Fetteroll

For those of you not on the Unschooling.com list, Helen Hegener forwarded
this a couple of days ago. Grace seems to be everywhere <eg> -- Joyce
----------
From: Home Education Magazine <HEM-Editor@...>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 21:52:30 -0800
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] Fwd: Warning re Grace Academy Post

after the ninth email concerning Grace academy, this came across one
of the lists that I'm on.

K
----- Original Message -----
From: Elizabeth Stone
To: [email protected]
Sent: Saturday, April 27, 2002 6:40 PM
Subject: [AfricanAmerhomschler] Grace Academy


My name is Elizabeth. We've been home schooling our children for 5 years.
This
year we enrolled them in Einstein Academy, and it was a disaster.

Before considering The Grace Academy, you should know that Mimi and Howie
are
Einstein's founders. Their company, Tutorbots, mismanaged the school
until about
three weeks ago. In her dealings with Einstein families, Mimi used the name
Mimi Rothschild.

IEP's were not done for the 300 special ed children who were enrolled in the
school. It is now the end of April and only nine IEP's have been written.

"I have never seen a more substantive fundamental violation of
special education
by a local education agency," charged Jane Sullivan, special education
adviser
for the education department, who testified against Einstein Academy.
Courier
Times 3/20/02

The curriculum was not what Einstein promised. One class didn't have a
teacher
until early Dec - then he left the school in February, and the class
is teacherless
again.

Einstein has been sued by many PA school districts and the PA Department of
Education. It is only open now through a court-brokered agreement
which required:
eliminating Tutorbots as manager and financial manager of the school,
forensic
accounting of payments to Tutorbots, approval of all payments by a
comptroller
who reports to the chartering school district and strict oversight by
the chartering
school district.

Here are excerpts from articles about Tutorbots and its mismanagement
of Einstein:

************

I am convinced that Einstein will not be successful as long as Tutorbots is
the management company," Ken Junkins, the Morrisville board president, said
yesterday.

"I believe Tutorbots is not properly managing Einstein. I believe
there is possible
mismanagement of funds, and they are not responding appropriately to the
needs
of students," he said.
Courier Times 2/28/02

**************
We believe they (Tutorbots) totally mishandled the management of the
school."
Said Morrisville Superintendent John M. Gould.

The school board, Gould said, is particularly concerned about
Tutorbots' general
operation of the school, a lack of fiscal oversight and problems
providing services
to special education students.

Another source of Morrisville's ire: Einstein's teachers haven't been
paid since
early February. "We are quite angry at Tutorbots because they have used $2.3
million to pay themselves but have not paid the teachers, " Gould said.
"That's
unconscionable."
Morning Call 3/2/02

***************
Court documents showed that about $3 million was paid to Tutorbots during
the
school year, while teachers have gone unpaid and the school's internet
service
provider, Digital Freedom, canceled its service for nonpayment.

Other complaints include copyright infringement, a lack of curriculum
and teachers
and a lack of special education services.

During today's arguments, attorney Scher insisted that the state has
a responsibility
to pay its bill owed the cyber school, some 15 million in all. The judge
asked
Scher how the state would know that the money is not going to a bank in the
Cayman Islands.

But from day one they (the state) funded you and you did virtually nothing,"
Judge Pellegrini said. "You are supposed to be up and running on day one,
not
day 90 of a 180-day school year. In effect, you put Tutorbots over the
interest
of the children you were supposed to educate."
Lancaster New Era 3/22/02

****************
Gould believes Mandel and Rothschild are controlling much of the
school's spending.

"Howie Mandel.had the responsibility for.approving all invoices," Gould
claimed
in a letter to Einstein, including invoices from his own company, Tutorbots,
and Gould said some of those invoices are "grossly inflated"

All this while other vendors, and even the school's teachers went unpaid.

"Einstein paid Tutorbots $2.4 million before paying teachers," Gould said.

WGAL 3/26/02

*****************
.our information is that Einstein has received $3.3 million from the
Commonwealth
of PA to fund its educational program. Our Business Administrator
cannot conceive
of any way that the funding to date would not be sufficient to allow
Einstein
to be current on its bills and meet payroll.

Morrisville attorney

*****************
Tutorbots Inc. is prohibited from providing any management or
financial management
services to Einstein. In addition, a forensic accounting firm will review
all
paid and outstanding invoices previously submitted by Tutorbots to Einstein
to determine if they were properly paid and that the funds were used
for purposes
permitted under the Public School Code:
PDE press release 3/28/02

*****************
In June a forensic accounting firm will do an audit to determine whether the
payments Einstein made to Tutorbots were warranted. A total of $2.2 million
of $3.8 million in state funding that Einstein received went to Tutorbots,
and
the state Education Department wants to know why, said Beth Gaydos, a
spokeswoman
for the Education Department.
Courier Times 4/4/02

****************
The computer problems coincide with a new legal battle between Einstein and
Tutorbots, which is demanding the repayment of a loan of about $345,000.

Tutorbots officials, Howard Mandell and his wife, Mimi Rothschild, also the
founder of Einstein, have been withholding student records as well as
control
of the school's web site, until the money is repaid.

Last week, a judge in Philadelphia ordered the return of the records as well
as the web site, but as of Tuesday that had not happened.
Intelligencer Journal 4/10/02

*****************

Tutorbot's mismanagement turned what could have been a great cyber school
into
a disaster which damaged children enrolled.

You should exercise great caution before considering The Grace Academy!

Buyer Beware!
Elizabeth Stone


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