Charter school operator had $95,000 in unpaid water bills
There was plenty of evidence of problems at the East Baltimore charter school that was forced to move this weekend
Above: The Sojourner Douglass building on Central Avenue where the charter school had been located since 2005.
Inner Harbor East Academy for Young Scholars, a charter school in East Baltimore, had to relocate over this frigid February weekend because its longtime operator, Sojourner Douglass College, couldn’t pay the utilities.
City records show over $95,000 in overdue water bills for the college’s 200 North Central Avenue address alone.
The largest delinquent bill, for $92,104.98, had not been paid since August 2013.
A “service interruption alert” (cut-off notice) was posted online for December 23, 2014.
The Brew emailed Charles W. Simmons, Sojourner Douglass’s founder and longtime president (who earned a $152, 260 salary according to a 2012 tax document), last week about the cut-off notice. He has not replied.
Jeff Raymond, spokesman for the Department of Public Works, which handles water services for Baltimore, said the account is technically eligible for turnoff, but there was no danger of a cut off because of the time of year.
No comment from Charles W. Simmons, president of Sojourner Douglass College, which operated the K-8 school.
The utility “doesn’t cut off water in the winter,” he said in an email.
Inner Harbor East Academy was also reportedly in danger of losing its heat.
BGE spokeswoman Rachael Lighty told The Brew she was unable to comment on specific customer accounts (water bills are searchable by address online), but did say terminating gas and electric service is the very last step BGE takes after all other options have been exhausted.
When reached last week, school principal Pedro A. Cartagena deferred all questions to City Schools.
Five-Year Renewal
Inner Harbor East Academy for Young Scholars is one of the oldest charter schools in the city.
The K-8 school, co-operated by the East Baltimore Community Corporation (EBCC), opened in 2005 and was academically and operationally successful enough to win contract renewals.
Sojourner Douglass and EBCC won a five-year renewal – the longest contract renewal possible – in 2010, this even though two state tax liens (ultimately satisfied) totaling about $56,000, had been entered against Sojourner Douglass between 2009 and 2010.
At the time, the private college, which grants degrees in subjects such as accounting, urban education, political campaign management and public administration, had an enrollment of around 1,000 students, a satellite campus in Edgewater and an accredited campus in the Bahamas.
In also had an ambitious plan to build with partners a $22 million hotel in Oldtown, about a mile from its Central Avenue headquarters. The hotel would be run as a for-profit business as part of the college’s future hotel management school, local media reported.
History of Financial Woes
By the time City Schools reviewed Inner Harbor East Academy for renewal in 2014, its feelings about the college’s ability to run a charter school had begun to shift.
In January of 2014, the IRS filed almost $5 million in tax liens against Sojourner Douglass. Last fall, another $750,000 in liens followed. The most recent judgement entered on November 26, 2014, was in the amount of $390,802.
None has yet been satisfied, according to online records.
Evidence of the institution’s financial weakness, however, was apparent as early as 2011, according to City School’s own review.
The 2014 renewal report (p. 48) said that audits of the school showed “negative net assets for significant amounts” for years 2011, 2012 and 2013, and that “reviews of its assets over the contract term [2010-2014] raise concerns about the operator’s ability to offer programming.”
The city’s New and Charter School Advisory Board recommended non-renewal primarily for financial reasons, although the school also scored poorly on teacher and student satisfaction surveys.
The school board agreed, and last December voted not to renew Sojourner Douglass’s contract and to shut down the school in June, apparently confident (or hopeful) that the operator had the capacity to finish out the academic year.
By January, however, things took a turn for the worse.
City schools spokeswoman Anne Fullerton told The Brew last week that she had no idea how long the school system knew about Sojourner Douglass’s unpaid utility bills, but said she found out herself sometime in early February.
New Building Two Miles Away
Inner Harbor East has just under 300 students. They will finish out the school year at 2050 North Wolfe Street in Darley Park, about two miles north of their current location.
“The students will only miss one day of instruction,” Fullerton said.
Several emails from The Brew to city school officials asking why the system didn’t broker a payment plan with the utility companies – and what mechanisms are in place to ensure that other charter operators are financially in good standing – have not been answered.