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| Communication provided to terminated Newpoint staff today, 6-2-2015 |
I have been contacted by several now former employees of Newpoint schools in Pensacola.
According to these sources, all Newpoint staff have been terminated as of today.
Staff has been told they may receive the rest of their pay if adequate funding remains in their schools' accounts after today. Otherwise, these staff members are being directed to apply for unemployment and to contact the Escambia County School Board if they have additional concerns.
Several staff were on 12 month salary schedules and want to be paid the monies owed to them for June, July and August.
Superintendent of schools Malcolm Thomas has told me he is withholding Newpoint's June payment of approximately $140,000 and will not release this money until he has assurance that all financial obligations owed by Newpoint, including salaries to their employees, have been met.
Much more to come on this entire mess,
Newpoint has a history of not paying employees their final paychecks. As far back as the opening school year at the Moreno St. location, former employees still await the owner, Marcus Mays's decision as to whether or not to pay them...
ReplyDeleteThis is a horrible situation all around. I applaud the district for thinking of the teachers and trying to come up with a solution to the issue of pay.
ReplyDeleteIt turned out to be fortunate that Newpoint moved so quickly--too quickly--to purge the ranks of their teachers locally.....As they did it before we mailed them their monthly check for June. I, too, am thankful that the district will hold this check to apply leverage against Newpoint to make them do right by their employees.
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised that even in their final statement to their own employees that Newpoint still does not accept responsibility for their many failures to protect our children and operate within the law and their contract. They have instead chosen to blame "an employee" for their closing. Shame on all the teachers and other staff (and parents) who knew they were in violation or just NOT doing the right thing for our children. I applaud this "Employee" who had the moral courage to stand up and do what is right knowing it would probably cost them their job. Our children deserve the very best education. As far as I am concerned, Newpoint robbed our children of a quality education by allowing the school to be run so unprofessionally. Thank you Jeff for continuing to bring this matter into the public forum.
ReplyDeleteSigned: A very disappointed parent.
Anonymous: You are so right. The true victims in this situation were the children; however, there are a number of great teachers from the school who were kept in the dark about anything illegal or corrupt just as they were kept in the dark about losing their jobs and pay. The administration never had open lines of communication with parents or teachers, corporate kept all teachers at an arm's length--never having communications with them at all, and the teachers were asked to use a "new model" of teaching without any assistance with issues that arose with software, grading, and any other problem for which teachers in the public schools would have principal assistance, or if that failed, a board to turn to.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Newpoint, Thomas and the SAO are trying to cover up the real wrongdoing by Newpoint corporate and Thomas for not reporting and in fact suppressing the investigation. It takes a lot of nerve for Thomas to now thump his chest about this!!
ReplyDeleteKeep on them Jeff!!!
To anonymous that says shame on those who knew... What basis do you have grounds to even make that comment? Shame on the so called whistle blower who ruined many lives due to their crazy accusations! And yes, I call them accusations because I for one, have yet to be interviewed by any investigation team! I am still waiting. And I have even let Mr. Bergosh be aware of this. It is not a great investigation if you only search for answers that help your own case. Who can I whistleblow to when I see misdoings by an investigation team. Bet they won't get treated in the same manner the school was.
ReplyDelete