Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern MichiganSchool Millage Whack-A-Mole: How to Convince Voters Every Time to Vote NO Pretending to Be a Local Property Owner
Sunday , 10, November 2019 Section 16 Leave a comment
Another election day in Michigan fades from memory and people are either celebrating or trying to figure out what went wrong. In Baldwin, Michigan, dismally low voter turnout sank yet another millage vote for an aging school building with a leaky roof and crumbling infrastructure that would be cheaper to replace than repair. Baldwin Community Schools once again put up a proposal for the voters in the district, and by only a few votes, it was defeated.
Social media drives so much of how people are informed about anything it’s become a source of information for the media. People living in Lake County, Michigan, are no different, and use social media like Facebook to chat about issues in the area and also inform people about upcoming events, and advertise goods and services of local businesses.
Social media allows anyone to create as many accounts as they can manage and be anyone they want to be online. In the case of one particular troll who enjoys posting on Facebook groups dedicated to Lake County, Michigan, during elections where a millage or bond proposal hangs in the balance, the online presence and posting are guaranteed to appear just before the election and disappear once the bond or millage is defeated. For Baldwin Community Schools, the troll’s name is John Murphy, or Steve Mallery, and possibly even other names.
Steve Mallery’s presence became a daily occurrence in mid-October, just in time for the school districts to inform people about the upcoming bond proposal and encourage people to vote yes. Baldwin Community Schools desperately needs new facilities. “Steve” lamented about how he, a poor retired man living in the district, would be burdened with more taxes he couldn’t afford to pay on his fixed income. He claimed to have inside knowledge about how BCS handles funds from his days as a substitute teacher. He claimed he had a child graduate from BCS. He claimed there was rampant corruption in the district being mishandled by administration. He even went to far as to claim the district bought teachers new cars with millage money instead of spending it on what they said they needed the money for. Every claim Steve Mallery made was a complete lie.
That didn’t stop others from jumping on his bandwagon however and also claiming there were corruption and mismanagement of funding. Another vocal opponent who also disappeared shortly after the bond election was defeated claimed they had been on the school board decades ago so they just knew Mallery was right. Of course, they had never actually seen any corruption and hadn’t bothered to do any research to prove they were right, but they believed it was happening and that was enough for them to vote no.
Mallery suggested the best solution was to close the problem of school building down and bus those students to another school district. That, or everyone who wanted to vote yes needed to donate money to the school. The parents of the children attending the school should also be the ones to foot the bill, not people like him, who had no children attending BCS.
Once the BCS proposal was defeated Steve Mallery and his friends went silent. You would think after a successful campaign to convince people to vote against the BCS millage they would be celebrating.
Some people grew suspicious and began looking into Steve Mallery’s activities on Facebook. When they clicked on his account, they found this:
Jacob Sullivan? Who the hell is Jacob Sullivan?
He’s nobody. This is a fake account on Facebook. The family photo came from this photography studio in Pennsylvania. As for the background image, pretty waterfalls, but you won’t find those anywhere near Irons, Michigan.
Steve Mallery/Jacob Sullivan realized people figured out what happened because this happened in a matter of minutes:
Mallery’s Facebook group also disappeared very quickly.
You can even see that Jacob Sullivan, who used to be Steve Mallery, is an admin.
This reminded people of a similar situation last year when BCS had a bond proposal and someone named John Murphy was the loudest fingers in the group complaining about his taxes going up and how he couldn’t afford it. When another member of the Facebook group pointed out his profile photo was a stock image, he promptly disappeared. The damage was done then too, and the bond proposal for Baldwin Community Schools was defeated.
How much noise did Steve Mallery make? Enough noise that Pioneer Group Staff Writer Catherine Sweeney contacted Mallery for her October 24, 2019 article in the Lake County Star.
It’s obvious Catherine Sweeney read Mallery’s posts on Facebook and decided he would be a good person to quote for her article. How did she verify he was a real person?
