Post by stark on Oct 17, 2021 20:22:28 GMT -7
From: BLR
Sent: Monday, October 25, 2021 10:17 AM
To: 'Kottenstette, Bill' <Kottenstette_B@cde.state.co.us>
Cc: '13investigates@krdo.com' <13investigates@krdo.com>; 'Monaco, Christina' <Monaco_c@cde.state.co.us>
Subject: RE: Banning Lewis Ranch School Board community letter
Dear Mr. Kottenstette,
Thank you for your patience while we prepare this community response to your email. We are grateful these complaints are now registered with your office due to the likelihood that, given the current situation, the behavior of the Banning Lewis Ranch Academy School Board will result in future complaints being registered with your office. It is important for the CDE to know the community is doing everything possible to ensure the safety, security, and well-being of our staff, students, administration and schools. Filing this evidence and these communications with your office is an important step in the process and we thank you for the opportunity.
We appreciate your email and explanation that a School Board has certain obligations for acting in a way that supports the best interest of the organization. Clearly, the breadth of complaints which were public knowledge before and now have been made known to your office represents, in part, the disagreement between the community and the BLRA School Board of what exactly “best interest” means. The community remains disappointed that the School Board and District 49 has failed to openly and honestly address these concerns in a manner that is in the “best interest” of the organization, its schools, and the community. The community also remains disappointed that the School Board and District 49 have actively taken steps to silence community members who speak about these topics, express a desire to have these topics addressed, or have otherwise attempted to work with the School Board and District 49 for resolution.
One reason we have decided to escalate our concerns to your office is due to a standard response District 49 has provided in regards to its Charter School Boards, which is to simply classify a School Board as a self-governing body. While we as a community understand this classification, it is disappointing when the District chooses to disregard its own obligations for Charter School contract compliance and is unwilling to take any meaningful corrective action in such cases. Additionally, the community understands the difficulty placed on District 49 to be responsible for compliance in the BLRA Charter School when its own authorizer, Andy Franko, promotes and encourages some of the concerning behavior exhibited by the BLRA School Board. One attached document in particular explains this relationship between Mr. Franko and the School Board (Attachment…Application 2021 (1).pdf). It is important the CDE understands that this level of conflicted interest played an important role in our decision to escalate these matters to you.
As for your suggestion to share this information and attached documentation with the charter liaison, we welcome any opportunity you offer for these concerns to be made known. By simply sharing this letter, our letter below, and the attached documents with the charter liaison, the charter school authorizer Andy Franko, and others at District 49 who may benefit from having this information, the action itself may provide the motivation required for the District to correct itself and act appropriately to address these concerns.
Lastly, there is an assumption that public governing bodies such as School Boards will behave in a respectable and honorable manner. There is also an assumption that District 49 plays a role in accountability for the Charter Schools they oversee. Unfortunately, past precedent has shown that District 49 will attempt to explain away any School Board misconduct as a lack of training among Board Members. The Banning Lewis Ranch community is fully aware that any efforts, including these, to bring accountability to the BLRA School Board may ultimately result in the District using its typical go-to remedy of additional Board Member training. Our community will not understand nor accept such a mediocre and prepubescent response in this case. We thank you in advance for any efforts you make, including the forwarding of this information to assist us in finding an honest and integrous resolution.
Respectfully,
The Banning Lewis Ranch Community
From: Kottenstette, Bill [mailto:Kottenstette_B@cde.state.co.us]
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2021 4:50 PM
Cc: Monaco, Christina <Monaco_c@cde.state.co.us>
Subject: FW: Banning Lewis Ranch School Board community letter
Thank you for your letter to CDE regarding your concerns at Banning Lewis Ranch Academy. I have reviewed your concerns and based on the information shared, it appears as if the issues highlighted need to be addressed either at the school or authorizer level. As a public charter school, the school is required to be governed by a non-profit Board of Directors which has certain obligations for acting in a way in supports the best interest of the organization. The contract for the school is made between the Banning Lewis Board and the Board of the D49 school district. Thus, it is the responsibility of the D49 school district for overseeing compliance with the contract in the event there are possible concerns.
