Charter official used inside info to aid his wife’s consulting firm
When a small central Phoenix charter school decided last week that it would close its doors because of low enrollment, the Arizona Charter Schools Association stepped in to find new campuses for SySTEM’s 32 students.
The association’s No. 2 executive, Chief Operating Officer Robert Di Bacco, contacted SySTEM Principal Melodie Brewer to request the names, addresses and phone numbers of the affected families.
Di Bacco told Brewer he knew someone who could find new schools for the displaced pupils.
“He said he had a consultant, and the consultant was his wife,” said Brewer, whose school emphasized science, technology, engineering and mathematics. “He said, ‘She will take good care of you.’”
In the process, Di Bacco also took care of himself.
He and his wife, Paola Leyton Salas, own Enrollment Experts, and she’s a paid recruiter for Self Development Academy, or SDA, also a Phoenix charter school.
By directing six SySTEM students to SDA, Leyton Salas last week earned $3,300 for the company, The Arizona
Republic learned. Arizona Corporation Commission records show Di Bacco owns at least 20 percent of the recruiting service for charter schools.
Vernette Madsen, SDA’s administrator, told The Republic that SDA pays Enrollment Experts $550 from its state education funding for each child enrolled.
Arizona Charter Schools Association President and CEO Eileen Sigmund had defended the business arrangement until late Monday afternoon.
That’s when she reversed course after The Republic had notified Sigmund that Di Bacco owned the company:
“Unfortunately, in our haste, we made a serious error in judgment in utilizing a local student recruiter — the wife of an association employee — to assist in contacting affected families with school placement options.
“This was a mistake. In attempting to rectify this situation, the recruiter has agreed to forfeit or refund any payment she would have received due to her referral of students.
“As an association, we are reviewing our internal conflict-of-interest policies to make certain this situation cannot happen again.”
Jay Heiler, the association’s chairman, said Di Bacco would not lose his job.
“He’s an outstanding employee who is very dedicated,” Heiler said. “He made the mistake in trying to place kids in a suitable school in a short time frame, but it’s still a mistake. We will take steps to make sure nothing like this happens again.”
Di Bacco also is one of three association officials who is responsible for matching independent contractors with charter schools. He declined to answer questions about how long he had referred his own company to Arizona charter schools.
No-bid deals like Leyton Salas’ consulting contract with SDA would be illegal in traditional public schools, but they are common at charter schools. For example, the founders of Basis Charter Schools Inc. and American Leadership Academy have received multimilliondollar no-bid business deals from their boards.
Brewer said Di Bacco assured her that Leyton Salas would provide parents with numerous charter-school options with transportation services that are near their homes.
However, that’s not what occurred, according to one SySTEM parent and Kelly Horn, principal of Create Academy, a small kindergarten to sixthgrade charter school whose students had fed into SySTEM. They said Leyton Salas was pushing families to send their kids to SDA, and she was trying to lure their younger siblings at Create Academy to also attend SDA.
Leyton Salas hung up when contacted by The Republic. Di Bacco, who became a co-owner of Enrollment Experts in March 2017, did not respond to a call or emailed questions.
Charter schools across Arizona have grown significantly in the past decade. Like district schools, they are funded on a per-pupil basis from state tax dollars. Therefore, more students equals more state funding. The Legislature gives charter operators up to $2,000 more per student than traditional public schools because they cannot receive local property taxes.
Although district school officials have complained about charters stealing their kids — and state funding — it’s unheard of for charter schools, with assistance from the charter association, to recruit kids already attending charter schools.
Sigmund on Friday said Leyton Salas was selected to help place the SySTEM Phoenix students because she is knowledgeable about schools in central Phoenix and is bilingual. Many SySTEM families are Spanish speakers.
Sigmund, last week, also criticized Create Academy, a dues-paying member of the association.
“Unfortunately, not every school merits referral,” the statement said. “Create Academy was not a good fit for these students given its poor academic performance; on the 2018 AzMERIT assessment, only 4 percent of Create Academy students passed the math portion and 12 percent passed English/ Language Arts.”
Sigmund’s statement did not say that Create Academy’s students are predominantly Hispanic. More than half of its students who took the state standardized tests were identified as being “economically disadvantaged,” according to the state Department of Education. The school’s homeless population is 30 percent, while 80 percent of the students qualify for the federal government’s free and reduced lunch, Horn said.
“There is more to this story than test scores,” Horn said. “It’s not like educating homeless kids is a piece of cake. They will try to deflect how bad our school is and not how unethical they are.
“The issue was the (chief operating officer’s) wife was given the list of the students before anyone else and she was getting paid to refer families. My (association) dues should not be used to do that.”
Sigmund told Horn to file a public records request with SySTEM to get the information, according to the association.
Horn said Leyton Salas contacted five families with students at his school and all were urged to enroll at SDA.
Sosa, the parent, said Leyton Salas told her that Create Academy was in danger of closing, which Horn said is untrue.
“She pissed me off. I didn’t care for what she was saying,” Sosa said.
“I don’t think it’s right that one school is the only choice from an association that is supposed to represent all of us,” Horn said.
“We are an example of the marginalization that takes place in the charter school realm.”
Connie Medina, another parent, said Leyton Salas provided her with several options, but she chose SDA.
Horn said it was his understanding from the charter association that it was illegal to share student directory information for commercial purposes. The association’s statement said the charter school’s student directory is “publicly available” to anyone.
Horn said he believes he prevented Leyton Salas from taking any of his students.
“I think we managed to salvage our enrollment,” Horn said.
Meanwhile, Brewer said all five teachers at SySTEM have found jobs, and she’s going to make sure her vendors get paid. She, however, is looking for a job.
And, she added, the charter association urged her to not publicly discuss her school’s closure, even though she had been employed there only five weeks and the school’s closure was not her fault.
“They said to keep it quiet because it gives charters a bad name,” Brewer said. “They said it’s an election year and things can go badly.”
The charter association said Brewer’s statement was untrue.