More bad Florida Charter School news

From Scathing Purple Musings, by Bob Sykes

According to another lawsuit filed by one of three whistle-blowers they did. From Palm Beach Post reporter Allison Ross-Ferrelli:

A former teacher at the new Mavericks High School in Palm Springs has filed a lawsuit alleging that the school falsifies enrollment records and fabricates student grades in classes the students did not take.

The lawsuit, filed by Angenora Mechato, is the third such whistleblower lawsuit to be filed by former employees of the chain of Florida charter schools. The chain is run by a for-profit management company based in West Palm Beach, Mavericks In Education Florida LLC.

All three lawsuits have been filed by the same Miami-based attorney, Dale Morgado of Feldman, Fox & Morgado.

This latest lawsuit alleges that administrators at the Palm Springs Mavericks school – which opened this school year – asked Mechato to sign off on grading sheets for classes she had not taught or that the high school even offered.

“In order to receive more than its fair share of funding (from the state), the high school fabricates its student enrollment records to reflect greater enrollment than it actually has,” the lawsuit says.

Mechato claimed she was fired from the school when she refused to falsify records.

Predictably, Maverick’s scoffed at the news.

Lauren Hollander, a manager of Mavericks In Education Florida, said her company was served with the lawsuit only a few days ago and that the company’s attorney is looking it over.

“At an initial glance, it’s truly baseless,” Hollander said. She noted that this latest lawsuit – filed last month – is similar to two other lawsuits filed by Morgado in 2011 on behalf of former employees at the Mavericks school in Homestead.

“You can see places where he just cut and pasted,” she said.

Unlike Maverick’s, the whistle-blowers aren’t cash-rich. The similarities in the three suits likely account for the wording that Hollander refers to as “cut and paste.” Mavericks didn’t receive some sort of cheesy attempt at plagiarism as Hollander would like to imply. Nor do the whistleblowers have enablers that at one time or another have been referred to as “Governor,” “Senator,” or “Representative.”

Its noteworthy that Hollander made no comment on the merits of the lawsuit – only the attorney and the whistleblower. The only that that remains to be seen is if Hollander will send her trolls out to attack the Post or its reporter like they’ve done in the past.

http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/did-mavericks-charter-school-in-palm-beach-ask-teachers-to-falsify-grades/