I've written many times about the drama and intrigue that seems to be a major part of daily life at Deion Sanders' Texas charter school, Prime Prep Academy. This should be my final piece, because the school is about to shut down.
Prime Prep Academy, the charter school co-founded by Deion “Prime Time” Sanders, faces closure for improper financial management and not complying with state education code.
The Texas Education Agency issued the findings [July 15] in a letter of intent to revoke the open-enrollment charter of Uplift Fort Worth, the parent organization of two Prime Prep campuses in Dallas and Fort Worth. Prime Prep Academy opened in 2012 to much fanfare because of Sanders, a former Dallas Cowboys star. The school, however, has had problems in almost every area. It’s been beset by lawsuits among school board members, internal squabbles, and accusations of theft and open meetings violations.
The school has been subject to investigations by the Texas Education Association over various financial issues, but it appears the final straw was the one that wasn't being put in a milk carton. The Texas Department of Agriculture in April removed Prime Prep from the National School Lunch Program -- a federal free- and reduced-lunch program -- because of a failure to document claims it spent $45,830.92 it received in fall 2013 for subsidizing meals. The department had also demanded repayment of the money.
Sanders and D.L. Wallace founded the school, which opened with 1,100 students across elementary, middle and high school grades in 2012. The school was pitched in particular to elite athletes.
As it turned out, almost immediately there were conflicts, in-fighting and problems getting athletes eligible to play -- in high school, and in college. (Though Emmanuel Mudiay, a Prime Prep graduate eschewing his college basketball commitment at SMU to play overseas, says eligibility issues had nothing to do with his decision.) Sanders and Wallace eventually had a falling out that led to Sanders being bounced from the school, then coming back, and then Wallace being pushed out. Speaking of pushed, Sanders -- as he was getting fired and rehired and fired and rehired at the school -- was accused of physically attacking Prime Prep officials, including Wallace.
Sanders is doing what he generally does when Prime Prep is facing very public trouble -- going to his Twitter account to blame other people for it. (Remember, Sanders is once live-tweeted his own domestic dispute.) In particular, he's going hard after Wallace again with tweets such as, "My former Co-Founder DL Wallace was a Crook and Heartless and we are still suffering from his Devilish ways." (Wallace hasn't yet spoken about Prime Prep's impending closure, or Sanders' accusations against him. Wallace was running the school during the period cited by the Texas Department of Agriculture as the source of Prime Prep's school-lunch issues.)
Prime Prep does have the right, until July 30, to appeal the Texas Education Agency's closure decision, and Sanders tweeted that it would. A lot has gone wrong with Prime Prep, but Sanders isn't ready to give it up. As he tweeted, using his favorite word to end a tweet: "I will pay the 45,000 myself to right DL Wallace wrong to the state if they will accept it. Don't punish our kids for this Fool. Truth".
Hmmm. Maybe this won't be my final Prime Prep post.
