 |
| People lost their careers and went to jail--just as I correctly predicted when I learned about the Newpoint cover-up in late March of 2015. This whole fiasco also helped pass the appointed superintendent model locally --a historic silver lining for Escambia that was, in part, born of the Newpoint mess |
If you steal from the state, if you steal from students, if
you try to cheat the system—eventually it will catch up to you and the wrongs
will be righted.
So it is with some satisfaction that now we see another
person involved in the Newpoint Charter Schools fiasco get sentenced tojail. Good—that is a good outcome. Rip
off teachers, steal money from kids, you deserve to go to jail so far as I’m
concerned.
But that is an outcome that almost didn’t happen…and it
happened too late for the taxpayers (the school got bonuses for BOGUS test
scores before the whole thing tumbled down on them…) and it happened too late
for many students that were subjected to that school and all of its spectacular
dysfunction for far too long to keep negative headlines out of the press.
As a staunch school-choice and charter school supporter—it is
and was somewhat ironic that I was the board member that received the
whistle blower’s complaint and ACTUALLY did something with the information. If I had not blown this up—my prediction is
that Newpoint would still be operating in Escambia County today. Sad, right?
I won’t rehash how it all went down-but there are a few of
us that know the whole truth. For those that want to know the truth about how
it went down, and what the Judge meant when he referred to “misfeasance” by
public officials in his sentencing yesterday—I’d suggest the following blog posts (here
here here here here and here) as a primer. You'll get the flavor if you read them.
The nefarious conduct at Newpoint was being actively swept
under the rug by district staffers at the behest of the superintendent’s office
throughout 2014 and into early 2015.
That is a fact, and it is also factual that multiple staff members told
me this point blank: “We were told NOT
to tell the school board about all the problems at Newpoint.” (these employees and the Newpoint Whistle Blower were the heroes of this story—they risked their jobs by telling me and doing
the right thing)
I made the decision to unilaterally report the misconduct to
the State Attorney’s Office, over the strenuous objections of the
Superintendent, when I went to his office to confront him about the
accusations. He told me I was
wrong. “You are making a mistake –you are wrong!” he yelled.
Here’s the thing, though.
I was right, and he was wrong. He
was a part of the problem and he is