Baldwin Community Schools’ proposal was defeated. This means they do not have the funds they need to even repair their 60-year-old school building that desperately needs attention. Next time Facebook group admins need to be more alert to the comments and posts on their groups when the next incarnation of John Murphy/Steve Mallery/Jacob Sullivan pops up to begin his campaign of lies once again in Baldwin, Michigan.
Shell Game The CSA Way: Chuck and Maria’s Partners Properties
Monday , 14, October 2019 Section 16 2 Comments
The best thing with sharing warm and fuzzy stories about Michigan’s for-profit charter schools and the hi-jinks they get themselves into is when a voice in the crowd is eager to share their experiences. Up North Progressive early this morning received an anonymous comment.
Some time in the mid-2000’s Chuck wanted to build a new school building so the high school and middle school grades could have their own space, and asked parents to donate funds to buy land on Taylor Road in Brighton. The company Chuck Stockwell and partner Maria Dockins set up for this real estate deal was called Partners Properties.
That’s easy enough to verify. A quick search on LARA will show if this company exists or ever did. If you have never used LARA to look up a person or business, give it a try. It’s fun to see what pops up.
As for Partners Properties, there isn’t a single listing for it. There are six of them.
Partners Properties LLC through Partners Properties Five LLC all list Maria Dockins as the resident agent. Some of the articles of incorporation are signed by Stockwell, Some of them are signed by Dockins. Partners Properties LLC was incorporated in 2007, so that could be the shell company anonymous says was created to buy the land on Taylor Road.
Except we know a new high/middle school for CSA was never built there. That school is currently the building renovated by Corrigan Construction on 1032 Karl Greimel Drive.
A former R & D facility? Neat.
The other Partners Properties LLC’s were registered after that, with the most recent one, Partners Properties Five LLC, registered in 2017. You can see handwritten on the Articles of Incorporation document in Article II the words “Real estate holding company.”
Could this Partners Properties Five LLC be the shell company created to buy land on Brighton Interior Drive, wait for Chuck Stockwell to beg parents to open their wallets, then announce instead of breaking ground the new middle school would be across the street from the existing CSPA?
What were Partners Properties Two through Four for?
Thank you anonymous for your enlightening comment. CSA’s Chuck Stockwell has quite a shell game going on with parents who send their children to his schools believing he founded CSA because he cared about kids.
Eviction Notice The CSA Way: And Where’s Mr. Beyer Going?
Wednesday , 9, October 2019 Section 16 1 Comment
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.
Keeping Your Children Safe The CSA Way: Pay No Attention to the Threat Behind the Curtain
Tuesday , 1, October 2019 Section 16 Leave a comment
One of the unfortunate realities of attending school in the United States is putting the burden of protecting children from threats of violence while they attend school on everyone but the people responsible. Any instance of any person claiming they want to shoot up a school or bomb a school must be taken as a credible threat, even if they never intended to do so. Schools prepare for violent acts by holding lockdown drills, notifying the authorities of threats, and keeping parents informed of what’s happening. To not go through these steps anymore is criminal negligence.
But that’s not The CSA Way.
Since September 19, 2019, CSA students and teachers of Charyl Stockwell Preparatory Academy have been terrified as messages scratched into the walls of the bathrooms at the school appeared promising violence on October 2, 2019. The threats included statements that the school would be shot up on October 2nd and it would really happen. CSPA’s method of dealing with the threat was to paint over the scratched messages and keep quiet about it.
The physical messages may be blurred beyond recognition, but the school administrators were unable to erase the images from the minds of the students.
Once the information finally came to the attention of parents, they did what any parent would do in this situation: Took matters into their own hands and got to the bottom of it.
