Excellence Academy court battle rolls into another week

A battle to keep a Monroe charter school open will roll into another week, closer to the upcoming school year. Only five out of 13 proposed witnesses were questioned on the stand before court convened on Thursday.

Legal counsel for the school argued that the case has turned into a character assassination for Roosevelt Wright Jr., executive director of the school and pastor of New Tabernacle Baptist Church. 

They specifically argued against a perceived conflict in Wright working at the school and the church. Excellence pays approximately $350,000 a year in rent for use of the church's facility and another $40,000 for the use of two temporary buildings on the property.

Kathleen Padian, a charter school expert who coauthored the report that the Monroe City School Board based its decision on, testified about how she compiled her report and drew her conclusions. She said that she didn't set the standard by which the school was graded but used the school district's charter policy, state law and the school's charter contract. 

The investigation, compiled by TenSquare LLC, focused on academics, finances and the organization. Padian said the school has numerous problems and would not have been recommended for extension based on any scale she's ever witnessed for charter evaluation.

In her report, she noted five elements that would need to be addressed if the school were to remain open.

• The Excellence board should select an independent auditor with charter school experience.
• Wright would either have to accept a salaried position with board oversight with the school or continue being pastor of the church.
• Board members would have to provide evidence of governance training.
• The school would have to produce a plan to improve academic performance to be approved by the school district.
• The school would need to hire a business manager that meets state requirements for charter school business managers.

Jim Roundtree, one of the attorneys for the school, largely argued about statements in the report regarding potential financial conflicts. He asked if Padian had seen contracts paying Wright or his relatives. Padian said she'd based the statement on related party transactions listed in audits.

Wright said one of his three sons was hired to teach at the school over his personal objections. Wright's wife resigned from the school board when their son was hired. Additionally, two of his sons, including the teacher, have been hired for photography work for the school and the third son was hired to write the hip-hop songs that play while the students change classes.

Wright also argued that payments made for advertising and paper copying paid to his newspaper, The Free Press, was not the same as paying him. Nor, was he effectively the lessor of the building just because he was pastor of the church.

During a February interview, the school principal reportedly told Padian that Wright held the daily financial power in the school so she couldn't make monetary decisions. Wright also sent an email saying all hiring or firing should be approved by him and the board.

Monroe City Schools Superintendent Brent Vidrine said the district used a third-party contractor for the report and recommendations because Wright had argued with district employees' evaluations for the past two years.

Wright said his title at the school is just a title. He said he has no ability to hire or fire anyone at the school, nor does he directly oversee the principal. He repeatedly referred to his and other titles at the school as "big hat, no cattle" and called Padian's work sloppy.

Padian said the potential for conflict between Wright acting in a unpaid, unsupervised management role while advising the board with contract negotiations with the church raised flags. She said another auditor, in her experience, would have investigated some matters more deeply.

Points of contention include:

• TenSquare representatives stating that a board meeting was unexpectedly canceled. The date was not on a usual meeting day for the board, but Padian said it was confirmed via email.
• Padian noted no ethics training on file for one board member, Jackie Johnson, and said she wasn't provided with proof of the board's governance training. The ethics training certificates were provided under the name Jacqueline Johnson. Padian apologized for the oversight. The only governance training certificate was for 2014. The training is required annually.
• Wright said the school bookkeeper does not have to meet the increased standards of a financial officer because Excellence is a different type of charter than that portion of law requires. Padian said the district standards referred to that portion of state law specifically. Wright also said that the school's financial manager only had the duties of the bookkeeper, which was a matter of semantics.
• Wright said there was no attempt to evaluate the school as a performing arts school. Padian said there's no standard to use on evaluating performing arts success and the standards relate to academics.

Padian said the school did meet the minimum academic requirements. Excellence Academy's school performance score has been a D for all three years. Scores for 2016-17 are not yet available.

As a result of the investigation, Padian advised the board to increase its minimum requirements because the MCSB charter policy seemed to mirror one made for turning around a failing school that already exists. Those standards, she said, are not strenuous enough for a new school. She said she judged the school on the standard as it is.

Padian explained that declining enrollment numbers are a cause for concern. There is no minimum number of students for enrollment in the school. She said Excellence often loses students between the October 1 and February 1 head count for Minimum Foundation Program funding. Overall, it can lead to a budgetary problem if enrollment declines drastically.

In April, the Monroe City School Board voted not to renew the school's charter for a fifth year based on a third-party report.  The school argued in a federal lawsuit that the way the process was handled violated its constitutional right to due process. U.S. District Judge Robbie James determined that MCSB had to hold a due process hearing for the school by June 7. The board held the hearing June 6. The board again voted not to renew the charter on June 27.

At the June 27 meeting, board member Jennifer Haneline said most of the information presented to the board by the school's legal counsel did nor refute the report findings.

"We're not a judge. I'm not an attorney, but in through looking at the information they provided and the information we had, the bulk of their thing was to discredit this third-party evaluator," she said.

In court on Thursday, Jerry Jones, the former district attorney for the 4th Judicial District, testified about his knowledge of Wright as a longtime supporter of education for children. Jones cited Wright's work with the Boy Scouts of America. Jones said he had no knowledge of the management of the school, only of Wright as an advocate.

Fourth Judicial District Court Judge Scott Leehy determined early in the hearing that the charter was up for a contract extension, not a renewal. Extensions, he said, are not subject to the same Jan. 31 deadline as renewals. School administrators previously had argued that the timing of the report passed a deadline set in state law, which would render the whole assessment moot.

Requests for damages were dropped, and the court is working to determine specific relief, which could require the performance of a contractual duty because monetary damages wouldn't be an accurate or adequate remedy. The hearing will resume 9 a.m. Monday in Courtroom 5 of the Ouachita Parish Courthouse. 

Leehy told the other proposed witnesses that they were sequestered, meaning they could not discuss the facts of the case among themselves until the matter is resolved.

Follow Bonnie Bolden on Twitter @Bonnie_Bolden_ and on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/1RtsEEP.