Life Skills board of directors receives about $2 million annually from the state to run two charter schools in Springfield and Middletown. The school gets roughly $5,800 per students, the equivalent to what Middletown City Schools would get if the student was enrolled there.
The board currently gives 93 percent of that funding to White Hat Management to hire staff and operate the two schools. The remaining 7 percent is used to pay for the board’s attorney, a fiscal officer and a $125 per meeting stipend for board members.
In the aftermath of the board’s decision, White Hat officials fired and replaced Life Skills’ nine-year veteran principal Chuck Hall, announced it would be launching its own charter school (Life Skills High School of Middletown) with a new board and sponsor and allegedly gave school staff until May 1 to choose between staying with the company or applying elsewhere.
Board President Rod Hale said he and fellow members consider White Hat’s actions to be “a material breach of contract,” and because of them, the board met in an executive session Thursday and passed several resolutions to ready themselves if future legal action against White Hat is warranted.
According to Hale, the board voted to:
- Change the name of the school to Marshall High School.
- Give the board president authority (in consultation with board's attorney and fiscal officer) to withhold management fees owed to White Hat.
Limit White Hat’s access to the school’s computer system containing student records and other data.
Allow spending of up to $2,000 per school for transition-related expenditures through June 30, such as signage, marketing, etc.
Direct White Hat not to remove any furniture, fixtures, equipment or student files without written permission from the board.
Set aside and make available a total of $2,500 per school to pay legal consultation fees for any current or former teacher or administrator considering litigation against White Hat due to threats against employment or dismissal. The window to take advantage of those funds is through June 30.
Give the board president the authority to take any legal action deemed necessary to preserve the schools assets, insure uninterrupted delivery of education to students and ease the transition to a new management company.
“I really don’t believe that it will come to that,” Hale said of legal action. “It won’t come to that unless there is some disruption in service to our students.”
Joseph Buckalew, acting principal at the Life Skills Center of Middletown, said there has been no disruption of the education process and school is proceeding as normal.
Hale said the board is concerned by the accounts that White Hat is pressuring teachers to sign employment agreements with the management company and soliciting students to enroll with them while still under contract as a vendor.
Buckalew said White Hat does not comment on personnel matters, but did say the company attempts “to recruit and employ the best, most caring educators for our schools.”
“All of the current teachers are employees of White Hat Management, so we are simply going through our regular re-contracting process,” he said. “The students are enrolled with the board of education, not the management company. We will continue to market to and attempt to enroll students who have dropped out or are at risk to drop out of high school int he communities that we serve.”
White Hat officials said they are in the process of securing their own charter from the state of Ohio for Life Skills High School, which would be located at the current school site of 631 S. Breiel Boulevard. White Hat officials declined to confirm whether they are in talks with Life Skills boards in Dayton and Columbus to act as their new Middletown board.
Buckalew said the state is scheduled to release in mid-May the list of new schools set to open next year that have completed all of the state requirements.
Buckalew said White Hat has great pride in what they have accomplished at Middletown’s Life Skills, including graduating 750 students who would likely not have gotten their high school diplomas otherwise.
“We are saddened that the board has ended this long-standing, successful relationship, which has made a difference in the lives of so many youth in Middletown and Butler County,” Buckalew said.
When asked if the Middletown market could support two alternative high schools, Hale acknowledged there is some concern. Life Skills in Middletown current serves about 225 students, and would need about 150 students enrolled to “break even.”
“Anything less than 125 to 150 students and it becomes a financial concern as to whether or not you can support it,” Hale said. “It (the competition) presents challenges to both schools.”
Still, Hale said he’s confident the new Marshall High School would come out on top because of its superior educational approach and close ties to the community.
“The people that will be running (Marshall High School) are all local,” said Hale, a Middletown resident. “This is our community. We are invested, where White Hat is not. They are engaging with a board that is not from the area.”
Hale also sees Hall, who he said is highly-respected among students, parents and staff, being a key part of that success.
The board also plans to spend a good amount of money on marketing the new school, which includes sending out letters to all current students and their parents, Hale said.
“People are familiar with the Life Skills name and there will be some who will say, ‘I’m going back to school (at the Breiel location) because this is what I know,’” Hale acknowledged.
Hale said the board hopes to conclude negotiations with property owners and reveal the location of the new school by the end of next week. He said the new school would be a standalone building “so it feels like a high school.”
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