For more than two decades, Gerald Norde has taught in high schools from Dayton, Ohio, to the District of Columbia.
His past employers remembered him as “a good teacher” with a wry, quiet manner who worked hard and kept himself out of controversy.
Norde, 60, was hired last fall to teach high school Spanish to the students at Young America Works Public Charter School, one of Washington’s newest charter schools. Day after day, he noticed the attendance sheets in his classes listed students he’d never seen — or who had long since dropped out.
“I’ve asked my students, ‘Who are these people?’ No one knows,” Norde said. “I talked to other teachers and they said they have the same problem.”
Earlier this month, Norde asked Young America’s registrar what was happening. Two weeks later, he was fired.
Like all other charter schools in the District of Columbia, Young America is paid per pupil. Norde’s discovery raises questions about the integrity of a system that sends $300 million in public dollars to the 55 charter schools in the city.
Mayor Adrian Fenty has proposed to fund the city’s traditional schools the same way the charter schools are funded. Every school in the District has its attendance audited every year, but Norde’s case raises the possibility that some operators have found a way around the audits.
“We have these phantom children who are just kept on the rolls,” said Gina Arlotto of the Save Our Schools Coalition, a nonprofit group that advocates for traditional public schools.
Young America officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show Young America has received more than $5.6 million in local and federal funds since it opened for business in July 2004.
Norde’s March 16 dismissal papers state that he was fired for “serious incidences of disruptive classroom management,” including a scuffle with a boy in his class and inappropriate comments to girls in his class.
“It’s all trumped up,” Norde said. “I askedthe wrong questions.”
Norde said he had missing students in several Spanish classes he teaches. Some of them might have skipped his Spanish classes, but he can’t explain the missing children in his homeroom class.
“Those kids on their list were never there,” he said, pointing at the March 9 roster for his homeroom.
Young America takes attendance in its classes in the morning, Norde said. If any student skips homeroom but attends classes later in the day, it shows up in the next day’s homeroom reports. Six of the students in his homeroom have either dropped out or have never shown up and have never appeared on the next day’s homeroom reports, Norde said.
Yet some of them are given passing grades in other classes, Norde said.
Norde said, and his personal attendance records show, that he has marked the missing Young America students absent every day from October through February.
D.C. school regulations require a school to drop any student who misses 21 consecutive days without explanation.
One of the students’ mothers, whose child is listed on Norde’s fourth-period Spanish I class on Feb. 22, told The Examiner that the boy dropped out of Young America last fall.
“He hasn’t been there in a while,” the mother said. “He’s been on home arrest.”
The mother said she told Young America officials last year that the boy wouldn’t be coming back.
“They knew about it,” the mother said.
Another girl, listed on the roster of Norde’s fifth-period Spanish II class roster on Feb. 22, had moved out of the group home where she was living and hadn’t been heard from in months, an official at the home said. Norde said the girl’s mother came in last year to say that the girl was pregnant and would have to leave school.
A third boy, listed on the roster for Norde’s second-period Spanish II class on Feb.22, transferred out of the school months ago, the boy’s uncle told The Examiner.
Norde said Young America’s registrar told him the school won’t strike any students from its roster unless parents come in to cross the students’ names off.
“That raised a red flag for me,” Norde said.
Norde said he also began to question the qualifications of Young America’s principal, Nadine Evans. Evans is trained as a lawyer but is not certified as a school principal. Norde said he brought up Evans’ qualifications at a February staff meeting after the administration asked the faculty if it had any concerns.
“Everything started falling apart for me after that,” Norde said.
Evans did not respond to requests for comment.
The State Education Office audits every school’s enrollment, but the audits aren’t completed until late January or early February, as much as five months after the schools open. Charter schools are paid based on that projected enrollment until after the audits.
In the most recent review of Young America, auditors found that Young America overreported its roster by 12 students last fall, according to documents kept by the State Education Office.
The Examiner has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Board of Education, asking it to release copies of Young America’s monthly attendance reports. School board FOIA officer Karen Jones Herbert hasn’t responded to the request.
Federal investigators have expressed interest in Norde’s story and are preparing to take his statement, sources told The Examiner.
At a glance
Young America Works Public Charter School, 6015-17 Chillum Place, NE
» Reported enrollment: 233
» Audited enrollment: 221
Board of Education charter schools (18 schools)
» Reportedenrollment: 5,195
» Audited enrollment: 5,082
Source: State Education Office, 2006 enrollment audit
Anyone with information on the city’s schools can call Bill Myers at 202-459-4956 or send an e-mail to [email protected].