October 2, 2019, is “Count Day” in Michigan. This is one of two days during the school year no school administrator or their office staff wants students to be absent. The number of students in your school that day is how the state of Michigan allocates the funds you need to operate the school and educate students for the school year. Real public school districts are required to spend it all on educating students. For-profit charter schools can spend significantly less and still try to get away with calling themselves a public school.
What this means is for weeks someone has threatened CSA with violence on the day Michigan schools have the highest attendance of the year and the school refused to inform parents what was happening and covered up evidence of the threats so the police had nothing to assess the credibility of the threat.
Parents are furious, especially when they discovered CSPA tried to cover up the threats for weeks. Now Count Day is here, parents refuse to send their kids to school, and the Brighton Police Department only agreed to have police on campus on Wednesday after the uproar from parents would not be silenced.
And parents should never be silenced when it comes to the safety of their children or kept in the dark on any aspect of Charyl Stockwell Academy. Informing parents of threats made to the school is not the only thing CSA likes to keep the public in the dark about.
October 2, 2019, is the last day in Michigan you can enroll your children into a school that will treat shooting threats to your school seriously as a credible threat and keeps you informed of what is happening. Also, Chuck Stockwell won’t get your children’s per-pupil tuition grant.
Extorting Money The CSA Way: New Middle School Bait and Switch
Saturday , 28, September 2019 Section 16 3 Comments
For-profit Charyl Stockwell Academy likes to call itself a school district even though they don’t have boundaries, an elected school board, nor can they hold elections to approve bonds or millages. Those are methods of funding reserved for real public school districts that have real boundaries and real elected school boards. Charyl Stockwell Preparatory Academy plans to expand their business to a third building just for the middle school aged customers in 2020.
When for-profit charter schools want to expand, they have to either take out a loan or ask for donations. Sometimes, they even embezzle money from one for-profit charter school to pay for another, and then ask the non-elected board of the first for-profit charter school to call the stolen taxpayer’s school funding a loan so they can avoid paying taxes on the money they embezzled.
Last spring Chuck Stockwell, founder of Charyl Stockwell Academy, decided to show parents of children attending the middle school in 2020 designs for a brand new building at their big fundraiser event, the Beluga Ball. Parents were impressed with the plans for the new school Stockwell promised to break ground that spring, and would be completed in time for fall of 2020. The location for this project was “Brighton Interior Drive just around the corner from the present CSPA campus.” Plans shown to the parents with images and a video consisted of a new, breathtaking modern school with enough land to provide adequate outdoor space for students.
The catch of course was in order to begin construction this new building for the CSA franchise Chuck needed money to fund the project. Parents believing they were getting a brand new school building dug deep and donated funds to CSA.
In August of 2019 while CSA students and parents were conveniently out of sight the local news ran a story that CSA had purchased an office building across the street from the current middle/high school located at 1032 Karl Greimel Drive. Snugly nestled in a developing industrial center, the building is one of those multiple office buildings with all of the surrounding property paved for parking. Behind the office building is a large German-owned factory where they build automobile exhaust systems. On either side of the office building CSA purchased for their new middle school are even more office buildings. The location of this existing structure doesn’t have enough room for any outdoor space for students as described in the plans presented to parents at the Beluga Ball. Chuck didn’t even bother to inform parents of the switch until the story hit the news.
Real estate is one way the for-profit charter school industry turns operating schools into a profitable business. So much taxpayer money now goes into purchasing property for charter schools there are entire real estate firms in the United States dealing exclusively with charter school-related property purchases. Real estate is the new niche investment scheme people use to enrich themselves and buying up property to be converted into for-profit schools is part of the investment plan for many. Don’t forget, Chuck Stockwell’s first charter school partner, Dr. Steve Ingersoll, bought up blocks of Bay City, Michigan, to create his own company town fiefdom using embezzled taxpayer dollars meant to fund his for-profit charter schools. Charter school real estate is so hot there is concern it may be the next real estate bubble to burst.
