by Deborah Grill
There are several reasons why the Board of Education should deny Global Leadership Academy’s application to open a third charter school, a high school in North Philadelphia at its February 2024 action meeting. The district already has 82 existing charter schools, most of which, including the two existing Global Leadership Academy schools, have not outperformed the district’s public schools. In fact, one reason why the Board of Education denied this application the first two times it was submitted, in addition to the very flawed application, was GLA’s poor performance at Huey Elementary, its Renaissance charter school. The district’s current 82 charter schools cost the district considerably in tuition fees and stranded costs. The district cannot afford any more charter schools without further diminishing the education of the students in its existing schools, who must try to learn in understaffed and toxic buildings, with many basic resources paid out of the pockets of teachers. In addition, the district does not need any new charter schools, as over half of the 82 operating now are under-enrolled.
Almost all of the founding members who attended the January 23 public hearing either had worked at one of the current schools, were currently employed by GLA, or had a business contract with GLA. No public testimony was heard at this hearing.
This third application from Global Leadership Academy Charter High School is less than truthful, as was the case in the first two. The applicants continue to disavow their two existing charter schools, both of which contain the name “Global Leadership Academy”. During the public application hearing on January 23, members of the applicant’s founding coalition went out of their way to distance themselves from GLA’s two existing schools. There are four separate entities here, often referred to interchangeably during the hearing. Unintentionally or not, this muddies the waters of the relationship among the schools, the applicant, the management organization, and the academic/business service.
Hearing Officer Ken Roos asked about the relationship among Global Leadership International Charter High School (GLAICHS), Global Leadership Academy Charter School (GLACS), and Global Leadership Academy Southwest Charter School (GLASW at Huey Elementary). The lead spokesperson for the founding coalition, GLACS CEO Dr. Naomi Johnson-Booker, replied that there was no relationship. That might be true if one doesn’t count the name, the academic model, the relationship with business consultants Charter Choices, and her position as CEO of GLACS. She added that Global Academies (GA) supplies the schools with services and that GA would supply GLAICHS with the same services. When asked if the vendor agreements for the high school were similar to those for the existing schools, Johnson-Booker skirted the question by replying that the vendor agreements for the high school were “not exact”. She did admit that Global Academies, the proposed school, and the two existing schools are all represented by the same attorneys at the firm of Sand & Seidel. Sand & Seidel is affiliated with Santilli and Thomson, the firm that was listed in the 2022 application as a proposed provider of legal and business consulting services.
In addition, the application states that the high school would be open to any student who lives in the Philadelphia school district, but the proposed admissions policy would give preference to students at the two existing GLA schools, both located in West Philadelphia, who would not have to enter the lottery.
When asked by Hearing Examiner Roos why the applicants don’t consider themselves the operators of the other GA schools, attorney David Anecharico, Vice President of Sand and Seidel, replied that it was purely a “legal determination”. He didn’t say what that meant or who made any such determination. Booker-Johnson said that GLACS and GLASW at Huey are independent charter schools that share some services and vendors, but that technically, Global Academies is not “operating” them, rather it is a “service provider” for both schools. (Huey is a Renaissance charter school whose property is owned by the district and whose students are taken from the district’s established catchment area, thus it is not fully independent.) As the Charter Schools Office (CSO) noted in its evaluation, the services that GA will provide are very similar to what a charter management organization provides.
After denying that Global Academies operates the two existing schools, Johnson-Booker posited that the pandemic affected the existing schools’ most recent test scores and suggested that the CSO disregard them and look at the progress of the two schools from their opening to date.
As was the case in proceedings for the first two applications for this proposed high school, Johnson-Booker wants to have it both ways. She wants to reap all of the benefits that come with being a charter management organization (CMO) while claiming that GA is not really the CMO. Global Academies wants to absolve themselves from taking responsibility for the academic outcomes of any of the schools that use their program and services. Is Global Academies attempting to set a precedent that all charter CMOs can use the same argument to absolve themselves of responsibility for poor academic outcomes by claiming that they are just the service provider?
Once again the attachments to the application open with legal statements challenging the district’s right to ask for specific information that it would need to determine the academic, financial and managerial viability of the proposed school, foreshadowing an intention to appeal to the state Charter Appeals Board (CAB) should the application be denied. The appeal could go all the way up to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, forcing the district to pay for legal fees and court costs for both district lawyers and those representing Global Academies.
Global Leadership Academy International Charter High School
Location: 5210-18 N. Broad Street, 19140 (former Cristo Rey High School)
Neighborhood: Logan
Grades: 9 to 12
Opening Date: August 15, 2024
Targeted area: citywide enrollment
Projected Enrollment: 600 at scale
Proposed CEO salary from Y1 to Y5 (from application): $135,000; $139,000; $143,000; $147,518; $151,944.
(Recent tax returns show GLA CEO Johnson-Booker paid $475, 507 in annual salary and other compensation; GLASW at Huey CEO paid $320, 125 in annual salary and other compensation.)
Projected annual cost to district at scale (based on comparable charter high school figures in the district’s December 2023 Quarterly School Manager Report): $16,064,296.
