Foundations withdraws bid to operate charter at King
In a letter to the School District of Philadelphia and Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, Foundations Inc. CEO Rhonda H. Lauer wrote the company no longer wants a part in the district’s Renaissance Schools program due to “unrelenting hostility.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer obtained the letter, which comes after NewsWorks and the Public School Notebook reported on the questionable ethics that led to Foundations’ winning bid for a charter school deal with Martin Luther King High School.
Foundations was granted the charter by the School Reform Commission after Mosaica, the original winning bidder, withdrew. Our coverage of the charter change-up brought to light private discussions among SRC Chairman Robert Archie, State Rep. Dwight Evans and John Q. Porter of Mosaica Education that occurred between the time Mosaica was granted the contract and then withdrew, leaving Foundations the winning bidder to run King.
WHYY’s Shai Ben-Yaacov and the Notebook’s Bill Hangley will have more on these developments.
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