To the parents of Charyl Stockwell for-profit Charter School: The last day to register your children at a real public school and have the per-pupil tuition grant go to the new school is Wednesday, October 2, 2019. After that day, Chuck Stockwell will get that money no matter where you children attend school for the 2019 – 2020 school year.
Frontline Documentary “Flint’s Deadly Water” Airs Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Monday , 9, September 2019 Flint Water Leave a commentIn this clip medical team leader, Dr. Shawn McElmurry, describes how the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services chair Nick Lyon responded when a member of the team told him people were going to die if they didn’t have the resources from the state they needed to find the source of the deadly Legionnaire’s disease outbreak .
The Snyder administration needs to answer for this disaster they needlessly created in Flint and tried to cover up.
Michigan’s County Boards of Commissioners Collectively Pass Resolutions Supporting Enbridge Line 5 ALEC-Style
Saturday , 7, September 2019 Enbridge Line 5 Leave a comment
Michigan Campaign Finance Network published an article about the recent activity with County Boards of Commissioners passing resolutions in favor of building a tunnel in the Straits of Mackinac for housing Enbridge Line 5. Why are these local governments doing this? Because Enbridge wants to build the tunnel, the previous state administration signed a lame-duck session law that said they could, but the new state government that Enbridge worked very hard to make sure didn’t get elected wants to decommission the 65-year-old pipeline that threatens the Straits. So now Enbridge looks to county-level government to give them the support they want.
So far in 2019, eight County Boards of Commissioners have passed a resolution expressing support for the Enbridge Line 5 Tunnel and that without gas from the pipeline, the Upper Peninsula wouldn’t have natural gas for heating. The resolutions are all similar in language and that is because Dickinson County, the first to pass a pro-Enbridge resolution, shared theirs with other counties in the UP. Enbridge claims they did not provide any language for the resolutions passed. During the 2019 Michigan Association of Counties, Enbridge was a major sponsor of the conference. So far this year Enbridge has spent over $100,000 in lobbying fees.
Unfortunately, the slick full page ads insisting Enbridge Line 5 has never had a spill in 65 years and that they provide propane for 65 percent of UP homes for heating are simply not true. The number for how much gas they provide the UP has come down from the 85 percent they used to claim to 65 percent. The reality is Enbridge Line 5 only supplies about 12,000 homes in the central part of the UP. The rest comes from Wisconsin or from Canada via the Soo. As for spills, Enbridge Line 5 has a long history of spills throughout its 65-year history, the only section of pipeline that hasn’t had a spill yet is under the Mackinac Bridge. And let’s not forget the 2010 spill in the Kalamazoo River when a million gallons of oil spilled when Enbridge Line 6B ruptured. Enbridge’s fix for that problem was put in a new pipe with double the capacity of the old pipe.
Options to Enbridge Line 5 supplying the middle section of the UP with natural gas exist and are viable. Insisting that Enbridge must be allowed to put the Great Lakes at risk by providing two rail tanker cars of natural gas per day to 12,000 homes in the UP is the pinnacle of corporate greed and irresponsibility. Families in the UP don’t have to freeze for Enbridge profits if people are willing to look at the options.
Instead, Enbridge funnels money into the state with full-page ads and circumvents the will of Michigan voters who elected people who would work to shut down Line 5 by convincing county-level government, some of which receive no tangible benefit from Line 5 existing (hello, Grand Traverse County?) that supporting Enbridge is in their best interest. They even have Oakland County considering supporting Enbridge Line 5’s plans to dig under the Straits of Mackinac.
It’s time to stop Enbridge’s subterfuge in Michigan and shut down Line 5 for good.
Do You Support Recreational Marijuana Sold in Cadillac? Let the City Council Know Today at 6 PM
Tuesday , 3, September 2019 Community, Medical Marijuana, Recreational Marijuana Leave a comment
Cadillac City Council will consider an ordinance to allow recreational marijuana businesses to hang their shingle in the city tonight at Cadillac City Hall.
