Horizon Parents Truth: Gulen Charter Schools- To be or not to be?

Horizon Parents Truth: Gulen Charter Schools- To be or not to be?: If there is No Gulen Charter Schools, why does Hizmet damage control go to such great lengths to discuss and deny Gulen Charter Schools. W...

Gulen Charter School in California- Pacific Technology School



Dr. Yavuz Bayam lies and states he is from India, Dr. Bayam has had a long proven affiliation with the Gulen Movement.  The Schools in California are trying to open more charters under the Pacific Technology School name to yet confuse you more - divide and conquer.  Make no mistake about it they are all a part of the Gulen Magnolia Science Academies on the West Coast.

http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/do-the-math/content?oid=1326562

Every school morning, Dr. Yavuz Bayam stands outside Pacific Technology School and greets each of his arriving students by name. One by one the school’s 65 students—all sixth- and seventh-graders—shuffle past their smiling principal. And even though the time is just a few minutes before 8 a.m., the kids smile back.

“I don’t see being a principal as work,” said Bayam. “It’s like being with my family.”

The new Orangevale charter school came into existence this fall, just six weeks before the start of the school year. But PTS—with its emphasis on technology, math and science—was really birthed many years ago while its principal was working on his doctorate in nanotechnology at UC Davis.

Bayam, who hails from India, found himself surprised by what he saw as a disproportionate number of foreign students studying the so-called hard sciences. “Why are American students not choosing careers in math, science and technology?” he wondered.

He felt that the country’s standing in the world depended heavily on its future scientists and computer whizzes, and after lengthy discussions with American teachers, Bayam became impassioned about the need to get involved in emphasizing the sciences at early grade levels.

“I may have just been a Ph.D. student with no money,” said Bayam, “but I had to do something.”

That’s when Bayam came across Magnolia Educational & Research Foundation, which had opened its first charter school in Southern California in 1997. He had found his solution: Open a charter middle school focusing on math, science and technology. The charter school concept in the United States started with Minnesota in 1992. California quickly followed suit in 1993.

Darrell Parsons, a consultant with the California Department of Education, said that currently 810 charter schools are active in California, up from 765 last year; approximately 35 charters schools currently operate in Sacramento County. Charter schools “enjoy increased flexibility in exchange for increased accountability,” Parsons explained.

But starting up a charter school can prove more complicated than multivariable calculus.

First, there was a question of the school site. At one point, Bayam was traveling to the Bay Area every weekend for two years hoping to find a spot. He said that he tried for a location in Natomas, but that fell through. Finally, he found an Orangevale elementary school which had been vacant for three years—with a mere six weeks before the start of the school year.

“It really was in terrible shape,” said Bayam. Chairs had to be purchased, walls had to be painted. For P.E., since there’s no locker room, students changed into workout clothes in booths constructed out of PVC pipe and curtains.

Then he had to hire staff.

Many of the teachers at PTS are young, with several of them hired directly out of their credential programs. But Bayam believes the staff’s lack of experience is one of PTS’ strengths.

“They’re very young, very energetic, open to new ideas,” he said.

Math and science courses are scheduled in the mornings, when students are more alert. Typical class sizes hover around 14 students. School lunches are largely made from organic food.

At least twice a year, Bayam, along with a teacher, visits each student’s home to check in with the parents and to better understand the home situation.

Several parents raved about PTS. Sue Feather, mother of seventh-grader Gabriel, said that her son was made to feel stupid at his previous school.

But after attending PTS, “My son has spoken the word ‘college’ for the first time,” Feather said.

Leave it to the kids to voice a complaint. At lunchtime, when asked what they didn’t like about school, the response came like a chorus.

“The uniforms!”

Articles Mentioning Dr. Yavuz Bayam with the Gulen Movement.

http://www.plts.edu/stortz_turkey_archive.html

http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2011/06/gulen-charter-schools-in-california.html

http://magnoliascienceacademy.blogspot.com/2011/02/magnolia-science-academy-evidence-of.html

 

PROPOSED SCHOOLS IN CALIFORNA UNDER THE PAC TECH,

Watch for these in your community and alert the local school board.

