From the Hartford Courant:
Michael M. Sharpe resigned as CEO of the Jumoke Academy charter organization Saturday following revelations that he had a decades-old criminal record and for years had erroneously used the academic title of “doctor.”
… The state intervention program gives millions of dollars to schools with three- to five-year “turnaround” plans to raise achievement–for Milner and Bridgeport’s Dunbar Elementary School, that strategy has featured a partnership with the charter operator to essentially run the schools.
Full story here.
The CT Post is also following this story here.
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It is good to, finally, see a guy who is willing to fall on his sword to do what is best for the children, save his organization and end the controversy. You don’t see that too often in BPT. They always hang on to the bitter end. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.
Let us not forget Mr. Sharpe’s greatest Bridgeport fan is none other than Kenneth Moales. Moales and Vallas did everything in their power to turn over Dunbar School to this fraud. Fall on his sword, more like he got caught in a lie.
Maybe I am reading your post wrong but this guy Sharpe did not do anything to be proud of. He got caught lying about his criminal record. I would be willing to overlook that but lying about his educational background is unforgivable. He needed to go and now.
Fall on his sword? I think it is more like he tripped over it.
What’s best for the children? No. It was more like self-service rather than public service.
Now let’s see what the state is going to do.
I am not sure disclosing his criminal record was required. The state issued a bid and his company gave a bid. So failure to disclose may not be an issue. There is no foul in not answering a question that was never asked.
If they did ask/require criminal record info, was it for every employee or just every employee working in the school? In the BOE’s case, could the accountant, who never has direct contact with a student or enters a school, have a criminal record?
Nonetheless, it is better this guy is not involved. Whether or not he would be REQUIRED to quit is another question. He obviously did it to end this issue and save face for his company, the city and the state. The airport manager did the same thing but the airport manager had a fallback pension. As far as I know, this guy walked away empty-handed.
Dear BOE SPY,
In light of your latest illogic regarding the disgraced “Dr. Sharpe”–starting with your above statement, “I am not sure his criminal record was required … [s]o failure to disclose may not be an issue” -I pose to you the following hypothetical:
Would you be OK with your child or a friend or relative’s child attending a school, daycare center, or summer camp in which a convicted pedophile worked because the pedophile did not disclose this criminal history on the job application?
According to what you wrote, in this scenario the blame would fall entirely on the author of the application and application administrator, and not at all on the convicted felon to disclose this key info.
Do you still stand by this?
BTW: HOW could the application not ask for this? Sounds really far-fetched–but that’s your realm.
Based on your latest post–regarding the specific context of the disgraced “Dr.” Sharpe–you place a higher moral value on trivial bureaucratic process than on the honest disclosure of felony history on job applications for positions intended to serve the public, including children.
This past week, Sharp admitted to having no doctorate–despite his signing “Dr.” on official communications from Jumokee Fuse schools to parents.
In 1989, Sharpe admitted to embezzling 17 different times, totaling nearly $200,000, as the real estate manager for BART–source:
www .apnewsarchive.com/1989/BART-s-Former-Real-Estate-Manager-Admits-Embezzlement/id-74ee26d1d8a504420075c9aff7a962aa
But that’s OK according to you, because the paperwork may not have asked for this info explicitly.
At long last BOE SPY, do you have no shame?
Pete–With any job the responsibility to ask the questions you want to know and verify the answers falls on the employer. The person doing the hiring. The BOE should have asked those questions. This is their failure not Sharpe’s.
Are you crazy? If I were a felon and likely to lie, cheat and steal or just want the job and I apply to be a cop, why would I volunteer the info I am a felon? If they do not ask me, I certainly am not going to tell them. You see, if I tell them I will not get the job. If I were a pedophile and wanted to work in a school, I may not bring that little nugget up during the interview. If it did come up I may lie.
However, this guy was not a pedophile. He may never step into a school. He may never even come to CT. I am not sure how directly involved he would be involved in the day-to-day operations. You can work for the government your entire life and never see the president or ever have the mayor stop be to see how things are going. This could be a situation like that.
Mr. Sharpe is a resident of Hartford and he does come into direct contact with students. He visits his three charter schools in Hartford and he has visited Dunbar many times this school year. FUSE first started receiving taxpayer dollars in 1997 and Michael Sharpe became an employee in 1997 and was promoted to CEO in 2003. The school was founded by his mother. Do you honestly believe his mother didn’t know about his felony convictions? Andre Comer told the Hartford Courant Mr. Sharpe repeatedly referred to previous transgressions in his life. She is both an appointed state Board of Education member and a top officer of FUSE. They knew there were issues with his past but chose to either not investigate his “past transgressions” or simply ignored them. The CSDE is at fault for not doing their due diligence since as early as 1997 and the FUSE Board of Directors is also responsible for this.
