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Hill said Balere is doing its best to provide the information.
“I don’t see the district bending any extraordinary corners to help with compliance,” he said.
He said the school’s teachers are still receiving paychecks and the funding cuts have not affected the classroom. But Malik, the school’s principal, “will be donating back her salary to the school,” Hill said.
At Arts & Minds, school district officials said the school had failed for weeks to provide evaluations and update education plans for more than two dozen students with special needs, as required by law and the school’s charter. In addition, two students were denied services from a speech language pathologist, school district officials said.
The district gave Arts & Minds until Oct. 5 to make the necessary changes.
When the charter school did not respond, district officials withheld the money that was supposed to be disbursed on Oct. 15.
Later that week, Arts & Minds Principal Jorge Suarez wrote a letter saying the school was in partial compliance, and that plans had been made to carry out the remaining student evaluations.
Arts & Minds was already reeling from complaints by many parents that the school did not have enough books or teachers when school started in August.
Several parents have also questioned the school’s management: The school’s governing board recently agreed to hire its founder and landlord, Alonso-Poch, to also be the school’s manager under a $90,000 no-bid contract. The chairwoman of the school’s board, Ruth “Chuny” Montaner, is Alonso-Poch’s cousin — though she did not vote on the management contract.
Two principals have resigned from Arts & Minds in the past six months. One of those principals, Kevin Sawyer, who resigned in late September, said the school still owes him his final paycheck.
“It’s not right,” he said.
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