Magnolia Public Schools letter to Turkish Consulate

Magnolia Science Academy-Letter to turkish consul general -final from Gulen Cemaat

From Charter School Watchdog
http://www.charterschoolwatchdog.com/pawns-r-us.html

A press release dated June 2, 2016 by Magnolia Schools, highlighted a letter sent to the Turkish Consulate, calling for the Turkish General Consul “To cease its aggressive campaign paid for by the Republic of Turkey to undermine the high-performing schools.”

Magnolia Schools which operates 11 publicly tax funded charter schools in California handed over a letter to the Turkish Consulate in Los Angeles, demanding that the “Turkish government stop spending substantial resources on high-powered lobbyists and lawyers to spread false information about their schools in an attempt to shut them down.”

Further, and according to the press release, the parents are demanding that the Turkish government, “Stop this disgusting campaign against our schools, our students, and our teachers.”

Magnolia claims that the letter was supported by “30 alumni and parent leaders,” which out of 4,500 school parent population, makes the “demand” less than impressive or formidable.

So to put this in perspective, Magnolia Schools is in an uproar because the Republic of Turkey has hired international and American law firms to investigate and expose the Gulen Movement and its involvement in 150 United States’ publicly funded charter schools being run by Gulen-affiliated administrators; an undertaking the United States should have done 15 years ago when these schools first took root in the United States.

Magnolia School’s CEO and Superintendent Caprice Young (who makes close to $250,000 a year) said, “It’s pathetic that American lawyers and lobbyists would take a foreign paycheck, a fat paycheck at that, to falsely undermine US public schools that are doing a great job for its highest-need students.”

Caprice Young’s outrage at US lawyers accepting foreign “paychecks,” is equally incredulous considering that Young is being paid handsomely by the very people that the Turkish government is trying to expose as the fraudsters they surely are. Young’s indignation seemingly vanishes when it comes to cashing in her “fat paycheck,” one that is being underwritten by the Gulenists duplicitous activities at the expense of US tax payers.

Young bemoans the political “strife” between the Gulenists and Turkey, but doesn’t seem remotely concerned about Magnolia’s direct involvement in providing “educational asylum,” to her benefactors, the Gulenists -- effectively placing her, Magnolia’s CEO, directly in the center of this “disgusting campaign,” or more specifically as Young states, “a foreign political proxy war.”

Now Magnolia’s latest reasoning for importing Turkish Gulenist teachers to displace US teachers has gone from “a shortage of highly qualified math and science teachers,” to “hiring teachers who have fled the country (Turkey) due to escape growing extremism.”

Further, the “highly qualified” Turkish teachers “escaping extremism,” rarely – if ever – enter US classrooms with teaching degrees, teaching experience, or proficiency in English language skills, rendering them “highly unqualified,” to teach our “highest need kids.”

Young’s claims that Magnolia’s students are “being used as pawns in a political game taking place 7,000 miles away,” is nothing more than Gulenist hyperbole and grand-standing hysteria. In fact, it’s the US tax payers and its American educators who are being used as Gulenists “pawns” – and not 7,000 miles away -- but instead, right in our own backyard.

If anyone is a “pawn” in this folly, it’s the United States’ tax payers that are unseeingly financing this continuing wide-spread rip-off being perpetrated by the Gulenists and under the pretext of “quality education.”

The United States tax payers and parents that are sending their children to the 150 Gulen affiliated charter schools have every right to know who the people are that are running their schools – and if it takes the Turkish government to do the job and expose the truth -- then so be it.

If the CEO and superintendent of Magnolia Schools cannot control the actions of the Gulenists that employ her, what makes her believe that she can “demand,” that the Turkish government cease its investigation into the United States’ Gulenists?

Young might want to ask Fetullah Gulen how that mind-set worked out for him.

 

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Caprice Young's unprofessional presentation at the Santa Clara County Office of Education SCCOE, embarassing piece of garbage

Caprice Young has her attorneys Dan Wood and Jerry Simmons on speed dial. Caprice is a public figure (or so she has paid expensive publicists to spin her as such) she is fair game open for criticism. Caprice Young would never win a defamation case because the burden of proof is on her to prove that all facts stated here or anywhere else are not true.
100% The Magnolia Science Academy aka Magnolia Public Schools are affiliated with members of the Gulen Movement (Hizmet) They have also taught at other Gulen affiliated schools in the USA. Caprice Young is either smoking too much Turkish hashish or she is delusional with maniac dreams of grandeur she doesn't get it. It's rumored by many of the people that have worked at Magnolia Public Schools A GULEN CHARTER SCHOOL, that Caprice Young has a yearly salary of $600K to turn around this trouble organization of liars. It would be great if Charter schools were held to the same standard of transparency as traditional public schools which reveals School superintendent salaries. How about Capricious Caprice you want to share your salary?

While you are at it, explain and give an accounting of:
Excessive amount of administrators at Magnolia Public Schools A GULEN CHARTER SCHOOL, there are 23 of which 9 are Turkic National (GULENISTS, there is barely 4,000 students enrolled at 11 campuses, it's been stagnant between 3,800 to 4,000 since 2012-2013. Although your pathetic presentation says only 3,400 students but you claim to have waiting lists despite 3 schools are grossly unsustainable under 200 students.

 What is the expenses paid to your publicist Larson Communications who is spinning you as some sort of Educational trailblazer and whitewashing Magnolia Public Schools A GULEN CHARTER SCHOOL - please give the breakdown and justify this money spent to market, advertise and public relations of having Congressman Brad Sherman give a Congressional award to a few Magnolia students (same as what the troubled Gulen School in Oklahoma did) Dove Science Academy your sister Gulen school.

