Up North Progressive

October has been a bizarre month for Charyl Stockwell Academy. An email went out to parents on Monday, October 7, 2019, that Steven Beyer, the principal turned superintendent for the last 60 days abruptly resigned. On October 8, 2019, it was officially announced that CSA would lease the building across the street owned by Michael Corrigan, a businessman who has just about every business you can imagine, and Corrigan construction company will renovate the office building into facilities more suited for a school.

While parents pass around a petition demanding Mr. Beyer return to CSA only days after they demanded he be fired for the way threats to the school were handled, questions float around the school among parents and staff. Did Mr. Beyer suddenly depart after completely mishandling a school shooting threat at CSPA on October 2, 2019, which also happened to be Count Day? Parents were so alarmed by the cavalier attitude of the administration, less than 50 percent of CSA students attended school on October 2nd. In Michigan, if a school’s census drops below 70 percent then they can not count the day as a day of instruction. Michigan’s public schools and for-profit charter schools are required to hold classes a set number of days every year. Once the school goes over six missed days of instruction, then the school must adjust its schedule to make up those missing days. Students missing school at CSA aren’t that big of a concern, however, as parents pull their kids out of school for weeks or even months at a time and CSA never bothers to report those children as truant.

But was the threat of shooting up CSPA on Count Day scratched into the bathroom stalls of the middle/high school building and the lack of taking the correct steps to assure parents their children would be safe the only reason Mr. Beyer resigned without warning? What about the announcement the very next day in the local news that CSA’s administrative board gave Chuck Stockwell the nod to sign a lease for the office building across the street? There seems to be some confusion on what exactly CSA claimed were their plans for a new school building.

The office building the news reports CSA has a lease in hand for is currently full of tenants who were yet to be notified they needed to move out. One of those tenants in the largest suite of offices is Dr. Mo. Dr. Mo El-Fouy is the local pediatrician and the name everyone knows in Livingston County when parents need a good doctor who specializes in treating children. While CSA greeted visitors at the front door of their schools with signs on tripods showing the new plans for the office building across the street in August of 2019, Dr. Mo, the dentist office, and the urgent care clinic all went about their normal day treating patients and complaining about CSPA’s inadequate parking that made parents dropping off and picking up children take up parking in their lot that they needed for their patients. When Dr. Mo first learned of the plans to make the office building into a school, it was Michael Corrigan himself who assured Dr. Mo nothing was signed and there was no reason for him to move his practice. On October 8, 2019, Corrigan still hadn’t informed Dr. Mo or the other tenants they needed to clear out by November 1, 2019.

In case you’re wondering, this is not the first time Mike Corrigan and Chuck Stockwell have entered into a partnership. All of the buildings pictured if you mash the link are either currently used by charter schools managed by CS Partners or were in the past. Charter school real estate is big business and more important to people who run charter schools than actually educating children. Mike Corrigan and Chuck Stockwell have skipped arm in arm down this lucrative path before.

Remember last spring at the Beluga Ball when after some dinner, entertainment, and drinks Chuck Stockwell shared the good news a new middle school would be ready for CSA students by 2020, and they were breaking ground in the spring on Brighton Interior Drive? Parents donated generously, especially after they saw plans presented at the ball and posted online of a brand new state of the art modern school building including outdoor facilities for the students. The internet was scrubbed of those plans quickly with the August announcement that the new middle school would actually be located across the street.

Petitions to get Mr. Beyer back won’t solve the CSA problem. The problem is your children attend a for-profit school where state tuition dollars to educate students are a secondary priority to Chuck‘s building fund. It is the misfortune of those parents they really have no idea what happens to their money once CS Partners takes its cut for management of the schools and to pay teachers. Parents are even tapped at CSA to help pay the teachers through donations!

CSA parents need to get together, confront the leadership of CSA and ask some hard questions. Why wasn’t the threat of a school shooting on Count Day took more seriously? Why was the proof of the threat painted over with the intent of concealing it? Why did Chuck Stockwell beg for handouts last spring to build a new school on Brighton Interior Drive only to change gears and lease the office space across the street instead of surrounded by parking, access roads, and a great big factory? Why does Chuck need parents to donate money for a new school if he’s not building a new school? Did he ever intend to build a new school? Did Chuck even make an effort to buy property on Brighton Interior Drive, or was that just dangled at parents like a carrot to get them to open their wallets? And finally, why did Michael Corrigan insist Dr. Mo had nothing to worry about he would never have to move his practice out of that office building CSA told everyone was soon going to be their new school?

CSA parents need to demand answers.