Colorado Early Colleges leaders address firing of Fort Collins head of school at meeting

Colorado Early Colleges’ decision to fire the leader of its Fort Collins charter schools was not made hastily or in a vacuum, leaders said Wednesday in response to questions raised at a school accountability meeting.

The CEC governing board was involved, president Laura Calhoun said, as was the organization’s human resources department and contracted law firm.

A new head of school for CEC’s Fort Collins middle and high schools, Allison Smith, has been hired and is scheduled to begin May 1, said Sandi Brown, CEC’s chief executive administrator.

Brown said Wednesday that the decision to fire Collin Turbert on Feb. 22, leading to a student walkout in protest eight days later, was made over a period of time following what Brown called appropriate steps.

Turbert was fired, along with Fort Collins middle school principal Jeb Holt, “after several complaints related to staff violations of the Employee Code of Conduct,” Amber DiCarli of the Charter School Law Group wrote in an email to the Coloradoan.

An email sent by Brown to students’ families and staff and shared with the Coloradoan by DiCarli provided the same explanation and noted that “there were no allegations or investigation that included any staff members’ conduct with students, and the investigation revealed only code of conduct violations against staff.”

Turbert, in an email exchange with the Coloradoan, declined comment.

The firing of Holt, who reported to Turbert, didn’t create the kind of controversy that the head of school’s termination did. More than a dozen CEC Fort Collins staff members met with a Coloradoan reporter to express their concerns on the condition of anonymity, and a dozen more current and former staff members at CEC also reached out through emails and phone calls claiming the termination was not justified. About 90 students participated in the March 2 walkout, calling for Brown’s resignation.

During Wednesday’s meeting at the CEC high school, Susan Sasson, co-chair of the school accountability committee, raised questions she said had been brought to her by parents. There were 18 people — school staff, parents and students — other than school administrators and board members in attendance.

“Many parents have reached out to us wanting more transparency on the matter and wanting to understand why it was handled in this manner,” Sasson said. “From the way we parents see it, CEC’s legal department, which we wish was here, could have handled the situation in a more considerate way, without such a harsh and cryptic email.”

Brown quickly dismissed suggestions that there was any sort of sexual misconduct involved but, along with Calhoun, declined to provide additional information about the dismissals, including what specific part of the employee code of conduct was violated.

“It was not our (chief executive administrator) just decided that she was going to terminate someone; it does not work like that,” Calhoun said. “We have a human resources department; they have to vet it. We have attorneys; they have to be warned. So after the process of vetting it through the human resources department and our legal department, then the decision was brought to the board.

“It is not a decision that was made 'lone star' (by) Sandi Brown, OK. It was all together, and it was the best thing for our network of schools. …

“As far as the board is concerned, we’re as transparent as we can legally be.”

Brown said the Charter School Law Group, at CEC’s request, conducted its own investigation of the allegations involving Turbert’s conduct and reached the same conclusion.

Smith, the new head of school for Fort Collins, is a principal consultant with the Colorado Department of Education. She is a former principal of Pikes Peak Online School and teacher and assistant principal in the Greeley-Evans School District, according to her Linkedin.com profile. She has also taught classes at Aims Community College.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies from Colorado State University, a master’s in education leadership and innovation from Regis University and a doctorate in education organization leadership from Grand Canyon University. She has lived in the Fort Collins area for more than 20 years, Brown said.

Colorado Early Colleges is a network of public charter schools, authorized by the Colorado Department of Education through the Charter School Institute rather than individual school districts. CEC operates 10 schools in the state, including the two in Fort Collins and a combined middle-high school in Windsor. The two Fort Collins schools have a combined enrollment of 1,091 students, according to CDE's annual October count.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: CEC charter school leaders explain process in Fort Collins firing