In round two of the Gulenists’ attempts to open up a charter school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the community, including the mayor and city council, made it crystal clear – that they did want any part of the proposed Academy of Business and Entrepreneurship Charter School.
Last year the boys were turned down with a resounding 8-0 vote, and yet – in the same dogged manner that is part of the Gulenists’ make-up, they reapplied with an application that had little if any improvement over the previously rejected application.
But this time, the Lancaster Director of Elementary Education, Lynette Waller along with Wheatland school principal Jay Butterfield, dissected the ABECS application piece by piece until the remnants of the pitiable application were strewn and disseminated for public scrutiny. It was a colossal embarrassment for the applicants – at least it should have been. Frankly, I was embarrassed for them…and happily so.
If that were not enough, the mayor showed up to voice his opposition, and the city council sent a posse with a newly made resolution also denouncing the application and along with the mayor stated that if the applicants lost this round (which is real likely), that the city would use all of its resources to fight any appeals that the applicants would file (also very likely).
The meeting hall was filled with local tax payers opposing the school, who readily lined up to voice their opposition. On the other hand, the Gulenist’s hovered in the corner with the high-paid attorney, shrinking into the darkness like cockroaches waiting in the cupboards. One Gulenist was dumb enough to speak before the crowd and express her devotion and allegiance to Fethullah Gulen, expressing that soon all of the Lancaster community would want to read his books and come to understand him. Huge mistake – it kind of blew their cover of “Gulen who?”
As I was leaving the hall one of the Lancaster residents asked me how and why the Gulenists get into the communities so surreptitiously. I explained to him that the Gulenists’ formula is relatively simple – they seek out communities that are financially struggling – lower socioeconomic areas with minimal community involvement (for the most part but not always). They pay off the politicians with free trips to Turkey and political campaign contributions (our politicians are easily bought), and the politicians in turn look the other way or manufacture new laws to accommodate the Gulenists.
During phase two – the Gulenists fill their school boards with other Gulenists – keeping the American parents at bay; bring over more Gulenists from Turkey and put them in the top administrative positions (paying them more than their American colleagues), and gradually attempt to ingratiate the community into their master plan of spreading Gulen’s dogma through cultural activities (Turkish language, Olympiads, trips to Turkey, etc.).
The Gulenists have been getting sloppy though and haven’t been doing their due diligence. In Loudon County Virginia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania the people did their own investigations before and not after the boys established a foothold. If other communities would put forth the same type of efforts that Loudon County and Lancaster have, the tax dollars would eventually dry up and in an ideal world – send them packing.
And as a side note to the boys… in America when people say go away – they mean it. It does not mean come back again and we’ll think about it – it means – go away – and stay away.
Below is a recap from the January 14, 2014 meeting in Lancaster:
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/944311_Lancaster-school--city-officials-oppose-proposed-business-charter-school-.html
Lancaster school, city officials oppose proposed business charter school By KARA NEWHOUSE
Staff Writer
[email protected]
Just say "no."
That's the message School District of Lancaster administrators sent the school board at a second hearing for the Academy of Business and Entrepreneurship Charter School on Tuesday.
"This applicant clearly does not have a working concept of what a school requires to be successful. We respectfully advise that ... you do not invest our children in a plan that is dangerously underdeveloped and dramatically flawed," said Director of Elementary Education Lynette Waller during an hour-long review of the application.
Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray and city council members also voiced disapproval of the charter school proposal.
Link to application: http://www.lancaster.k12.pa...
ABECS officials submitted a charter application to SDL in November. At the first hearing in December, ABECS board president Indrit Hoxha said the school would focus on experience-based learning of entrepreneurship and business skills.
The SDL board denied a previous ABECS proposal last March. The hearing process took five months and cost the district more than $30,000, according to previous reports.
Under state law, SDL would pay ABECS the district's per-pupil tuition rate for students who opt to attend the charter school.
If approved, ABECS would open in in September at 313 W. Liberty St. It initially would enroll kindergarten through fifth-grade students. By the end of a five-year charter, it would enroll 400 students in grades K-9.
On Tuesday, Waller and Wheatland principal Jay Butterfield took turns highlighting confusing or inconsistent portions of the current application.
ABECS representatives have pitched Financial Fitness for Life, a program developed by the Council for Economic Education as the school curriculum.
"It's not a curriculum, it's actually a supplemental package. Even in their presentation tonight, they used both terms interchangeably," said Waller.
She and Butterfield pointed to a lack of state-required plans, such as a school safety plan and an induction plan for new teachers, as evidence of the application's deficiencies.
Butterfield said that creating a professional development plan after hiring faculty — as the application proposes — is behind the schedule of "most successful schools."
"Consequently, the ABECS teachers will not be prepared to deliver a sound instructional program. Students will be placed at risk educationally," he said.
Across town, Lancaster City Council members also wanted to add their voices of opposition to the application.
The seven-member council on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution urging rejection of the ABECS application, which they contended does not have community support.
Immediately after the council meeting adjourned, council member Danene Sorace and the mayor left Southern Market Center to deliver a copy of the resolution to school board members.
"I challenge the applicants to provide any evidence of community demand or professed need for business education among Lancaster's kindergartners through fifth graders," Gray said during public comments at the school board meeting.
It was the second time council had passed a resolution in opposition to the charter school. It did so previously in March.
If the school board denies the application and the decision is appealed, the city would enter into the case in support of the school board, the council resolution states.
The SDL board will vote on the charter application at its Feb. 18 meeting at 7 p.m. at J.P. McCaskey High School.