 What is the legal expenses paid to have Dan Woods send threatening letters to silence your critics? or the expenses for Jerry Simmons to show up at school districts and clean your mess up? Your reputation proceeds you, 5 counties denied your 8 charter school applications, School Superintendents do not want your schools and your trouble in their districts. You are a failed system of what goes wrong in charter schools when there is no accountability. Should you follow through with your lawfare, I am sure that the media would love it and more school districts would be eager to do business with a troubled charter school known for suing everyone and spending their time sidestepping, whitewashing and not assuming accountability.

Magnolia Public Schools Materials Revision Request 4/6/2016 from Gulen Cemaat

May 4th was suppose to be the answer to the above Materials Revision request, but this is the
message on the SCCOE Agenda. Sounds like you are in hot water again.

Exactly what are these "violations" SCCOE is investigating?
I doubt if Jerry Simmons will be able to get you out of this mess.

Magnolia petition to encourage state of California to investigate, filed motion and exhibits

Support the Call for Investigation

We, the undersigned, wish to raise our profound concern over the apparent lack of enforcement action by the State of California in response to the results of the 2015 audit of four Magnolia Schools, which discovered, among other alleged unlawful activities, self-dealing to affiliated contractors, non-transparent accounting and missing records for 69% of transactions, and the misappropriation of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for immigration lawyers to secure H1-B visa for teachers from Turkey.
As Magnolia has applications open for eight new charter schools in California totaling projected budgets of almost $48 million of taxpayer funds for each school, we believe that these alarming red flags merit scrutiny.
I have read the UCP Complaint against Magnolia Educational & Research Foundation, d.b.a. Magnolia Public Schools, and I am signing this petition to indicate that I adopt this complaint as my own. By signing, I am demanding the State of California and the California Department of Education to review this complaint and conduct a thorough, comprehensive investigation into Magnolia immediately.
http://magnoliacomplaint.com/petition/

Brief in Support of Uniform Complaint Procedure

To download a PDF version of this complaint, please click here.
BRIEF IN SUPPORT OF UNIFORM COMPLAINT PROCEDURE COMPLAINT AGAINST THE MAGNOLIA EDUCATIONAL & RESEARCH FOUNDATION, D.B.A. MAGNOLIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

1. INTRODUCTION

Complainants Dr. José F. Moreno, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Latino Education and Policy Studies at California State University Long Beach, Tina Andres, math teacher with twenty-eight years in the Santa Ana School District, and Amsterdam & Partners LLP, a law firm based in Washington, D.C. and London, submit this complaint pursuant to the Uniform Complaint Procedure against the Magnolia Educational & Research Foundation, d.b.a. Magnolia Public Schools (collectively “Magnolia”). Dr. Moreno is a California taxpayer and the proud parent of four students, two currently enrolled in the Anaheim Union High School District and two enrolled in Anaheim City School District, both districts Magnolia has targeted for expansion. Ms. Andres is also a California taxpayer, a veteran public school teacher, and the proud parent of two students currently enrolled in the Santa Ana School District, a district with an existing Magnolia charter school.

Amsterdam & Partners LLP is engaged by the Republic of Turkey to investigate Magnolia and certain other charter schools in the United States for, among other things, their suspected ties and illegal funneling of state and federal public funds to an organization of charter schools and other businesses headed by Fethullah Gülen, a reclusive Turkish imam who resides in Saylorsville, Pennsylvania. That organization (referred to in this Complaint as the “Gülen Organization”) is further suspected of employing ill-gotten public funds to facilitate a host of illegal activities in the United States, as well as in Turkey – a NATO ally – and elsewhere internationally. Indeed, Magnolia’s activities appear to be part of, and consistent with, a broad pattern of illegal activity observed at other U.S. charter schools operated for the ultimate benefit of the Gülen Organization.
 https://magnoliacomplaint.com/brief-in-support-of-uniform-complaint-procedure/

 Sign Petition for Magnolia Science Academy investigation

Magnolia Petition link sign here

Caprice Young sour grapes and unprofessionalism decides to threaten school districts with lawfare

Caprice Young the sad face of
once was a promising career.

Caprice Young we challenge you on your LIES in this article, you and Magnolia Science Academies are the

ones with no accountabilty.  You state "Magnolia has 3,400 students across 11 schools and that there are hundreds

of students on waiting lists"  How can this be when your enrollment has never been at capacity, in fact Magnolia #4, #5 are not even at capacity barely near 180 students.  Here is a novel suggestion for you:  Stop lying about these schools being high performing, they are not. Furthermore stop being in a rush to build more schools for bond money and other start up seed money when you have a horrid capacity record.  Your numbers don't warrant it. 

 

By Caprice Young February 1, 2016 at 1:10 PM

In an unprecedented move by any California school board, all five members of the Anaheim Union High School District board and the superintendent called for a statewide moratorium on all public charter schools last month.

They based their call on the tired argument by opponents that too many, in their words, “operate in the shadows with no transparency, no accountability, and no public review.”

The Anaheim leadership singled out Magnolia Public Schools, a group of eleven high-quality science academies I now lead. The school board went so far as to falsely accuse Magnolia of operating charter schools all over the nation and being controlled by Turkish nationals.

These statements are incorrect. The Anaheim Union board members and superintendent didn’t do their basic homework. As former president of the board for California’s largest school district, I have known these schools well since they submitted their first charter petition to Los Angeles Unified 14 years ago.

