I'm sharing this letter that was sent by "Michael T. Moffett," the acting chairman of the Nampa Classical Academy.

He shares some important information. Please let me know if you have any information that confirms or contradicts the statements made here. You can reach me at vholbrook@idahopress.com

In Wednesday's paper read and watch on this blog for:

• Coverage of tonight's board meeting where apparently new board members will be selected.
• An update of the Idaho Public School Charter Commission and the questions it has posed to Nampa Classical Academy.

Dear Parents and staff of NCA,

First, I want to thank every one of you who attended our meeting Monday

night, October 19th. Nampa Classical Academy has made history in many ways

and has been looked to as an example of how to create a charter school.

Unfortunately, our previous meeting cannot be included as a good example and

is something I am not proud of. The NCA Board has let you down. We have been

entrusted to lead this Academy in achieving the "original" intent of the

Charter and Founders. For my part, I am sorry we have failed to lead.

I want to clear up something I said during Monday night's meeting. I stated

the Alliance Defense Fund's attorney said he would drop the legal case

against the State if the current board members, with the exception of myself

and Isaac, did not step down. This is not what he said. What he said was he

could not continue the case with the turmoil of the board like it is. The

board needed to agree to work together with solidarity otherwise, the risk

of losing the major plaintiff in the case was too great and would undermine

the case. He said he needed a solid board that would not blow up at any

time. With that said, I will move on.

I firmly believe the heart of the problem is a vision issue. Unfortunately,

I allowed the lawsuit to become the primary focus of the meeting. The

lawsuit is only one component of the vision issue, and it wasn't a

distraction until it was discovered the former chairmen and the service

providers for the academy were violating our agreement with the Alliance

Defense Fund. In defense of our service providers, I am sure they were not

aware of the new communication channels outlined in our agreement with our

legal counsel. I do not fault them for this. The board should have

corresponded with the service providers so expectations could be meet.

There have been a lot of posts to the PFA blog concerning what was discussed

during Monday's meeting. Some of the posts have been a little inaccurate (I

do not think intentionally) so I want to clarify what is being communicated.

What I will say, to the best of my ability, will be the facts as I perceive

them to be without unsubstantiated interpretation. Do keep in mind, I have

not been given the ability to walk on water, therefore, I might fail at my

intention of keeping just to the facts.

First, I need to define the parties I will be speaking of. Nampa Classical

Academy's Board of Directors (BOD) is self explanatory. Academica West

(Academica) is a charter school management company located in Utah. They

provide management services to charter schools in Utah. Paragon Schools

(Paragon) is Idaho's version of Academica West located in Twin Falls and

owned by the same people as Academica. Shed Development (Shed) is a

subsidiary of Academica West and owned by the same people. Shed purchases

land, designs the school facilities to meet the needs of the school and then

leases the property to the school until the school can qualify for a loan to

purchase the property. Paragon and Shed are used interchangeably. West One

is the general contractor that builds the schools Shed is involved in

developing. It is unclear who owns West One.

Below is an outline of Academica and its subsidiaries and partners

involvement with NCA: 1.March 2008 - met owners of Academica West at a

charter school workshop. 2.Summer 2008 - Shed began to look for land on

behalf of NCA. 3.Early fall 2008 - Buyer's Agreement is signed for 25 acres

just south of our current location.

4.Late fall 2008 - For unknown reasons, Buyer's Agreement deadline was

extended.

5.Early winter 2008 - NCA signs contract for an independent Owner's

Representative to assist NCA in the building process.

6.Late fall 2008 - Shed calls for urgent meeting with three board members

to get approval to purchase 17 acres, and let the Buyer's Agreement for 25

acres expire. Without board approval, the three board members agree to

Shed's idea.

7.November 2008-RFP is posted requesting a bid for education management

services.

December 2008-NCA received one bid for services. It was from Paragon

Schools. Kyle Borger was appointed chair of the committee to check

references.

8.January 2009-Borger reports to the Executive Committee that all

references check out with high scores. He moved that the contract be

approved and send it to the full board for consideration. The full board

discuss and approve the contract as written at the January Regular Board

Meeting.

9.February 2009 - Isaac Moffett steps down as Chairman of the Board to take

a fulltime position with NCA. Kyle Borger takes over as Chair.

10.March 2009 - Kyle Borger asks the BOD to buy out the Owner's

Representatives contract and allow Kyle to fill that role.

11.BOD approves the construction contract with Shed. The request to add

penalties and other protections for NCA was ignored and left out by the

board.

12.April 2009 - City of Nampa issues Shed the construction permits. The

construction may now begin. (A side note - Christian Faith Center received

their construction permits during the same meeting - that project started

right away.) We were told the portables would be ready to move into July

1st.

