Abuses of Power

Note: this excerpt is from a formal complaint submitted to the Charter School Board.

Since the school was founded:

Unprofessional and abusive behavior towards teachers who either didn’t fall in line or didn’tunderstand their orders/rules/requirements, since these were never clearly communicated by the Executive Director.
Poor communication with parents, inconsistent disciplinary practices, etc., leading to unprofessional and abusive behavior towards scholars by the Executive Director and those she is commanding.
The Governing Board has requested access to financial information to ensure compliance with their fiduciary responsibility. The request has been ignored for the most part, except for a very vague spreadsheet here and there. Essentially no usable details about the state of the school’s finances have ever been provided.

October 2023— Governing Board attempted to deliver constructive feedback to the Executive Director, as teachers and parents had reached out to them with numerous concerns.

Meeting concluded with the Executive Director throwing a temper tantrum, screaming, making threats.
Next day in school, teachers were treated even worse….screamed at and threatened with FOIAs to determine who provided the feedback.

November 2023— Governing Board was set to meet to discuss a “few minor bylaw revisions” necessary toget the school ready for an upcoming audit, according to the board chairman.

Multiple board members asked for more time to review the document of bylaws full of legal-ese, a redlined copy (noting what was changed) was only provided 24 hours ahead of the meeting, by another board member (not the chairman)
Despite push back from several board members, the board chairman insisted on a vote on the revised bylaws at the board meeting (11/16/23, see Board_Meeting_Minutes_11_16_23.pdf below).
- Threatened to have to “meet on black Friday” if we don’t do it now. Threatened damage to the school via the audit if we don’t do it now.
When asked about the content of the changes, he brushed it off as an insignificant (but necessary) revision, and lied when asked direct questions about the impact of the changes.

11/17/23 (the morning immediately after the board meeting)—Complete overhaul of the management structure within the school

An “Executive Team” consisting of the CEO, COO, CFO, and board chairman is formed, VPs are excluded from the Team, and therefore from their meetings and from having a vote. VPs are thereby removed from most of the essential decision making, in direct contradiction to the chairman’s assurances at the meeting the night before.

Reality of bylaw changes

ACF vote removed
Board members are no longer selected by the board, but by the board and the “Membership”, which also includes the Officers (CEO, COO, CFO, and VPs) and the board of the Foundation (i.e. John Treu, HeidiTreu, and Susan Dull)
Within the “Membership”, the Treus and Susan Dull (who has been completely controlled by the Treus) can outvote everyone else and unilaterally select board members. Susan Dull gets 3 votes (as CFO, board member, and Foundation board member), John Treu gets 3 votes (as board member, Foundation board member, and a tie-breaker vote if needed), and Heidi Treu gets 2 votes (as CEO and Foundation board member), so 8 votes collectively, whereas the other 7 people in the Membership each only get one vote. This renders the rest of the board and the Officers completely helpless/useless.
EVEN LESS financial transparency!!

Late November through early January

Several board members raised questions and concerns about the MAJOR bylaw changes that were forced through by gross deception on the part of the chairman.
Those members were ridiculed, belittled, and even threatened with a Cease and Desist letter for ASKING QUESTIONS
The children of those board members experienced increasingly negative retaliatory behavior from the executive director while in school.

January 2024— Board Chairman cancels regular board meeting in what appears to be an attempt to avoid a discussion of the bylaws, which have left him with absolute power

February 2024—

Trista King stated that she felt coerced by the board chairman to adopt the bylaw changes and wished to reconsider the vote, the board chairman dismissed her out of hand.
Frank Oliverio, the “legal representative” on the governing board, resigns
Frank Fidler resigns
3 board members (Trista King, Stephanie McWilliams, and Allison Woods) each expressed concerns about the bylaws, and would have held a 3:2 majority on the board, so the chairman informed the board that he had previously misinterpreted the impact of his own bylaws, and Stephanie McWilliams could no longer vote, despite the previous assurances in writing and audio recording that Stephanie would maintain her vote under the new bylaws. This was done purely to prevent a majority from Reconsidering the bylaw vote.
Board chairman called two special meetings of the board and membership prior to the February board meeting, in order to stack the board and the membership in his favor (note: in the board meeting in November he stated that there are too many people involved and the board should be smaller! Only reason to make this change to add individuals is because he has an increasing number of voices disagreeing with the highly undemocratic maneuvers, and wanted to ensure he could outvote them)
No quorum of the first special meeting, the chairman is recorded stating that a quorum of the board is required to conduct any business at a meeting of the board and the membership (which is correct). However, at the second special meeting immediately before the regular meeting of the board, when there was again not a quorum of board members (only John Treu and Susan Dull were present), the board chairman suddenly claimed that a quorum of the board was unnecessary as long as there was a quorum of the membership, which directly contradicts the newly revised bylaws. The Treus and their minions then unilaterally appoint new board members when only 2 current board members are present!
In the regular meeting that follows, the ACF is disbanded and removed from the board, decreasing the voice of parents even further.
Stephanie McWilliams and Allison Woods remove their children from the school and resign from the board in protest.
Trista King and her child remain at the school, but she strenuously objects to the proceedings. Her concerns are again dismissed by John Treu.