April 22, 2020

SBOE Chair Critchfield: Adapting Idaho’s Public Education System in Unprecedented Times

April 22, 2020/ Admin

What an incredibly disruptive time we find ourselves in as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are working and learning from home, watching unemployment numbers rise, checking websites that count daily virus numbers and hoping for eventual return to some form of normality.

Young people in their junior and senior years of high school are wondering what all of this will mean for their plans before and after graduation. For our soon-to-be graduates, Idaho’s higher education institutions are working with high schools to answer questions as best they can and here’s where things stand on some priority issues.

April 03, 2020

Coalition of Idaho Charter School Families President Responds to Hiring of NACSA CEO and its Impact on Transparency and Integrity of Tax Dollars

April 03, 2020/ Admin

Former NACSA CEO, Greg Richmond, was recently hired by BLUUM to assist in distributing Federal tax dollars to charter schools in Idaho. As BLUUM continues to select winners and losers, the recent hire of Richmond is of deep concern. Richmond’s troubling track record includes deception, skirting the law, breaking ethics rules and Idaho law, and encouraging inappropriate spending to be hidden from tax payers. This is not a person that should be involved or anywhere near a multi million dollar federal grant for our schools.

February 03, 2020

Parent Leaders Send Letter to New PCSC ED and Chairman

February 03, 2020/ Admin

Chairman and Executive Director,

First, on behalf of the Coalition of Idaho Charter School Families, congratulations to MS. Jenn Thompson on her appointment as PCSC Executive Director. While this is a critical position for so many in Idaho, we hope it is always remembered that the parents and students should be at the center of all decision-making.

Our Coalition is made up of more than 4,000 families across Idaho. The mission of the Coalition is to promote and advocate for public policy that furthers the advancement of charter schools and the innovations in education they represent. The Coalition works to ensure that every Idaho student has equal access to the option of enrolling in a public charter school whether it offers instruction in a traditional classroom or a virtual setting.

February 03, 2020

PARENTS CONGRATULATE NEW PCSC E.D., HOPE FOR NEW ERA OF TRANSPARENCY AND PARENT COOPERATION

February 03, 2020/ Admin

[Boise, ID, Feb. 3, 2020] —Idaho parents today congratulated Ms. Jenn Thompson, M.Ed., on her appointment as PCSC Executive Director, and hope this can be the beginning of a new era of more transparency and cooperation with parents.

To help establish that new era, parents called for the PCSC to break ties with a national group that has recently recommended PCSC to order charter school closures in violation of state law, called for out-of-state “experts” to play key roles in what charter schools in Idaho are allowed to open, and have flouted Idaho ethics laws by offering personal cash payments to PCSC staff in the past.

September 25, 2019

Idaho Statesman: Idaho charter school superintendent files $500,000 defamation claim against state

September 25, 2019/ Chaise Goris

The superintendent of a Jerome charter school has filed a $500,000 tort claim against the state.

Heritage Academy’s Christine Ivie is pursuing legal action against the state’s Public Charter School Commission for “defamation, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligent infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy,” according to a tort claim filed Sept. 23 with the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office.

A tort claim is a legally required precursor to a lawsuit. The state has 90 days to respond. If the state denies or does not respond to the claim, Ivie may file a lawsuit.

The claim stems from an April 11, 2019, Public Charter School Commission meeting held in Boise. During its regular meeting, the commission held an executive session — a closed meeting — that was inadvertently recorded, and then that recording was released through a public records request.

In the recording, commission members “repeatedly and outrageously insulted Dr. Ivie, Heritage Academy and the children of Jerome who attend Heritage Academy,” states her tort claim.

Because the executive session’s recording was released to the public, “many of the untrue statements were repeated numerous times in news articles locally and nationally.”

Ivie is seeking the maximum amount allowed under state law for such a claim: $500,000.

Typically, details from executive sessions are not publicly released. Additionally, boards cannot take any action and are limited in what can be discussed during an executive session, which must be identified on an agenda.

The Idaho Attorney General’s Office investigated the April 11 executive session and found that the commission violated the state’s open meeting laws by not identifying the executive session on its agenda and by discussing topics outside the stated purpose of the executive session.

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