MA charter school hires convicted felon to lead it.

[madfloridian]

From the CBS3 website in Springfield, MA.

The article makes clear that the area superintendent of public schools can not control what the charter schools does.

School Hires Convicted Felon to Lead

There is a video accompanying the article.

Many remember Fred Allen Swan walking out of the Springfield Federal Court in 2007. Then, he was facing a 2 year probation sentence. Today, he's about to lead a Springfield charter school.

Swan plead guilty to fraud and a close to a million dollar bid rigging scheme. However, in the last week, he's been tapped to run the Robert Hughes Academy on School Street.

The convicted felon, is facing a tough task. He's being asked to oversee the school in the middle of an MCAS cheating scandal. The current principal, Janet Henry is on leave as the investigation continues. Swan is the brother of State Rep. Benjamin Swan and he glided into the $79,000 a year job, just as his probation was over.

It's a coincidence that has parents across the city upset. They want to know, why their money is being spent, and they can't control it.

Here is what the Springfield Public School Superintendent had to say:

"They're sanctioned under the auspices of the state department of education. They operate autonomously from the district. I have no supervisory responsibilities for the school," says Dr. Alan Ingram

There is more on this school from the Schools Matter blog

Hat tip to them for their work on keeping charter schools honest and open to scrutiny.

They link to an article at MassLive that tells the background of this school and its problems.

Robert Hughes Academy Charter School principal Janet Henry placed on leave while Mass. officials investigate spike in test scores

SPRINGFIELD – The principal of the Robert M. Hughes Academy Charter School has been placed on leave while state education officials investigate a spike in MCAS scores last year.

Principal Janet J. Henry was placed on leave Monday by the academy’s board of directors, according to a spokesman for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“I am completely innocent,” Henry said in an e-mail to The Republican. “I will retain a lawyer for the purpose of defending myself.”

Many of us who are/were teachers fear the reliance on test scores for that reason. There have been and will continue to be efforts to manipulate them because of the great pressures.

I often wonder why, if the main criterion now is one test score....why teachers must carefully grade work and record the grades if they don't matter anymore.

[madfloridian]

1. Interesting video at the article.

Strange situation.

[Hannah Bell]

2. Demonstrates pretty explicitly the "standards" of charters. Felons running schools.

[noamnety]

5. misinformation in your post - traditional public schools do the same.

See Lavizzo Elementary school in chicago. Their principal is also a convicted felon.

[Hannah Bell]

6. there's no misinformation in my post.

[noamnety]

8. You implied it's unique to "charter" schools. Reality - it's not.

Public neighborhood schools also have felons as principals. That's not something unique to charters.

"Demonstrates pretty explicitly the "standards" of charters." <-- more accurate: it demonstrates pretty explicitly the "standards" of schools.

[madfloridian]

10. Could you please name public schools who knowingly HIRE felons

as principals.

[noamnety]

11. see post 5. (nt)

[Merchant Marine]

3. I'm pretty sure that in the private education system

being convicted of fraud is more of a qualification.

[LostInAnomie]

4. I hate charter schools, but I don't see anything wrong with hiring a felon.

Isn't the whole purpose of our criminal justice system to punish and rehabilitate people? If they have served their time, we as a society have said that our punishment of them is through and they are worthy of re-entering society. A person with the ability, education, and qualifications for performing a job shouldn't be barred for life from it based on something they may have done in their past.

[Hannah Bell]

7. only connected felons get "rehabilitated", strangely.

if i were going to hire someone to run a school that had just had possible problems with fraud, the first person i'd look to hire was someone convicted of it.

[madfloridian]

9. "million dollar bid rigging scheme." NOT okay to run a school.

And you surely did miss the point of the post...that charter schools often don't have to answer to anyone.

That is NOT okay.

I never expected the hiring of a felon to be a principal to be defended at DU...but I should have known things were changing here.

Rehabilitating felons is a good thing, but not as principals of schools.