You're both right!

March 30, 2010 5:41 PM

It's a charter school. It's a nightclub. Charter school? Nightclub!
posted by fixedgear (38 comments total)

I'm at the charter school (naw) I'm at the night club (what?) I'm at the combination charter school and night club!

*womp womp womp womp*

....

sorry
posted by thedaniel at 5:46 PM on March 30, 2010 [29 favorites]

ya know what... whatever it takes to keep a school afloat now-a-days!
posted by HuronBob at 5:47 PM on March 30, 2010

Man, I wanted to make the combination charter school-nightclub joke.

Also, cripes, enough "BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN" outrage there? I'm pretty sure they put the liquor away by the time the kids got to school.

I mean, unless I'm wrong.
posted by GuyZero at 5:53 PM on March 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Don't know much about geography
Don't know much trigonometry
Don't know much about algebra
Don't know what a slide rule is for

But I do know that I love beer
And I know that if we put a club here
What a wonderful school/bar it would be.
posted by sallybrown at 5:54 PM on March 30, 2010 [7 favorites]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTPYbBUNq5Y
posted by dunkadunc at 5:54 PM on March 30, 2010

I think that's brilliant. I really don't see the point in shutting it down if it's helping the school balance its budget. Better to serve beer in the cafeteria at night then lay-off half the teachers, imho.
posted by Lutoslawski at 5:57 PM on March 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

The school employee who was paid for 624 days last year, I'd say that's a problem though.
posted by GuyZero at 5:59 PM on March 30, 2010

I'm with GuyZero... by itself there's nothing exactly... well, wrong about using the school for non-school purposes during non-school hours... but it's exactly the kind of indicator that leads you to wonder what other questionable things the people running the place are up to - and lo what have we here...
posted by odinsdream at 6:06 PM on March 30, 2010

So...here in Michigan, most of our school districts are a year away from not being solvent. They will need to literally shut the doors and say..."sorry, educate your own damn kids, cuz you're not providing us with the funding necessary to do the job". On top of that, every article in the online blogs that now serve as our newspapers about how schools are having a hard time, is followed by about 800 comments from right wing idiots about how the whole problem is the teachers, they are overpaid, don't work all year, yada, yada, yada..... Yep, I sure as hell want to be a teacher.... NOT!

Here's the answer... close the doors to the schools, lock 'em, send the kids home.......

When you want to fund education, let us know.... until then... take care of your kids yourself.
posted by HuronBob at 6:08 PM on March 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

The school employee who was paid for 624 days last year...
They said that was in 2007, and the next year she only worked 463, so it looks like things are moving in the right direction.
posted by MtDewd at 6:09 PM on March 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

I guess she was sick a lot or something.
posted by GuyZero at 6:14 PM on March 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

“It is an outrage,” said State Senator Jeffrey E. Piccola, a Republican who heads the Education Committee and who has called for the school to close immediately and relocate its students.

Mr. Piccola said he planned to amend a charter school bill that he had already introduced to ban the consumption, purchase and sale of alcoholic beverages in a charter school.

“A bar should not be located anywhere near a school,” he said. “To think that a full bar is actually operating in a school is an outrageous affront to charter schools, young children, educators and taxpayers everywhere.”

What an eedjit.
posted by rtha at 6:22 PM on March 30, 2010

In Michigan, our schools are funded by the state lottery...

gambling/drinking/gambling/drinking...

I think we should throw prostitution into the mix...
posted by HuronBob at 6:26 PM on March 30, 2010

“A bar should not be located anywhere near a school,” he said. “To think that a full bar is actually operating in a school is an outrageous affront to charter schools, young children, educators and taxpayers everywhere.”

I couldn't agree more. This is an outrageous affront to drunkards everywhere.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 6:43 PM on March 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

His company, Str8 Hand Construction, did an estimated $7.5 million in business at the schools over four years.

Wait, what's the nightclub name again? The White Swallow? Bottoms Up?
posted by geoff. at 7:00 PM on March 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

HuronBob wrote:

When you want to fund education, let us know.... until then... take care of your kids yourself.

I came really close to favoriting this, but then it occurred to me what would happen if they did all home-school their kids.
posted by Songdog at 7:10 PM on March 30, 2010

Turn it into a S&M brothel and you could call it "The School of Hard Knocks"
posted by chambers at 7:18 PM on March 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

It's a dessert toping and a floor wax!
posted by klangklangston at 7:42 PM on March 30, 2010 [3 favorites]

Now I really want to go to a bar in a grade school cafeteria--tiny plastic chairs, milk carton crates, and all.
posted by sallybrown at 7:45 PM on March 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

the pub food sux though amirite i mean come on fucking fish sticks again?
posted by not_on_display at 8:15 PM on March 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'm planning on bringing a bologna sandwich to trade.
posted by sallybrown at 8:28 PM on March 30, 2010

It's time for the educator. It's time for the educator.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 8:32 PM on March 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

WHAT!? I thought operating schools as for profit businesses was going to solve all our problems!
posted by delmoi at 9:22 PM on March 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

My high school principal put in a coffee shop in a naive attempt to get kids to stay on campus for lunch. This is one approach, I guess.