(Editors Note: Click here to read a copy of a Magnolia demand letter to AUHSD.)  SEE RESPONSE BELOW

In my nearly two decades of experience in public education, I’d be hard-pressed to find another school system that has been reviewed, audited and examined more than Magnolia Public Schools.

The State of California conducted an exhaustive audit of Magnolia schools in 2015 and simply found an organization that was financially solvent. The independent statewide investigative body even went so far as to praise Magnolia for having academically well-performing schools. Having Anaheim Union generate this hoopla reminds me of one of Winston Churchill’s finest: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

The State of California reaffirmed its confidence in Magnolia this year by investing in its continued growth with $17.4 million toward a new state-of-the-art facility in Santa Ana. State of California who approved this? the people the Gulenists took on Turkey trips? Perhaps CCSA lobbying helped to facilitate this.  One could say that the State of California needs to be held to a higher standard. 

What allows charters—public schools that are held strictly accountable to meeting high academic and operational standards while complying with federal and state laws—to overcome the charges of critics has been their strong academic performance, particularly within low-income communities.

The most recent study, a 2015 analysis of urban charter schools by researchers at Stanford University, found that charter schools provided significantly higher levels of annual learning growth in both math and reading than their traditional public school peers, and particularly larger gains for Black, Latino, low-income and special-education students.

Charters are helping the broader school systems in which they operate serve families more successfully, so a call for a moratorium, which is an indictment against all charters, simply makes no sense.

But this unprecedented call by Anaheim Union came without the input of the public that would be most affected by the decision. Anaheim Union is ignoring state law to the detriment of the community by proposing to deny them access to new high-quality public school choices in their community.

The Anaheim school board took a significant, potentially illegal public policy position that can affect thousands of its neediest students based on false premises. But what’s ironic is the very position they took was done without public input or discussion and did not take place at a school board hearing where it could be subject to public scrutiny.

Instead, it was coordinated in secrecy, resulting in a violation of public trust and governance, and even blindsided the respected Orange County Office of Education. So much for Anaheim’s charge of operating “in the shadows with no transparency, no accountability, and no public review.”

Our hope is that the Anaheim board will do right by families and embrace the opportunity for collaboration. Here’s why. Magnolia is successfully serving more than 3,400 students and we have hundreds on our waiting list.

Anaheim Union just needs to look at the evidence. Each year, we send anywhere between 92 to 99 percent of our students to some of the best colleges in the U.S. Last year, 65 percent of our graduates became first-generation college attendees. Our students are winning the top prizes in the most prestigious robotics and math competitions in the nation. These are predominantly low-income White, Latino, African-American kids, who now are well on their way toward achieving their full potential.

The school district needs what we offer and we want to help. This success is why enthusiastic Anaheim families and community members have come to us expressing their desire for a new public high school to open.

When you look across California and the nation, forward-thinking, cutting-edge school districts are embracing charter schools as part of their solution. These school districts that choose to incorporate charter schools into their reform efforts have seen first-hand that when you give kids and parents access to a quality education, everyone wins and all schools rise to a higher level.

Let’s expect more from our educational leaders. We did not elect them to make legally questionable public policy decisions in secrecy that are not in the best interest of the thousands of families in their own community. Listen to those who elected you into office, be open and transparent about your actions and make decisions based on what will allow students to thrive. Let their futures drive your decisions. Years from now, it’s them you’ll be answering to.

Caprice Young is the CEO and Superintendent of Magnolia Public Schools, a network of 11 high-performing public charter schools that serves 3,400 students in Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Clara and San Diego Counties. She is a longtime public education leader and former Los Angeles Unified school board president.

Anaheim Union High School District Board members wrote an earlier Op-ed calling for a moratorium on charter schools like Magnolia. 

Voice of OC is interested in hearing different perspectives and voices. If you want to weigh in on this issue please contact Voice of OC Publisher Norberto Santana, Jr. at nsantana@voiceofoc.org   http://voiceofoc.org/2016/02/young-anaheim-union-needs-to-live-up-to-its-own-standards-for-accountability/

 

Dear Caprice:  STFU. 

 Response from Educational Law advocate open letter to Daniel Woods Attorney for Magnolia Science Academy

BTW Go fuck yourself

 

 From: *****@ucla.edu
Subject: Open letter to Dan Woods regarding the Gülen Network's Magnolia Charter Schools
Date: February 02, 2016 14:22:46 PST
To: d.woods@mpglaw.com

Mr. Woods:

Just read your heavy-handed letter [1] to Arthur M. Pakowitz, Esq.

As a courtesy I wanted to address some of your concerns, which are clearly based in your ignorance regarding both privately managed charter schools, and the shadowy Gülen cult that your client is associated with.

Regarding your insistence that the Magnolia corporate charter school chain's financial information is transparent. This simply isn't the case, and it wasn't until the public school district called for an audit that one was conducted. Said audits revealed millions of "missing, misused funds" [2]. These were public dollars, squandered under the private management of your client.

You then make the absurd assertion that "Magnolia's eleven charter schools are public schools…" In case you actually believe that misrepresentation, let me disabuse you.

Generally charter schools are not public schools. Both existing case law and public policy have long established this. The Washington State Supreme Court (2015) held that charter schools are not "common schools" because they're governed by appointed rather than elected boards. The 9th Circuit US Court of Appeals (2010) ruled that charter schools are not "public actors." The California Court of Appeals (2007) ruled that charter schools are not "public agents." The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) joined many other government agencies in unequivocally determining that charters are, in NLRB's words, "private entities."

