by David Safier
Imagine Schools' problems have finally surfaced and gotten press in Arizona. According to the Republic, 10 or 11 of the 14 teachers at Imagine Prep at Superstition in Apache Junction have been let go. The reason given is that the school is going in a different direction.
Reporters Patrick Ryan and Chelsey Davis didn't get much in the way of details about that new direction or why those 10 or 11 teachers were let go. That's typical of the Imagine Schools corporate culture, playing its cards close to the vest until things go horribly wrong — like they did in St. Louis, where the six Imagine Schools had their charters revoked by the state this year because, among other things, their students' achievement scores were awful. The schools were also woefully underfunded by the for profit Imagine corporation which sucks up almost all the state money that goes to the schools and gives back whatever amount it sees fit — often too little to run a school effectively.
Some details: An English teacher told students during senior graduation that a number of teachers weren't returning, which the students apparently didn't know. That teacher was fired the next morning. The reason given by the spokeswoman was that the teacher "chose a very inappropriate time to make some comments." That firing upset a number of students who "walked to the regional office of the school to ask questions about the firing."
One of the teachers let go, Suna Moon, had been voted teacher of the year.
If some of the fired teachers are reading this, realize you are victims of a corporate culture where teachers and administrators are regularly fired for speaking out, even when they ask for more books and other teaching supplies. Stories similar to yours have been repeated, and documented, across the country. The New York Times wrote an excellent article in April, 2010. You can also read an infamous memo sent by CEO Dennis Bakke to school principals in 2008 which lends insight to the absolute authority he thinks the people in command should exert over local schools.
Unless you fear reprisal of some kind, you would be doing a service by speaking out in greater detail about what happened. Parents can do the same. I'm sure the reporters at the Republic would be happy to hear from you, or you can email me at safier@schooltales.net. I keep all correspondence confidential.
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Tony,
I am the original writter of the comment above that explains why/what was happening at Imagine Prep. I do not know who copied and pasted it here from my Facebook page.
I just wanted to let you know that the students at Imagine Prep are not disrespectful students. We did not enter the school year not giving respect to the administration. It was several disrespectful events that were on the administration’s part that led us to have no respect for them.
Respect is a two way street. In order to recieve it, you must give it. I believe that everyone you meet should be given respect. The only way that they would lose respect from me, is if they disrespected me. This is what happened at Imagine. It wasn’t just a one time thing either, it continually happened throughtout the entire year.
Also, how do you exspect students to respect those who are disrespecting their friends, family, and even their own coworkers right infront of them. There was no more respect to give the administration after Mr. Ivan was fired on Friday morning.
The last thing that I would like to say is that I live in the real world. My school is about of the real world. And in the real world people stand up for what they believe in and for their own rights.
The students of Imagine Prep protested against the administration on Friday in a respectful and tasteful mannor. Even through, if you ask me, I would say that the administation and reginal office are getting off easy for the way they had been acting towards us.
Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders. And they are old enough to learn that ‘authority’ many times should be questioned. (We celebrate the people who gave us the right to do that on Memorial Day, right?) That an 8th grader can so eloquently state his position speaks to the quality of his or her teachers. I would certainly respect his right to be heard (on this forum or anywhere else). Actions have consequences, and both the students and the administration have evidence of that.
In the REAL world. Students have to earn their respect and learn the value of what it means. They are not sent to school to get respected. Nor should we disrespect rules and their authority only because we FEEL disrespected or believe that respect is automatically given. We spend a great of the rest of our lives giving and earning respect.
And undermining the authority especially in times of a difficult issue, are grounds for termination in the REAL world too.
Tony
On the contrary. I meant its administration, the faculty and their common goals. The modern facilities are nice too.
i didn’t think I had to spell it out so clearly when we refer to the schools. Nice spin job trying to discredit me.
Again, you must spend money to make money. I find it hilarious we have people who seem to disregard the underhanded profit earning techniques used by this COMPANY.
This is all thanks to the teachers that were fired. Thanking the school for disregarding your daughter and all other students who have improved thanks to the teacher’s dedication is really quite sad to see. I’m sorry you feel the school itself has done this. Is it the building? What is it that has helped her? Oh, THE TEACHERS WHO ARE DISRESPECTED and disregarded.
How sad for a parent to disregard the people who have helped her daughter succeed.
And this is disregarding all profits. You must spend money to make money. Slur, smear, and misinform. That is all Imagine supporters can do.
Okay, so just to clear things up, this is why/what happened at Imagine Prep Friday morning. Its kind of long, but please read!
