"The Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School today released documents further chronicling nearly half a million dollars in spending on legal bills spurred by the federal grand jury probe of its founder and various subcontractors.
The Post-Gazette reported Monday that the online public school, based in the Beaver County town of Midland, hired attorneys to protect its interests, those of founder Nick Trombetta who resigned from his post of CEO in June 2012, and those of seven employees.
Records released today indicate that the school also paid for attorneys to represent longtime board member Edward Elder; its board's lawyer, Timothy Barry; and computer entrepreneur Joseph Rodella.
Mr. Elder was represented by attorney Olga M. Salvatori, at a cost of $3,300. Mr. Barry hired attorney Katie Recker, and the school paid $27,678. Mr. Rodella retained Patrick Thomassey, who billed the school $4,750.
Mr. Rodella's firm, RoData Inc., which specializes in videoconferencing, did $4 million in work for PA Cyber from 2005 through 2012, according to records obtained by the Post-Gazette. Mr. Rodella was also a PA Cyber board member from 2008 to 2011. In some cases, Mr. Trombetta requested RoData's services, records indicate, and the purchases were made through a state-run purchasing system called CoStars.
The new documents show that Mr. Trombetta, who faces an 11-count federal indictment, is among numerous employees who pledged to pay the school back for his legal counsel under circumstances that are not detailed in the documents. PA Cyber declined to release the letter outlining the repayment terms, saying they are subject to attorney-client privilege."
20 comments:
At one time weren't there discussions of a possible association with PACyber by the board?
Seem to recall something like that, possibly using RoData products and technology for the distance learning arrangement. Couldn't track RoData sales to MTLSD either because of the CoStars arrangement at the time.
Yeah. Until a member of the public was sent a newspaper article from that locale that announced that MTLSD was involved, presented to the SB in a public meeting. Never heard anything further about it after that for some reason ?
SB member Joe participated in the teachers contract negotiations, and gave the store away, undoing almost everything gained in the prior contract to control and constrain costs and work practices. Teachers loved him. He spent a fair amount of time in Harrisburg, where RoData maintained an office. He didn't like public questioning.
Wonder if Joe Ro will get pulled into this investigation?
Or Birks or Remely?
Remember the technology contract through the state that the tech administrator could not explain. It was very short on content and the board was long on questions. You have to wonder who was on the other end of that contract.
Those illegal Candidatecemails sent out when Cannon, Stephenson, Wertheim and Bies ran for school board-- who was behind them?
Sorry, off subject, but how did you let this slip by? http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/state-releases-high-scores-for-three-local-schools-706944/ Oh, that's right, Lebo looks good so you'll ignore the article and the results because your beloved district to compare us to is ranked below us. Results are interesting, check them out: http://www.pde.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/pennsylvania_department_of_education/7237
Thank you for sharing this article, 3:01 PM. That is good news about Mt. Lebanon. Do you really think I omitted that on purpose? I am a staff of ONE. I go to the meetings. I record the meetings. I blog about the meetings. So I missed this article, 3:01 PM. So sue me.
Elaine
3:01 instead of being a poopie, email the article to Elaine. I do that all the time. She is good about putting it on her Blog.
3:01 PM, I hope you sent something to Josephine Posti and criticized her for ignoring that article. Her last post is from September 26. http://jposti.blogspot.com/
She only covers school news, at best.
Elaine
This Blogger thinks that was from Joe Ro, Elaine
Yes 3:01 rather than your snarky post, why not send the article to Elaine for posting. Many of us send her stuff which she pretty diligently post whether it agrees with her position or not.
She one person, NOT GETTING PAID A DIME and tries very hard to be a service to the community.
People have constantly been berated for asking questions of our public servants some of which do make handsome salaries why they haven't made available documents to the public. But, hey don't criticize them right?!
Consider attending Matt Smith & Dan Miller's RTK meeting on Nov.7th. at 6:00PM in the Commission Chambers at 710 Washington Rd.
Oh, this is priceless. 3:01 PM is all over me about the "good news" about Lebo. This is what is on the MTLSD website today. The big news is there is water in the new pool. 10/10/13 MTLSD Home Page
And I am the bum for not blogging about it.
Elaine
3:01, it's clear that Elaine is providing our community an invaluable service. I know that reading this blog has helped me understand what is currently going on in Mt Lebanon to a degree that I could *NEVER* have achieved through normal communication with elected and paid municipality or school district staff.
It is good news that we have some high achieving schools. I just hope those test results don't come at the cost of creativity, decreased recess time, social skill development...
Elaine calls it right!
3:01 works her over for not reporting the GOOD NEWS.
But the two highly paid PIOs at 7:57pm haven't covered it all while Elaine is applauding the good news and posted 3:01 submission that there is good news out there.
Incredible, absolutely incredible.
3:01 PM was just deflecting. We have gone from PA Cyber and Joe Rodella to why didn't I write about Lebo's test scores. That's par for the course. Certainly, what I did is far worse.
Elaine
3:01, "the state looks into questions about their [test scores] accuracy.
Unlike the legal costs, there is uncertainty regarding the test scores.
Please explain why you think the test scores should not be questioned.
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