By definition if a charter school is run by a for-profit company, or a (501c3) non-profit corporation (e.g. Magnolia Educational and Research Foundation), then it is not a public school. The United States Census Bureau frames this issue best: "A few "public charter schools" are run by public universities and municipalities. However, most charter schools are run by private nonprofit organizations and are therefore classified as private." [3]

Because these lucrative charter schools are not public, and are not subject to even a modicum of public oversight, they are able to get away with violating the constitutional rights of their students. The decision in Scott B. v. Board of Trustees of Orange County High School of the Arts saw Rosa K. Hirji, Esq. write: "The structures that allow charter schools to exist are marked by the absence of protections that are traditionally guaranteed by public education, protections that only become apparent and necessary when families and students begin to face a denial of what they were initially promised to be their right." [4]

Lastly, there is ample documentation tying the Magnolia corporate charter school chain to the Gülenist Movement, namely through their intertwinement with the Los Angeles based Pacifica Institute—a Gülen organization which denies the 1915-1918 Armenian genocide. [5] Moreover, Fethullah Gülen's ties to the Magnolia charter schools was reported to Turkish readers as early as 2010. [6]

Far be it for me to do your research for you, but as a courtesy I offer the following footnote [7] as starting point for your own additional discovery.

I understand that the model rules of professional conduct call upon you to vigorously represent your client's interests, but one would expect an attorney of your standing to at least base your arguments in a modicum of reality. I suppose in a way I owe you and your firm a debt of gratitude inasmuch as you provide examples of the type of attorney I don't want to be—seemingly ones that hold billable hours more important than the public interest.

---

[1] https://twitter.com/GooseNetworkUSA/status/694588816066121728
[2] http://www.scpr.org/blogs/education/2014/07/21/17031/audit-finds-missing-misused-funds-at-la-charter-ne/
[3] US Census Bureau. (2011). Public Education Finances: 2009 (GO9-ASPEF). Washington, DC: US Government Printing O ce. Print. vi
[4] https://apps.americanbar.org/litigation/committees/childrights/content/articles/winter2014-0114-charter-schools-upholding-student-rights.html
[5] http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/30/local/la-me-0930-ottoman-band-20110930
[6] http://gundem.milliyet.com.tr/walmart-tan-gulen-okullarina-bagis/guncel/gundemdetay/27.08.2010/1281603/default.htm
[7] Compendium of Magnolia/Pacifica/Gülen resources:

• Gulen charter schools 101 + webinar video http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/p/gulen-school-characteristics.html
• Gulen charter school lists http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/p/list-of-us-gulen-schools.html
• The Gulen Movement & its schools in the news http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/p/the-gulen-movement-and-its-schools-in.html
• Gulen Charter School Enrollment in 2013-2014 http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html
• Mónica García champions the Gülenist Charter Movement in LAUSD http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2012/08/monica-garcia-champions-gulenist.html
• Financially malfeasant charters run by shadowy religious cult escape LAUSD scrutiny http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2015/03/financially-malfeasant-charters-run-by.html
• Turns out Caprice Young has been working for Gülen's charter network all along http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2015/02/turns-out-caprice-young-has-been.html
• What are Ref Rodriguez's ties to the Gülen cult, and why is the Armenian community supporting Bennett Kayser? http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2015/04/what-are-ref-rodriguezs-ties-to-gulen.html

Advocating Public Education and Social Justice

Robert D. Skeels
Juris Doctor Candidate
UCLA '14, PCL '18
*****@alumni.ucla.edu

"Problem posing education does not and cannot serve the interests of the oppressor" — Paulo Freire

 

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2016/02/open-letter-to-dan-woods-regarding.html

Gulen School is REJECTED by Anaheim School District Magnolia Science Academy exposed as part of Hizmet

By mrubio December 18, 2015 at 5:55 PM

The following is a press release from an organization unaffiliated with Voice of OC. The views expressed here are not those of Voice of OC.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
________________________
December 18, 2014
Contact: Pat Karlak
Public Information Officer
Phone: (714) 999-5662
Email: Karlak_p@auhsd.us
 

Anaheim Union High School District Calls for a Temporary Moratorium on Approval of Charter Schools