What was it called? Glad you asked. "Tiger Perk." Why? Because our mascot was a tiger and the coffee shop in "Friends" is called Central Perk. Keep in mind, this woman went to school for 22 years.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 9:28 PM on March 30, 2010

I feel so straight-up Midwest. In my town everyone's concerned about a charter school in a church.
posted by dhartung at 9:30 PM on March 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic...

WARNING: Ow my eyes
posted by lukemeister at 9:52 PM on March 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Coming to Bourbon Street soon: Larry Flynt's "Barely Literate."
posted by raysmj at 10:40 PM on March 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Man, it's so loud in here!
posted by namewithoutwords at 5:07 AM on March 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wow you Americans (no I'm not going to say USians) are way uptight about alcohol. In the UK, school halls quite often get used for fundraisers where parents can drink. Or hired out for private parties. I've not heard of a dual use school/nightclub being a regular thing, but it seems to me to be a fairly sensible use of otherwise under-occupied facilities.
posted by handee at 5:11 AM on March 31, 2010

Baby Loves Disco , Where the nightclub lets parents come in with their toddlers and dance, dance, dance. It's kind of the opposite, but not entirely the same at all.
posted by djduckie at 6:40 AM on March 31, 2010

Oops. Perchance, fraud? ; )

"The problems facing Harambee Institute of Science and Technology Charter School go beyond allegations that it doubled as a nightclub on weekend nights.

City Controller Alan Butkovitz today announced that the woman serving as the West Philadelphia charter's business officer also was simultaneously listed as an employee at two other charter schools.

Rhonda Sharif, Butkovitz said, was paid a total of $183,108 in 2008 as an employee of all three schools and worked 463 days that year, according to records of the state school employees pension system.

The year before, Sharif collected $175,375 for working 624 days, the controller said.

Besides handling the finances at Harambee at 640 N. 66th St., Sharif was employed by the Mathematics, Civics and Sciences Charter School at 447 N. Broad St. and Khepera Charter at 144 W. Carpenter Lane in West Mt. Airy.

In addition, Butkovitz said his office found that the schools had reimbursed Sharif more than $500,000 for unspecified credit card expenses and undocumented travel costs. His staff also found that her husband's construction company had received $7.5 million in contracts from the three schools."

posted by ericb at 7:57 AM on March 31, 2010

From the school's website:

"This communication goes out to inform you of the most recent misrepresentation of charter schools in our community. The charter school movement has been under attack since it’s inception, and unfortunately those who continuously attempt to impede the progress have close proximity to media microphones. This creates a very one-sided and unbalanced view of what charter schools represent. This 'negative imaging' can be an extremely dangerous weapon because it creates a perception of what is going on, regardless of how accurate it is. Perceptions then becomes people’s reality and the media are extremely crafty at exploiting that fact.

This attack on Harambee Charter School is a biased depiction of the true success story that Harambee truly is.

...We cannot allow slanderous and inaccurate allegations to impede our success and define who we are.

The Harambee family is a resilient group we will meet adversity once again and come out on top.

WE WILL WIN!"

Forget the fact that the cafeteria serves as a bar on weekends and has been dispensing alcohol without a license. Bigger issue is the alleged financial fraud.
posted by ericb at 8:14 AM on March 31, 2010

Club Damani's in-house performer says, "Yo, I got that weed."
posted by ericb at 8:20 AM on March 31, 2010

Wow you Americans (no I'm not going to say USians) are way uptight about alcohol. In the UK, school halls quite often get used for fundraisers where parents can drink.

When I went to Catholic elementary school, there were beef and beers held in the parish hall. This is a public school, which seems to make a difference.

The charter school movement has been under attack since it’s inception...

Mostly for their sloppy use of apostrophes.
posted by fixedgear at 8:48 AM on March 31, 2010 [1 favorite]

Financial fraud is business as usual in Philly Charter Schools. There's basically no financial oversight, so charters are kind of a scumbag magnet.

"Prosecutors have not provided a complete accounting of O'Shea's misdeeds. However, he admitted stealing as much as $1 million between March 2002 and May 2008 from Philadelphia Academy. The charter, which opened in 1999, enrolls 1,200 students from kindergarten through 12th grade on its campuses at 11000 Roosevelt Blvd. and 1700 Tomlinson Rd.

In his plea agreement, O'Shea acknowledged that he had collected kickbacks from contractors, used school money to pay for improvements to his home in the city's Morrell Park section, pocketed money from school vending machines, and spent $145,000 on lavish executive offices."

There was another charter where someone was holding multiple executive positions at different schools and drawing multiple paychecks but I can't remember which one it was.
posted by The Straightener at 12:46 PM on March 31, 2010

Damn, The Straightener, don't know how I missed that. 11000 Roosevelt Blvd shows Chickie & Pete's (heh!). 1700 Tomlinson is a block from one of my regular bike loops. But, yeah, liquor law violations and expired food certs are nothing compared to the huge fraud.
posted by fixedgear at 2:01 PM on March 31, 2010

Shut 'em down
posted by fixedgear at 2:46 PM on March 31, 2010

Looks like there are many instances of fraud at charter schools across the country.
posted by ericb at 3:22 PM on March 31, 2010