You mentioned that concerns have been shared with D49. Would it be okay if I forward this letter to the charter liaison for D49 as well to ensure he is aware of the breadth of the concerns?
Thank you,
Bill
Bill Kottenstette
Executive Director
Schools of Choice
P 303-866-6365
201 East Colfax, Denver, CO 80203
Kottenstette_B@cde.state.co.us
| www.cde.state.co.us
Email cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. Therefore, email cannot be used to transfer files containing personally identifiable information of educators or students. Contact the intended recipient to mutually determine enhanced security options for transferring such information.
From: Monaco, Christina <Monaco_c@cde.state.co.us>
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2021 11:25 AM
To: Kottenstette, Bill <Kottenstette_B@cde.state.co.us>
Subject: Fw: Banning Lewis Ranch School Board community letter
Hi Bill,
I hope you're doing well! I wanted to reach out to you and see if you could assist this group with their questions below.
Thank you,
Christina
Christina Monaco
Field Services Manager
Office of Field Services
P 303-981-6513
201 E Colfax - 402, Denver, CO 80203
Monaco_c@cde.state.co.us
| www.cde.state.co.us
Email cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. Therefore, email cannot be used to transfer files containing personally identifiable information of educators or students. Contact the intended recipient to mutually determine enhanced security options for transferring such information.
________________________________________
From: BLR
Sent: Wednesday, October 20, 2021 9:16 AM
To: Monaco, Christina <Monaco_c@cde.state.co.us>
Cc: mheller@cecfa.org <mheller@cecfa.org>; sam.todd@bvsd.org <sam.todd@bvsd.org>
Subject: Banning Lewis Ranch School Board community letter
Dear Ms. Christina Monaco,
I represent a group of concerned parents and community members in the Banning Lewis Ranch area of Colorado Springs, Colorado (District 49). While it is a pleasure to reach out to you today, this communication is unfortunately required since attempts at resolving the following issues at the local level have failed. It has been collectively determined that escalation to you is our next course of action.
Several issues are currently unresolved with the Banning Lewis Ranch Academy School Board. Since the School Board is a self-governing body, the situation poses a substantial challenge for self-resolution. It should be known that multiple direct attempts to correct these matters with the School Board have failed, it should also be known that multiple attempts to escalate these issues to the District 49 Charter School Superintendent have failed as well. We are writing in hopes that you will become involved in this matter to bring accountability to those who are tasked with self-governance and restore integrity to a governing body which, we believe, chooses to operate in a manner which erodes trust.
One issue of concern is a recent instance where the School Board President used text message to direct public funds without the approval of the School Board. For reference on this issue, the School Board meeting minutes from July 29 can be found in the following link:
drive.google.com/file/d/1VJn_Ip_7QigSwl0fZ1Hig-wYziY-3B_q/view?usp=sharing
attached file: email 003 attachment 001 (1).pdf
The community believes it to be appropriate that any decision regarding the allocation of public funds would be discussed at the public School Board meeting and recorded in the meeting minutes. Since neither happened, the community was surprised and disheartened to learn that on August 2nd the School Board President diverted taxpayer funds without discussion or evidence of School Board approval:
drive.google.com/file/d/1Chx70tYuNp6S_QFu0qhZNhQEQZiCj_ZS/view?usp=sharing
attached file: email 003 attachment 002 (2).pdf
While there may be no legal issue with this action, the “optics” of such actions does not promote an atmosphere of integrity and trust with the community.
A second issue of concern for the community is the nature of the work the Board President is engaged in for other Colorado Springs charter schools. The documentation in the link below shows the Board President is currently working on enrollment and marketing efforts for other charter schools in the area. The documentation below also shows that the end goal is to bring more families into other charter schools and increase enrollment for those schools, year over year. It seems reasonable that the BLRA community has questions and concerns regarding the motives of the School Board President when she is engaged in ongoing marketing efforts to draw more families to other charter schools instead of Banning Lewis Ranch Academy. One obvious deleterious effect of this work is decreased enrollment for our schools. Decreased enrollment has the potential to lower the Moody’s Credit Rating for the school bond which may make it more difficult to borrow money for our schools in the future.