 ANAHEIM—Board members of the Anaheim Union High School District and Superintendent Michael Matsuda on December 18 called for the state of California to implement a temporary moratorium on the approval of charter schools until legislators fix the overly permissive law that enables charters to operate on a business model whose main goal is to make money.
“Although there is nothing wrong with making money, when it comes to public education, our children should be our first priority,” Superintendent Matsuda said. “While charter school proponents may say they care about kids, many charters operate in the shadows with no transparency, no accountability, and no public review.”
The superintendent cited the example of Magnolia Science Academy, one of two charter applications recently submitted to AUHSD. Magnolia Science Academy is one of the largest charter operators in America, with 155 campuses and ambitious expansion plans. According to an expose on 60 Minutes, Magnolia Science Academy is overseen by Fethullah Gulen, a wealthy Turkish national who controls an international chain of Gulen schools.
The 60 Minutes piece exposed the fact that American taxpayer money—hundreds of millions of dollars nationwide—is being funneled into the pockets of Turkish foreign nationals in the form of contracts for building schools and hiring teachers. At the same time, Gulen’s financial health and practices have been called into question and investigated by local and state agencies. Fethullah Gulen, himself a Turkish national, is wanted by the government of Turkey and is in hiding in the United States.
“Because of lax charter laws that favor privatization, we are the only nation where taxpayer money is used to fund schools operated by foreign nationals,” Superintendent Matsuda said. “Although the Gulen officials insist there is no ill intent, enough questions have been raised about Magnolia’s charter school operations that it is a prime example of why we need an immediate temporary moratorium on charter schools until the laws are fixed and accountability is restored.”
Added Trustee Al Jabbar, “We respectfully ask the public to consider that if kids really come first, why are charter schools continuing to hide their funding, ownership, and financial relationships? Why don’t they allow open access to financials, including budgets and salaries, even though they spend taxpayer money, just like public schools do? Why not agree to the same accountability policies as public schools, policies that would build public trust?”
The entire AUHSD Board signed off on an opinion piece calling for the immediate moratorium, which was published December 18 in the Voice of OC. The day before, at a special school board meeting, AUHSD trustees unanimously rejected a petition by Vista Charter Middle School as educationally and financially unsound.
“It’s open season on neighborhood schools in Orange County, because the Orange County Board of Education, which, mind you, was elected to represent the public school children of the region, is now a 3-2 vote in favor of overturning virtually every local school board’s decision against a charter,” Mr. Jabbar noted. “The Orange County Board wants us to assume all the liability for failure. They want us to assume financial authority over charters when we just heard on Thursday night from a charter operator (Vista) who won’t have enough resources to make it through the first year. They want us to take back the special education and English learner students that they routinely ‘disenroll,’ or drop, to game the system and boost their academic reputation. Let the Orange County Board of Education assume that fiscal and moral risk. Don’t put it back on us as our responsibility. We don’t want it.”
The fact that the Orange County school board has the authority to grant charters without the consent of local school boards undermines the concept of local control and makes a mockery of the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), said AUHSD Board President Annemarie Randle-Trejo.
“The 27 school districts in Orange County have to ask themselves if they are OK with the Orange County Board of Education deciding the composition of each of our school systems,” Ms. Randle-Trejo said. “I’m not OK with that and you shouldn’t be, either.”
“If you look at donations to politicians, you will see a lot of money being funneled to them from charter school operators and special interests. These charter people are very smart,” Ms. Randle-Trejo added. “They have wined and dined politicians from the federal level down, providing junkets and campaign contributions. They stage openings of their schools and invite the local politicians. They certainly know how to play the political game.”
The submission of the petitions by Magnolia Science Academy and Vista are part of a coordinated strategy in Los Angeles and Orange counties by charter proponents to establish a stronghold in Southern California.
Here is the 60 Minutes piece on Gulan schools:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktl--IDnM7I
Here is the link to the Voice of OC piece:
http://voiceofoc.org/2015/12/auhsd-board-time-for-a-moratorium-on-charter-schools/

 

State audit reveals severe shortfalls in truancy reporting from Magnolia Schools, financial and other issues resolved

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-magnolia-charter-20150507-story.html

California state audit has found that a charter school organization accused of financial mismanagement by the Los Angeles Unified School District has improved its bottom line but still needs stronger controls over spending.

 

The audit, released Thursday by State Auditor Elaine M. Howle, also found that the expenditure of $127,000 by the Magnolia Educational and Research Foundation to process immigration papers for foreign staff was lawful and reasonable.
In addition, the audit criticized L.A. Unified for trying to shut down three campuses in Palms, Northridge and Bell using limited information and without giving Magnolia officials adequate time to respond to charges of mismanagement. It said the district "may have acted prematurely."
Caprice Young, chief executive officer of Magnolia Public Schools, hailed the report.

 

"What's important about this report is not just that we're being vindicated, but that LAUSD has been called to task for its unfairness and lack of professional practices," she said.
Board of Education member Bennett Kayser, Magnolia's most vocal critic, said the district's scrutiny helped drive the charter organization's financial reform measures.
"I am glad this charter chain is fixing up its act. It is too bad it took this much effort to force them to do so," he said in a statement. "Charters in California live by very few rules but one is that they need to keep clean books."

 

In a statement, the district said it "acknowledges the actions on the part of the new leadership of Magnolia Public Schools to address the substantive concerns" and said it would continue to monitor the organization as legally required.
L.A. Unified sought to close the campuses after an outside audit performed last year alleged that the organization was $1.66 million in the red, owed $2.8 million to the schools it oversees and met the federal definition of insolvency. The Palms academy also was insolvent, the audit said.
In addition, the review alleged fiscal mismanagement, including a lack of debt disclosure, weak fiscal controls over the principals’ use of debit cards and questionable payments for immigration fees and services.
The statewide charter organization, which enrolls 4,000 students in 11 academies focused on science and math, denied the allegations and sued the district last year to overturn the decision to close the campuses. In March, the district agreed to keep the schools open under a legal settlement.
Charters are independent, publicly funded campuses; most are nonunion.
The audit found that some of L.A. Unified's concerns had merit. It confirmed that some of the academies were insolvent at points in the last three fiscal years, in part because of delays in state funding, but that all were back in the black. It also questioned 52 of 225 transactions reviewed, the financial relationship with one vendor and controls over fundraisers.
Young, who was hired in January, said her new leadership team has moved swiftly to address the concerns. Magnolia's improvements, she said, include a new chief financial officer and controller, stronger controls over spending and staff training. Under the legal settlement with L.A. Unified, the charter chain also agreed to submit to fiscal oversight by a state financial management organization.

Was part of the deal that Caprice Young cut with LAUSD the separation of "certain" Magnolia staff largely attached to the Gulen movement like this idiot who spent more time in Sacramento, CA trying to sway government opinion that he knew nothing about. 

http://www.scpr.org/news/2015/05/07/51523/state-auditors-find-la-s-magnolia-charters-grossly/
LA's Magnolia charters 'grossly' underreported truancies, state auditors find

The California state auditors found all four Magnolia Public Schools reviewed "grossly" underreported truancies – errors the charter network said it is addressing.
One Magnolia school, Academy 5, reported no truancies in the 2012-2013 school year, but in a report released Thursday, the auditors discovered the rate was more than 30 percent.
State auditors said the errors "could mislead parents of potential students and other interested stakeholders regarding the school environment."
Auditors also found issues with payroll and vendor payments, but concluded the once-struggling charter network was solvent as of July 2014
Magnolia's CEO Caprice Young said her staff didn't fully understand the state's truancy definition and are making corrections. Young said the truancy errors did not impact the organization's public school funding tied to average daily attendance, which she said is calculated separately.
The Los Angeles Unified School District moved to close two Magnolia Public Schools' eight campuses last year after the district's inspector general found missing and misused funds.
Magnolia disagreed with many of the findings and fought the closures in court with the help of the California Charter Schools Association.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Luis A. Lavin sided with the charter network, and the schools remain open.
State auditors agreed "LAUSD may have acted prematurely when it rescinded its conditional approval of two academies," because it did not give Magnolia "sufficient time to respond to its criticisms."
"Was this vindicating? Absolutely!" Young said. "Do we have a lot of work to do? Yes."
Late Thursday, LAUSD issued a statement, saying it “acknowledges the actions on the part of the new leadership of Magnolia Public Schools to address the substantive concerns that the District raised in fulfillment of its oversight responsibilities.”
It added:

The District will follow through on its stated responses to the Auditor’s recommendations as part of our ongoing commitment to high quality charter school authorizing, as well as monitor Magnolia’s implementation of its action steps. As noted in the Audit, the District and Magnolia Public Schools were able to reach a settlement that allows both parties to move forward together in the best interest of students and in protection of taxpayers’ trust.

Did Caprice Young know that Magnolia Schools are modeled after Yamalar College in Turkey? 

 

 

A state audit of Magnolia Public Schools, a charter network operating in LA Unified, has found that the group’s financial controls need improvement but that the district acted too hastily in its attempts to close three of the chain’s eight campuses.

The report, issued today, brings to a close a long running episode involving Magnolia’s parent company and LA Unified efforts last year to revoke the charter renewal applications for three Magnolia Science Academy schools — in Palms, Van Nuys and Bell — over fiscal mismanagement and other financial irregularities.
The audit confirmed that the schools were insolvent at points during the past three fiscal years, but said that was due to a delay in state funding. As a result, the cash-strapped academies borrowed from schools with surplus revenues to pay off debts. While the district was critical of Magnolia for engaging in these types of inter-agency loans, the state audit concluded that “these loans served a useful purpose because they enabled the struggling academies to continue to serve their students.”
As of July, all but one of the loans was repaid, and eight academies are operating in the black with sufficient reserve funds.
However, despite an overall clean fiscal bill of health auditors say Magnolia must strengthen its financial and management processes, especially with respect to fundraising and documenting expenditures.
Another failing by Magnolia identified in the report is that it “grossly underreported truancy data to the California Department of Education.”

About 2,300 students attend Magnolia academies. Complaints of fiscal mismanagement and low enrollment have plagued nearly all of the campuses since the first charter was founded in 2002.
Still, Magnolia officials put a positive spin on the report.
Caprice Young, a former LA Unified school board president and the newly hired CEO, told LA School Report that the audit was long-awaited good news and proves that the organization is fiscally stable.
“It is a real vindication for us,” she said, adding that, “it is very, very critical of the way that LAUSD treated Magnolia.”
Young explained that Magnolia has implemented more stringent policies allowing for more transparency, including the manner in which schools report student truancies. “The problem there was that the staff was not counting all of the tardies as truancies,” she said. “But it didn’t have any impact on test scores or the amount of money we received for funding.”
“What the auditor came up with is a fix-it ticket. What LAUSD came up with was a death sentence,” Young said.
Ultimately, the report determined that “LAUSD may have acted prematurely when it rescinded the charter renewal petitions of two academies.”
Further, it said, the district did not provide sufficient time for the charter school company to respond to criticisms.The audit also said the district failed to share the complete results of an independent audit commissioned by the district with Magnolia until after it had rescinded the academies’ charter petitions.
The two sides reached reached a settlement agreement in March, resulting in the renewal of all three academies’ charters.

http://laschoolreport.com/state-audit-criticizes-magnolia-charters-and-also-la-unified/#.VUv7ccEq94A.twitter

NOTE TO CAPRICE;   A known fact around political and academic circles that you are working very hard to remove the Turks from the charter ownership.  You have pushed them into the background and put new faces "Hispanics" and other non-Turks to the front.  Until the members of the Gulen Movement are entirely removed from this charter school, it's all show for now.  You have retained some of their models for education and they should be removed as all the Turkish teachers remaining should be removed.  Hire American teachers that are not affiliated with the Gulen Movement, it isn't necessary to "target" the support of one particular ethnic group.   They as you know, have their own private schools and will never trust you or your motives. 
Keep waving the money around and making improvements, hopefully you can keep up the show long enough to push the Gulen Movement completely out of California.  Then the money can 100% go into your pockets. 