The Connecticut State Department of Education certainly has a lot of explaining to do. Families of Urban Schools of Excellence should be closed down and they should not receive one additional $ of taxpayer funds. This just shows many charter schools are just scams. Mr. Sharpe has been part of this organization since 1997 yet he has two convictions for forgery, a federal conviction for embezzlement, served 2-1/2 years in a federal prison, violated probation and was returned back to prison and blatantly lied about having a doctorate and this organization is going to claim we just didn’t know? The spokesperson for CSDE has the nerve to say the Hartford and Bridgeport BBOE should have fingerprinted and completed a background check on the CEO in which the CSDE had been giving taxpayer funds to since 1997? Both Hartford and Bridgeport agreed to management partnerships with FUSE based on the CSDE recommendation and now they want to point fingers at the BOEs in Hartford and Bridgeport.
You mean the BOE, once again, failed its due diligence? First, they fail to hire an environmentalist to follow the construction of a new high school they know is being built on a brownfield. Then they pay a daycare for services rendered to children and fail to verify these children are in a BOE program. Now they hire a company to run a school and fail to do background checks on the employees (that is a BBOE policy not a state policy).
This is unacceptable. Not only do the students chronically fail, it appears the administration chronically fails as well. Kind of a double failure for the BOE. The entire BOE organization is a lesson in failure and should be closed down. Not one more tax dollar should be thrown onto the failure factory that is the BBOE.
Education is one of those things that don’t work well when run for a profit. And charter schools which were supposed to be run by local parents almost like a mini board of ed were supposed to be to allow flexibility to try new programs and new ways of educating NOT to turn our nations public schools into the education version of the privately run prisons (another disastrous idea that ripped off the taxpayers). It is time for the state govt to rewrite the regs concerning these schools before they approve new ones.
BBOE’s education does not work well when it is not run for profit, either. It is not working well now.
Education is not working well in Bridgeport for many reasons but the main one is administration at the principal level. Right now the BOE has not been hiring the most qualified people for the job, they are hiring by percentages meaning if we have a percentage of one ethnic group that’s what we need for principals and the like. Does that mean all minority principals are bad or unqualified? No it does not but when a system is built around percentages and not qualifications you have the problems we have in Bridgeport.
Andy,
Forgive me, I am ignorant of the racial quota system you are describing for Bridgeport public school administrators. Is there an official operations document available that defines this? Can you please provide a link to it?
When I hear statements such as “Education is not working well in Bridgeport …”–or from Rev Moales ad nauseam at BOE meetings, “failing schools! failing schools … run to the charter schools”–I cringe a bit because I know these sweeping statements are intended to denigrate and cripple support for the public schools in Bridgeport … and to indict everyone involved with our public schools.
The other day I met a highly engaged mom of three children attending the Black Rock public school. She told me her children have been receiving a great education there. She told me she knows this–qualitatively and quantitatively (for the test-obsessed reading this). She and her husband see to it their kids annually undergo a test for admission to a highly competitive private school in Fairfield County, and they score very highly. In effect, they could go to the private school if they wanted, but they choose to stick in the Black Rock School because of the excellent education and nurturing experience it is providing. Of course, this has a lot to do with the parents. But clearly this school is NOT failing these children.
Would this parent feel the same way if her kids went to Dunbar? Every time you bring up an example it is a myopic view of one instance taken out of context of the entire BPT school system. One motivated teacher. One high achieving student. One engaged parent. Yet 30% of the students will fail to graduate. As I said before, BR school is one of your better schools. If every kid in BPT could go to BR school we would not have this problem.
Mr. Spain look at the makeup of the principals and assistant principals. Is there a written page that describes this system? Of course not. I suggest you and others talk to teachers at the various schools and/or look at the test results and any other paperwork that grades a school. I don’t care what color a person is as long as they are qualified but the hiring process is political and flawed.
Ditto Pete Spain. BOE SPY, your post was disturbing. Your defense of this liar is outrageous and I agree with Bob Walsh, he did not fall on his sword. Mr. Sharp fell on it and was clearly a sycophant extraordinaire. So sad, Dunbar School is truly one of the worst. Mrs. MOALES teaches in that school.
I am not defending him. I am casting blame for this fiasco where blame is due. The state recommended this guy but the BOE hired him. He may have appeared to be a good choice to the state based on the info he provided and the checking the state was required to do. The BOE has a considerably more stringent vetting process. Much like Hebrew National, the BOE answers to a higher authority.
BOE SPY,
You still blame the Bridgeport BOE for “Dr.” Sharpe? Unbelievable!
Gee, I wonder why the Malloy administration made the following public statement last week, following news of Sharpe’s criminal history and false representation of having a doctoral degree?
