Tag: Aspira Charters

Charter CEOs Collecting High Salaries, Benefits and Bonuses

by Lisa Haver, Deborah Grill, and Lynda Rubin

Three of the six most highly paid administrators identified in String Theory’s most recent tax information are members of the Corosanite family:  Chief Executive Officer Angela Corosanite, Chief Information Officer Jason Corosanite, and Director of Facilities Thomas Corosanite. Their total salary and compensation, as listed in the charter management organization’s  2021 IRS 990, comes to almost $900,000. String Theory manages only two schools in the city, but the company has six administrators making over $100,000 in salary and compensation. In addition, each school has its own CEO. Why does a network of only two schools need so many highly-paid administrators? 

There are no guidelines for charter compensation, that is, no schedule of salary steps as there is for district principals and administrators.   Ad Prima charter, a small charter school with 600 students, has a CEO, a principal and a “site director” on staff, all paid over $100,000.00 in salary and compensation. Community Academy charter has a CEO, deputy CEO, a Chief Academic Officer and deputy CAO. Pan American, an elementary school with 750 students, lists eight administrators. Folk Arts Cultural Treasures (FACTS), on the other hand, has one administrator making over $100,000. Global Leadership Academy is a two-school network. Each school has its own CEO–one making more than the district’s superintendent, the other making slightly less. GLA’s principal  made over $11,000 more than a district principal with seven years or more of principal experience.  

Click here to continue reading and to find out what the CEO and administrators of each charter make in salary and compensation.

Board Caves on Tax Abatements for Developers

Education Meeting, September 21, 202

by Lisa Haver

Members of the board paid tribute to two educators who passed away this week:  Temple President JoAnn Epps and former district superintendent Constance Clayton.  Board President Reginald Streater proposed that the board vote to name district headquarters “The Constance E. Clayton Education Center”. This type of action deserves more time and consideration. There have been many notable Superintendents and Board Presidents, including Dr. Ruth Wright Hayre, the first African-American president of the board.  As APPS member Barbara Dowdall pointed out in her testimony, Dr. Clayton was a strong supporter of school libraries and worked during her term to put a Certified Teacher Librarian in every school. Now, fewer than five schools have full-time librarians. The board can honor Dr. Clayton by restoring school librarians with full-time teacher librarians to every school. 

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Board Must Deny All New Charter Applications from Global Leadership, Aspira and Perseverance

by Deborah Grill, Lisa Haver and Diane Payne

This district opened its first charter school in 1998.  Every year, those lobbying for and profiting from the privatization of public schools have promised to improve education for the city’s children.  They said that the district had an obligation to create charters for the good of the children and the community.  Twenty-five years later, we can see that the charter experiment foisted upon the city and its families has failed.  Because of the backing of well-funded PACs and special interest groups, with their increasing political influence, charters have avoided accountability to the same communities they made 6their promises to.  

The district has had many years to learn that the aspirational language of charter apps is rarely achieved.  Charter renewal evaluations don’t measure whether the schools have fulfilled their promises of innovation; they cite standardized test scores and other data. 

To read the reports on the applications click here

Board Must Reject All New Charter Applications

New Charter Applications Hearing:  December 20, 2022 

by Lynda Rubin

Four charter applicants, all of whom are currently operating charter schools that have failed to meet academic and other standards, have applied to the School District of Philadelphia to operate more. The opening hearing is a pro-forma “public” event in which charter representatives are each given 15 minutes to explain the mission of their proposed schools, with the district providing technical support for the on-screen presentations.  Members of the public, on the other hand, are given only two minutes each to state their positions for or against the creation of new charter schools.  The Board of Education seems to have gone out of its way to exclude the public from this hearing. They posted the legally required notice, in very small print, in the classified section of the Philadelphia Inquirer, but they posted no notice on the district’s website in any banner on the board’s page nor the charter schools page. APPS members and others with previous knowledge of this process hunted through the website, finally locating a small notice in the board’s calendar. Despite the fact that all board meetings have been held in person for over a year, and that all district schools and offices are open, the board is holding all charter hearings via zoom. Why?  In-person meetings have always been considered more informative, since presenters to a live audience are more engaging for all. They also provide an opportunity for people on both sides of the issue to organize and bring a unified message, as members of the Kensington Health Sciences Academy did in 2019. Their actions garnered community support and media attention. When the Board decides arbitrarily not to have fully public hearings, they are using yet another means to impose their speaker suppression policies.  Our December 15 letter to the Board asked for fully public hearings: “Consideration for charter applicants and operators should not take precedence over the rights of the community to be fully present and to express their support or opposition to new charter applications as both individuals and organizations.” The Board has not replied. 

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