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

American Education Guru Diane Ravitch discusses Magnolia Science Academy closures

http://dianeravitch.net/2014/07/21/gulen-charter-chain-in-trouble-in-los-angeles/

Magnolia Science Academy and changing America's children into Janissaries for Turkey



Who pays for all these trips to Turkey, could be the reason Magnola Schools have a financial shortfall

The usual promise of college, trips to Turkey and awards is very enticing for the impoverished population that Magnolia Science Academy serves.  This theme is prevalent throughout the USA and worldwide by the Islamic Gulen Missionary teachers. 
Parents are happy to hear their children who were getting F's and D's at traditional public schools are now magically getting A's and awards at the Gulen sponsored contests (Math Matters, Science Olympiad, Turkish Olympiad, etc.,) 
The children are praised and given "extra" attention by the Fethullah Gulen Missionary Teachers.  What parent wouldn't want to see their child happy traveling to Turkey, dancing and speaking Turkish and feeling successful. 
Building a "Golden Generation" that Gulen refers to is using some of the methods of the Ottoman era Janissary Programs.  A entire generation of children worldwide that will speak Turkish and be loyal to Turkey for giving them an education. 

The Janissaries were chosen before they reached adulthood from among the Christian population living in Anatolia and the Balkan peninsula to become the elite fighting force of the Ottoman Empire. A portion of these selected children, as they were considered to be more talented, received a higher standard of education to become the ruling class of viziers as well as engineers, architects, physicians and scientists.

From the 1380s to 1648, the Janissaries were gathered through the devşirme system which was abolished in 1638.^[6] This was the taking (enslaving) of non-Muslim boys,^[7] notably Anatolian and Balkan Christians; Jews were never subject to devşirme, nor were children from Turkic families. In early days, all Christians were enrolled indiscriminately. Later, those from Northern Greece and Serbia were preferred.^[8][9]
The Janissaries were kapıkulları (sing. kapıkulu), "door servants" or "slaves of the Porte", neither freemen nor ordinary slaves (Turkish: köle).^[10] They were subjected to strict discipline and were the first army to wear a uniform, but were paid salaries and pensions upon retirement and formed their own distinctive social class.^[11] As such, they became one of the ruling classes of the Ottoman Empire, rivaling the Turkish aristocracy. The brightest of the Janissaries were sent to the palace institution, Enderun. Through a system of meritocracy, the Janissaries held enormous power, stopping all efforts at reform of the military.^[6]
According to military historian Michael Antonucci and economic historians Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane, the Turkish administrators would scour their regions (but especially the Balkans) every five years for the strongest sons of the sultan's Christian subjects. These boys (usually between the ages of 6 and 14) were then taken from their parents and given to Turkish families in the provinces to learn Turkish language and customs, and the rules of Islam. The recruits were indoctrinated into Islam, and supervised 24 hours a day. They were subjected to severe discipline, being prohibited from growing a beard, taking up a skill other than soldiering, and marrying. As a result, the Janissaries were extremely well-disciplined troops, and became members of the Askeri class, the first-class citizens or military class. Most were non-Muslims because it was not permissible to enslave a Muslim.^[6] This elite corps was second only to the sultan in the Ottoman Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janissary

Turkification policies of the Ottoman Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkification

Registration of boys for the devşirme. Ottoman miniature painting from the Süleymanname, 1558 janissaries

 

The Turks are Coming...........to a charter school near you (Beware the "Gulenization" of public charter schools)

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2013/nov/13/citylights2-turks-charter-school/

The Turks are coming...to a charter school near you

10

Beware the “Gulenization” of public charter school.

By Moss Gropen, Nov. 13, 2013

#Who is Fethullah Gulen, and why does he want to teach San Diego’s kids? That’s a question some in the wake of a recently submitted application by Gulen’s followers to open their second public charter school in San Diego.

#“Think of a combination of the Scientologists, the Moonies, and the Mafia. That’s what the Gulenists are like,” says Sharon Higgins. “They’re shady, nebulous, and very secretive. Very few Americans know that they’re behind all of these taxpayer-funded charter schools.”

#Higgins, a former public school parent and self-described “parent activist” who lives in Oakland, has crafted a quasi-career tracking and chronicling the domestic activities of this Turkey-based group. She lays out the details: Over the past few years, the Gulen movement, an Islamic group that melds religion and politics, has succeeded in a stealth campaign to infiltrate the American educational system via the portal of the charter school. Among their goals, according to Higgins and other Gulen watchers, is fundraising for the Gulen movement in Turkey and the recruitment of future members.

#Critics allege that Gulen public charter schools reject qualified American teachers, instead importing Turkish men via H-1B visas, which allow Americans to employ foreigners in “specialty” occupations. These non-union teachers are then paid salaries characterized as “inflated,” and are expected, in turn, to donate a substantial portion to the Gulen movement via a network of “charitable” foundations. There are also charges of sweetheart deals with local Gulen-owned businesses. Gulen U.S.A., say some, is no less than an intricately woven Turkish rug of deceit.

#Operating under all-American monikers like “Magnolia Public Schools” and structured as tax-exempt not-for-profit entities, there are nearly 150 Gulen charter schools operating now in America, with around a dozen in California, including one in San Diego: Momentum Middle School in San Carlos. If the Gulenists have their way, San Diego Unified School District will host another Turk-centric schoolhouse when the Fall 2014 semester opens.

#Leading the charge is Mehmet Argin, Magnolia’s chief executive. A native of Turkey, Argin holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Arizona State University and was (prior to his California campaign) instrumental in kick-starting the Sonoran Science Academy, a Gulen school in Tucson. Argin’s fellow Magnolia board members are all Turks, with the exception of one man who’s a citizen of Kazakhstan.

