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 FacilitySchools Matter blog posts about this issue.
School for SaleHe 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?