Pacific Technology School – 8 proposed new branches (under statewide benefit charter)
PacTech-3 East Palo Alto (Sequoia Union High, Ravenswood Elem.) 2009 or 2010
PacTech-4 Oceanside (Oceanside Unified) 2010 or 2011
PacTech-5 Merced (Merced Union High) 2010 or 2011
PacTech-6 Hayward (Hayward Unified) 2011 or 2012
PacTech-7 Bakersfield (Kern Union High) 2011 or 2012
PacTech-8 Chula Vista (Sweetwater Union High) 2011 or 2012
PacTech-9 El Cajon (Grossmont Union High) 2012 or 2013
PacTech-10 Oxnard (Oxnard Unified) 2012 or 2013
State: California
Charter corporation: Magnolia Public Schools

Update on Dr. Yavuz Bayam, 1/11/2012
Why is Dr. Bayam still listed on the faculty at Gediz University in Izmir, Turkey?
http://www.gediz.edu.tr/Pages/akademi.php?ID=52_320&detail=1&cv_id=7818



MSA Santa Clara Science Fair 2011 #01

Magnolia Science Academy Gulen Charter School

Magnolia Science Academy, LAUSD to have moratorium on new charter schools

Vote gives LAUSD Teachers more say in charter schools

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/16/lausd-charter-moratorium_n_1154205.html
LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles Unified teachers have approved a new labor agreement with the school district that will give teachers wide-ranging decision-making power in running their schools.
United Teachers Los Angeles said Thursday that nearly 70 percent of its members voted in favor of the agreement. About 29 percent were opposed.
Under the pact, the district says it will not allow charter operators to take over low performing schools for the next three years, instead allowing teachers and administrators charter-like autonomy to write their own management plans for individual schools.
School reformers have criticized the plan for leaving innovative charters out of reform efforts, but UTLA President Warren Fletcher says the plan gives teachers equal footing to compete with charters, which have taken away hundreds of unionized teaching jobs.

Magnolia Science Academies in Los Angeles will not grow for the time being.  They are projected to have one open in Milipitas, CA.  However they have new applications pending in other parts of California under the name Pacific Technology Schools.

Gulen Charter Schools in the USA: Gulen Charter Schools, Who are we?

Gulen Charter Schools in the USA: Gulen Charter Schools, Who are we?: The flag and lady liberty of the United States of America  http://www.charterschoolwatchdog.com/ Let's be clear here --- Our mission...

Magnolia Science Academy Students show up at the Gulen Pacifica Insitute Anatolia Festival

Magnolia Science Academy Students in their school uniform shirts join in the Gulen sponsored Anatolia Festival.  Perhaps this is part of the expensive "Extra curricular activities" on the Magnolia Education Foundation's IRS tax forms.
Should American Tax payers be paying for the busing of American students to Gulen's Anatolia Festival?

From Gulenist ran Today's Zaman (Gulen's own propaganda media arm)



http://www.todayszaman.com/news-259994-anatolian-festival-in-california-proves-hard-work-never-goes-unrewarded.html

Locals were all positive that it was a sunny weekend in California as usual but all those who entered the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa a week ago realized that it was in fact going to be a very different one on the west coast for them.

The Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival 2011 was what they all gathered for. And as they were waiting for the gates to be opened, staring at full-size replicas of statues more than 2,000 years old below an orange-colored arc, their excitement was not in English, Turkish or any other particular language. It was a universal feeling for people of many nations, including but not limited to India, Mexico, Syria, France, Armenia, the United Kingdom, Iran and Turkey as well as the United States, who, through various means and for different purposes, came to this part of the world’s sole superpower. Luckily, I was one of those who had the chance to see what this festival had to offer to its visitors for four long days from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. between Oct. 6 and Oct. 9. The corridor connecting the gate to the festival grounds was decorated with a written history of the many civilizations that lived in Anatolia, contributing to today’s Anatolian culture in many ways, and the replicas of a number of other monuments from around Turkey lined the corridor. Standing next to those monuments were teenagers dressed in the way the people who built those monuments centuries ago would have been dressed. The Ottomans -- who, just like representatives of other civilizations visitors saw along the corridor, saluted them -- were last in the line of these civilizations and came right before visitors found themselves at the edge of a vast area where dozens of booths of restaurants, gift shops, book stores, civil society organizations, media outlets and travel agencies were all calling on them. What, however, may have amazed them the most must have been the replica of Topkapı Palace, standing to their right, and the city exhibits from İstanbul, Konya, Antalya, Mardin and Van on their left. Turkish food was no less various than the origins of the visitors. Turkish ravioli was served, and a variety of kebabs, olive oil dishes and pastry filled with cheese, potatoes and ground beef were only some of the other types of food items available to people in the area at reasonable prices. What most of the visitors did as part of their day at the festival was that they would first grab some food and then take their time to enjoy all the festivities -- live music, traditional dances and the march of the Ottoman military band, to name a few -- and see what all those exhibitors had to offer them. The organizers were kind and thoughtful enough to also build a playground for the kids so that they, too, could enjoy their day. İbrahim Barlas, president of Pacifica Institute, the event’s organizer, said the aim of the festival is to encourage intercultural dialogue and to make mutual understanding the mode of conduct between people of different cultures. He believes the festival has already earned a name for just that and underlined that the festival was visited by numerous federal and local government officials every year. The festival was organized for the first time in 2009 and managed to attract more than 70,000 visitors in its first two years. The number of visitors for this year’s event has yet to be announced but his estimate points to over 60,000. The most dazzling aspect of the festival, however, was the fact that 400 volunteers worked tirelessly before, during and after this event to create a platform where people of many different countries, most of them being thousands of miles away from their homeland, came together to share the very similar joy of sharing this world as they shared the festival area and there are in fact many similarities that outweigh the differences between them. Lectures were no less enjoyable The festival also featured a number of lectures which allowed participants to hear what experts had to tell them and later participate in a fruitful discussion with both the speakers and other participants. The topics of the lectures varied from the state of Turkish-Israeli relations to the cultural legacy of Armenians in Anatolia and from how Islam preaches liberties and democracy to Turkish pastas, but what all discussions had in common was that all those who spoke were respectful of different opinions and were open to hearing ideas that disputed the very arguments they made. At the end, no political or cultural lecture offered the ultimate recipe to solve the problems the different peoples may have between them, but the ambiance the participants and speakers shared with each other showed how one can make peace with him or herself as well as with others. Whereas Kerim Balcı, editor-in-chief of the bimonthly magazine Turkish Review, who spent eight years in Jerusalem as the representative of Turkey’s Zaman daily, briefed the participants on how the relations between erstwhile allies Turkey and Israel soured in a region where all interstate relations are now reconstructed, Rabbi Reuven Firestone, a professor of medieval Jewish studies, emphasized the scriptural foundations of Muslim-Jewish dialogue and coexistence in both religions’ sacred texts. It truly was not an easy task to elaborate on the cultural legacy of the Armenians -- a disputed number of whom perished in the Syrian deserts after they were forced to migrate from Eastern Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 -- in front of an audience including Turks and Armenians. Yet when David Minassian, chairman of the board of trustees of the Organization of İstanbul Armenians -- ended his words, Turks shook his hand just like Armenians. Differences may have remainied over how to label the mass killings almost a century ago between them, but they could talk while looking each other in the eye rather throwing accusations from distant places. Can a favor change the world? When Katharine Branning, an American author who is now the vice president of the French Institute Alliance Française in New York, started talking about her book “Yes I Would Love Another Glass of Tea,” by depicting the kind of hospitality and understanding she received in Turkey during her frequent travels to the country since 1977, her emphasis was on the fact that Turkey has gone through a substantial transformation both politically and economically, but that one thing remained the same: She always felt home in this country. That I believe is a common feeling for a lot of people given the fact that Turkey is world famous for its hospitality and sympathy towards foreigners. As a Turkish citizen, I must also admit that the reason I felt at home in the US was not only because of the food I had in that “small Turkey” thousands of miles away but also because two good things -- directly or indirectly related to the festival -- happened to me during my stay in America. Bryant Hardin is an American citizen in his 70s, living in San Diego and also a frequent traveler to Turkey. I met him at İstanbul Atatürk Airport before boarding a flight to New York, where I transferred to another flight to Los Angeles. Despite his age he was carrying a backpack and the first thing he asked was if a wireless Internet connection was available in the waiting area where we met. Not long after we started talking, I realized how deep his love for Turkey was. He actually had tears in his eyes as he explained to me how sad he was to leave it after his 15th vacation in the country. We talked about a lot of things, such as the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests and the condition of the world economy as well as our lives. He was, however, particularly happy that he learned about the festival from me given the connection he had with Turkey and its people. We met twice at the festival area and he was kind enough to show me around on one of those days although he had no such obligation. For him, it was returning a favor from someone else in the country he deeply loves. The other good thing happened as I was returning from Los Angeles to New York. When a flight attendant came to offer me something to drink, as he was supposed to do to all other passengers on board, I was not too hungry, but I said I could have something to eat. He said “alright” but that I could only pay by credit card, which I did not have on me as I had forgotten mine in İstanbul almost a week earlier. After asking me about my final destination, he did not simply continue to serve other passengers -- which would have done no harm to anyone, including me -- but said, “I’ll be back in a minute.” He came back just as he had promised, but with a sandwich in one of his hands. “Are there still homeless children in İstanbul?” he asked, and after I responded in the affirmative, he said, “Please be good to one of those kids,” and left the sandwich with me as I was trying to understand what it really was that just happened as Branning’s book lay open on the tray table. Moments after he left to serve other passengers, I was only able to think that a flight attendant could in fact create a lasting change in this world of ours and the idea of returning a favor deserves much recognition from policy makers. Costa Mesa, İstanbul Sunday’s Zaman

