On June 3rd, I wrote about the possible shenanigans going on in the Charter school approval process, with the appointment of Joel Medley to the K-12 Online Charter School System and the activities of related associates in the article, NC Charter Wars: Public Policy Interests vs. Personal Profits.

I’ve decided, in the interest of transparency, to follow up and file four Freedom of Information Act requests (FOIA) related to my previous article.

I submitted all four earlier this week to Katie Cornetto at the State Board of Education. She has indicated these requests will be forwarded to Vanessa Jeter at DPI.

The title and contents of these FOIA’s are as follows:

1. Freedom of Information Act Request: Medley / Atkinson / Hill / Price / Taylor / Nance

“Any and all communication between any combination of Dr. Joel Medley, Dr. June Atkinson, Martez Hill, Phillip Price, Rebecca Taylor and Helen Nance concerning the review and approval of anything associated with the “NC Virtual Charter School application approvals” and the “Virtual Charter School Pilot Program”.”

2. Freedom of Information Act Request: Connections Education / Connections Academy

“Any and all communication between any combination of Dr. Joel Medley, Dr. June Atkinson, Phillip Price, Rebecca Taylor and Helen Nance concerning the review and approval of anything associated with the Connections Education and/or Connections Academy regarding the Virtual Charter School application approvals and the Virtual Charter School Pilot Program.”

3. Freedom of Information Act Request: K12.com / NC Virtual Academy

“Any and all communication between any combination of Dr. Joel Medley, Dr. June Atkinson, Martez Hill, Phillip Price, Rebecca Taylor and Helen Nance concerning the review and approval of anything associated with the K12.com and/or NC Virtual Academy regarding the NC Virtual Charter School application approvals and the Virtual Charter School Pilot Program.”

4. Freedom of Information Act Request: NACSA

1) Any and all communication between any representative of National Association of Charter Schools Authorizers (NACSA) and any representative of DPI (including but not limited to the Office of Charter Schools) and the NC State Board of Education.

2) A detail of any funds expended by any Government Agency of North Carolina to NACSA or any of its affiliates including but not limited to travel, conferences, meetings, staff collaboration, etc.

3) A detail of any funds received by any Government Agency of North Carolina from NACSA or any of its affiliates including but not limited to travel, conferences, meetings, staff collaboration, etc.

4) Any and all communication related to the new framework and the process by which approval was given and mandated that all charter schools follow the framework.

In addition to these FOIA’s, various ethics complaints against Helen Nance and Rebecca Taylor are in process to be filed.  More to come on these complaints down the road.