The events that occurred were because of an on going struggle between student/teacher and administration/regional receiving and distributing respect. (Regional, for those that do not know, is like the head of the district)
Over this past year, many issues have been handled in shocking ways. It seemed that the only form of punishment was suspension and being aloud to speak on your behalf was out of the question. The lack of respect given to the students was extremely low, and each day the bar was dropping. Many students turned to their teachers to seek comfort or to just simply vent. But once we found out that over half of our teachers were not asked to come back next year, because of their “lack” of commitment for the students, we as a student body knew we must do something.
The first “rebellion”, was not a success. The rebellion was to dress down on a non dress down day. However, it didn’t last long because a certain “man”, if you will, went on a rampage suspending students left and right. He did NOT do this in a respectful manner. Matter of fact, this is the first time that MOST of the students of Imagine Prep had ever seen/heard of him.
From that moment on things at our school were headed downhill. The principle even told our valedictorian that her speech wasn’t good enough and a disgrace to our school. WHY? Because it contained information on the way that things have REALLY been happening at this school. She ending up having to rewrite her speech, just hours before graduation.
However, there is one person who stood up to them. He called them out for the lies that they had been telling everyone, and for the way that they had been acting. His name if Mr. Alex Ivan. He is one of the most inspiration teachers anyone can every have. And he defended his peers, colleagues, and students at graduation. Mr. Ivan did this not by naming calling or shouting out, but simply with the power of literature. Because he did this in front of the entire school, parents, other teachers, and other members from the regional office, they fired him today during first hour.
Upon hearing this, teachers and students felt that they had had enough. Students rallied together and marched over to the regional office to seek answers. Nothing was given to us, as usual from this school. After that we bonded together in the gym, refusing to return to class, demanding answers. Teachers were not encouraging us to continue, they were just overseeing what we were doing and making sure that we were safe. The principle could not get us to listen, so he began threatening the teacher’s jobs and even saying that he was going to have them arrested.
Us students had enough. That was our school, those were our teachers. We deserved answer and damned well deserved to say goodbye to our teachers.
Once they pulled more than half of the teachers away with the police and fired them, the students left the buildings along with them.
I do not tell everyone this to start more drama or to even talk crap. I am informing those on Facebook because Imagine Prep is a small school. There were barely 200 students attending that school. I am asking you to inform others as to what happened so that we as a community can take action. The students at Imagine may have started this, but we still need help. In order for this to have on effect we need many people to report them to –
Charter Boards (http://charterboards.org/about-us/contact-us
) and
The Better Business Bureau (https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started
) .
If you have any other questions of concerns, here is the number to the regional office, 480-355-0502.
The parents of over 4 million district school students rate the quality of their child’s education “D” or “F” (Gallup). Over 300,000 district school teachers rate their school an unsatisfactory place to work. Every year, over a hundred superintendents have been found to have looted out their school districts coffers and you are indicting Dennis Bakke for having committed his entire fortune to education all because of a handful of schools? Pathetic.
My son and daughter attend this school. Yesterdays events were upsurd! My son missed out on his 8th grade graduation due to the lack on discretion shown by Imagine’s Administration. The kids were amazing given the circumstances. There is a meeting Wednesday to address the events of Friday. I, along with many other distressed parents will be there to get some answers. I can tell you that my children will not be returning to any Imagine school.
Thanks for your comments Tony. The low test scores are from the six St. Louis Imagine Schools which the state recently closed. I’m pleased to hear the school your daughter is in is doing a good job. That may be true of many Arizona Imagine Schools. But given their troubled record in other states and the firings mentioned in the Republic article, it makes sense for someone to take a closer look at the schools.
My daughter goes to an Imagine school in the same district as the Imagine Prep spoke of in this article.
I do not know the situation. However I do know my daughter has done wonderful at this school. She had been struggling in a public union school to the point the union principal suggested she may not pass a grade unless we medicated our child. We put her in Imagine schools. And she now has missed the A honor roll with a B several times. On her recent state achievement tests she scored 7th grade reading level and 6th grade math level as a 4th grader.
I have nothing but praise and respect for this school. Maybe the public union schools need to take notes.
I don’t know where the author of this article got their info about low test scores. But I speak from experience with my child at Imagine. Thank you Imagine Schools for the direction and success with my daughter!
Tony Axtell
Let’s see, Dennis Bakke has put $155 million of his own money into educating public school students, 84% of his schools outgain district schools academically and they decentralize management which leads to some turbulence. Plus, they deliver this at a fraction of the cost of district schools.
No obscene profits, just capital raising to open up more schools and provide more opportunity to students. Slur, smear that’s all you can do.