The applicant states that GLAICHS has as central to its program an international trip for all students, to be paid for both by the students themselves and through grants and fundraisers. However, the applicant acknowledges that not all students would be able to go, including many who could not afford it. Those students would be able to complete an alternative project for those credits.
Founding Coalition Members
Five of the 13 member founding coalition are current and former directors, staff and stakeholders from Global Academies, GLACS or GLASW at Huey. Eight members are otherwise affiliated entities and individuals.
Dr. Naomi Johnson Booker: CEO at GLACS and CEO at GA; Executive Advisor at GLASW at Huey.
Omar Barlow: Educational Consultant & Lead Facilitator, Be More Excellent University; and also Founding Principal and CEO at Eastern Academy Charter School (no longer open).
Dr. Colona Roberts: Pennsylvania Quality Assurance System Trainer; Principal of Sharon Christian Academy and K.W. Reed Boys Academy; Owner of the Smart Center of Child Development Education, and Consultant, C. Roberts Consulting.
Bar-Rae Choice: Chief of School Operations at Global Academies since July 2021; previously served as Assistant Principal at GLASW at Huey (3 yrs) and as Assistant Principal Climate & Culture/ School Safety; Dean of Students at GLACS (5 yrs); Summer Enrichment Program Phila. Dept. Recreation 2009-present.
Stacey Frenche: IT Manager and Server Support Team, Senior Network Technician and Desktop Support Coordinator at Automated Financial Systems, Inc.
Trina Jones: Exec. Director Global Academies; GLA Business Development Manager (2 yrs); KIPP Philadelphia Regional Compliance Manager (1 yr); Owner BOSS Consulting.
Paul Kennedy: GLA Director of Scholar Advancement/PBIS Coordinator (4 yrs), Global Leadership Academy Leader Southwest (3 yrs).
Alicia Kennedy: Director of Special Services at Global Academies (9 yrs); Coordinator of Social Services at GLA (2 yrs) Special Education Compliance Monitor, PA Department of Education.
Vanessa Nedrick: Principal at Remington & Vernick Engineers.
Jose Parilla: Principal, Charter Choices and Member of Senior Management Team (1.5 yrs; he is not listed on Charter Choices website), former Chief Academic Officer of Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School (3 yrs.) and Chief Finance Officer (5 yrs.) of Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School.
Dr. Alex Shuh: founder and Executive Director of School Frontiers LLC, (Data Analysis).
Dr. Deborah Stern: Principal at R4 Education Consulting Services, Classroom and teaching experience 1 to 5 years in 6 different schools; Academic Director of Education Plus Academy Cyber Charter school (1 yr); Director of Education and Co-Founder Mastery Charter School (5 yrs).
Sand & Saidel P.C. : Law firm, no individual listed.
Proposed Board Members
The applicant included resumes for only three proposed board members, but states that it plans to recruit additional board members to balance the strength of the board. Why did the applicant submit only a partial list? Is that an indication of a lack of community support?
Dr. Colona Roberts
Vanessa Frenche
Vanessa Nedrick
These individuals are also part of the founding coalition. While they have experience in education, consulting and engineering, none have experience in managing a charter school.
School Leadership
The 2023-2024 application lists 6 proposed leadership positions: CEO, Head of School, Assistant Head of School, School Climate and Culture Coordinator, Currencies Coordinator, and Special Services Coordinator. The CEO would function as Head of School in years 1 and 2. The applicant does not identify a school leader but states that the board “has identified multiple candidates” for the position and “is moving through the interview process”. Which board was not specified – the 3-member proposed board or the Founding Coalition.
Management
The applicant states that it will engage Global Academies in a vendor services and licensing agreement for the use of the Global Leadership Academy model at the proposed high school. This seems to imply that Global Academies holds some type of trademark of the program or some claim of intellectual property of the GLA model. Global Academies will offer “unique and successful curricular models” and advise them on developing independent systems for the following:
- Staff leadership training; Assisting with credentialing of staff, subject to GLAICHS oversight
- Proposing policies for the school’s Board of Trustees to consider and approve
- Supporting any GLAICHS initiative to renew its charter agreement
- Providing tools to the GLAICHS’ School Leader to evaluate school leadership
- Assisting GLAICHS with its human resources management
- Advising GLAICHS in review of compliance issues with the Department of Education and School District of Philadelphia
- Review of GLAICHS preparation of annual reports
- Development of marketing materials/brochures
- Public relations and marketing
- Grant writing
- Providing resources to GLAICHS in order to ensure data compliance
- Assisting GLAICHS to warehouse and analyze data
- Professional development
The Charter Schools Office notes in its evaluation that these are all similar to the services a charter management organization would provide.
GLAICHS would pay Global Academies a monthly fee for these services. The CSO evaluation noted that there is a dramatic increase in those fees over the years with no explanation (p 22-23). The CSO evaluation also notes that the agreement between GLAICHS and Global Academies includes a bond payment clause which names GLAICHS as the payor and Global Academies as the payee. The CSO questions “how the proposed Charter School has a bond when the school does not exist.” Does that mean that Global Academies intends to purchase the former Cristo Rey High School building at 5210-18 N. Broad Street thus becoming, like many CMO’s, the school’s landlord?
Published February 22, 2024
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools 