Soner Tarim

News / Education / State

Alabama Public Charter School Commission could revoke Woodland Prep charter

The Alabama Public Charter School Commission yesterday voted to deny a request by Woodland Prep officials to extend the deadline to obtain a certificate of occupancy for the school in Washington County near Mobile. This denial could begin the process of revoking the school’s charter. The charter school was initially approved in 2018. The Woodland … Continued

Jessa Reid Bolling

February 4, 2020

Opinion

North Carolina mother sheds light on Alabama Charter School mess

Editor’s note: Alyson Ford is a mother in the Charlotte, NC area. It wasn’t long after she enrolled one of her sons in a charter school that she began to feel something was amiss. Soon she was attending board meetings of the school and digging into financial records. What she found was disturbing and even … Continued

Larry Lee

January 27, 2020

Opinion

Problems continue for Montgomery’s first charter school

Montgomery’s first charter school remains a first-rate mess. As former LEAD Academy principal Nichole Ivey-Price prepares for another hearing in her ongoing wrongful termination lawsuit against the charter school, a number of current and former LEAD employees have told APR that the environment at the school remains one of near-chaos. Perhaps most surprising, the employees … Continued

Josh Moon

December 17, 2019

Opinion

Education matters

It was September 30 and only 25 feet away stood Soner Tarim, the wizard of charter schools, from Houston, TX (even though he said that day he lives in Montgomery). It was a meeting of the state charter school commission and Tarim was there to tell us how wonderful things are at LEAD Academy charter in … Continued

Larry Lee

October 14, 2019

Opinion

Charter Commission grills Woodland Prep

The newly re-constituted state charter school commission met in Montgomery on Sept 30 and one thing is quite clear. There is a new sheriff in town. The state school board replaced four incumbent commission members on Aug. 8, one of whom was chairman Mac Buttram. When Woodland Prep came before the commission on June 7 … Continued

Larry Lee

October 2, 2019

Alabama Education Association files lawsuit against Soner Tarim

The Alabama Education Association has filed a lawsuit through its members and affiliate in Washington County against Soner Tarim, a Texas-based man seeking to open a charter school in rural southwest Alabama. Tarim is the CEO of Unity School Services and was the founder of Harmony Schools, a charter school network in Texas. The lawsuit … Continued

Jessa Reid Bolling

August 2, 2019

Opinion

Texas school board member minces no words about Soner Tarim

Since Soner Tarim of Sugarland, Texas, has management contracts for both Woodland Prep and LEAD Academy charter schools, I watched with great interest when he appeared before the Texas Board of Education on June 14 trying to get approval to open eight new charter schools in Austin and Houston. Board member Georgina Perez of El … Continued

Larry Lee

June 27, 2019

Opinion

“We don’t want no charter school and we don’t want no Muslims”

The gentleman who made this statement was one of 200 people who came to the Washington County high school in Chatom on Monday night, April 29. He was probably in his 60’s. His face was weathered and he wore a baseball cap and work shirt. Like everyone else in the auditorium, he had sat attentively as … Continued

Larry Lee

May 1, 2019

Opinion

An Islamic movement, fraud and improper hires: Even more (and weirder) questions arise about Montgomery’s first charter school

When the leadership team behind Montgomery charter school LEAD Academy began putting together an application to start a school, the members knew they lacked experience. None of them had opened a charter or had experience running a school. So, they made the unique decision to turn the management of their school over to a Charter … Continued

Josh Moon

March 27, 2019