Our Concerns

Drastic changes not communicated

The mass layoffs of 7 teachers (out of 10) and the most seasoned academic coach (2 other employees quit following the unfair layoffs) are just the icing on the cake of what has happened at Baypoint Preparatory Academy in San Marcos. 

https://thecoastnews.com/baypoint-prep-in-san-marcos-lays-off-half-of-teaching-staff/

We believe the administration and school board are behaving illegally - and certainly unethically - and taking advantage of employees who are committed to serving a vulnerable community (in the 2023-24 school year, Baypoint had 60% low-income; 70% minority students - many come from ESL families).

We have so many concerns that they must be broken up by issue. 

Leadership concerns (or lack thereof) 

Nancy Spencer and Frank Ogwaro previously founded a charter school (same name) in Hemet but did not receive a charter renewal with the school district. https://www.pressenterprise.com/2015/02/12/hemet-rejected-charter-baypoint-plans-appeal-ready-for-round-3/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069414367105&mibextid=LQQJ4d

They also had Bayshore, a home school program in San Marcos, that also closed.

Parents who attended these schools shared similar concerns as the parents at the current San Marcos school - citing rocky leadership, mass layoffs of teachers, questionable finances (why can’t the school supply pencils?) and more. 

Further, Nancy serves on the board but receives a full-time salary and is actively involved in managing employees - down to what kind of supply donations they can receive from families. Nancy also lives in Idaho but the school pays for her to fly out for meetings. 

The board is complete with Galel Fajardo (Nancy’s family friend who resides in Orange County and vacations at Nancy’s home), Nathan Limjoco (friend of CEO Frank Ogwaro), and Max Eggelston (friend of Nathan Limjoco). None of these people have previous nonprofit board experience or experience in education.

They consistently appear to have violated the Brown Act by posting agendas late and starting meetings at different times. The board also created a Parent Advisory Committee without training its members in the Brown Act. 

Board members bully families by responding to parent concerns in aggressive and degrading manners and tell each of us individually we are in the minority. Yet, we have a group chat with more than 50 parents (representing about a third of Baypoint families) who share the same concerns. 

Further, vocal parents have said the board and administration (and one academic coach, in particular) have retaliated against them by being rude, mean or neglecting their children. Some of this behavior has been secretly recorded by the older students. (This also helps to explain why we would like to stay anonymous — to keep our children safe.)

Finally, there is Frank who serves as the CEO. He has lied repeatedly to parents about trying to get a gym permitted yet the City of San Marcos does not have any record of him or the school applying for a gym permit. He even stores his cars in the gym that never was. He has said he wants to buy the land that the school is on, which ironically is also zoned for residential use.

Further, Frank makes significantly more than the principals at nearby elementary schools that have a population of 3-4 times as many students. As head of one school, Frank earns about $20k-$40k more than his counterparts at other public elementary schools. He earns another $36k in benefits, according to Transparency California. Why is Frank earning so much more than his peers who have hundreds more students than him?

Shady accounting 

In the December 2023 board meeting, many parents were surprised to find out that Baypoint lost a check from the IRS (as part of the Employee Retention Credit program) valued over $250K last school year.  The issue was discussed previously at the June 2023 meeting, but no follow-up questions were asked by the board about how the check was deposited in Idaho (where co-founder and board member Nancy Spencer resides). Any parents who inquired about it were immediately brushed off. Yet, after media inquiries began to surface in June, the board reported in June that they began the process of finding the missing check in the prior month. 

Around the same time of the missing check, Frank Ogwaro (co-founder and CEO) purchased a new property in Los Angeles.

Hourly employees often work overtime without being paid as such. Parent volunteers and students are asked to fill in when the school is short-staffed including regular lunch supervising, classroom assistance, front desk, and pick-up/drop-off.

Nancy (co-founder) serves on the board but lives out of state in Idaho. Per the California Pay Transparency page, Nancy is compensated more than any of the teachers. If Nancy is an employee, she should recuse herself voting on items concerning pay/benefits etc. on the board due to conflict of interest. However, she has not recused herself from these votes. The executive director (Sabina Chaar) also works part-time on campus but is paid a full-time salary. Employees have said that Sabina stays in her office and is rarely involved in daily operations when she is on campus. 

The children of Frank and Sabina were hired by the Board of Directors. Frank Ogwaro Jr. received a 75% pay increase in the 2023-24 school year for working part-time as tech support.  In June 2024, Frank Jr received another raise. However, he is rarely ever seen on campus and he is paid a monthly stipend regardless of hours worked. When the internet went down for multiple days in March 2023, teachers used their cell phone hotspots to keep their lessons on track. The printers also often went down. The parents fundraised to purchase smart boards for each classroom. 5 months later, only half of the smart boards were actually installed. Where is Frank Jr?