Locals were all positive that it was a sunny weekend in California as usual but all those who entered the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa a week ago realized that it was in fact going to be a very different one on the west coast for them.

The Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival 2011 was what they all gathered for. And as they were waiting for the gates to be opened, staring at full-size replicas of statues more than 2,000 years old below an orange-colored arc, their excitement was not in English, Turkish or any other particular language. It was a universal feeling for people of many nations, including but not limited to India, Mexico, Syria, France, Armenia, the United Kingdom, Iran and Turkey as well as the United States, who, through various means and for different purposes, came to this part of the world’s sole superpower.

Luckily, I was one of those who had the chance to see what this festival had to offer to its visitors for four long days from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. between Oct. 6 and Oct. 9.

The corridor connecting the gate to the festival grounds was decorated with a written history of the many civilizations that lived in Anatolia, contributing to today’s Anatolian culture in many ways, and the replicas of a number of other monuments from around Turkey lined the corridor. Standing next to those monuments were teenagers dressed in the way the people who built those monuments centuries ago would have been dressed.

The Ottomans -- who, just like representatives of other civilizations visitors saw along the corridor, saluted them -- were last in the line of these civilizations and came right before visitors found themselves at the edge of a vast area where dozens of booths of restaurants, gift shops, book stores, civil society organizations, media outlets and travel agencies were all calling on them. What, however, may have amazed them the most must have been the replica of Topkapı Palace, standing to their right, and the city exhibits from İstanbul, Konya, Antalya, Mardin and Van on their left.

Turkish food was no less various than the origins of the visitors. Turkish ravioli was served, and a variety of kebabs, olive oil dishes and pastry filled with cheese, potatoes and ground beef were only some of the other types of food items available to people in the area at reasonable prices.

What most of the visitors did as part of their day at the festival was that they would first grab some food and then take their time to enjoy all the festivities -- live music, traditional dances and the march of the Ottoman military band, to name a few -- and see what all those exhibitors had to offer them. The organizers were kind and thoughtful enough to also build a playground for the kids so that they, too, could enjoy their day.

İbrahim Barlas, president of Pacifica Institute, the event’s organizer, said the aim of the festival is to encourage intercultural dialogue and to make mutual understanding the mode of conduct between people of different cultures. He believes the festival has already earned a name for just that and underlined that the festival was visited by numerous federal and local government officials every year. The festival was organized for the first time in 2009 and managed to attract more than 70,000 visitors in its first two years. The number of visitors for this year’s event has yet to be announced but his estimate points to over 60,000.

The most dazzling aspect of the festival, however, was the fact that 400 volunteers worked tirelessly before, during and after this event to create a platform where people of many different countries, most of them being thousands of miles away from their homeland, came together to share the very similar joy of sharing this world as they shared the festival area and there are in fact many similarities that outweigh the differences between them.