Documentation to show the Board President is currently working on enrollment and marketing efforts for other charter schools (see last page):
drive.google.com/file/d/15OB-vv-rWxAHldMfZeRbejyS8Mzq5sx3/view?usp=sharing
attached file: Attachment for Heather Zambrano Raisanen - Board Application 2021 (1).pdf
Documentation to show that the end goal is for the Board President to bring more families into other charter schools and increase enrollment year over year (see first page):
drive.google.com/file/d/1_jU9YPGznn14r-XPqaVV-EO9pnnoVAMq/view?usp=sharing
attached file: CORA Request 20210928 AKBZ Consulting for Monument Academy.pdf
It should be noted that while there may not be any legal issues with a School Board member engaging in recruitment activities for other schools, the “optics” of such activities does not promote an atmosphere of integrity and trust. The community also believes there may be a conflict of interest issues with these activities as well.
A third concern that parents and community members have are the six written/documented complaints regarding the conduct of the School Board Vice President. The six complaints are linked below and span a timeframe from January 2020 until this past summer, 2021, which the community strongly believes constitutes a pattern of behavior. The complaints against the VP contain allegations of harassment, threats, bullying, intimidation and improper use of the School Board position, and involve school staff and students. The community has concerns not only with the allegations themselves, but also that the allegations have been ignored by the School Board. There is also a question as to why these complaints and allegations were known by the previous School Board President Deann Barnett who did not take action on these complaints when the opportunity presented itself but instead, passed the information on to the current School Board President. These complaints have yet to be addressed:
Complaint 1 (which shows previous Board President Deann Barnett had knowledge):
drive.google.com/file/d/11XiaU_brNBHxJJp5qjPhVKUE2T4gC6Qd/view?usp=sharing
attached file: email 004 attachment 001_c.pdf
Complaint 2
drive.google.com/file/d/1fGZHWBageeO0mCdXbU5c50iKI9Iq1AIw/view?usp=sharing
attached file: email 005 attachment 001_c.pdf
Complaint 3
drive.google.com/file/d/1O3MW5V5kQOTYXY7gvU5MVhMoA8hZyEbj/view?usp=sharing
attached file: complaint003 (1).pdf
Complaint 4, 5, & 6
drive.google.com/file/d/10v0wxD94B8F7upqxwcFzt7mqox_rWpgp/view?usp=sharing
attached file: email 008 attachment 001 (1).pdf
It should be noted that while there may not be any legal issues with a School Board which is unwilling to publicly address the six documented instances of misconduct against a sitting Board member, the “optics” of such inaction is of concern to both community members and families.
Lastly, the community has concerns regarding the employment contract the School Board President has with ACCEL Schools, the Charter School Management company employed by Banning Lewis Ranch Academy. The following documentation shows the current School Board President is currently contracted with ACCEL Schools and being paid with funds that are claimed as non-Banning (second to last page):
drive.google.com/file/d/15OB-vv-rWxAHldMfZeRbejyS8Mzq5sx3/view?usp=sharing
attached file: Attachment for Heather Zambrano Raisanen - Board Application 2021 (1).pdf
It should be noted that while there may not be any legal issues with a School Board member engaging in employment opportunities for the management company, the “optics” of such activities is of concern. The community also believes there may be a conflict of interest issues with these activities as well.
We, as a community, are concerned the School Board is engaging in misconduct and not taking appropriate steps to legitimately self-govern. This lack of self-governance also creates fear in the growing community that future funding and development projects may be jeopardized by the actions (or inactions) of the School Board. We sincerely are grateful for your time in reading this and looking through our supplied documentation. It is also understood that you may not be able to help or influence such matters, but we as a community have a desire to at least register our complaints with your office in an effort to, at least, have documentation in place which details the concerns of our community. Thank you very much for your time and understanding.
If you do have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly.