#AnotherDayAnotherCharterScandal

Has This Charter School Met The End Of The Road?

NVMI is running out of options as it turns down the final PROP-39 offer from the LAUSD. This will likely result in a shutdown of the school.

“Start looking for a new school.”

– Teacher’s advice to NVMI Student

The North Valley Military Institute (NVMI) was running on borrowed time even before it enrolled its first student. Dubious of the chances for its success, the LAUSD Board was set to reject its initial charter until Jerry Brown stepped in with some high-pressure lobbying. When the first years of operations fulfilled the District’s predictions of failure, the Board took the rare step of rejecting NVMI’s renewal. The Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) Board, then led by Mark Ridley-Thomas’ appointee, overturned the LAUSD’s decision over the objections of its own staff.

Not surprisingly, NVMI has continued to fail under the watch of the County. LACOE’s charter school staff has cited the school for ignoring a memorandum of understanding signed as a condition of renewal, a “lack of compliance with state and federal special education laws” and “Non-compliance and errors in financial reporting.” The school seems to be in a perpetual state of financial distress and has in the past relied on student fundraising to keep its doors open. NVMI was at one point so desperate for cash that they illegally charged students to attend summer school.

During the renewal process, NVMI was rated as “two (Developing)” in Governance. This development does not seem to have progressed very far since the charter school was saved by LACOE. In the past several months Dr. Mark Ryan, the school’s “Superintendent” has careened widely between schemes to keep its doors open.

Earlier this year Ryan was in Washington D.C. attempting to get federal approval for his Sepulveda Basin project. Under this plan, the campus would have moved to the area currently occupied by the National Guard in the area designated as a flood control basin. Instead of being overseen by LACOE, NVMI would have become a Department of Defense school…