Lectures were no less enjoyable

The festival also featured a number of lectures which allowed participants to hear what experts had to tell them and later participate in a fruitful discussion with both the speakers and other participants. The topics of the lectures varied from the state of Turkish-Israeli relations to the cultural legacy of Armenians in Anatolia and from how Islam preaches liberties and democracy to Turkish pastas, but what all discussions had in common was that all those who spoke were respectful of different opinions and were open to hearing ideas that disputed the very arguments they made. At the end, no political or cultural lecture offered the ultimate recipe to solve the problems the different peoples may have between them, but the ambiance the participants and speakers shared with each other showed how one can make peace with him or herself as well as with others.

Whereas Kerim Balcı, editor-in-chief of the bimonthly magazine Turkish Review, who spent eight years in Jerusalem as the representative of Turkey’s Zaman daily, briefed the participants on how the relations between erstwhile allies Turkey and Israel soured in a region where all interstate relations are now reconstructed, Rabbi Reuven Firestone, a professor of medieval Jewish studies, emphasized the scriptural foundations of Muslim-Jewish dialogue and coexistence in both religions’ sacred texts.

It truly was not an easy task to elaborate on the cultural legacy of the Armenians -- a disputed number of whom perished in the Syrian deserts after they were forced to migrate from Eastern Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 -- in front of an audience including Turks and Armenians. Yet when David Minassian, chairman of the board of trustees of the Organization of İstanbul Armenians -- ended his words, Turks shook his hand just like Armenians. Differences may have remainied over how to label the mass killings almost a century ago between them, but they could talk while looking each other in the eye rather throwing accusations from distant places.

Can a favor change the world?

When Katharine Branning, an American author who is now the vice president of the French Institute Alliance Française in New York, started talking about her book “Yes I Would Love Another Glass of Tea,” by depicting the kind of hospitality and understanding she received in Turkey during her frequent travels to the country since 1977, her emphasis was on the fact that Turkey has gone through a substantial transformation both politically and economically, but that one thing remained the same: She always felt home in this country. That I believe is a common feeling for a lot of people given the fact that Turkey is world famous for its hospitality and sympathy towards foreigners. As a Turkish citizen, I must also admit that the reason I felt at home in the US was not only because of the food I had in that “small Turkey” thousands of miles away but also because two good things -- directly or indirectly related to the festival -- happened to me during my stay in America.

Bryant Hardin is an American citizen in his 70s, living in San Diego and also a frequent traveler to Turkey. I met him at İstanbul Atatürk Airport before boarding a flight to New York, where I transferred to another flight to Los Angeles. Despite his age he was carrying a backpack and the first thing he asked was if a wireless Internet connection was available in the waiting area where we met. Not long after we started talking, I realized how deep his love for Turkey was. He actually had tears in his eyes as he explained to me how sad he was to leave it after his 15th vacation in the country. We talked about a lot of things, such as the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests and the condition of the world economy as well as our lives. He was, however, particularly happy that he learned about the festival from me given the connection he had with Turkey and its people. We met twice at the festival area and he was kind enough to show me around on one of those days although he had no such obligation. For him, it was returning a favor from someone else in the country he deeply loves.

The other good thing happened as I was returning from Los Angeles to New York. When a flight attendant came to offer me something to drink, as he was supposed to do to all other passengers on board, I was not too hungry, but I said I could have something to eat. He said “alright” but that I could only pay by credit card, which I did not have on me as I had forgotten mine in İstanbul almost a week earlier. After asking me about my final destination, he did not simply continue to serve other passengers -- which would have done no harm to anyone, including me -- but said, “I’ll be back in a minute.” He came back just as he had promised, but with a sandwich in one of his hands. “Are there still homeless children in İstanbul?” he asked, and after I responded in the affirmative, he said, “Please be good to one of those kids,” and left the sandwich with me as I was trying to understand what it really was that just happened as Branning’s book lay open on the tray table. Moments after he left to serve other passengers, I was only able to think that a flight attendant could in fact create a lasting change in this world of ours and the idea of returning a favor deserves much recognition from policy makers. Costa Mesa, İstanbul Sunday’s Zaman