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Friday, May 25, 2007

THE STORY OF ACADEMIA SEMILLAS DEL PUEBLO: INTRODUCTION

Many of you have heard about the LAUSD Charter school "Academia Semilla Del Pueblo".

ACADEMIA SEMILLAS DEL PUEBLO: In Care of MARCOS AGUILAR, LOS ANGELES, CA 90032-1942: IRS Subsection 501(c)(3) - A religious, educational, charitable, scientific or literary organization. Exempt Since 12-2001 Form 990 Amount $2,104,241

Previously, the school has been surrounded in controversy over it's separatist cultural agenda, and it's low API test scores. The math scores are the lowest in the State. So until now, the story about Semilla has been whether the school should have it's Charter re-newed by LAUSD, or not.

Well as of March '07, it was first denied -- then after a promise that the school promised (with sugar on top) that they would raise test scores, they were given approval for not only another five years of LAUSD "gravy train" money; but will be allowed to accept 600 students (up from an initial approval of 200, for which they got $2,000,000).

So with 600 students, not only can they rake in a lot more LAUSD AND State Education money (cause they are paid per head), now the school has to look for a bigger building; which also means they will probably need more rent money from LAUSD and the State.

I heard the school is already looking for a new location, to build a big, new school -- somewhere on the Eastside. Exact location is still trying to be negotiated. Rumor had it that they had $13 million to work with, but they are having a tough time striking a deal. Word is, they tried to get some Park space in Rose Hill, El Sereno (and possibly elsewhere), but nothing has panned out as of yet.

[GREAT...so let's give them more money, for more kids, when they can't even get 200 right?!?! What if in five years the scores are still the same? Do they give the money back? Do the kids have to repeat the grades?]

Semilla does not own the school, itself: They rent it from a separate company called TZICATL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: In Care of Name MARCOS AGUILAR, LOS ANGELES, CA 90032-1942. They are listed as an IRS Subsection 501(c)(3) - A religious, educational, charitable, scientific or literary organization.
Classification Community, Neighborhood Development, Improvement (General).

In June 2002, TZICATL CDC acquired a blighted commercial structure to be rehabilitiated and utilized as the site for a non-profit charter school.

The real estate tax was $193 and zero cents. The land cost $503,152; the building cost $300,000; and the loan fee was $5,000; for a total of 811,152.

And oh yeah...RAZA DEVELOPMENT FUND, INC. provided $808,000 (7% interest rate) on 06/06/02 (maturity date: 06/05/07), with repayment terms of $25,000/yr for '02-'03; $30,000/yr for '04-'07. It was secured by a first deed of trust on a home on Huntington Drive to purchase and renovate the building.

The list of officers, directors and trustees included; Marcos Aguilar, Chairman; Antonia Viteri, Secretary; Minnie Ferguson, Treasurer and Norm Apostal, Abel Aguilar, Erica Friedman, and Irene Vasquez, Directors.

To facilitate the purchase of TZICATL's first development, Boardmember Erica Friedman advanced $25,000 toward an open escrow in June 2002, that was repaid in October 2002.

When the IRS asked RAZA, INC., "Is the organization related through common membership, governing bodies, trustees, officers, etc to any other non-exempt organization; the answer is "Yes, National Council of La Raza (exempt)".

RAZA claims exemption BECAUSE they support NC of La Raza -- and RAZA put up $808,000 for the building, that was renovated and used for the school.

RAZA Development Corp. borrowed $185,000 on the property on Aguilar's Huntington Dr. South last year.

The property was purchased in 2001 for $800,000. It was an ALL CASH purchase from a William Vasquez. Mr. Vasquez only owned this property for 6 MONTHS, AND HE ONLY PAID $250,000 for it!!!

Vasquez made a tidy profit of $550,000 IN A PERIOD OF SIX MONTHS.
CLICK READ MORE FOR A WHOLE LOT MORE...
COST PER STUDENT: There sure seems like a whole lot of money being spent for 200 kids.

In 2004, you had teachers making $58,355 (plus $4,814 in benefits);

In 2003, Marcos was making $90,295 (plus $9,409 contributions) AS SECRETARY! Minnie Ferguson $91,427/$7,543. Isidro Nunez (business manager) was paid $68,000/$7000. Total Education Solutions (Special Ed services) was paid $54,874, too.

HEY LAUSD: Was Marcos taking a salary as Board Member AND Principal? I don't see the salary as principal? It doesn't show up on my batcomputer if he took under $50,000 as principal. (Which would be shady, cause the teachers make more.)

Here are some issues:

Bet no one on the board complains about the principal...you have a board member, who is also the principal, who also owns the building (that was basically donated to him by Raza). The building sure did skyrocket in value in one-year's time. (They must have an AWESOME real estate appraiser!)

