From Ekram Khan:
Mr. Jay Aldis from Bracewell & Guiliani sent me a letter to cease using the school directory to communicate with current and former parents. Aside from the lack of attention to detail by Mr. Aldis since my name was spelled incorrectly (it is Khan, not Kahn) and my home address being incorrect, the content of the letter is baseless. Perhaps Mr. Aldis does not realize that I and my wife have been friends with many parents at the school and already have their email addresses and phone numbers. It seems Mr. Aldis needs to be reminded that the email addresses belong to the parents and not the Galloway School since these are personal email addresses and not ending in @thegallowayschool.org. It would be advisable that if The Galloway School wants to restirct future communication amongst parents, then they should issue email addresses on The Galloway School domain ending in @thegallowayschool.org, and only publish those email addresses in the school directory. Then Bonnie Cerace and the Galloway School would have a right to limit the use of the directory since they would own the email addresses. This letter is just another desperate attempt by Bonnie and TGS to trample on our First Ammendment right to assembly and free speech.
I think all parents and teachers should ask themselves why Bonnie Cerace and The Galloway School feel so compelled to stifle communication between parents? I think most of us know how to differentiate between the truth and the lies. In the interest of transparency, the letter can be found at the following link:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/382228/Aldis%20Cease%20and%20Desist%20Letter.pdf
Great. There goes another $400 in legal fees! Where is the money coming from? I doubt Jay Aldis did this as a courtesy for the school and charged nothing. He can't possibly bill this under the current lawsuit, as it has nothing to do with the Solt case. That would constitute fraud. That leaves the monies coming from the school, and the tuition parents pay! The school has already admitted enrollment for next year is down considerably. Can she afford to spend the likes of $400 an hour to deal with this? Parents, ask yourself if you want your tuition monies to be spent on Bonnie Cerace chasing after every parent that makes her angry. If she does that, she'll be running all summer long, spending tuition money that is meant to educate the kids!.
ReplyDeleteCerace also wants us to believe that parents have complained to her that they are receiving unsolicited e-mails from other parents. Really? They need Cerace to fight that battle for them? I would think parents who get unsolicited e-mails know there is a nifty option to delete that e-mail.
If Bonnie Cerace is planning to rid the world of unsolicited e-mails to parents at the Galloway school, one lawsuit at a time, I get a ton of e-mail. She is more than welcome to have Jay Aldis send cease-and-desist letters to all those companies that bother me. Nevermind, I know how to use the delete button and block e-mails from people I don't want to talk to.
Maybe "fraud" is a harsh word. But it would not be right for the school to lump this into the Solt case. It's two completely different issues.
ReplyDelete"Waa! Waa! I want my directory back!" We are embarrassed for you, Mr. Aldis and Bonnie, knowing that this is the best you've got! This makes Aldis look like he's just there for the party - in other words, the cash - to actually think this letter was a good idea. Good Lord! You've got parents who are telling the truth about their children being bullied, and supposed financial discrepancies, and you are worried about a PHONEBOOK??? This is your answer to bullying? To your financial traoubles? OMG! Have you any idea how many people are falling off their chairs laughing their heads off at this ridiculous crybaby letter?!
ReplyDeleteMr. Khan (notice, I was able to spell his name correctly), we do not know when you received this letter, but May 16th - the date they are requesting you return the directory to them - has come and gone. Today is the 21st! Oh well. Oh, and don't forget about freedom of speech. Such an obvious detail, really, but Bonnie always forgets about this. I'm pretty sure Mr. Khan can talk to or write to anyone he so desires. How many times does one have to explain this to Bonnie Cerace; that you can't tell people who they can talk to, or what they can or cannot say? Bonnie, people have brought this to your attention SOOOOO many times, it's really getting old. She seems to think that when someone is saying or writing something she doesn't like, then the First Amendment doesn't apply. But it just doesn't work that way.
If the school doesn't want the parents to communicate, then don't give them a directory. No one signed anything saying they wouldn't contact other parents, and you freely gave every parent a copy! Were there parents who did not wish their contact information to be published?? If so, then you shouldn't have published their info. If there were parents who complained, and were upset that they were contacted by Mr. Khan, then hopefully they will simply tell Mr. Khan not to contact them. Or, as the other commenter suggested, just press DELETE!!
With this latest development, one must wonder: How many lawsuits is Aldis working on for TGS besides the Solts? How many can the school handle? Does Mrs. Galloway know how much money is being spent on legal fees? Does the board? Do the parents?
I'm sure after receiving this letter, Mr. Khan is very intimidated, and shaking in his boots! Mr. Aldis's letter says, in part, that he will "pursue all legal remedies against you." I think that if he actually had any valid legal remedies to pursue, he would have already done so. I think you should pursue them, Mr. Aldis - more money for you! More of parents tuition fees going to pay for Bonnie's legal troubles! But rather than do that, to actually pursue something that made sense, you decided on, "Give us back our phonebook???" Really. This is your answer to the school's problems? Wow... We are all truly amazed... and entertained.
Bonnie Cerace: "Give me my book back now or I'm going to have my lawyer write you another letter!"
ReplyDeleteHey! TGS! I have an idea for you if you think Mr. Khan has used the Directory improperly:
ReplyDeleteNEVER EVER GIVE MR. KHAN ANOTHER DIRECTORY!!!
