A popular, A-rated charter school in Seminole County faces turmoil over the possible departure of a well-liked principal, with some parents blaming board members for unfairly pushing out a talented educator.
The months-long struggle at Choices in Learning Elementary Charter School began, by most accounts, after a board member was denied permission to deliver a tiara to his daughter, a student at the school, on her birthday.
The tumult has some fearful for the future of the Winter Springs school, and many are angry they have little recourse because the school’s governing board is not elected.
“It’s definitely nuts, for sure,” said Rian Haszko, who has two children enrolled at the school. “We’re all pretty much blown away with what’s going on right now.”
Board members’ “sense of power,” seems to be guiding decisions that should be based on educational needs, Haszko said.
“At the end of the day, this is an elementary school. We’re here to make sure our kids get an education,” she said.
Like all charter schools, Choices in Learning is a public school run by a private group. It has about 690 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade and on average a waiting list of 365 students, according to Seminole County Public Schools and the school.
It has earned an A grade from the state every year since 2008, and in 2019 was named a National Blue Ribbon School, both honors that result from students performing well on Florida’s standardized tests.
The recent problems, documented in complaints, emails and an attorney’s investigation began on Nov. 2 when Jeff Peters, a member of the school’s board of directors, arrived at the school with the birthday gift tiara for his daughter and a stuffed animal for his son.
He wanted to deliver them to his children, but the school’s clerk turned him away, telling him school policy did not allow parents to hand-deliver items during class, especially during the reading lessons that are a key part of the school’s curriculum.
Peters’ “aggressive” response upset the school’s clerk enough that later that day she emailed the school’s attorney to detail her concerns. Peters, in an email to other board members that day, said he was upset that as a board member, he was not allowed to “have casual conversations with teachers and staff.”
The next day, Peters returned to the school and insisted he walk around the campus. Principal Erin Mandell allowed him to do that briefly but on the advice of the school’s attorney then asked him to leave, emails from Mandell and other employees show. Some staff called the office unsure about the man who was in the hallways, the emails noted.
In the following days, Peters requested footage from the school’s security cameras in an effort to make sure Mandell was working and sought a copy of Mandell’s personnel file from SCPS, where she’d worked previously before Choices in Learning hired her in late 2020, documents show.
At a Nov. 16 board meeting, several former employees spoke critically of Mandell, though many more current staff praised her work at the school, meeting minutes show.
Pamela Lohri, who has two children at the school, was in attendance. The former employees created a sense that it was “an ambush meeting,” orchestrated to make Mandell look bad, Lohri said.
That puzzled her. Mandell has added extracurricular activities and school events to Choices in Learning and created a better atmosphere on campus than her predecessor, she said. “It’s a great school. The teachers are amazing. The principal is amazing.”
At the board’s Nov. 30 meeting, Mandell resigned, told if she did not she would be fired, according to her attorney. The board voted 3-2 to accept her resignation. The two board members who voted “no” both said the board “failed” and praised Mandell, according to minutes of the meeting.
The morning of that meeting, Peters, who voted to accept Mandell’s resignation, texted the four other board members to say, “I want you to know that God is with us we do the work He has called us to do.” His message went on to quote the Bible, saying, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”
Lohri received that message in a public records request and shared it and other records with the Orlando Sentinel. She said she was stunned by the religious message and the tone.
“I can’t imagine why anybody would send a message like that,” she said. “We’re not a private school.”
She also did not understand why Mandell, in her view, was being pushed out. When she asked board members, she was told to request Mandell’s evaluation and any discipline records.
She did. But the documents show no disciplinary actions and an evaluation that was “impeccable,” Lohri said.
Since then, more than 200 parents have signed an online petition demanding the board stop the “forced resignation” of Choices in Learning’s principal, and some have attended board meetings in red T-shirts that read, “I Stand with Mandell.”
Mandell in December filed with the school formal bullying and harassment complaints against Peters and Tina Marsh, the board’s chair. They detailed Peters’ visits to the school and Marsh’s insistence that Mandell go to campus when it was shuttered because of Hurricane Nicole to post notices about an upcoming board meeting, among other issues.
At the board’s Feb. 22 meeting, Mandell withdrew her resignation, though the board did not act on the withdrawal and is now searching for her replacement, according to an online job posting. Mandell remains in the job for now, however.
Mandell declined to comment and referred questions to her attorney, Robert Mandell.
Robert Mandell, her ex-husband, said board members acted wrongly against her. “Clearly what they’re doing is in retaliation for not giving board members special privileges. And they’ve created a hostile work environment.”
He declined to say exactly what would happen next but said, “There is definitely more to come depending what their actions are.”
Peters, Craft and board member Maja Tesanovic voted to accept Mandell’s resignation. All declined via email to comment for this story.
Craft, the board’s chair, referred questions to the board’s new attorney, Thomas Sternberg, who also declined to comment.
The two other board members, Desiree Moss and Julien Nogues, could not be reached.
The board’s previous attorney, Nathan McCoy, began an investigation into Peters’ visits to the school in November, noting at the Nov. 16 meeting that he had done 17 interviews.
But he terminated his contract with the school on Feb. 1, citing, among other issues, a conflict of interest and “inaccurate and disparaging remarks” made against his firm by the board, his termination letter shows.
The board than tapped Sternberg’s firm Tripp Scott of Fort Lauderdale to do an investigation that could be wrapped up in 15 days.
That report concluded that neither Craft nor Peters’ actions met the legal definition of bullying and harassment. But it said Peters’ actions should cease as they could “lead a reasonable person to believe that there is specific intent as against Ms. Mandell” and that his efforts were “retaliatory.”
Sternberg shared some of his report with the board on Feb. 22 and at its next meeting, he was hired as its new attorney.
Like other charter schools, Choices of Learning operates under a charter, or contract, approved by the Seminole County School Board. It currently is in the last year of a 15-year charter so it will need to seek renewal next year.
The school’s board of directors is its governing body. The board, which can have from three to seven members, can appoint and remove its own members, according to its bylaws. Members have no term limits so can keep serving unless they resign or are voted out by two-thirds of the board.
All that makes upset parents feel they have no say in what is happening.
“We’re just at a loss what we, as a community, can do because the bylaws don’t include anything,” said Stacey Barber, a parent of two Choices of Learning students who was on the board for about a year but voted off by other members. “The question is who do parents go to and what are those checks and balances?”
Barber said she was removed after she questioned the hiring of McCoy as attorney because he had handled personal cases for Craft, the board’s chair.
“It’s very alarming. It’s very concerning,” Barber said. “It’s very frustrating.”
--------