LAUSD provides money to pay the rent for the school, and the school pays itself, since it owns the building, and Marcos gets to set the amount of annual rent he pays himself. (Nice!)

The list of Academia Semillas del Pueblo Charter School donors and supporters, besides taxpayers include:

National Council of La Raza Charter School Development Initiative
Raza Development Fund, Inc.
Glendale Nissan/Infinity, Inc.
California State University, Los Angeles
Pasadena City College - MeCHA
The Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture

So you have Marcos Aguilar who is principal, board member (along with his wife) AND owns the separate company that builds and owns the school, so Marcos gets to decide how much rent money he's gonna charge himself, then pay himself with LAUSD and State money. (Niiiiiiiice!) And when you run a Charter school, if your test scores are not high enough you can lose the right to use the land your school sits on. Well, luckily, Semilla doesn't own the school or the land, so they can't lose lose it. (Even though the principal/board member actually owns it.)

But let's just say for arguments sake, you want to yank your kid out of LAUSD and pop him/her into a Charter school, that is supposed to produce higher levels of student achievement: But you hear Semilla has rock bottom test scores. So you figure, "Gee, I'll complain to the school board and have him replaced." Except he and his wife and cronies ARE the school board. So forget that!

You gotta go one level higher now, and talk to the landlord, and tell them to kick this under-performing school out of the building, and replace it with a more responsible Charter operator.

SLIGHT PROBLEM: Remember, Aguilar and his wife/compainion (not sure if they are legally married) ARE the landlord/building/land owners. (So you're not gonna have much luck there, either.)

It's called a conflict of interest, and could very well be in violation of LAUSD/State Charter rules.

And now, they have been approved for another five years. But this is bascially the "preface" of the story, because it is a deep one and a wide one. I am told there are a lot of familiar names associated with the Semilla/Tzicatl posse.

Some have warned ZD that there is a lot of shady impropriaties involved with the back and forth selling of the building; the escrow appraisals (big jumps in value), there was a whole lot of improvement money spent on the school -- what are the improvements; they are looking for land to build a big, new school, but no one has reported that they are looking for a new school.

Of course not, they want to get all the state and city construction budget and build it themselves. [Can't argue with that? Who WOULDN'T want to? I want to!]

And I am told, by the time the entire story unravels (which it is pretty close to doing), a few local and state politicians may be working on the construction site themselves, cause they'll be out of elected life. (But as of now, I'm still waiting to see the paperwork.)

However, you may have heard that Doug McIntyre of 790-KABC sent reporter Sandy Wells to the school to investigate the school. Well there must have been something they didn't want him to find out -- or maybe he DID find out...because, FIRST someone tried to run him over with a car (which means he was willing to risk killing him, cause Wells had to jump out of the way); then his audio was stolen.

And that's when some folks figured this story was about more than counting on a system of twenty, learning languages like Mandarin, and a whole lot of Azteck singing and dancing. (More than a mere culture clash.) So that's when Semilla was looked into a little bit further, and all this stuff about the building, who supports/donates to them, associations with local/state politicians, and the whole enchilada fell into ZD's lap.

So this is a good stopping point, for the starting point. Just a little appetizer to familiarize everyone with the school besides the cultural aspect. And I would like to add, whether I agree with the culture or philosophy of the school isn't an issue I was covering until now. This is important because Villaraigosa has control of LAUSD school board, at the same time Eli Broad is funding a Charter School movement in Los Angeles. So that's a lot of City and State Education money that will be given out over the next several years. And although I support the concept of Charter schools to help raise student achievement...there are some serious concerns over fraud, waste and abuse of the funds.

Cool Website that compares Semilla with other schools in the area and district.

MORE TO COME...

14 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Oh no...LOOKS LIKE GEORGE BUSH WANTS TO JOIN BROAD, VILLARAIGOSA & ASSOCIATES IN PRIVATIZING THE EDUCATION SYSTEM. OOPS, MAYBE BUSH IS THE ONE PUSHING FOR IT!

PRESS RELEASE
$12.9 Million in Grants Awarded for Critical Foreign Language Instruction

Arabic, Chinese, Russia, Hindi, Farsi Among Languages Targeted for Learning

FOR RELEASE:
October 13, 2006

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced the award of $12.9 million in grants to school districts in 22 states to help dramatically increase the number of Americans learning foreign languages deemed critical to national security and commerce.

The grants, part of President Bush's National Security Language Initiative, are intended to address the shortage of critical foreign language speakers by supporting new and expanded programs in grades K-12.

"Languages like Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi and Farsi are not only essential for trade in the global economy, but also to our national security," Secretary Spellings said. "When it comes to foreign languages, our students get started too late—and too few study critical languages. We can and must turn this around."

Less than 1 percent of American high school students combined study Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, Japanese, Korean, Russian or Urdu, according to the State Department.

