East Side Charter School and Family Foundations Academy (now Charter School of New Castle) share the same board under the umbrella name of Vision Academies. Yes, that name should sound very familiar to Delawareans. I guess throwing the word “vision” into the name lends clout in certain corners of the state. But what did the board do in December that could be seen as a big no-no and has even been named as something school boards shouldn’t do in recent audit investigations? And is their latest recruitment strategy really something that screams “Hire me”?
Yes, this appeared in Vision Academies’ January Board minutes.
Yes, the board donated money and gifts for a raffle for teacher’s holiday presents. Yes, the school really held a Happy Hour for new teaching recruits. Was it at the school as the flyer suggests? You be the judge.
Wow, that is one nice cafeteria over at that school! Surely that can’t be at the school. It’s probably just a restaurant. They wouldn’t actually hold a recruitment drive at a bar, right?
Oh, so it was at a bar. My bad. I really hope they didn’t use school funds to buy prospective teachers any alcohol. I hope that margarita glass on the table was non-alcoholic! I understand Mr. Bass is new as the Executive Director, but he may just want to check to see if certain things are okay! And the board should not be donating anything to staff in terms of money or gifts. I would read a certain school district audit inspection that came out days before a referendum to be extra sure!
And for those who thought I was done with this… I’m baaaaack!
The Season Of Myths 
I would much rather a charter school use creative recruitment strategies to attract talented teachers, then I would like to watch the traditional schools over pay a nepotistic employee pool of leaders to severely underserve our schools. Or for due processes because of poorly trained special education leaders. I could go on but this is just my opinion. I’ll send you some real issues to print. Let’s see if we really care about all children and will fight all schools….
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Devon, I don’t mind teachers using different methods to attract teachers. But a Happy Hour? Where alcohol is served? While I don’t concretely know if any of these recruits drank and if they did, who paid for it, this activity is frowned upon and schools are not allowed to purchase alcohol with school funding.
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Interesting that Devon Hynson thinks having recruitment for teachers at a local bar attracts talented teachers — I beg to differ. Speaking of nepotistic – from what I hear Aaron Bass gives priority to his fraternity brothers and sorority sister family for teacher positions that are becoming unavailable to those teachers who are much more qualified and worthy of the jobs — which can only be a disaster. He is also pulling teachers from KIPP in Philadelphia, who are not HALF as talented and deserving of these jobs as opposed to those who are local Delaware teachers dealing with the recent budget cuts in Wilmington and should be given priority. He is NOT an educator, is immensely unqualified to interview staff for anything more than a custodial or cafeteria position, is unprofessional to a fault and should not have a hand at deciding who gets hired. He is in for a rude awakening…
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