We would expect such a turn of events in a Gov. Jindal administration given his affinity for Charter School Expansion and our documented dealings with the likes of Stephen Waguespack as Gov. Jindal’s Executive Counsel and Stafford Palmieri in her position of Policy Advisor. After all, Stephen Waguespack left the governor’s office to direct LABI, (Louisiana Association of Business & Industry) our State Chamber of Commerce. Stafford Palmieri became a charter school construction and financing consultant to New Schools for Baton Rouge which has on its Board of Directors Adam Knapp, President & CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC).
But, how could such a thing happen at the hands of Gov. Edwards? Known for being in favor of limiting charter schools and vouchers, what could possibly have prompted Gov. Edwards to expand charters in ways never seen before?? When he could have vetoed???
It likely has something to do with Gov. Edwards's pick for his Special Counsel & Policy Director, Mrs. Erin Monroe-Wesley. Prior to her appointment to the governor’s office, Ms. Monroe-Wesley was Executive Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber (BRAC). BRAC has been instrumental in the proliferation of charter schools and, as a Chamber of Commerce, follows the direction of LABI. It is important to note that in January of 2016, it was announced that Thrive Academy’s Executive Director, Ms. Sarah Broome, had been named to LABI's Emerging Leaders Council.
The People, LLC called for a veto of HB 887 which creates Thrive Academy as a state-chartered boarding school estimated to increase our state budget by at least $4 million per year. We also called for a veto of Capital Outlay funding for the academy found in HB 2. To these ends, we communicated with the governor’s office on 6/20 & 6/21.
In an email of 6/21, we were assured by the governor's Executive Assistant that both she and his Special Counsel/Policy Director had spoken to the governor on our behalf relative to Thrive Academy. The governor's staff made no attempt on either the 20th or the 21st to inform us that he had already signed the bill days before on June 17th!! We only learned that the bill was already law once the legislative site was finally updated on June 23rd.
Details of our phone conversations and actual email exchanges are posted below.
Phone call with Governor's Receptionist on 6/20:
--When asked if callers should be being questioned and challenged when making calls regarding Thrive Academy, the governor’s receptionist stated that staff had been instructed to simply write down the caller’s position on HB 887; say, “Thank you;” and, provide a report of the calls to the governor at the end of each day.
--When asked if we could speak to someone about getting a meeting with the governor regarding the two Thrive bills prior to his making a decision on whether or not to veto, the receptionist informed us that this, unfortunately, was impossible: the governor doesn’t meet with citizens—he only meets with organizations. We responded that The People, LLC is an organization and she put us in contact with the governor’s scheduler.
According to Ms. Roz Moore, the governor’s executive assistant, she would help us since the governor’s scheduler was unavailable. After sending us to an unhelpful tab on the governor’s webpage, she stated: “Well, if it makes you feel any better," we could send her an email with our request, including who would be attending. We did just that:
Email to Roz Moore, Executive Asst. to Gov. Edwards (6/20):
“Ms. Moore:
Thank you for your assistance today. I am writing on behalf of The People, LLC. We have been following the legislation related to Thrive Foundation and its Academy. We would very much appreciate the opportunity to speak with the governor prior to his taking action on the bills (HB 887 by Rep. Carter & HB 2 by Rep. Abramson).
Karen Champagne is co-owner of the llc and will be the only other attendee. We have previously met with the governor when in his legislative position. We are respectful of the time constraints under which he must now find himself, and would not make this request if we did not believe our information to have the potential to provide insight to his deliberations on these matters.
While we are an organization, we recognize that we do not have the funding that most organizations have who are able to gain the type of access to the governor that we are requesting. However, we are representative of parents and taxpayers across the political spectrum who are counting on the governor to view their interest in this matter as special.
We can be reached at xxx-xxx-xxxx which is my cell.
We thank the governor for any consideration that he can give to our request.
Respectfully,
Angela Alef (& Karen Champagne)
The People, LLC”
Within minutes of sending that email, we received a voicemail from Mrs. Monroe-Wesley (Special Counsel/Policy Director to Gov. Edwards) asking that we give her a call. When we returned the call, we had quite a lengthy conversation on the problems regarding the Thrive bills.
We explained:
-- BESE code is clear that Louisiana districts have the sole authority to assign students to a school;
--Revised Statutes are clear that, while other parishes must admit students in a school if there is space available, Orleans Parish schools do not have this same requirement;
--Enroll NOLA's website consistently reminds parents that there is no guarantee of admission to a particular school even if there is space and even if the student meets the definition of the school's priority student;
--HB 887 allows all districts to contract to assign students to Thrive Academy;
--Rep. Leger’s bill which the governor signed into law (ACT 121) likely makes NOLA families most vulnerable since it provides for assignment to school by contract between Orleans Parish school board and a charter school for those students;
--Parents will likely be forced to navigate due process if they do not agree with their child being assigned to Thrive Academy and the “parental consent amendment” is not likely to save them from this;
--The broadened definition of “at risk” makes all students in the state potentially eligible for Thrive Academy.
Mrs. Monroe-Wesley stated in response that no matter what the bill reads, it is not the intent of this boarding school model to operate without “parent buy-in.”
We then informed her of the various statements made by Ms. Broome in her testimony, as well as, Sen. Appel’s confirmation that she is “supplanting the family.”
Mrs. Monroe-Wesley then informed us that she would relate our concerns to the governor.
The next morning, we sent the following email to the governor’s Executive Asst., Roz Moore:
“Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2016 9:19 AM
To: Roz Moore
Subject: Additional considerations regarding our request to speak with Governor re: Thrive Academy
Dear Ms. Moore:
After sending to you our request to speak with Gov. Bel Edwards regarding our concerns relative to Thrive Academy, I received a phone call from Ms. Erin Wesley. After speaking with her, we have an additional concern for the governor to consider in deciding whether or not to meet with us:
With the Chamber of Commerce's support of Charter School Initiatives being well-established, Ms. Wesley's longtime career focus of representing the interests of the business lobby is a serious concern for us given the Pro-Thrive Academy Position which she vociferously expressed in our conversation yesterday. Ms. Wesley ended our conversation by stating that she would be sure to communicate our concerns to the governor.
Since I offered information and presented points which Ms. Wesley was unable to refute, we believe it imperative that we be given the opportunity to present our concerns to the governor ourselves. He deserves to hear directly the facts and concerns of the citizens who will be affected by this legislation.
The business lobby gets unfettered access to our elected officials. We are asking only for 15 minutes.
Since this is a time-sensitive request, we would appreciate a decision as promptly as possible.
Thank you for your assistance,
Angela Alef (& Karen Champagne)
The People, LLC”
We nearly immediately received a call from someone whose phone number ID was blocked from our phone. As it turns out, it was Mrs. Monroe-Wesley which we learned from her voicemail. We returned her call on the number she provided in her voicemail, however, we left a message for her since we were unable to reach her at that time.
Nearly immediately upon leaving our voicemail for Mrs. Monroe-Wesley, we received the following email from Ms. Moore:
“On 6 /21/16, at , Roz Moore <[email protected]> wrote:
Dear Ms. Alef,
Thank you for your follow up. Your comments are important to us. I want to assure you that Ms. Monroe-Wesley and I have both spoken with Governor Edwards on your behalf. He is aware of your concerns. If a meeting is needed for further clarification, a member of the Governor’s team will be sure to contact you.
Thank you again,
Roz Moore
Executive Assistant to Governor John Bel Edwards
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225.342.5855 office
225.439-3876 cell
[email protected]
gov.louisiana.gov “
To which we responded (6/21):
“Dear Ms. Moore,
Thank you for your response. We appreciate that you and Ms. Monroe-Wesley took the time to relay what you believe our concerns to be to the governor. However, our request for a meeting was due to the fact that when we and others have voiced opposition to Thrive-related bills--not only to Ms. Monroe-Wesley, but also to members of the governor’s staff that answer the phones--callers, at times, experienced questioning ("Who is directing people to call?" "Are any organizations pushing for this veto?"), challenging their opposition ("I read the bill and that isn't what it says."), and the staff's opinion that they are in favor of the very bill that we want the governor to veto (Explaining why HB 887 is a good bill since it targets a limited number of children. Expressing confusion as to why people wouldn't be supportive of the bill.)
As we have met previously with the governor in his legislative position, our impression is that this would not be the manner in which he would want or expect constituents to be treated when expressing their concerns or opposition to legislation. [Evidently, our impression was incorrect!]
I received a voicemail from Ms. Monroe-Wesley earlier today and soon after left her one in return. As we await her callback, we would appreciate if you could relate to us the governor's understanding of our concerns so that we can be assured that our side of this important issue has not been lost in translation.
Thank you for your continued time and assistance,
Angela Alef (& Karen Champagne)
The People, LLC”
We received a response neither to our last email, nor to the voicemail we left in response to Mrs. Monroe-Wesley’s call to our phone. However, on 6/23, the legislative website did post that the governor had, in fact, signed HB 887 into law three days prior to our conversation with his receptionist and 4 days prior to our last communications with his Executive Assistant and Special Counsel/Policy Director.