In an e-mail to the district, Robert Shaw cites articles in the
News-Press as a reason for pulling the application.
By Joan Gandy
Shaw’s application was the only one submitted to the district by
a Sept. 8 deadline.
“Caroline and I have recently been discussing our application
for charter status and have come to the conclusion that we do not
wish to pursue it at this time,” Shaw writes in an e-mail to the
district dated Oct. 2. “… We came to DCSD with a certain degree of
reticence due largely to the business failure of the old
school.
“Obviously, the ‘hack job’ of a newspaper article, with some
significant inaccuracies and omissions, was also a factor in our
decision.”
Shaw is the former president of the Denver French Primary
School, a private foreign language school that closed in March
after seven months of operation.
A News-Press investigation found at least six unsatisfactory
monetary judgments against Shaw in Jefferson and Douglas county
courts.
Another lawsuit, which has not been settled, has been filed
against the Denver French Primary School in Denver District
Court.
Two of the lawsuits involved Shaw and the Denver Primary School.
In one, the Denver Newspaper Agency is seeking $36,290.06 for
advertisements the school never paid for. The second lawsuit
involves Kemp Hanley, a parent of students who attended the Denver
Primary School. Hanley received a $20,807.15 default judgment for a
bridge loan he made to Shaw to keep the school running.
Other issues with Shaw’s application include a Web site and
phone number that didn’t work. The Colorado Secretary of State’s
Office had no record of the school filing as a nonprofit
organization. If the charter had moved forward, the district would
have wanted to see proof of the 68 students Shaw claimed he had
lined up to attend. Typically, the district recommends at least 200
students to open a charter school.
“Part of the issue is he said, ‘I have 68 families ready to
go,'” said Brien Hodges, director of option schools for Douglas
County School District. “We said, ‘Before we move forward we need
to see these things. We need to see the names of these 68
families.'”
Shaw requested to start a charter school in Douglas County
School District similar in curriculum to the failed private school.
The school would have used a French immersion/Core Knowledge
curriculum.
Shaw did not respond to messages to comment on his decision to
withdraw the application. In the e-mail, Shaw encourages the
district to consider a foreign-language immersion program, other
than Spanish.
“We are convinced that the educational model we proposed has
significant benefits for young students and should be made
available in some form, unfortunately just not with us leading the
effort,” Shaw writes.
Contact Joan Gandy at jgandy@ccnewspapers.com.