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Yea dispurse dem kids – they don’t really matter anyhow.  They thought they were entering a Charter School (gift from heaven) and it turns out – you gonna be dispursed!  Dispurse em’ all!!!  Dispurse those little kids cause they don’t really matter.  I love that word they used – dispursed.  Like these kids are extra pieces of beef that came by accident with an overload to Costco.  Yo Mike, dispurse em’ amongst the stores.  What a system man!  Is it summer yet?

What a joke. Their still giving Eddie a month? “Most of the charges center on founder Eddie Calderon-Melendez, who
earned $478,000 last year as the CEO of the Believe Charter Network,
which has run Williamsburg and two other high schools.”

Like, did they find out yesterday about Eddie? Ed Notes has been following this story for years. We broke the story of the $100 bounty they were offering kids if they brought in a sucker — er recruit — years ago. In the comment section teachers were screaming out in outrage but also in fear of Eddie and his thuggish behavior. He once threatened Susan Ohanian with a “visit” because she had mentioned his poodle business. In the corporate ed deform world it is ok for Eddie to make almost half a million while scamming us taxpayers for years.

Where are John King and Merryl Tisch who are quick to condemn people who fight to keep their schools open as “supporting failure” while a school that clearly was engaging in shady tactics for years was allowed to continue. Eddie’s charter should have been revoked before the ink was dry.

As for Penninsula Prep out here in Rockaway where even the sea breezes coudn’t wash away the smell of scandal from St Sen Malcolm Smith’s equivalent of Rosemary’s baby. How about those earmarks he got for the school he founded? I bet they don’t end up in a public school in Rockaway. How about giving it to PS 215 which they are closing?

How much time do “failing” PUBLIC schools get to improve? Obviously “accountability” for charters is much different than accountability for public schools.It’s irresponsible to continue authorizing charter schools and granting charter extensions, when there are evidently no real safeguards in place to insure that these types of abuses do not continue. As for those responsible for “policing” these charters-shame on you, shame on the authorizers and shame on these CEO’s and managers who victimize and steal from NYC students and tax payers.

Gotta hand it to Melendez…he certainly identified the right part of government to take advantage of and went in for the kill.  There is no where else in the United States where one could pay themselves millions of dollars of public money and be in violation of so many laws and still have a job after 8 years.  He is laughing all the way to the bank.  he also picked the right population to screw…the financially and educationally impoverished. How long to you think this type of BS would have been pulled on in some suburban community with parents who are involved and actually recognized when someone is ripping them off and robbing their children of an education…maybe a few weeks…that’s how long.  Instead, there was never an eye brow raised by one parent about…not one community meeting…or group of parents advocating for why someone could pay themselves 800,00 dollars over two years…yet fire 20 of their best teachers…or not pay rent…not one parent.  Not one student or group of students know or knew that they deserve better…or that there is any better..not one asked one question.  So while many are chastising Melendez I am here to offer some congratulatory remarks for a job well done.  You should feel pretty good Eddie…your plan came to fruition.  You did your homework I’ll certainly give you that…you identified a huge opportunity and you took it.  If anyone else if looking to make a quick couple million look no further than the NYCDOE and governing body of its charter schools as your source of income….be the next to identify the impoverished community that doesn’t know how, or care enough to ask any questions…there are plenty of them in the city that have yet to be exploited…write yourself a charter…and then sit back get rich.  

Oh trust me, i’m a former student of the school and we students ALL new the corruption and abuse of power that was going on. There was only one  problem, noone would believe us. Our parents would think we’re crazy, the teachers that stood up for us…fired, the community saw the school as a beacon of hope for the misguided youth. Yet the first couple years, kids we’re barely able to stay outside safely without getting jumped, cut, beaten, or simply walk home safely since other schools hated us. You’d think we’d have some kind of trained security to protect us. But i guess i getting away from the topic at hand, Eddie Melendez is a man i honestly idolize. This man made a fortune, taking advantages of kind trustworthy people, and yet he was repeatedly giving chance after chance to deceive MORE people. He found a loophole in the school system and made it a business. Can you imagine what would have happened if his Believe Network was a success. My mother is unemployed and struggles for every penny we have and with his income we’d never have a financial woe again.

Wow, what an extraordinary comment.  It could be written by many high school teachers at many different high schools across the city in regards to fudged stats, fudged attendance records, hidden disciplinary issues, BS credit recovery, inflated graduation rates, and a poor record of college readiness.

What I’d like to add is the phrase “Tip of the iceberg.”

Any school with problems mostly likely has deeper, more serious problems that are being swept under the rug.  Teachers have been railing about these problems for years, but “bad teachers” cannot be trusted nor listened to. 

Bloomberg, Walcott, the NYCDOE, and its newspaper/media partners have been aware and are a part of this educational corruption for years…

10 years to be exact.  Mayoral Control – what a putrid sham.  

The DOE and other charter supporters will no doubt claim that this is evidence of how charter schools are held accountable. It’s nothing of the sort; instead, the stench got so bad that even they couldn’t ignore it any longer, and they had to resort to damage control.

It’s just more evidence of how this regime thrives on churning and disruption for its own sake – more opportunities for entrepreneurs/privateers – and how the process is ultimately geared to favor the chains. It wouldn’t be surprising if one of them steps in, especially if there’s a real estate play to be had, unless of course the kids might make their numbers look bad.

It’s disgraceful how cavalier charter supporters are concerning the disruptions caused by the entire process. But then, it’s other people’s children, “little people’s” children, whose lives they’re playing with. 

