ICEF board meeting Oct 15 - $200K for lawyers, 3 expulsions & a gun on campus

On October 15, I attended the monthly ICEF Board meeting to complain about issues related to the co-location at Stoner.

ICEF Home office reception

When I arrived the meeting was still in closed session. I took a seat in the waiting area. As I waited, one ICEF parent began complaining loudly that she had requested a copy of the agenda the previous week from ICEF CEO Parker Hudnut, but received no response. She was quite indignant and decided not to stay for the meeting.

    As I continued to wait, another ICEF parent complained to ICEF staff member Linda Christiansen regarding an incident where a gun was brought on to an ICEF campus. Linda looked at me and then told the parent not to say the name of the school because she already knew what incident she was talking about. Linda mentioned that the school was not randomly "wanding" the students like they were supposed to. The parent said she was very concerned, but oddly did not bring this up at the meeting.

    The actual meeting was pretty dull. It started with ICEF summarizing the closed door session. In the closed session, ICEF Board approved to expel 3 students.  This was only a few week into the school year. I wondered if this had anything to do with the gun on campus.
    The meeting continued and at one point, ICEF mentioned that they were setting aside $200,000 for legal fees for this year. I don't know if the amount was mentioned to put me on notice, but all it did was give me a minimum suggested budget.

ICEF Board Meeting October 15, 2015

    At the end of the meeting was the public comments section. During my comments, the ICEF Board sat and listened but did not seemed to care at all what I was saying. It just looked like they wanted me to hurry up and finish so the meeting would end.

    End it did, and I was just left with more questions. So, I have been submitting more public records act requests in search of answers.

LAUSD SSC Training turns in to charter co-location complaints

    This past weekend, LAUSD held training for School Site Council members at Horace Mann Middle School.
    You might remember Horace Mann was mentioned on this blog a year ago when COW Mar Vista was offered co-location space on that campus.  COW refused the space. I wonder if it had anything to with the fact the Horace Mann is a block away from Florance and Normandiae, where the LA Riots started in 1992.
    I personally thought the school looked great.  There were awesome murals on every inch of the hallways and the LAUSD staff went out of their way to make the visit to Horrace Mann a great experience.


...you might be saying to yourself, that's great, but what does that have to with the co-location adventures today.
    Well, after getting a coffee and sitting at a table, I waited for the opening session of the training to begin. I started talking to the other parents around me and we weren't two minutes into the conversation when 2 parents began complaining about charter school co-locations at their campus. Everyone else at the table joined in an related their charter school horror stories.
   Sometimes, I think I maybe the only one who is concerned with the injustice that charter school co-locations create, but after meeting so many involved and active LAUSD parents at the training, I came to realize that the charter problem is something just about every LAUSD school is dealing with.
   Parents had various complaints from charters cherry picking students, to the loss of resources and classroom space to the separate and unequal conditions created by the charters.
   It was quite sad to hear these complaints, but it was also heartening to listen to all the parents who wanted the best for all students in LAUSD and were willing to work hard for to make this happen.

ICEF Amateur Hour - ICEF denies access to inspect public records

Sometimes I can't help but laugh at ICEF's amateur hour follies. They are almost too predicable...

Today, I finally had sometime during ICEF office hours to inspect the ICEF Vista charter school Parent Volunteer logs I've been trying to get my hands on.

August 17, I requested access to the logs.
September 11, ICEF's lawyer wrote in a postal letter that the documents would be available for inspection on Sept 22 at 10:30 PM.

    Yet today when I went in to inspect the records, ICEF CFO/CCO Greg Brendel denied access to inspect the records. At one point, frustrated and upset, Brendel shouted "I done playing games with you."
       That's funny, I didn't know he was playing games. I have a serious interest in reporting on ICEF since ICEF has moved in across the street from my house on the same campus that my children attend. The only way I can provide accurate reporting is to have access to ICEF's records which are public records. Under the California Public Records, these records should be available for inspection at all times during office hours.
     What does ICEF have to hide? Why are they not making these records available as they are supposed to under law?
   

ICEF removes "volunteer" requirement after complaints from this blog

ICEF Vista allows parents to complete
"volunteer" requirement by donating goods.

      In previous years, ICEF Vista required its parents to sign an agreement that they would complete 40 hours of required volunteer service for ICEF.  If parents could not provide the 40 hours, they were allowed to donate goods to complete their service requirement.
    This volunteer requirement is a violation of both California Constitution Article 9 sec. 5 and Education Code § 49011(b)(4) and creates an undue burden on the parents of a public school.
    In August 17, I submitted a public records request to see the ICEF Vista Parent handbook for 2015/16. ICEF responded and said the handbook was at the printers and would be available on August 28.
    When I spoke with ICEF's lawyers on Friday, August 28 regarding another records request, I mentioned the required volunteer hours were a violation of state law. Suddenly, there was a delay in the release of the handbook book because ICEF claimed there were type-o's in the handbook that need to be corrected.
    When ICEF finally release the handbook on September 22, the volunteer requirement was mysteriously gone from their handbook.
    Unfortunately, by this time, many parents had already donated goods to cover the hours they thought they were required to complete.  The picture below is from the first day of school. On that first day, many parents showed up with bags full of supplies for the school.