13.Late June 2009 - construction begins. It is clear the July 1st deadline

will not be achieved. There had been no communication as to the status of

what is going on other than we are given a new date: July 15th.

14.July 15th - portables were not ready. There had been no communication as

to the status of what was going on, other than we are given a new date:

August 1st.

15.August 1st - portables were not ready There had been no communication as

to the status of what was going on, other than we are given a new date:

August 15th.

16.August 15th - portables were not ready. There had been no communication

as to the status of what was going on other than we are given a new date:

August 25th (first day of school).

17.August 25th - portables were not ready. There had been no communication

as to the status of what is going on. Shed promised we would be able to move

in with no problems the day after Labor Day. So we postponed the first day

of school for two weeks.

18.September 4th - the last day before the first day of school. We do not

have a Permit to Occupy (this is required have in order to have people on

site.) and there was still a lot of work left to be completed. The city

building inspector agreed to issue a temporary Permit to Occupy so we could

open.

19.September 8th - first day of school.

20.Post September - work continued for weeks after the Academy opened.

21.Approximately October 1st - construction stops.

We began working with Paragon and Shed during the summer of 2008. The BOD

explained what the physical needs would be to accomplish the vision: enough

land to include the Grammar School, the Logic School, and the Rhetoric

School. The Rhetoric School was to have an auditorium, high school

regulation gymnasium and cafeteria, and the Logic and Grammar Schools were

to have a gymnasium/cafeteria each. The land would accommodate a

football/soccer field, regulation sized track, and if possible, a baseball

field.

We found 25 acres, just south of our current location. When we walked the

ground it was clear this land would allow us to place all 3 schools on one

campus, and have adequate room for the sports activities previously

mentioned. Shed began to make arrangements to purchase the property on our

behalf.

Several months later, Shed learned about the land we are currently located.

It was $20,000 an acre less than the 25 acre property that was under

contract. The argument made at the time was the cheaper land would allow for

a larger Grammar School building.

As I asked questions about this property, I became distressed. We went from

having 25 acres, to 17 acres. I wanted to know if anyone verified if all 3

buildings would fit plus our football/soccer field, track, and baseball

field. I was told it was not checked but that we should be able to. When I

reviewed the plat map, I learned Phyllis Canal was on the west side of the

property and a drain ditch on the east side. I asked how much land we would

loose due to easements. I was told we shouldn't be losing any, or if we did,

it would not be much. Then I was told that the canal and ditch may be piped.

I asked if this had been verified with the irrigation district. I was told

it hadn't. I informed Paragon that the irrigation companies don't play well,

and not to count on them cooperating (I deal with irrigation companies in my

line of work and irrigation companies don't corporate often. Typically, it

is their way and only their way. Pioneer Irrigation Company, the owner of

Phyllis Canal, is notorious for being the least cooperative). In the end,

this is what happened: •We went from purchasing 25 acres to 17 acres. •Out

of those 17 acres, only approximately 12 acres are usable due to the 50ft

canal easements. •The athletic facilities we have room for are a football

field and a 2 lane irregular shaped track.

This land issue did not set well with me. I knew it would not meet our long

term vision. I feel Shed did not perform due diligence to make sure the

property would fulfill our long-term vision. I felt like the savings of

$20,000 an acre (although a large sum of money) and a larger Grammar

building was the focus, not the long-term vision.

In April 2009, the BOD approved the contract with Shed to build and lease

the land and Grammar building. From the time the contract was approved, I

kept asking for a copy of the construction schedule and a copy of the

contract the general contractor had. No one would provide it. The former

chairman told me to let him handle it and let him do it his way. I submitted

to his authority, yet nothing changed. The project kept getting behind

schedule and no one was communicating with us as to what was going on. All

we were getting was one broken promise after another. When asked why no one

was working on Saturdays, we were told the contractor did not feel it was

needed since he felt he could accomplish the tasks without working overtime

or weekends.

Isaac and I were quite vocal about not being supplied with a construction

schedule, especially after it became clear the work was not progressing in a

manner that would allow the Academy to open on time. I work in the highway

engineering field and work a lot with construction contracts, so I know what

is normal when it comes to the basic principles of construction agreements.

There is always a construction schedule and there are always penalties in

any good contract. There are always meetings with the contractor at least

monthly to discuss the progress of the project. None of this had taken

place. Even when it became obvious there was a problem, no one acted on any

advice given to correct it. In the end, we paid the price for it. As I have

already stated, I did not feel good about the current piece of property and

that feeling has only gotten heavier. Now that we have 16 plus portables

onsite and the fence erected to keep kinds out of the canal and ditch it has

become painfully clear to me we absolutely do not have enough room to

fulfill our long term vision. Furthermore, the construction issue with the

portables was a fiasco. I have asked myself and others, if a relatively

simple project like this one was such a problem, what can we expect with a 5

million dollar, 43,000 square foot building?