At Tweed and City Hall, the kids are just products anyway, and every quality control manager knows that a certain percentage of products are defective. Oh well, time to re-balance the portfolio, and on to the next investment opportunity…

Seriously??! Did you read the article? Mr. Melendez does indeed make you all look bad. He is but one example of why there should not be charters. Yes indeed, close the place and don’t open any more charters. Keep public schools public!

Melendez suffers from mental illness.  He is bi-polar.  He is hyper-anxious and has severe personality disorders.  He is by far and wide the most self-centered, egomaniac you will ever see.  He is spending his time on this earth rving himself first and no one else…who ever get in the way of him being the center of attention…at all times…will be dealt with…this has been the case with every teacher, parent and student he has come in contact with for the past 8 years at this charter school and the decade before when he worked out of the grand street campus at an after school.  He is a thief and a crook and a bad human and I hope there is a special place in hell for him.  It is not easy for me to write this about anyone as I am not a malicious person and I know that some people including Melendex may read this and find it cowardly, but I do not know how else to express myself and make the larger community aware of the pariah that is Eddie Calderon Melendez.  I hate him.

Actually … the word is “disperse,” as in casting ashes (or in this case, children) to the winds.  Or maybe you meant “disburse” — “to pay money from a large amount that has been collected for a purpose” (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary).  Either one fits the subject of the article!

I am so incredibly happy right now! After YEARS of praying, and sometimes even thinking of a way to burn this school to the ground (not actually burning it, but just figuring out a way to bring attention to all this bs) it has happened. As a former student from this hell hole of a school, all i can say is ABOUT DAMN TIME! I went through hell in this school, those teachers were so stressed out they would take their frustration out on the students. I was not a bad kid when i came into the school, but about 2 weeks into my FRESHMEN year, i realized the jail sentence i gave myself; after that it was always ME vs. THE STAFF.

 This school operates like this: Eddie scares the living S*** out of staff– the staff then goes with their tails between their legs, all the while disrespecting, harassing, and abusing students— some students bend over and become mindless individuals (why would you let someone abuse you mentally, and manipulate you into fearing them and the school system); the rest would complain to each other, the comment which states parents and leaders do not believe you is CORRECT (i’ll get to that later); then the few and informed students such as myself fought back against the pawns and the tyrant. I tell people about my time in this school and it is a horror story literally. . .the fights, the other school constantly jumping or attacking our students, the gang fights, the shoot outs from gangs trying to kill us, the harassing teachers, teachers fired from one day to another leaving students without an actual leader. [I honestly went through about 6 math teachers, maybe more during my sophomore year.]

The Scandals: (here’s a list of what happened while i was there, that i remembered)

student’s getting drunk in the bathroom, or somewhere in the school.
Students smoking weed in the bathroom, or somewhere in the school.
students dealing drugs, everywhere!
staff getting high
staff physically bullying, or using excessive force
staff and students having in appropriate behavior. (sexual intercourse in school and outside of school, and yes many students knew this was not shocking)
Eddie hiring GANG members as security guards. (everyone knew, it got to the point where teachers would lock out the security guards from making their ’rounds’, because they knew, or saw the abuse)
A lot of bullying went on in this school between students, barely any of it was put to an end. 
The bi weekly dress up for Eddie’s tea party with the “Rich” investors (everyone had to be on their best behavior, or you were let go)
Students getting attacked on the way to school, or going home.
Students being jumped, because other idiots in school forget we all have the same uniform
Shoot outs from people who hated us
Random police searches became not so random.
The list goes on and on

I will say this: Firstly while it was me vs. the staff (including the tyrant) i did have great grades, 80s-90s. ( if you play hard, you work hard). I ended up dropping out of school because of this hell hole, only to come back 6 months later & not be given a SINGLE TEXTBOOK TO STUDY FOR EXAMS or do HOMEWORK! The lack of respect from these “Freshly Graduated Ivy league” mofo’s was incredible. I left the school during the winter break. Before i left the principal and dean, tried to eat my mother and me alive with threats, bullying us into leaving me in Camp Hades. I went on to another school were i excelled with all 90s, and was the top student in the school. I am now in college doing the same. 

Note to students and parents: If you see something, hear something, or know something is wrong. .SPEAK UP, the city will take forever to defend you, but you can defend yourself don’t wait for a hero. PARENTS BELIEVE YOUR KIDS, or at least LISTEN AND RESEARCH YOURSELF.

Beyond a

That’s why you were denied.

“Eddie isn’t that bad of a guy, sure, some extra exterior guidance may have sufficed in this ordeal, but cut him some slack, because he’s worked his ass off. If you knew the kind of work he did everyday in school to help maintain, you’d probably change your opinion about him. ”
Yeah my friend… I do know him…worked with him pretty closely for over 5 years…everyday you know Eddie Melendez you like him a little less.

Charter schools are part of the reason the Occupy movement exist right now.  The people at the top (consultant/manager/executive) of these schools are taking more of the money while the actual workers themselves are getting less money and less rights.  The workers are punished and fired if they are deemed to fail, but, the people at the top still make a fortune, even if they are incompetent or fail.  How did someone running 3 failing schools with 1200 students make more than the chancellor of all NYC schools (1 million students) or the person in charge of SUNY? 

Charter schools may supposedly be “not-for profit”, but, if you’re paying attention, you’ll see they are an effort by the 1% to get an even bigger slice of the money pie with a risk free venture floated by government dollars.  

Are the financial audits that are cited public?  There’s a set of reports on the DOE website, but it doesn’t include the specific financial data cited in the letter above, and the 990s online are only as recent as 2009 (and none at all for the “network”).

Calderon-Melendez should stick to breeding dachshunds. 

Finally, the curtains have been raised on the wizard of oz!  The wicked witch is dead!

what now i got to appy to a different school -.- smh