ICEF Vista parents donating goods on the first day of school
 to complete the "volunteer" requirement

      I spoke with some of the ICEF parents, and many of them were still under the impression that the required volunteer hours had to be completed and so they donated goods on the first day so that they could complete the requirement. Some ICEF parents were quite upset when they learned that they did not have to complete the "volunteer" requirement.
     I am glad that ICEF removed the "volunteer" requirement, but it's disturbing that it took investigative reporting from this blog for ICEF to comply with the law.
   
 
   

ICEF Vista co-location: "definite divide" = separate and unequal

       When the idea of a co-location of ICEF Vista Charter School on the Stoner ES campus was presented to the ICEF Vista community, administration promised a "definite divide" between the Stoner ES students and ICEF charter students.

Definite divide: ICEF Vista students coned off from the rest of campus

     We have seen this "definite divide" all over campus.  Whether it is our children being told to not use the bathrooms near the charter, the cones on the play ground,  the security guard on the ICEF side of campus, or the white versus blue shirt collars, signs of the separate and unequal "definite divide" are present all around on Stoner campus.
    ICEF parents, who wouldn't send their children to Stoner ES because Stoner is the school across the street from the projects, are more then happy to send their children to the same campus under the guise of a charter school.
   It is sad to see the parents, who were at Stoner a year or two ago and wouldn't even donate 10 minutes of their time to improve Stoner, switch over to ICEF where they are willing to sign an agreement to provide 40 hours of free work to the charter or if they can't work for 40 hours, they can pay for the volunteer time by "donating" supplies.
   This divide is not lost on the children.  The children can see the separate and unequal conditions on campus and disturbed by what they are living through.
   Many in the community are call the co-location a new segregation with separate and unequal conditions for students on the same campus.

ICEF co-location traffic woes

ICEF Vista co-location brings traffic and safety issues:
4 cars enter the intersection of Stoner and Lindblade,
all four corners are coned off by ICEF

During the previous co-location, traffic and safety in the neighborhoods were the issues that initially alerted local residents to the problem of charter school co-location.

   We are once again seeing the same traffic and safety issues with the co-location of ICEF Vista.  ICEF parents are blocking crosswalks, parking in front of fire hydrants and generally bringing the same parking and safety issues as the previous co-location.
  The growing frustration with the parking situation has already led to some confrontations between ICEF and local residents, including an ugly incident I reported on where an ICEF parent hurled a racial slur at a neighbor.

  The first month of school was great. The parking in front of my house was always open and I had no traffic on my street. Those first few weeks, I would see the ICEF Principal or Vice Principal standing out on our street instructing ICEF parents not to drive that way.  Word on the street has it that ICEF was also telling its people not to park directly in front of my house.
   That was great for me but unfortunately, this meant that the traffic and parking issues were just being forced on the houses south of Stoner Avenue, and that is something I not cool with. I don't want to just move the problem down the street and have it effect my neighbor's quality of life.

    Now, that the honeymoon period of the first few weeks of school have passed, ICEF's community is falling into the same pattern of the previously co-located charter. Traffic and safety laws are being routinely ignored by the ICEF community. I am not hanging out on my street all day, every day, but it seems that every time I pass by I see an ICEF parent braking the law in the neighborhood.

    Here are just a few examples of what we are seeing:

2 car from ICEF block 1 driveway. 1 of the cars is in the red

ICEF parents parks in front of driveway while picking up a student

ICEF parent parks in red and in the cross walk to pick up student after school

ICEF parent parked in the bus zone at 7:45 AM.

Another ICEF car parked in the bus zone at 3:22 PM

ICEF car parked in red and obstructing view of the crosswalk from around the bend.

ICEF parent parks in front of fire hydrant to pick up student

Another ICEF parent parks in front of fire hydrant for pick up

ICEF Vice Principal Pope speaks to driver.

ICEF sent demand to cease and desist defamation against blogger

     On Friday September 18, 2015, I responded to ICEF's cease and desist letter to me and told them their first two demands were based on a lie and an absurd notion, and that I wouldn't agree to them.  It seems that the real point of their demand is that ICEF is upset at the reporting on the co-location that I am doing on this blog and is looking for any way to shut me down and shut me up even if it means running around and making up things about me.

ICEF, ICEF...pants on fire.

     The following Monday, September 21 2015, I sent ICEF a letter demanding that ICEF cease and desist their defamation against me.

   Specifically, in ICEF's cease and desist letter, ICEF's first claim is that I locked ICEF teachers and staff in campus.
   This is a LIE. I did no such thing and I will not let ICEF run around publishing false statements about me. ICEF is even using this lie as the basis for their legal action against me.
     That is why I had to send ICEF a letter demanding that they cease and desist their defamation of me.
     ICEF has until the end of the month to respond. I wonder if they will put out the fire or keep running around and fanning the flames.