That will show him!
Jay Aldis: "Hey, Bonnie, you need me to write any more letters? I need the money."
ReplyDeleteBonnie situation and her actions are reminding of Aasad in Syria. When someone speaks up make sure they are silenced. Aaasad kills his opposition and Bonnie has files law suits. Both are trying to silence the truth.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what Mr. Khan will do. Room Moms around the country are waiting to see the legal precedent this case will set.
ReplyDeleteRoom Moms can be assured that should Jay Aldis, Bonnie Cerace, and The Galloway School continue to harass me and waste my time with baseless demand letters, my response will be several orders of magnitude greater. Rather than worrying about whether I still have the Galloway phonebook, they should be more concerned about being called out on the bullying, intimidation, and harassment perpetrated against innocent children by the leadership and some teachers at The Galloway School. That will most definitely set a legal precedence. I look forward to hearing the stories of many parents waiting for the school year to end so their children are out of harm's way.
DeleteTo the parents who say, "This didn't happen to my child.", you should consider yourselves lucky. However, I would like to remind you that standing up for the rights and safety of any child is a noble act.
I hope Mr. Khan makes the necessary corrections to the phonebook before he sends it back, if he chooses to send it back.
ReplyDeleteIf Bonnie sends me another copy of the directory, I would be happy to make whatever corrections are necessary and send it back to her. Considering the fact that Jay Aldis sent the demand letter to the wrong address, I won't hold my breath waiting for Bonnie.
ReplyDeleteThird Party,
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how many people are "catalyzed" by me into becoming first time posters or long time followers of the blog experiencing a re-awakening. I guess I am an effective motivator at the very least.
I have many aliases? You are mistaken. My first dozen or so posts on here were anonymous and since then I have posted under my name exclusively. Can’t say that about Laine/Bonnie/Dot/Anonymous Galloway Supporters.
You claim I have greedy intentions. How do you know that? I am going to invest hundreds of thousands of my hard earned dollars into establishing a non-profit school. Please explain how I would ever generate a return on that "investment" in order to feed my greedy intentions. If you have first hand knowledge of how a non-profit school can be a profit generating enterprise that would feed anyone's greedy intentions, then I would like to hear how that can be done and where you learned how to do it. Please elaborate. Perhaps that would educate me about what I need to investigate further about the financial transgressions at the Galloway School.
I still find it amusing that a school that I am planning to start, that does not exist yet, is such a threat to the existence of the Galloway School. There are plenty of students available for many private schools to exist in the area. Lutheran South and Bay Area Christian are filled to capacity and are planning major expansions. Funny how other successful schools don’t even have the Newton School on their radar. Perhaps they are too busy delivering high level academic instruction to their students and meeting the needs of their tuition paying parents.
Third Party,
ReplyDeleteThis is part 2 of my response to your post.
I have clearly stated numerous times that I am not an educator. But I am a highly effective businessman. I excel at identifying talent and then utilizing that talent to achieve a goal. You have never met me, nor have you ever discussed my business plan, yet you make broad statements questioning how I can establish a school in a few months. Well, it is simple. I would do the following:
1. Purchase a state of the art curriculum with supporting media, not textbooks from garage sales and book liquidations.
2. Hire the best educators available and pay them a salary higher than what competing private schools and local public schools pay. That formula is tried and true in ANY industry.
3. Reward the teachers with performance bonuses and let them create the parameters governing that performance bonus and submit that to the board for approval. I would think that peer reviewed performance would be far more accurate than dictator reviewed performance. Am I getting through Third party? Do you still think I don't know how to establish a state of the art school? Oh wait, there's more.
4. Cap the student teacher ratio at 10 to 1. It is impossible to deliver highly individualized instruction catering to each student’s specific needs if the student/teacher ratio is too large. When parents are paying in excess of $10,000 per year, there is more than enough revenue to have a low student teacher ratio.
5. Implement a thoroughly modern technology infrastructure that incorporates multimedia software in every aspect of instruction and student testing.
6. Floating teacher's aides to assist with delivery of instruction based on specific lesson plans. Interns from the local university are free. Why not use that talent pool. Still think I don't know what I am doing?
I could go on but then my post will start to bore you since you obviously don't care to understand facts. I will say that everything is in place for the Newton School except the real estate. I am picky and will wait for the right real estate opportunity with long term expansion options. Frankly, if the Galloway School was run like a business, it would not be facing the serious issues being addressed on this blog and in local courtrooms. In corporate America, a clear cut sexual harassment case like the Solt case would have been dispatched long ago. It should never have resulted in a lawsuit. The simple resignation of Coach David would have cleanly addressed the issue. Poor decision making on Bonnie's part created the need for legal action. She continues to make similar questionable decisions.
Since you have been involved with the Galloway School for much longer than I have, can you remind me how the Galloway School started out? How many students in the charter class? Square footage of the facility?
My business plan is to start a school that is based on an elected board of directors with term limits. Power will never be concentrated in the hands of one person. I am the founder, majority shareholder, and CEO of my company, but my board of directors can fire me from my position as CEO if I don't meet their expectations. Is that even possible at the Galloway School with an appointed board and no term limits? Still don't think I know how to run a school? Actually running a school is not very different than running a successful business. If you think otherwise, then I really question how you earned your money. Perhaps you inherited it, or are expecting to do so?