Florida probes 3 private schools
2 violate laws prohibiting institutions that receive vouchers from hiring felons
The state is investigating three Central Florida private schools that hired felons as teachers, two of them apparently in violation of laws that govern private schools that participate in scholarship programs.
The inquiries came in response to an Orlando Sentinel story published during the weekend, said Meghan Collins, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education.
The story highlighted three schools that have employed felons. In one case, a school hired a woman convicted of Medicaid fraud a month after her release from prison. In another, the department told one private school it couldn’t employ a man, but another school just a mile down the road hired him. Finally, a school hired a teacher with a felony record 12 years ago, and she remained an employee until her arrest last month on a charge of abusing a child on campus.
On Monday, the department sent letters to Kingsway Christian Academy and Winners Primary School near Orlando and Southland Christian School near Kissimmee, asking them to submit the
names of their employees and proof they had completed the criminal background checks required by state law by May 9.
The department also asked Kingsway and Southland to show evidence that two of the employees in the Sentinel report no longer work there.
Reached by phone Wednesday, Kingsway Office Manager Danae McPherson said she is working to comply with the department’s request. Southland and Winners didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Southland also was asked to explain how it reviewed Brown’s background screening and the process it will use to inspect future results.
Florida’s scholarship programs — Gardiner, McKay and Tax Credit — this year are spending nearly a $1 billion to send 140,000 students to private schools. They serve youngsters from lowincome families and those with disabilities. The state’s new Hope Scholarship program will provide privateschool vouchers for students who say they were bullied in public schools.
Florida laws prohibit private schools that take scholarship money from hiring employees with certain convictions, mostly felonies, or who are awaiting trial. But it is up to the schools to conduct background checks. The Orlando Sentinel’s “Schools Without Rules” series, published in October, documented how private schools that take state scholarships don’t always follow those rules, sometimes hiring staff with criminal records that should have prevented them from working with students.
Kingsway hired Diane Hayes Williams, who was charged with felony child abuse March 15, even though she had three third-degree felony theft convictions 26 years ago, which should have kept her out.
McPherson told the Sentinel last week that Williams only worked with children in the school’s preschool and day care, not scholarship students in kindergarten through eighth-grade, so she was eligible for hire. But law also prohibits day-care centers from hiring staff with those convictions. Williams resigned after her arrest, McPherson said.
Southland hired athletic supervisor Marlon Brown, convicted in 2011 of three felonies, including two theft charges that should have prevented him from working at the school, Osceola County court records show. Brown was forced out of a job at nearby Central Pointe Christian Academy two years ago after the education department discovered his record.
Another teacher, Shanqual Marshall-Gunn, was released from prison Oct. 9, 2016, after she plead no contest to Medicaid fraud the previous year. A month later, Winners hired her, Department of Corrections records show.
Her conviction wouldn’t prevent her from working in a private school that takes scholarship money. Yet the school left her name off a list of teachers it submitted to the education department in December. The department asked for a list of all staff as it looked into a complaint about another employee. The school principal, Cecilia Ukachi-Lois, did not respond last week when asked why she left Marshall-Gunn’s name off her employee list.
In response to the Sentinel’s stories, the Legislature passed a law this spring imposing a few new rules on the roughly 2,000 private schools that take state scholarships. Staring in July, for example, a school principal or owner with a Medicaid fraud conviction would not be allowed at a school that takes the scholarships. But teachers such as MarshallGunn can still work there, despite a conviction and yanked state teaching license, which is not required in private schools.