FORT PIERCE, Fla. — The Early Learning Coalition of St. Lucie County told WPTV it paid Creative Learning Lab Academy, the defunct private school in Fort Pierce, about $20,000 dollars for preschool services after their final closure in October.
Those payments came after teachers told WPTV they are still missing paychecks from their work at both the private school and preschool. Officials from the Early Learning Coalition, who disperse state dollars to various childhood services, said they paid the school around $180,000 in less than a year.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Teachers at Fort Pierce school wait for paychecks
Tony Loupe, who is the executive director for the coalition, said the group makes payments after receiving records from providers about their from prior months. He said the contract the group uses to make School Readiness Service payments requires those payments go directly to the school.
“We pay the entity that is contracted with us,” Loupe said. “If once they receive those funds they choose to move those funds somewhere else, that’s their business decision and we don’t know anything about that.”
He also said the organization received phone calls from teachers, who didn’t get paid by the school. Loupe said it’s “rare” teachers don’t get paid and ultimately up to the school’s owners on how to spend the money.
“It definitely puts us in an awkward position,” he said to WPTV’s Ethan Stein in an interview last Monday. “The issue of teachers not getting paid is with the preschool and the owners and not us. I wish I had the ability to be able to pay them directly. But that would be in breach of our contract.”
WPTV first learned teachers were working without pay after our news team obtained an email saying the school was unable to make payroll. At that time we knew Step Up For Students, a different nonprofit who distributes state-funded scholarships to make private school more affordable, paid the school about $44,000.
Loupe said it’s the responsibility of the owners, Christopher and Balanga Madison, to make those payments. Christopher Madison hasn’t responded to WPTV’s requests for comment about the payment issue.
Education
Teachers report no background checks at this Fort Pierce school
Tayla King, who used to teach at the preschool, said she is one of many teachers who are missing paychecks. She said the money she worked for, but never received, has put her in debt.
“It just felt like I was just doing that [teaching] for no reason,” said King. “Like all that time that I put into working, like all of that was for nothing. Like I just wasted my time.”
King said she left her job at a different daycare to work at the preschool because she believed in owners Chris and Balanga Madison's vision to create a Black-owned school for underprivileged children. She said she loved the kids and the other staff members, but she thinks it all fell apart when the school couldn’t make payroll back in August.
“I’m very in financial debt,” King said. “I had to try to borrow money, try do something so I can borrow rent, try to pay bills and everything. I personally feel like they owe me more… now that they put me in a financial struggle.”
Education
Teachers waiting for paychecks from this school now facing another obstacle
King said she had to borrow money from family and friends to make ends meet. She said she can’t afford a lawyer and since Florida dissolved its Department of Labor in 2002, she now has to file a complaint with the United States Department of Labor.
King said she was struggling to get a response or anybody on the phone during the government shutdown.
“You can’t even call anyone,” she said. “I call the line. They hang up on me. It’s just very frustrating.”
King said she’s also frustrated she didn’t get paid after spending money to decorate her classroom.
Multiple teachers also told WPTV earlier this month that they didn’t receive legally required background checks before they started working at Creative Learning Lab Academy. However, King said she did receive a background check.
State law requires teachers and any other school employee to get a level two background investigation. Those investigations include sending fingerprints to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which did tell WPTV it had some prints on file for the Fort Pierce private school.
However, multiple employees told WPTV they didn’t receive any background checks before entering the school even though offer letters said a successful “background screening” was required for employment.
The Florida Department of Children and Families told us in October it is still working to get our news team information about any possible investigation or regulatory action against the school’s owners.
