Does football team really have a ‘school’?
Dewine calls for probe of Bishop Sycamore
Bishop Sycamore High School, the supposed Columbus football powerhouse that might have duped ESPN into a nationally televised blowout it suffered last week, told the Ohio Department of Education in an official filing that it is “one of the best academic institutions in the country.”
That said, the school doesn’t appear to exist anywhere except on paper, the internet, and some contend in the minds of its founders, who based on growing questions may have used it as a vehicle to build a touring football organization. Last year, it reported an enrollment of only three kids last school year – not enough students even for a good game of catch.
Bishop Sycamore has filed nothing yet for this year, but has until the end of September to do so.
Gov. Mike Dewine has called for an investigation.
“Schools like Bishop Sycamore have an obligation under Ohio law to meet certain minimum standards,” Dewine said in a statement. “Whether Bishop Sycamore meets these standards is not clear. I have asked the Ohio Department of Education to conduct an investigation into Bishop Sycamore to ensure compliance with Ohio law and to ensure the school is providing the educational opportunities Ohio students deserve.”
Addresses provided as school locations, including to the state, don’t house any students. Bishop Sycamore claims to be a “non-charter, non-tax-supported school,” which, under the rules of the state Department of Education, means it is bypassing the normal systems of operation “because of truly held religious beliefs.”
Those rules say that Bishop Sycamore “shall annually certify in a report to the parents of its pupils that the school meets Ohio minimum standards,” including for student attendance, teacher qualifications and fire inspections, and that the report must also be filed with the department.
But that report for last school year is signed only “Bishop Sycamore Advisory Board,” making it unclear who wrote it. Other paperwork said the school would start Sept. 8, 2020, with a “blended attendance” model, which the Ohio Revised Code defines as “delivery of instruction in a combination of time in a supervised physical location away from home and online delivery.”
“Online and traditional learning will be used,” it says, adding that it would provide 1,001 hours of instruction to three enrolled students. Andre Peterson, acting as the school administrator, signed the submission to the state on July 20, 2020, listing the school’s address as the library at Franklin University in Downtown Columbus.
Repeated attempts by The Dispatch to reach any of the school or team officials during the last two days have been unsuccessful. However, one school official has told national media outlets, including USA TODAY Sports, that they were only trying to help kids.
Franklin University said that it was in talks to rent space to the school last year, but for a reason the school is unaware of, the deal collapsed last August when it sent Peterson a letter saying it was “no longer interested in pursuing a lease, equipment financing or purchase, or any other relationship.” The letter was to the ISE Foundation, which university spokeswoman Sherry Mercurio said represented Bishop Sycamore.
The university asked the school to “return or destroy” all the information that had changed hands “over the past months,” as any talks were being “terminated effective immediately,” the letter says.
“They didn’t ask for transcripts or anything,” said Ray Holtzclaw, father of former Bishop Sycamore player Judah Holtzclaw, a quarterback who graduated from Westerville Central High School last spring after passing for 1,339 yards and 14 TDS and also rushing for 10 scores.
“So I asked them, and I said, are there any classes we have to take? He said, ‘Judah’s a qualifier; all he has to do is take one class with us to play and it’s a religious class that I teach.’ I was like, ‘Uh, OK.’”
As for other kids, Ray Holtzclaw believes there were some who might have forfeited graduating with a high-school diploma from their home schools because they unenrolled and transferred to Bishop Sycamore to play football, but then “never did any school.”
“As far as I know, none of the kids did any school,” Ray Holtzclaw said.
In 2018, Dispatch-owned Thisweek Community Newspapers in Columbus first detailed the saga of team’s leaders’ initial attempt to start a school – apparently so it could field a traveling football team. It was claiming then it would have about 400 students taking online classes organized by a Minnesota-based education company, Edmentum.
But within months, the then-christians of Faith Academy left behind only a pattern of bad debts and were accused of using a church’s name to solicit donations and sell insurance.
That school seemed to exist mainly on social media, where its football schedule boasted matches against such Ohio high-school powerhouses as Huber Heights Wayne, Cleveland St. Ignatius and St. Edward and such out-ofstate programs as North Allegheny in Wexford, Pennsylvania, and IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida.
The Department of Education revoked the school’s registration in the fall of 2018 after visiting the reported address, only to find that occupants there said they had no knowledge of Christians of Faith Academy.
“Because the school could not be located and student attendance could not be verified,” the department said at the time.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association said in 2018 that it also found no evidence of any school classes being held, and therefore ruled it no longer considered the team associated with a school, effectively disqualifying it from its inter-school matches.
State Education Department rules require non-chartered schools to report their enrollments to the treasurers of the home districts. But Columbus City Schools could no such reports - nor any evidence from the state that there even is such a school to make any reports.
“There is no school with this name in the Ohio Education Directory System,” said Columbus City Schools spokeswoman Jacqueline Bryant. “The District has not received enrollment information for a Bishop Sycamore.”
Bishop Sycamore’s filing last year with the state Education Department lists two organizations, Advancing Science Worldwide and Innovation Science and Education, as its school partners in educating kids.
Advancing Science Worldwide, based in Gilbert, Arizona, didn’t return a telephone call left with its office Tuesday morning. Its website says the organization provides equipment, books, journals, facilities, and other materials to promote science in developing countries, highlighting assistance to Zimbabwe, Kenya and Zambia. It mentions nothing about work in Columbus.
The Dispatch could locate no listing for Innovation Science and Education, and Bishop Sycamore’s paperwork with the state provides no address or telephone number, despite the filing saying that “these two institutions have been in education for a combined 72 years.”
ISE’S mission “is to provide an avenue for underprivileged students to excel in academics and athletics,” the school’s state filing says. “...By providing an innovative educational platform, students take advantage of opportunities not readily available to them.”
Andre Peterson, who played for Jim Tressel at Youngstown State in the 1980s, is Bishop Sycamore’s founder, director and currently coaches the football team’s offensive and defensive lines.
He told USA TODAY Sports there was no “scam” related to Sunday’s game or Bishop Sycamore.
“There’s nothing that I’ve gotten out of this that would constitute it as a scam, because I’m not gaining anything financially from what we’re doing,” Peterson told USA TODAY Sports on Monday. “The reality of it is that I have a son (Javan) that’s also in the program and has been in the program for four years.
“If it’s a scam and the kids are not going to school and not doing what they’re supposed to do, then I’m literally scamming myself. And most importantly, I’m hurting my own son. So when people say stuff like that … I would literally be taking my son’s future and throwing it in the trash.”
Chris Bumbaca of USA TODAY Sports contributed to this story. wbush@dispatch.com @Reporterbush