The $12.9 million in new grants being announced today, together with continuation of funding for existing Foreign Language Assistance grants, total more than $22 million that has been awarded throughout the country in recent days to help address the shortage of critical foreign language speakers.

For example, Chinese is the most widely spoken first language in the world, but less than one-half of one percent of American students taking a foreign language in grades K-12 study Chinese.

President Bush's National Security Language Initiative is designed to significantly increase the number of Americans learning critical need foreign languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi, and others through new and expanded programs from kindergarten through university and into the workforce.

An essential component of U.S. national security in the post-9/11 world is the ability to engage foreign governments and peoples, especially in critical regions, to encourage reform, promote understanding, convey respect for other cultures and provide an opportunity to learn more about America and its citizens.

To do this, Americans must be able to communicate in other languages, a challenge for which most citizens are totally unprepared. To address these needs, the departments of Education, State, and Defense, and Office of the Director of National Intelligence have developed a comprehensive national plan to expand U.S. foreign language education beginning in kindergarten and continuing throughout formal schooling and into the workforce with new programs and resources.

For more information on the initiative, visit http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/competitiveness/nsli/index.html.

Foreign Language Assistance Program
Office of English Language Acquisition
New Grants to Local Education Agencies for FY 2006

AK — ANCHORAGE, Anchorage School District, $217,887
CA — BELMONT, Carlmont High School, $70,444
CA — GLENDALE, Glendale Unified School District, $300,000
CA — IMPERIAL BEACH, South Bay Union School District, $273,520
CA — LOS ANGELES, Academia Semillas del Pueblo Charter School, $101,392
CA — LOS ANGELES, Wilton Place Elementary, $147,121
CA — MISSION VIEJO, Saddleback Valley Unified School District, $294,335
CA — REDDING, Shasta Union High School District, $135,000
CA — SACRAMENTO, Language Academy of Sacramento, $150,000
CA — SACRAMENTO, North Sacramento School District, $299,812
CA — SAN FRANCISCO, San Francisco Unified School District, $300,000
CA — SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Capistrano Unified School District, $121,880
CA — SONOMA, Adele Harrison Middle School, $167,971
CA — SONOMA, Sonoma Valley Unified School District, $172,092
CA — VALLEJO, MIT Academy, $105,754
CA — WALNUT, Walnut Valley Unified School District, $251,965

May 25, 2007 4:57 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

ZD:

Stick to what you know....

Who knows what that is, but it sure in hell is not ASDP Charter School, East Los Angeles or anything else having to do with La Raza.

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."
Mark Twain

Your truly,
XF

May 25, 2007 6:46 PM  

Blogger Z.A.P. (Zuma Action Plan) said:

6:46pm,

What do you mean this isn't ASDP?
I took the info directly off IRS 990 forms. What did I get wrong? I want to correct it.

May 25, 2007 7:29 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Zuma;

If this was just awarded to Academia Semillas del Pueblo Charter School,for $101,392, it will not be posted to the IRS record until next Apr 15th. So if they have 2 Million on 2006 IRS this year, next year they should have 2 million plus $01,392 as a grant.

May 25, 2007 9:00 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

The Beverly Hills, co-founder of Americorp Funding, will plead guilty to bank fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and loan fraud, and false statements on a tax return, says the U.S. Attorney's office in LA.

--The scheme allegedly involved flipping properties, first buying them at market value, then using "straw buyers" who would agree to pay vastly inflated prices.

--Five people have been previously charged in the scam, which dates to loans made from 2000 to 2002. (Do these names ring a bell: Charles Elliott Fitzgerald? Mark Alan Abrams? They allegedly bought the homes involved in the scam, and used Maize to get mortgages for "straw buyers.")

--One example: A Bel Air home bought for $735,000, then flipped to a "straw buyer" for $2.37 million.

--Maize allegedly arranged the mortgages through other banks, and received kickbacks on the deals.

--Lehman Brothers Bank appears to have been notably asleep at the switch: It was duped into funding 40 loans involving the Maize scam, totalling $28 million, in just two years.

No humans, this isn't tied in to Semilla, however the concept might...right?

May 25, 2007 10:16 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Academia wants Elephant Hill Property.

May 25, 2007 10:46 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Guess they have to "flip" another property or everything else like the ones they did before.
It will be hard to accommodate 600 students easier than 300.

May 25, 2007 11:19 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

Tamar Galatzan, a high level B'nai B'rith operative and a former Chief Counsel of the notorious ADL of B'nai B'rith was elected to the seven member Los Angeles Unified School Board yesterday. The ADL is alleged to be a branch of the Israeli MOSSAD. The Los Angeles office of the ADL, where Galatzan had her office, came under close scrutiny recently for spying on Arab, Muslim and Christian activists who are critical of Israel and its policies against the Palestinian people. They collect and maintain extensive files on pro-Palestinian activists in the US which they then send to the MOSSAD in Israel say the allegations.

Tamar Galatzan, as an official of the ADL, was quoted in a Los Angeles news tabloid, saying something very chilling against the publisher of La Voz de Aztlan. She was quoted saying, concerning our publisher, "We're going to keep an eye on him." We believe that her statement was designed to intimidate the staff of this publication into not publishing information critical of Israel. The ADL of B'nai B'rith has also published a significant amount of spurious and false information about La Voz de Aztlan on their website.

Now the Mexican-American community of Los Angeles should keep an eye on Tamar Galatzan and what she does on the school board which will impact the education of our children. Galatzan joins two other "Daughters of the Covenant" on the school board, Marlene Canter and Julie Korenstein.

Ernesto Cienfuegos of La Voz de Aztlan reported on Tamar Galatzan in a May of 2002 article titled, "How journalists are censored" published at http://www.aztlan.net/censored.htm Galatzan is mentioned in the last paragraph of this revealing article.

May 25, 2007 11:25 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

If you haven't seen this video about Aguilar, check it out:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3TMwLq8tMfs

Interesting and scary.

May 25, 2007 11:41 PM  

Blogger Walter Moore said:

Zuma --
VERY interesting.
Good work.
Not that the world needs any more lawyers, but I think you'd be a good one if you wanted to. (Just don't go to the People's College of Law.)

May 26, 2007 5:53 AM  

Blogger ROSE HILLS REVIEW said:

With the long Memorial Weekend, I have been out and about enjoying the activities this 'Great City' offers. (It is also party time-Birthday)

Looks like I need to stick around the 'BAT computer' for the current updates about Academia, even though I am familiar with it.

So, I would say to a few, perhaps most of you, TAKE A BREAK, you deserve it.

This time it IS all about ME, ME, ME.

Party started last week in Hollywood, of course you can't miss the Dodgers victory on Tuesday, shopping in Huntington Beach, dinner with the Riboli Family, Jersey Boy's <~~~~(a must for all residents, specially city personel) ~~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYcxbgtHJ3s

~~ carnival in Monrovia, LOVE FESTIVAL tonight, Temptations Concert Sunday, then its off to Vegas for the holiday.

Zuma, I may be able to offer more news but as of right now I am on a WORLD TOUR in 8 days, and I can do it.

Do go check out the 'JERSEY BOYS' and enjoy the life of Fankie Valli in the early 60's (if you need some tickets, remember....)
'It's not what you know, it's who knows you'.

SUMMER IS HERE, 'OH WHAT A NIGHT'...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYcxbgtHJ3s

'CITY GUY'
ROSE HILLS REVIEW,
ANTHONY MANZANO

May 26, 2007 1:46 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

We received yet another from the outlawed terrorist Jewish gang by the name of Jewish Defense League - Southern California District. The below threat had the following return e-mail address JDL SD/CA jdlsdca@msn.com

Our readership, who have been with us since our premier issue was published on January 1, 2000, are well aware of the numerous threats and extensive efforts by Jewish organizations in the USA and in the Zionist state of Israel to silence our news publication.

This threat may be a consequence of others that we received from the Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and from Tamar Galatzan of the ADL of B'nai B'rith when she wrote , "We're going to keep an eye on him" that referred to our publisher. The threat was made soon after our Editor-in-Chief , Ernesto Cienfuegos wrote, "How journalists are censored!" that is published at http://aztlan.net/censored.htm

We believe that the below threat is to keep us from writing and publishing information we have that implicates Jewish involvement in the Abu Ghraib prison sexual scandals.

May 26, 2007 2:59 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

I have read all of your comments and can not find the true "THREAT". I know that "keeping an eye on you" is not unique to being Jewish or English or German. I know thay people say that in teasing, and as a "threat" but the threat is usually followed by a time value " if yo do or dont I will XX this today, tommorrow,forever, etc.

Looks like you have taken a new bent on "Tamar Galatzan, a high level B'nai B'rith operative and a former Chief Counsel of the notorious ADL of B'nai B'rith was elected to the seven member Los Angeles Unified School Board yesterday. "

Is she any different from Marcos Aguilar who is a member of MEcha and over throws the US goverment.

I'll go for the Jews. By the way, if it makes any difference I am German and supposed to hate Jews.

May 26, 2007 7:58 PM  

Anonymous Anonymous said:

MEMO TO THE "ZUMA DOGG, ESQUIRE",

Great Reporting !!!!. WiFi coming in good at the edge of the "LEFT COAST" in SANTA BARBARA COUNTY. Will confer with you later

FREEDOM AND FREE ENTERPRISE

RED SPOT RECLAIMING LEFT COAST

May 28, 2007 11:54 AM  

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