Other nepotism includes executive director Sabina Chaar’s daughter being hired as an academic coach despite having no previous experience working with children. The board reported it wasn’t nepotism as 

Sabina’s daughter reported to a teacher lead, but that lead reports to the executive director so there is an issue with nepotism. 

In June 2024 after the mass layoffs, board member Nathan’s wife began working as an academic coach. She teaches martial arts and taught the children martial arts without receiving parent approval or having parents sign waivers. 

Parent Advisory Committee instead of PTO

In 2021, the administration at BPA asked parents to form the Parent Advisory Committee to serve in a similar capacity as a formal PTO/PTA, fostering community and organizing fundraisers. At this time there was a separate account for the Parent Advisory Committee and a process for funding requests including a consensus vote in favor by participating parents. However in 2023, the administration announced that there would be a new process for funding requests. The Parent Advisory Committee would fall under the Board of Directors with the Board having the final say in how fundraised money is spent (much different than a PTO/PTA). Sometimes they approve a budget for an event or item, then they rescind it without having a meeting. Most recently, they approved a budget and aspects for parents to host Teacher Appreciation Week festivities in May 2024, then the administration rescinded some of the items without the board’s approval or without the board having a public meeting. Nancy also had to approve of the donations parents wanted to give to teachers. 

The chair of the Board of Directors noted in the May 2024 meeting, the committee is now only intended to be a fundraising arm for the school.  In June 2024, the board dissolved PAC. 

Where is PAC’s money going? The administration said Nancy is in charge of PAC money. 

Building Maintenance

There have been very few improvements to the facility in the three years since students started attending class in-person.  When it rains, they pull out trash cans to catch the water pouring in from the roof.  There are cockroaches and plumbing issues. The children practice PE in the back lot that is covered with holes in the asphalt. 

The school gym that students used for a portion of the 2022-23 school year was never permitted. (See below for a photo of students playing inside a gym that was never permitted). Frank also repeatedly told parents about the alleged permitting process for the gym and the need for parent support. Yet, he never filed any intention to permit the gym. 

Again, where is all the taxpayer and fundraiser money going?

Lack of supplies

The school supposedly has a budget for basic school supplies yet everything in the supply closet was donated by parents. The Parent Advisory Committee even allocated a portion of its fundraised dollars to buying basic supplies such as #2 pencils. Where is taxpayer money going if not to basic supplies? 

Oversight of students

On May 9, 2024, a group of 6th graders went to the administration with concerns about their male substitute teacher inappropriately behaving toward a female student. The students told their parents about this. A Sheriff's Department incident report shows the occurrence happened at 1:50 p.m., yet it wasn't reported to authorities until 3:55 p.m. The Sheriff's Department said they reviewed camera footage and did not find any wrongdoing. However, no one interviewed the students. One female 6th grade student told her parent that she was afraid to go back to school the next day because of this incident. 

Parents have reported lack of oversight of their children with them leaving the main building. Sabina’s daughter let TK children walk from the back PE area (in the parking lot) to the front of the building by themselves.

One kindergartner reportedly ran out of the building and into the parking lot. 

Middle school students are allowed access to the staff lounge and staff supplies. 

Building

Contractors hired by Frank were not fingerprinted or background checked when working on site during school day with students present. Contractors have slept at the school overnight. 

One contractor would have his girlfriend on site and they were seen conducting inappropriate behavior by students. 

Cigarette butts and beer bottles were spread throughout campus from workers and they were picked up by students.

Nails and other sharp objects from the building would lead to student injuries

The staff lounge sink was ripped out of the wall for over half the school year now. The sink was connected to the girls (students) bathroom. When students would wash their hands, water would come out through the other side.

Leadership 

Administrators have NEVER observed teachers in the classroom. Sabina often took Wednesdays and Fridays off.

Who is Josh Bone?

Josh Bone responds defensively and condescendingly to social media posts and news articles. His comments are similar to how some members of the board talk to parents who raise concerns.

He says he's a parent of a student at the school and goes to board meetings. If he is one of the 2 board members with children at the school, that might be true. But no one in our group has seen anyone who could be this Josh Bone at the meetings as a parent.

Meetings are structured to suppress parent’s voices

If a parent has something to say at a board meeting, they must meet this criteria.

1. Questions and comments must be e-mailed to the board beforehand, usually by noon on the day of the meeting.

2. Parents are limited to only 3 minutes to address the board and speak only once.

3. They must attend the meeting in person. If attending through Zoom, they are skipped over and ignored. All Zoom attendees are observation-only, muted, and with the chat function disabled.

After the parents have addressed the board, they may be told that an answer will be emailed to them later, which will probably not happen.

Some board meetings start later than scheduled, and many parents cannot attend the entire meeting or attend at all due to work conflicts or lack of childcare. For example, the meeting after the mass layoffs started 45 minutes late.