Something else began to weigh heavily on my mind this summer and has

increased so much it is hard to describe. When the original BOD discussed

what the Academy would look like, the issue of teacher pay came up. From our

research with other charter schools, and particularly classical schools, our

teachers were going to be required to work harder and meet higher standards

than what might be expected at a traditional public school. We expect our

teachers and staff to be professionals and exemplify the Greater Things in

Life. We-the original BOD- wanted to show our respect for them, and

compensate them for their professionalism. One of the ways we envisioned to

do this is to pay all teachers about $10,000 more than State minimums. I am

embarrassed to say we have not lived up to that vision. There are a number

of reasons we were not able to pay the teachers and staff more; the state

cut backs are just one of these reasons. The bottom line is we are not

fulfilling the vision of paying our teachers and staff as well as we wanted.

In addition to not fulfilling our vision to pay out staff in a way that

shows we value them and respect them, I see desks and chairs in classes that

are broken, and need replacing, I see classes with chairs of incorrect size

for the students. We have classes that don't have the entire curriculum

needed because we don't have any more money to spend on curriculum.

As I think about these issues, I have to ask, are we living up to our core

values when we take on a $750,000 a year building debt that is by choice

when our teachers, and staff are under paid, we have inadequate desks and

chairs, and not enough curriculum? Why are we building a grand building only

to balance the budget on our staff and children's needs? Is this living up

to our core values? Is this fulfilling our vision? It isn't the vision the

original directors had, I assure you of this. I think our first priority

should be to take care of what we do have and once those items are where we

want them, then we build with what we have left. If it isn't enough to

build, then we save our money and wait until we do have enough. This would

be fulfilling our core value of industry and thrift, respect.

I began calling for a halt of all construction activities once the portables

were finished until we could do several things:

•Reevaluate whether or not continuing with construction was in the best

interest of the academy, i.e., in regards to the issues with teacher pay,

supplies, etc. •Affordability budget cuts. •Measures taken to keep past

construction issues from happening again.

After asking for a meeting all summer, Shed asked us to go to Utah, to tour

the schools they had built. I suggested it would not be that beneficial to

see buildings that are not ours. Furthermore, to see how nice they look had

no bearing on whether or not our building would be delivered on time

considering what we just experienced. The trip was cancelled and Shed and

Paragon decided to meet with us at the Academy on October 1st.

What we all thought was a meeting to determine what happened with the

construction and how we could move forward, turned out to be quite

different. Shed refused to discuss any of the construction issues with us.

Instead they brought vague accusations of problems the State, the general

public and stakeholders had brought to their attention. When I asked what

these problems were, as none of us were aware of these problems, they

refused to say what specifically the problems were. The accusations turned

toward Isaac and I. There were accusations about personalities, negative

talk, and the public and state disliking the two of us. Once again I asked

for specifics, and once again there were none provided. When I asked how we

were supposed to address issues neither I nor anyone else knew about, we

received no response.

It became clear to me the meeting was not about repairing relationships, but

severing relationships. I asked numerous times whether or not the intent for

driving from Utah was for salvaging the relationship with NCA or severing

it, and they would not answer. After what was probably the 6th time asking,

they stated it was their intent to sever the relationship with NCA.

Specifically, Shed/Paragon implied they intended to sever the relationship

as long as Isaac and I were involved as an employee and board member. After

the meeting, one of the owners of Shed spoke with Isaac and me in private

and stated very clearly both of us had to go if they were to continue

working with NCA. At the end of the meeting, Shed agreed to provide a list

of issues, concerns, and demands for us to consider in order for them to

continue working with us. The BOD scheduled to meet the following Thursday,

October 8th as a work group to discuss Paragon and Shed's demands, concerns,

etc.

I was surprised to learn two days before by email that the Chairman

scheduled a Special Meeting for October 8th considering the last I heard, we

were going to meet to discuss Paragon/Shed's demands and concerns.

Furthermore, I don't think the meeting was advertised according to State

Law. A Special Meeting must be posted and advertised for at least 24 hours

before the meeting. Additionally, the agenda did not meet State Law

requirements. State Law requires agendas provide adequate information to

know what will be discussed. The two items on the agenda were board member

conflict of interest and an executive session. I asked Kyle what the agenda

item was about and told him I did not think it was satisfactory. I did not

receive a response. Isaac and I did not know what the Special Meeting was

about until we were tipped off about two hours prior to the meeting. By

Kyle's own admission, he advertised the meeting in such a way as to limit

the number of people in attendance as much as possible. Kyle was also told

by our legal counsel not to have the meeting because it would hurt the case

we have with the State. Kyle did not tell the other board members about the

legal counsel's advice and conducted the meeting anyway.

