editor's pick

Nonprofits allege charter school faked their support 

• By Keith Eddings keddings@eagletribune.com 
• Jan 28, 2019
• 
  

LAWRENCE — The state education department is investigating whether the director of a charter school proposed for a former mill building on Merrimack Street faked letters from several local nonprofit agencies professing their support for the state license needed to open the school.
Pressed about whether the letters are authentic, the director, Frank DeVito, said only that all the directors whose names appear on the letters have told him they support his application.

He then hung up the phone on a reporter who called asking about the letters.
One nonprofit leader in an email to DeVito states directly that he, not she, wrote the letter of support.
“As you are well-aware, I never signed the letter nor did I authorize that it be sent to DESE,” Susan Grabski, director of the Lawrence History Center, said in an email she sent Monday to DeVito, director of the proposed Equity Lab Charter School, referring to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. “Likewise, I never authorized you to send or forward any such letter to any third party or entity nor did I authorize you in any way to use Lawrence History Center's name, logo or mark whether authentic or not.”
Grabski also advised DeVito that her name is misspelled in the letter alleging the History Center's support for Equity Lab Charter School, which is dated Sept. 20 and addressed to state Education Commissioner Jeff Riley. The letter ends with “Sincerely, Susan Grabinski,” although Grabski's signature does not appear above her misspelled name.
Another nonprofit leader said he does not recall writing a letter supporting the charter school's application.
“This is definitely not my writing,” said Dan Halloran, who was executive director of the Lawrence YMCA on Sept. 20, the date of another letter of support to Riley that bears his name and alleges his support for the proposed charter school. “I have no problems with the charter school. I just don't think I wrote this letter.”
He said he met with DeVito at the Y on Lawrence Street last summer, but said the visit was intended to give him a tour of the building to see if the Y could lease gym space to Equity Lab. The school will have little or no gym space at the Riverwalk development on Merrimack Street, where it is proposing to lease space for classroom and administrative offices.
Another Lawrence nonprofit leader said her letter is authentic, but that she signed it believing DeVito had already presented his proposal to Mayor Daniel Rivera.
Heather McMann, director of Groundwork Lawrence, said she signed a letter supporting the school's application to the state after one of her program directors met with DeVito in September. But she said she signed the letter believing Rivera and the receivership board running Lawrence schools for the state had signed off on the proposal.
“I would have expected that had happened before they reached out to potential nonprofits about school programming,” McMann said. “I was not aware that the Equity Lab applicants had not met with the mayor and the receivership board and would not have submitted the letter if I'd known.”
She said she called Commissioner Riley to express her concern Monday to say she no longer supports DeVito's application. She said that later in the day Monday, she received an email from Riley's staff “to see if our letter (of support) was real.”
“It's a little weird to me,” McMann added.
The Lawrence Partnership, an organization of business, education and civic leaders promoting economic development in the city, also has withdrawn a letter of support for the charter school, although the circumstances are different. Derek Mitchell, the Partnership's executive director, sent the endorsement without first checking with the Partnership board, which the board rescinded after learning about it.
“When we found out about it and discussed it at a board meeting, a bunch of board members were not in favor of it,” said Jessica Andors, who serves on the board's executive committee. “Derek sent a letter rescinding it.”
Mayor Daniel Rivera is an ex-officio member of the Partnership board and is one of Equity Lab's fiercest critics. He said that the school may have faked letters of support “is not a shock to me.”
“This is what I've been saying. Support for this application is not real in this community,” Rivera said. “I'm not against charter schools. I'm against this application for a charter school. (The letters) are what they look like. He's inflating his support for something that no one in this community wants.”
Jacquelyn Reis, a spokesman for Commissioner Riley, said Riley has begun an inquiry about the validity of the letters of support for the school that he's received. Riley served as receiver running Lawrence schools for six years, when he formed a partnership with charter schools already operating in Lawrence. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education subsequently named him state education commissioner.
“We know some questions have been raised about the evidence of community support that was submitted as part of the application for the proposed Equity Lab Charter School application,” Reis said. “We are reviewing the information we have received.”