#AnotherDayAnotherCharterScandal
Charter School Votes To “Suspend Educational Operations”
Drowning in debt, unable to move onto the campus it leased, and facing revocation from its authorizer, NVMI (sort of) throws in the towel.
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“All those individuals and organizations who have opposed NVMI are a matter of public record”
– NVMI “Superintendent” Mark Ryan
For weeks, the Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) has been warning the North Valley Military Institute (NVMI) that it did not have the Certificate of Occupancy it needed to operate at the facility it leased in Van Nuys. Instead of recognizing its failure and informing its families that NVMI would not be opening for the new school year, the leadership at the charter publicly insisted that it had all the required permits. It also obstinately refused to meet with city officials to get their input on how to negotiate the permitting process. This gave LACOE no other choice but to issue (another) Notice of Violation threatening revocation of the charter if the outlined conditions are not rectified by August 30, 2023.
According to a letter sent to the “NVMI Hawks Family” by NVMI’s “Superintendent,” Mark Ryan, when he finally spoke with city officials on August 17, 2023, they “confirmed that [the school] would be required to get a Conditional Use Permit… and that process (even when expedited) would take at least nine months.” In this same letter, Ryan rallied against “the evil people and organizations who have orchestrated the closure of NVMI,” claiming that their rhetoric “frightened some politicians…into opposing NVMI.” However, it was not “anti-charter and anti-military forces” that created NVMI’s violations but the incompetence of their leadership team. It is not “evil” to enforce the law, especially when dealing with rules that are meant to ensure that students attend school where safety is a priority (1).
Ryan’s angry rhetoric continued with the distribution of the agenda for a special meeting of NVMI’s Board of trustees held to “consider a resolution to permanently or temporarily close the school.”…