Democratic loving Turkish Americans protest the Gulen Movement in front of one of their West Coast front Groups the
Pacificia Institute

 

A demonstration of Turkish Americans against Gulen schools in Pennsylvania, where Fethullah Gulen, the alleged founder of Magnolia Public Schools, lives in self-imposed exile.

#I asked Argin how much of the proposed school’s profits will go to pay for Gulen activities in Turkey? Is the Gulen movement a cult? And what exactly is Magnolia schools’ role within the Gulen movement? To each question, he responded with a robotic mantra: Magnolia Science Academy is a non-sectarian, secular, tuition-free, not-for-profit public school that serves underserved communities.

#I also asked, “What is your role in Turkish politics?” Argin stammered, “It’s, uh...my personal life.”

#The disciples of Fethullah Gulen point to standardized test scores and science-competition victories as evidence of the schools’ efficacy and legitimacy. However, Higgins and others beg to differ, saying that the ballyhooed earmarks of “success” are fraudulent, concocted by “cherry-picking” small groups of Gulen students. Higgins states that standardized test score averages are grossly inflated because they reflect only a small number remaining after attrition. As for “science fairs,” she says they’re rigged — run and judged by Gulen insiders.

#Who is Fethullah Gulen? The gospel, as set forth in his followers’ well-coiffed websites, paints the picture of a benevolent, even saintly, man. However, the movement’s critics, as well as various and sundry media sources, say that portrait is flackery, at best. As it turns out, evidence suggests that the supreme ruler of the Gulen cabal, with a rumored net worth in the billions, is a former imam with little formal education. No one disputes, however, that Gulen (who directs his charges from a compound in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains) is a recluse living in self-imposed exile.

#Gulen school bigwigs go to comical lengths to deny the close ties, some even disclaiming the very existence of the Gulen movement as an organized entity. Nonetheless, praise is ubiquitous and effusive on their websites, where the phrase, “We are inspired by Fethullah Gulen,” crops up with regularity.

#But just what sort of “inspiration” are we dealing with here? Gulen charter-school boosters are incessant: the 70-year-old hermit, they gush, is a renowned scholar, a prominent leader in a push for world peace, and a tireless promoter of “interfaith dialogue,” a sort of “Johnny Appleseed” for a kinder, gentler Islam.

#Many fellow Turks, however, have a different take, claiming that the real aim of the Gulenistas is to overthrow the secular government of Turkey and replace it with an Islamic kingdom redolent of the old Ottoman Empire. And how will they pay for the takeover, the writ-large repudiation of Kemal Ataturk, and the “new Turkey”? With American taxpayers’ money, of course.

#Critics also say that, unless one can read Turkish, the in-group message flies under the radar, while the “made for the West” spin is lapped up by a naive public. Ideology aside, Gulen-watchers acknowledge that the Turks are media-savvy, ready at a moment’s notice (à la the Scientologists or Lyndon LaRouche’s acolytes) to pounce on opponents online.

#But if the masses have been fooled, then so have the politicians, opines Higgins. I asked Higgins if she thought that Bob Filner knew the score when the Pacifica Institute, a Gulen front group, paid his way to Turkey. Didn’t (then-congressman) Filner, while strolling through Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, have even an inchoate sense about the Gulen folks? And why would a member of Congress purporting to represent San Diego take junkets to Asia Minor paid for by a Turkish politico-religious movement?

#Filner, claims Higgins, failed in the due-diligence department. Flattered by an award from the affable emissaries and wowed by talks of Turkish tolerance toward all (Christians and Jews included), he succumbed, just as many other American politicians and bureaucrats have, to the machinations of the Gulen machine.

#But the most oblivious aren’t politicians. The school’s customers — students and their parents — are seldom aware of the connections. Largely poor, non-white, and urban — just the sort of folks who claim to be victims of substandard public schools — they’re lured by the siren song of super-sized test scores and potential scholarships. What they find instead are schools with high attrition rates and a curriculum that includes “home visits” by teachers and trips to Turkey.

#American opponents of the “Gulenization” of public charter schools hail from points all across the ideological spectrum. While Sharon Higgins’s criticism has appeared in the left-leaning Huffington Post, Ricochet, a blog that describes itself as “right of center,” voices similar concerns. Ricochet’s Claire Berlinski (who lists her hometown as Istanbul) does note, however, that part of the animus against the Gulen charter schools may emanate from organized labor (read: teachers’ unions) or secular Turks.

#San Diego Unified School District’s charter schools director, Deidre Walsh, did not return calls for comment.

Read more: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2013/nov/13/citylights2-turks-charter-school/#ixzz2l3fkEGym

AND HERE IS AN ARTICLE IN THE SANTA ANA NEWS:

http://newsantaana.com/2013/08/26/sausd-considering-a-charter-school-that-may-be-part-of-a-turkish-islamic-sect/

California Gulen Politicians - aka "Useful tools of Gulen": Gulen Politician warning, "You touch it you burn" ...

Gulen Politicians - aka "Useful tools of Gulen": Gulen Politician warning, "You touch it you burn" ...:   http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2012/may/11/sixty-minutes-to-air-report-on-turkish-charter-sch/ 60 Minut...

BA Labor and Community Activists Demand Closure Of Gulen Oakland Bay Are...

Protest at California charter school operated and managed by Gulen Movement.
The "Bay Area Technology School" in Oakland, CA.