit.com 

http://www.empireofdeceit.com

Gulen fake dialogue and bribing politicians with money, trips, awards ..from Killing Ed

Gulenists get rejected in Tennessee with 3 new school applications MAGNOLIA SCIENCE ACADEMY in California mentioned in article.

U.S. officials in Tennessee on Wednesday, rejected the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) linked READ Foundation's application for three new schools in the state.

The Shelby District Board of Education was concerned about contradictory financial links between the foundation and the proposed schools, and an insufficient curriculum copied from another FETO-linked school in Washington, D.C., the Harmony Public Schools.

"The application did not address many of the questions and concerns noted during the initial review," the Shelby education board said in a report.

It also added that the FETO linked applicant proposed a goal that 10% of its students would have disabilities. That goal was another reason for denial because in their current school, they have only enrolled 1% of students with disabilities which is significantly less than charter school and regional averages.

Residing in Pennsylvania since 1999, FETO's ringleader, Fetullah Gulen, is known as the man who controls these schools and the $500 million annual income from the schools he receives from the U.S. government, according to some U.S. media reports.

While the administrators of FETO schools denounce that they are connected to FETO's leader Gulen, the financial relationships between the schools and other FETO institutions confirm the relationship. 

FETO's schools nationwide are part of the largest charter schools network in the U.S. Some of the schools are currently under FBI investigation for irregularities, unlawful profits, corruption, fraud and forgery.

Turkey has accused the FETO and the U.S.-based Gulen of being the masterminds of the defeated July 15, 2016 coup, which martyred 249 people and left some 2,200 injured. They are also accused of infiltrating educational and other institutions both in Turkey and worldwide for nefarious means, including subverting the state.

http://aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-officials-reject-feto-linked-schools-in-tennessee/892487

Gulen Charter Schools use fake h1-b visas to migrate in Turkish teachers but Americans foot the bill

At Magnolia Science Academy in 2014, an audit found that over $300,000 in h1-b Visas was charged to the schools.  Some of the fees were for non employees.  The audit found these charges as "acceptable"

https://gulencharterschoolsusa.blogspot.com/2017/07/gulen-movement-and-their-h1-b-visa.html

The recent debate over the use and abuse of H-1B visa program has generally focused on its impact in Silicon Valley, where technology firms have brought over high numbers of skilled workers from abroad. But it may surprise people to know that as recently as 2004, it was an obscure charter school in Texas that filed for more H-1B visas than Google for that year.

Under section 101(a)(17)(H) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, this visa program was established to temporarily allow foreign workers with much needed skills in highly specialized fields of knowledge, with the intention that this program would not be abused in a way that would take away jobs from eligible American workers. But clearly this has not been the case.

Harmony Public Schools in Texas, which is part of a nationwide network of charter schools linked to the Turkish preacher Fethullah Gülen, has allegedly used this visa program to not only bring over thousands of teachers from Turkey, but also to fulfill jobs that are much less “specialized,” ranging from gym teachers to accountants to financial managers. With up to 170 Gülen-linked schools operating across the United States, they have become one of the largest sources of abuse of the program.

The issue is high on President Donald Trump’s radar. On April 18, 2017 the president signed an Executive Order directing federal agencies to propose reforms to the H-1B visa system, including the removal of fast-track approvals. But federal immigration authorities should also be keenly aware that the problem goes far beyond the IT sector.

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In recent years, thousands of Turkish males have obtained H-1B visas under this network of charter schools, coming at the expense of local U.S. educators, who are supposedly unable to fill math and science (or even administrative and counseling) positions at the Gülen schools.

Locked into their position by the terms of their visa, whistleblowers tell us that many of the Turkish H-1B recipients have also been threatened with deportation unless they agree to kick back part of their salary and other earnings to the organization, a practice that constitutes human trafficking under U.S. law.

The abuse is widespread. At 59 Gülen-linked schools in the Western and Midwestern regions, 2,210 H-1B visa applications have been tallied since 2001, costing taxpayers up to $8.7 million. In Ohio alone, the Concept schools network filed 657 H-1B applications from 2001-2016, while Concept itself filed 176 H-1B applications during the same time period – during this same period state auditors found that $27.3 million of charter school funds were misspent.

Investigations have found some disturbing practices among these schools, with separate practices and protocols for their Turkish teachers. Whistleblowers have informed us that these teachers are evaluated not on the basis of their teaching skills, but on their ability to recruit new members to the movement – one school even established a points system for proselytizing promising students into extra-curricular activities with related organizations.

In Nevada, the Gülen Organization is trying to open educational institutions on U.S. military bases. The Coral Academy of Science Las Vegas (CASLV), a Gülen charter school is negotiating with our military commanders to open a school at Nellis Air Force Base north of Las Vegas, home to what is commonly referred to as “Area 51,” where some of our country’s most sensitive military technology and hardware are developed.

In addition to dozens of other locations, the network opened a school at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in 2009, and has attempted to expand its reach into Marine Corps Base, Hawaii and Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois. The American people should be deeply concerned about the spread of such a secretive group, which routinely and systemically denies any affiliation with their patron, and which features a record of presenting falsified documentation in its applications (as was the case in Lewiston, ME – an incident addressed at length by Mayor Robert Macdonald).

According to the recent U.S. Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey, Fethullah Gülen stated in a public sermon that “our friends, who have positions in legislative and administrative bodies, should learn its details and be vigilant all the time so they can transform it and be more fruitful on behalf of Islam in order to carry out a nationwide restoration.” Given how events have developed in Turkey, this charter school network – and specifically its abuses of the H-1B visa program – merits serious concern and scrutiny by the relevant authorities.

The H-1B visa program plays an important role in filling the gaps in the U.S. skilled worker program, but it should not become a cost-saving loophole or an opportunity for a foreign organization to exploit. The reforms being considered by the Trump administration are very important, and authorities should examine how Gülen charter schools have secured approvals for so many H-1B “highly skilled” worker visas over the last few years.

Robert R. Amsterdam is an international lawyer and founder of Amsterdam & Partners LLP, and acts on behalf the Republic of Turkey.

Magnolia Science Academy announces stepping down of board president replaced with Gulenist Sakan Sherkhanov (From Kazakhstan)

Magnolia Science Academy loses board president -3 vacancies from Gulen Cemaat

Best of luck to Gulenist Saken Sherkhanov

Good bye to Gulenist tool Noel Russell-Unterberger she probably is going to run out after all the scandals

Magnolia Science Academy needs 3 replacements, they are suppose to have non Gulenists and people from the community. But the word is no one wants to be one the board from the community of Los Angeles and risk their reputation. The Controversial Rabbi is a smart move, but they cannot continue to hide behind religion.

Gulen Charter Schools under US scrutiny-Magnolia Science Academy

FETO, a designated terror group in Turkey, has established itself abroad through companies, foundations, media outlets and charter schools.

The leader of the network, Fethullah Gulen is accused by Turkey of being behind a bloody coup attempt which left 249 people dead and more than 2,000 injured in the country last July. 

Gulen, currently living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, has denied the charge and continues to fight against  Ankara's extradition demands.  

His movement controls 163 schools across the country, teaching around 70,000 students. Now some schools linked to his network have come under investigation in the US over allegations of financial misconduct.

"In the state of New Jersey alone, a chain of charter schools is linked to the Gulen Movement, also known as FETO. The organisation's attempt to launch a fifth school in this state was denied, after the board of education said it had used "forged and fraudulent" petitions to show community support for its initiative,"  Ersin Konkur, a former maths teacher in a Gulen-linked school, told TRT World.