“There remain multiple questions that require responses and explanations from Michael Sharpe and the Jumoke Organization. We expect to receive such explanations and will consider them in determining any appropriate next steps.”
Answer: The Malloy administration has been, through the State Dept of Ed, overseeing the contracting of Jumoke FUSE, whose head up until Saturday was Michael Sharpe.
We can have differing opinions, but you can’t just make up your own facts.
Regarding the “hypothetical” I posted: It was a hypothetical … trying to illustrate your nutty take on who is responsible for effectively permitting Sharpe’s misrepresentations and breach of contract for many years in our state.
And yes, the mother I cite above is anecdotal evidence … and, as I’ve written repeatedly, there’s lots of work to do in the Bridgeport Public Schools. But dumping indiscriminately on the BOE is not a productive way forward.
Of course, you can continue to blame the BOE for something it was not responsible for … but who’s paying attention to your nonsense anyway?
OK, all or most of the people at the BOE have a PhD. They should know the Dr. title is reserved for people with a medical degree. Mr. Sharpe should have put M. Sharpe EdD if he had a doctorate of education. Someone with a doctorate of education should know this.
In today’s article ‘Baraka and Rabinowitz, along with others, have been stunned over the snowballing revelations that occurred over the past week.’ For God’s sake, you can find the info on his conviction in a simple Google search. How many times will the BOE be able to say ‘we didn’t know because no one told us?’ They didn’t bother to find out, either. This is their job. They are responsible for the staff at any BOE facility. It is an example of gross incompetence.
As far as I know, the only people paying attention to my nonsense is you.
Megan DeSombre–I mean BOE SPY,
The dispute isn’t whether Sharpe has an MD, DD, EdD, PhD, PharmD, VMD, etc. He has no doctoral degree.
He had a master’s in family counseling from Norwich Univ in 1997.
Source: articles.courant.com/2014-06-20/news/hc-michael-sharpe-degree-0621-20140620_1_jumoke-academy-charter-school-hartford-resident-chairman-richard-wareing
Check out the “Commissioners Network Midyear Operations and Instruction Audit” “audit” … I’m sure you’ll try to blame this on the Bridgeport BOE too:
www .achievehartford.org/upload/files/Milner%20Midyear%20Operations%20and%20Instruction%20Audit%20dec%2012.pdf
A further example of Sharpe’s falsified academic credentials–in receiving “Man of the Year” award from a CT state commissioner:
www .cga.ct.gov/aaac/content-files/File/Sharpe.pdf
“Dr. Michael M. Sharpe, a graduate of Columbia University, Norwich University and New York University,
is currently the Chief Executive Officer for Jumoke Academy Charter Schools in Hartford, CT and Family
Urban Schools of Excellence (FUSE), a charter management organization.”
Evidently these groups were duped by Sharpe too:
“Dr. Sharpe is president of the Connecticut Charter School Association and founding member of the Legacy
Project … He also sits on the boards of the National Charter School Leadership Council …”
Pete, I know it is hard for a teacher like you to believe but Sharpe did not win “Man of the Year” because of his academic achievement. Those awards are based on his work in education regardless of his academic achievement. How many ‘man of the year’ awards have you gotten with a degree from Yale? All the things Sharpe achieved were not because he lied about his degrees. He achieved those things despite his lack of those degrees. For someone with the degrees Sharpe claimed to have to do the things Sharpe did is impressive. For someone to do those things without the degrees is incredible. For you to be successful with a degree from Yale is expected. For someone without a high school diploma (1.e. Dave Thomas of Wendy’s) to do the same thing is incredible. (I know you SAID you are not a teacher but if you want to make up wild and crazy things about me, I reserve the right to do the same to you.)
I forget if it was Pete or Dave who wanted to know if I have proof city workers would have givebacks when the teachers got their 8% raise. Well, here you go!
www .ctpost.com/local/article/Finch-seeks-more-union-concessions-5571148.php
It is sad to believe you are climbing a hill once and for all with guidance and support from a successful practitioner, and then learn there may be facts in evidence that should have been noted before the journey together began.
Dunbar was a basket case, but parents and members of the neighborhood community, not just BOE, Superintendent’s office, teachers, administrators and community at large were part of the vetting/review process that led to the appointment. What were some of the goals and by when were they to be achieved? Has there been enough volatility for any school population? Has there been satisfactory performance during the past year? If Sharpe has left with a stroke of his own pen, what is necessary to keep the process moving on? Education is a team effort over time. That’s why leadership, trained specifically and evaluated extensively, is important in each school. If there is weakness there it will permit other types of vulnerability into the system. Not good for overall morale. What needs to happen next year? Who will perform? Who will monitor? Who will provide training and evaluation? Time will tell.