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CHANDLER, Ariz. — A major online charter school that got in hot water for poor student grades will appear before the state Charter Board on Tuesday.
Primavera says it has new evidence for the board, which voted earlier this year to begin the process of shutting down the school because it received “D” letter grades for the past three years.
The vote came following a 12News I-Team investigation that found Primavera owner Damian Creamer paid himself millions of dollars.
Creamer, through his attorney, said he wasn’t available to be interviewed for this story. One of his attorneys sent 12News a cease-and-desist letter on Monday, threatening to sue if 12News published this story.
Meanwhile, Primavera plans to bus in staff members on Tuesday to the 10 a.m. Charter Board meeting and provide a free picnic lunch at the Capitol, according to the school’s online posts.
The school is also offering graduating students a $500 scholarship. To qualify, they need a 2.0 grade point average and write an essay about how Primavera helped them succeed. They also need a letter of recommendation from an educator.
The scholarship offer isn’t sitting well with one Goodyear family.
“I don’t think it’s fair for my son to compete with lower GPAs based on an essay that’s praising Primavera and how they contributed to their academic success,” said Steven Jiles. “And, it’s a $500 scholarship. So, that’s $500 for an essay.”
Jiles contacted 12News because he was concerned about how Primavera may use the essays in their appeal to the Charter Board.
“Bless their heart, a 2.0?” He said. “It should be based on academic achievement more than anything else.”
Jiles said two of his children had positive experiences at Primavera, and the Charter Board should give the school another chance.
The scholarship money, however, isn’t coming from Primavera — where Creamer has $8.8 million remaining in shareholder equity, according to the school’s last financial reports.
Instead, the funds are coming from Verano Learning Partners.
That’s a non-profit organization that’s run by Creamer.
The non-profit used to run Primavera about 10 years ago, before Primavera became a for-profit online school.
Since the split, Primavera — owned by Creamer — paid him nearly $24 million, records show.
Verano has about $45 million in net assets, records show.
It paid Creamer, its chairman, $164,364 the past two years for working 10 hours a week, that organization’s financial records show.
12News reviewed several years of Verano’s publicly available financial records to see how it spent some of its millions.
In January 2017, the non-profit, through a related company called Northern Lights Aviation, bought a seven-seat plane.
The plane, which can now sell for more than $1 million, was sold two years later, aviation records show.
Around 2019, the non-profit changed its name to Verano Learning Partners.
Its mission: Build and manage the highest quality nationwide schools.
But in 2020, the non-profit made a $1 million donation to an organization that helps Navy SEALs.
Creamer, a former Marine, also became a board member of the SEAL Future Foundation.
Two experts who monitor non-profit organizations say the spending raises ethical questions.
“It’s highly unusual,” said Robert Ashcraft, an ASU professor who specializes in non-profits. “I just keep coming back to governance. How is that decision made and why? And if there is a reasonable explanation. It should be really transparent.”
Ashcraft for nearly three decades has run the Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation at ASU.
He also questioned why a non-profit would buy a plane.
“It’s a very curious thing,” he said. “It’s an issue of appropriateness. It doesn’t pass the smell test of appropriateness.”
Al Childress is a retired special agent for IRS criminal investigations. He also questioned the purchases.
“As I understand, Mr. Creamer has enriched himself pretty significantly over the years through these various entities, and I think it would certainly be something that would be worth taking a glance at,” Childress said.
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