Recreational marijuana became legal in Michigan after a citizens ballot referendum was approved overwhelmingly by the voters of Michigan in the 2018 election. Provided local cities and townships approve recreational marijuana sales in their districts, the state Marijuana Regulatory Agency will begin accepting applications on November 1, 2019.
Some northern Michigan townships, villages and cities have already banned commercial marijuana businesses from opening in their communities. Overall, 506 Michigan communities have said no to recreational marijuana establishments.
The types of businesses that could open include planners for marijuana-themed events, social clubs, and marijuana events. Marijuana retail establishments will be able to make deliveries to homes and clubs.
Medical marijuana will still follow the same rules established after the 2008 medical marijuana law passed. These dispensaries will have a process to follow to convert to recreational businesses.
Your chance to let the Cadillac City Council know if recreational marijuana would be good or bad for the city happens today at 6 PM at the Cadillac City Hall on North Lake Street.
Todd “Fivehead” Courser Pleads No Contest for Being a Really Crappy Public Servant
Wednesday , 28, August 2019 Michigan Republicans, Tea Party 2 Comments
Attorney General Dana Nessel announced today in Lansing that former Michigan State House Rep Todd Courser (R – Probably still grousing about the seats) finally plead no contest to Willful Neglect of Duty by a Public Officer. He now faces sentencing on September 16, 2019, where he could receive a fine of $1000 and up to a year in prison. There isn’t a more deserving jerk than good ole “Let them eat Hamburger Helper” Todd.
Todd Courser’s ability to fictionalize his political career began during his campaign in 2014 when he fabricated a story that “somebody” posted fliers all over Lapeer that he was a child molester. Claiming a phantom police report and the authorities would soon get to the bottom of it, Courser defeated his Democratic opponent by 300 votes. Todd Courser and tea party cohort Cindy Gamrat (R-Cutco knives made me the person I am today) wasted no time once they were sworn into the State Legislature with their Contract for Liberty promoting things like freedom to worship (Christian only), all taxes are theft, Life begins as soon as a gleam appears in daddy’s eye, and Common Core will make our children gay.
By the summer of 2015, strange text messages appeared threatening to expose Courser and Gamrat because they were more than just Knights of Christ United in Faith fighting liberalism on the floor of the Michigan State House, they were lovers united by the true love of freedom and lunchtime foot rubs between scarfing McDonald’s french fries.
Suddenly, Todd had to do something to save his job legislating freedom and forcing staff to keep weird hours that made no sense except for spending after hours with Cindy working for Michigan’s 82nd State House District. His mind churned turgidly fabricating something so crazy nobody would believe it, well, some would believe it, yes, of course, they will, maybe, it would distract everyone from the truth. Courser decided to make up an elaborate lie about himself that would prove he wasn’t having an affair with Gamrat because he was too busy being addicted to porn, a flaming homosexual, hired male prostitutes and had sex with them in filthy alleyways behind bars in Lansing, and why not, throw child molester back into the pile as well.
And then we all remember what happened after that.
Today Todd finally did the right thing for once in his ridiculous life and now faces the punishment he deserves.
“Today’s decision by Todd Courser to plead no contest to a one-year misdemeanor may be the wisest decision he has made in years. This case has had a long, torturous history and his decision to acknowledge responsibility for his actions is long overdue.”
Our Attorney General is right, but what most normal people don’t realize is for people like Todd Courser it’s perfectly fine for Christians like him to lie, cheat, have affairs, and insist he needs to stay in office as God intended. Fundamentalist religious fanatics like Courser and Gamrat believe they’re serving a higher purpose for God, therefore they can break as many of God’s commandments as they want as long as there are no more homosexuals, all pregnancies come to full term no matter what, and everyone is just as zealous as they are.
Good riddance, Todd. If there is a merciful God, may this be the last time anyone in Michigan ever has to hear your name mentioned ever again.