Reporter Bernard Harris contributed to this story.
Last year the boys were turned down with a resounding 8-0 vote, and yet – in the same dogged manner that is part of the Gulenists’ make-up, they reapplied with an application that had little if any improvement over the previously rejected application.
But this time, the Lancaster Director of Elementary Education, Lynette Waller along with Wheatland school principal Jay Butterfield, dissected the ABECS application piece by piece until the remnants of the pitiable application were strewn and disseminated for public scrutiny. It was a colossal embarrassment for the applicants – at least it should have been. Frankly, I was embarrassed for them…and happily so.
If that were not enough, the mayor showed up to voice his opposition, and the city council sent a posse with a newly made resolution also denouncing the application and along with the mayor stated that if the applicants lost this round (which is real likely), that the city would use all of its resources to fight any appeals that the applicants would file (also very likely).
The meeting hall was filled with local tax payers opposing the school, who readily lined up to voice their opposition. On the other hand, the Gulenist’s hovered in the corner with the high-paid attorney, shrinking into the darkness like cockroaches waiting in the cupboards. One Gulenist was dumb enough to speak before the crowd and express her devotion and allegiance to Fethullah Gulen, expressing that soon all of the Lancaster community would want to read his books and come to understand him. Huge mistake – it kind of blew their cover of “Gulen who?”
As I was leaving the hall one of the Lancaster residents asked me how and why the Gulenists get into the communities so surreptitiously. I explained to him that the Gulenists’ formula is relatively simple – they seek out communities that are financially struggling – lower socioeconomic areas with minimal community involvement (for the most part but not always). They pay off the politicians with free trips to Turkey and political campaign contributions (our politicians are easily bought), and the politicians in turn look the other way or manufacture new laws to accommodate the Gulenists.
During phase two – the Gulenists fill their school boards with other Gulenists – keeping the American parents at bay; bring over more Gulenists from Turkey and put them in the top administrative positions (paying them more than their American colleagues), and gradually attempt to ingratiate the community into their master plan of spreading Gulen’s dogma through cultural activities (Turkish language, Olympiads, trips to Turkey, etc.).
The Gulenists have been getting sloppy though and haven’t been doing their due diligence. In Loudon County Virginia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania the people did their own investigations before and not after the boys established a foothold. If other communities would put forth the same type of efforts that Loudon County and Lancaster have, the tax dollars would eventually dry up and in an ideal world – send them packing.
And as a side note to the boys… in America when people say go away – they mean it. It does not mean come back again and we’ll think about it – it means – go away – and stay away.
Below is a recap from the January 14, 2014 meeting in Lancaster:
http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/944311_Lancaster-school--city-officials-oppose-proposed-business-charter-school-.html
Lancaster school, city officials oppose proposed business charter school By KARA NEWHOUSE
Staff Writer
[email protected]
Just say "no."
That's the message School District of Lancaster administrators sent the school board at a second hearing for the Academy of Business and Entrepreneurship Charter School on Tuesday.
"This applicant clearly does not have a working concept of what a school requires to be successful. We respectfully advise that ... you do not invest our children in a plan that is dangerously underdeveloped and dramatically flawed," said Director of Elementary Education Lynette Waller during an hour-long review of the application.
Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray and city council members also voiced disapproval of the charter school proposal.
Link to application: http://www.lancaster.k12.pa...
ABECS officials submitted a charter application to SDL in November. At the first hearing in December, ABECS board president Indrit Hoxha said the school would focus on experience-based learning of entrepreneurship and business skills.
The SDL board denied a previous ABECS proposal last March. The hearing process took five months and cost the district more than $30,000, according to previous reports.
Under state law, SDL would pay ABECS the district's per-pupil tuition rate for students who opt to attend the charter school.
If approved, ABECS would open in in September at 313 W. Liberty St. It initially would enroll kindergarten through fifth-grade students. By the end of a five-year charter, it would enroll 400 students in grades K-9.
On Tuesday, Waller and Wheatland principal Jay Butterfield took turns highlighting confusing or inconsistent portions of the current application.
ABECS representatives have pitched Financial Fitness for Life, a program developed by the Council for Economic Education as the school curriculum.
"It's not a curriculum, it's actually a supplemental package. Even in their presentation tonight, they used both terms interchangeably," said Waller.
She and Butterfield pointed to a lack of state-required plans, such as a school safety plan and an induction plan for new teachers, as evidence of the application's deficiencies.
Butterfield said that creating a professional development plan after hiring faculty — as the application proposes — is behind the schedule of "most successful schools."
"Consequently, the ABECS teachers will not be prepared to deliver a sound instructional program. Students will be placed at risk educationally," he said.
Across town, Lancaster City Council members also wanted to add their voices of opposition to the application.
The seven-member council on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution urging rejection of the ABECS application, which they contended does not have community support.
Immediately after the council meeting adjourned, council member Danene Sorace and the mayor left Southern Market Center to deliver a copy of the resolution to school board members.
"I challenge the applicants to provide any evidence of community demand or professed need for business education among Lancaster's kindergartners through fifth graders," Gray said during public comments at the school board meeting.
It was the second time council had passed a resolution in opposition to the charter school. It did so previously in March.
If the school board denies the application and the decision is appealed, the city would enter into the case in support of the school board, the council resolution states.
The SDL board will vote on the charter application at its Feb. 18 meeting at 7 p.m. at J.P. McCaskey High School.
Reporter Bernard Harris contributed to this story.