After roll call, the Chairman very briefly explained there was a conflict of

interest involving Isaac and I but did not elaborate. Kyle asked me to

resign and I declined. Kyle immediately asked for a motion to be made to

remove me from the board. The motion was made by former Treasurer Kris

Wilson and seconded by Mitch Miller. Each board member and ad-hoc members

with the exception of Isaac took turns saying why they thought I should

resign or be removed from the board. What they stated was no different from

what they said during the board meeting last Monday, October 19th. There

were statements referring to "personality conflicts" and "conflict of

interest" and keeping the board from functioning. I asked for specifics and

I was met with silence.

After the board spoke and I rebutted their comments. The Chairman attempted

to call for the vote; however, the audience spoke up and requested to make

comments. When they arrived at the meeting, most everyone signed up to

speak. The Chairman stated he was not going to allow for public comment.

That did not set well with the audience. After being chastised, Kyle

relented. Each person who signed up spoke to the issue at hand. With one or

two exceptions, the audience expressed their displeasure with the board's

actions. When the audience was finished, Kyle apologized to the board

members for putting them in that situation and stated he was not going to

ask them to vote. Kyle asked for the motion to be rescinded. Mitch rescinded

his second to the motion and Kris hesitantly rescinded the motion.

Immediately after the motion was rescinded, Kyle called for an Executive

Session. I was asked not to attend as it pertained to Isaac (the first I

knew of the topic). As stated during the October 19th meeting, the intent

was to fire Isaac during the Executive Session. However, Kyle said, "Since

that did not work out (referring to me), I guess we will need to wait on

Isaac for a while."

From the meeting on October 8th to the board meeting on the 19th, there were

numerous emails among the board members conspiring to regroup and try to

remove me from the board again. In addition, there was a reference to

Paragon's involvement and the State preparing to make a move. True to the

email, within days, the State began their investigation of NCA.

Kyle resigned Sunday morning, October 11th, Kris Sunday afternoon, and Corey

Freeman, resigned Sunday evening. The remaining board continued to conspire

to remove me from the board a second time and 30 minutes prior to the board

meeting on the 19th of October, they asked me to resign again and if I did

not, I would have three accusations brought against me. One accusation was

the previous conflict of interest issue. Another was Headmaster did not

believe he had the authority to run the Academy like he wants. The other

accusation was they believed I could not separate myself from Isaac,

allowing him to go unchecked. I did not ask to be acting Chairman; it was

their actions that put me in that position and I had only been in that

position for 6 days. Therefore, I told them I had not had an opportunity to

allow or disallow Isaac to do anything.

I told the remaining board members I would not resign and asked for

additional information as to the exact charges against me. I received none.

For those of you who attended the board meeting, their vagueness was no

different. They made it clear this was not over. I expect to endure these

vague charges again.

I have copies of emails from board members demonstrating their clear

malicious conspiracy to remove me from the board. There is an email that

connects Paragon to this take over. According to two board members, there is

a letter that Paragon drafted to send to parents for the purpose of turning

support away from Isaac and I. There is an email that states the Public

Charter School Commission (PCSC) will make their move now that Kyle is gone.

Within days of the October 8th meeting, the PCSC began their investigation

of NCA. Headmaster Bush as assured me we are in compliance with everything

they are looking at, but the level of information they looking for indicates

it is unlikely a staff member or a parent is communicating with the PCSC. In

other words, it appears someone close to us trying to undermine us. As I

said, we are in compliance, but now we have to spend hours and days

gathering information to prove we are in compliance in addition to running

the Academy.

Additionally, Kyle uninstalled many programs from the Academy's Chairman's

computer and deleted all of the Academy data files from the computer. I took

the computer to an IT firm to attempt to recover the files, but many of them

became corrupted through the recovery process. Furthermore, an email I have

suggest Paragon/Shed may be considering a lawsuit. I don't know if it is a

suit against the Academy, the BOD, or Isaac and I. I suspect it would be

against Isaac and I.

I hope I have answered many of your questions and no doubt created a few

more. I will be as transparent as possible as we move forward. I will try to

write a weekly or bi-monthly update. However, it may take a couple of weeks

to start. My number one priority is to keep the Academy operating and all of

my time will be spent accomplishing that task. I am in the process of

putting together a team of individuals that is as dedicated to the original

intent as I am. We will stand and fight for what is right and good. Just as

the 300 Spartan warriors stood at Thermopylae and our founding fathers stood

against the tyrannical British crown and our grandfathers stood for what is

right and good during the other struggles in our Nation's history, so will

we.