Arizona charter school for sale..just a little over 6 million? Imagine Charter at Sierra Vista.

[madfloridian]

Isn't it amazing the profit that can be made by blending supposedly "public" schools with real estate profit?



Picture source: Special Purpose Property For Sale: School Campus Facility

Schools Matter blog posts about this issue.

School for Sale

He refers to the NYT article about Dennis Bakke and Imagine Charter Schools this week-end.

Now that a major news outlet has finally paid attention to the business practices of Dennis Bakke and his management company (with a well-deserved round of applause for Stephanie Strom), reporters and school districts may begin to more carefully scrutinize the company's dealings.

Someone in Arizona might want to keep their eyes on an Imagine School currently listed for sale in Sierra Vista. The asking price is $6.3 million, with 5 years left on the lease. The listing also claims Imagine makes $456,968/year in income from the tenant (Imagine School at Sierra Vista). Here's a PDF flier about the property.

Imagine Schools once fired two principals who questioned their involvement in real estate transactions and the lack of funds for education.

Charter school principals fired after questioning taxpayer money spent on school's real estate arm.

'Too many questions'

Bruce Greening, a former principal at Imagine MASTer Academy in Fort Wayne, Ind., said Imagine required him to pay $650,000 a year to rent a 28-acre campus valued at $3.4 million. But the school used only two buildings on the sprawling property, he said.

"Obviously, I thought the rent was kind of steep," he said. "But I had no choice, because it was part of the company's procedures. We couldn't go anywhere else."

He was fired as was another administrator at the school.

The other principal was Hugh Wallace in Las Vegas.

Hugh Wallace knew accepting the principal's job at 100 Academy of Excellence in North Las Vegas presented a challenge. Eight months into the job, he said, he realized that nearly 40 percent of his state funding went to pay rent to Schoolhouse Finance. And the rent jumps a few percent each year, according to the charter school's lease agreement.

"I was told to never ask about the lease payment or I would get fired," he said. "I was given a reprimand."

But Wallace kept asking about the lease and about Imagine's control of the charter school. Wallace said Imagine fired him in early November.

$6,300,000 for a charter school?

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Perhaps they anticipate losing a bunch of kids

when their parents are deported.

[madfloridian]

2. Heh heh, and take a look at the pictures and floor plan at the pdf flier link.

What is there about it that is worth over 6 million?

And how much public money did Dennis Bakke and company use to get such resources?

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Is it a newer building?

You can't build a school nowadays for less than 5 or 6 million. A high school would be 3 or 4 times that much.

[madfloridian]

4. Looks new, but my concern is who profits.

And was it taxpayer money that went to build the building?

And who gets the profit from the sale?

I know there is a high school in our city that cost 20 million to build, but it is a public building.

[madfloridian]

5. Who gets the profit? Who paid for building the school? Imagine NOT non-profit.

Imagine Schools has declared itself a non-profit, but it is not.

Here are their own words from their own website at the Sierra Vista, AZ school.

http://www.imaginesierravista.com/about.html

Dennis Bakke, co-founder and CEO Emeritus of the AES Corporation, a global power company, brings to Imagine Schools a distinguished business background, including a pioneering approach to creating a decentralized, highly effective organization. Eileen’s passion is mentoring teachers and creating a school culture that engages students in meaningful and effective learning.

In August 2005, Imagine Schools created a new nonprofit entity - Imagine Schools Non-Profit, Inc. - and initiated a process to replace the business entity Imagine Schools, Inc. with the new nonprofit as the operator of public charter schools nationwide.

"Imagine Schools will operate as a nonprofit organization to expand our mission to provide as many students as possible with a challenging, effective program of study and strong moral development in the safe, nurturing learning environment of public charter schools," says co-founder and CEO, Dennis Bakke.

Dennis and Eileen Bakke are providing the new nonprofit tax-exempt entity with the capital to ensure its ability to operate Imagine’s existing schools and sufficient resources to develop and operate additional public charter schools in the future.

They are simply not telling the truth at that website.

The New York Times corrects the facts on it.

Nonprofit or Commercial?

Mrs. Bakke said her company “is operated as a not-for-profit.” But Imagine is not a nonprofit group, and it has so far failed to gain status as a charity from the I.R.S.

Imagine applied for federal tax exemption in 2005 and has repeatedly said approval is imminent. It typically takes four to six months for such approvals. “We’re not sure why it’s taking so long,” said Mrs. Bakke, who is 56. “We suspect it’s because we’re trailblazers in a sense, and they haven’t had an application quite like this.”

The I.R.S., as is its policy, declined to comment.

New York Times examines Imagine Charter Schools

That is just plain and simply being dishonest.