{"id":3054,"date":"2011-11-16T10:51:48","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T15:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=3054"},"modified":"2011-11-16T10:51:48","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T15:51:48","slug":"miami-dade-wont-close-controversial-charter-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2011\/11\/16\/miami-dade-wont-close-controversial-charter-for-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami-Dade Won&#8217;t Close Controversial Charter &#8212; For Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2047\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The Academy of Arts and Minds in Coconut Grove used to be a shopping mall. But no one was buying space, so the owner of the property founded a charter school and now rents his property to his school. The campus still looks like a shopping mall. There are wrap-around balconies on every floor and the classroom have floor-to-ceiling windows very much like a store front.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/10\/IMG_0115.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2047\" title=\"IMG_0115\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/10\/IMG_0115-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/10\/IMG_0115-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/10\/IMG_0115-620x465.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/10\/IMG_0115-220x165.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/10\/IMG_0115-138x103.jpg 138w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2011\/10\/IMG_0115.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Sarah Gonzalez \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Academy of Arts and Minds in Coconut Grove used to be a shopping mall. But no one was buying space, so the owner of the property founded a charter school and now rents his property to his school. The campus still looks like a shopping mall. There are wrap-around balconies on every floor and the classroom have floor-to-ceiling windows very much like a store front.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Miami-Dade school district officials say a Coconut Grove charter school is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/2011\/11\/15\/2503873\/coconut-grove-charter-school-gets.html\">&#8220;heading in the right direction&#8221;<\/a> and they will not close the school this month, according to the <em>Miami Herald<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The school &#8212; which is A-rated &#8212; has drawn criticism for a handful of practices:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u2022\u00a0For years, Arts &amp; Minds has charged fees ranging from $15 for classes like math, reading and physical education to $60 for classes like dance, graphic design and photography. School district officials say some of those fees are illegal, and want to examine the records.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022\u00a0This year, Arts &amp; Minds fell behind in evaluating and crafting education plans for special-needs students.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022\u00a0Some classes had neither teachers nor textbooks for the first five weeks of school, parents said.<\/p>\n<p>Parents have also questioned the role of the school\u2019s founder, Manuel Alonso-Poch, who serves as the school\u2019s landlord, manager and food-service provider. His cousin, Ruth \u201cChuny\u201d Montaner, is the chairwoman of the governing board.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!--more-->Alonso-Poch has <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2011\/10\/12\/loopholes-in-florida-law-leave-room-for-corruption-in-charter-schools\/\">defended his hiring<\/a> to manage the school and lease property Alonso-Poch owns, arguing he has put millions of his own money into the school.<\/p>\n<p>The district had also threatened to <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2011\/10\/26\/miami-dade-cuts-off-money-for-two-charter-schools\/\">withhold money<\/a> from the school, which is publicly funded but privately run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Miami-Dade school district officials say a Coconut Grove charter school is &#8220;heading in the right direction&#8221; and they will not close the school this month, according to the Miami Herald. The school &#8212; which is A-rated &#8212; has drawn criticism for a handful of practices: \u2022\u00a0For years, Arts &amp; Minds has charged fees ranging from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[1009,1052],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3060,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054\/revisions\/3060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}