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DeCoursey said the school’s special education instructor intervened in her class was after the school’s principal asked her which students might be in danger of failing the state’s LEAP test.

We feel that this allegation does not require an answer but we just wanted to show you how absurd and baseless the accusations are. When the intention is to harm the school, even an innocent act of providing extra help to special education students to better prepare them for the state-mandated test can be characterized as something wrong. It is our promise to our parents that we will continue to do our best to prepare our students for college in a safe, caring, and collaborative atmosphere and will keep going “the extra mile” for our students whenever they need our help.

In an email dated Feb. 2, 2010, and signed by DeCoursey, Baker and two others, they wrote to Kenneth Campell, then head of the state’s charter office: “Though we are fully aware of the significant amount of autonomy given to charter schools, we are now concerned that this autonomy is being abused to the point that students are being forced to engage in unethical acts.”

With regards to “unethical acts” claim, it was addressed in corrective action plan and school came up with possible resolutions along with the deadlines for each issue. School successfully implemented the corrective action plan according Mr. Dunbar’s official audit in Spring 2011.

We also would like to mention a comment we have been hearing from our parents and many supporters: “Several nearby schools have crime, drugs, teen pregnancy etc. problems but none of those schools are being suspended for those serious problems let alone “unethical acts”. Besides, if there was a suspicion of unethical acts it would be investigated and if wrongdoing were to be found, a proper punishment would be given but speculating that put a school operation under suspension is too extreme.

Finally we would like to share an incident: During Congressman Bill Cassidy’s visit to one of Pelican schools, one student came before him in tears and made a statement that she couldn’t make it to where she was then if this school hadn’t been opened and she might already been a teen-mother if it was not for this school.

Congressman Cassidy, while listening the student about her experience with the School.

Allegation#1: Inci Akpinar, vice president of Atlas Texas, flattered Folwell Dunbar with “a number of compliments” and offered him money:

The allegation linking our school with a bribery charge of a state education official over a year ago is far-fetched and outrageous. The person named in the bribery charge has no connection to our school. The article itself states that the Police Department dismissed the incident for a lack of evidence. It is unfortunate that the article portrays our school as “a school which shares apparent ties to Akpinar’s firm” even though this person or her firm has no connection with our school let alone “apparent ties”.

Abramson teachers on a school-sponsored trip to Turkey received pamphlets on the Gulen movement.

First of all, our teacher trips are not schools-sponsored and we believe it was intentionally mentioned as such so that readers would be misled. Our school conducts various social events and trips for students, teachers and parents as part of developing an environment that school, teachers and parents work together to improve the lives of our students. We are not in control of what kind of pamphlets or brochures our teachers would receive during those visits since often times people get tons of fliers, pamphlets etc. during those trips.

Abramson advertises a special focus on science and technology, but state officials found lab materials “still boxed, packed and sealed” after two years sitting at the school.

The unopened boxes located in rear corner of the room contain spare microscopes. Additionally we had FOSS kits that were in boxes because they are meant to be stored in respective, subject specific boxes. You may refer to http://www.fossweb.com/ for details. Also, the lab equipments is used by science teachers for regular Science classes and cleaned every time after use.

A group of ninth-graders said they had straight A’s or B’s, and said they felt the state’s standardized exams were “easy”. They described practice on items that were very close to the items on the test.”

We strive to provide best possible environment for our student to succeed in their lives including state tests. We believe our dedicated teachers should be commended for that rather than being put under suspicion by hidden implications. Our school uses state released resources for test prep such as Eagle, Louisiana PASS, released test items, LEAP Tutoring lessons, and practice tests. In addition to state resources, teachers are provided with Louisiana content aligned Coach and Buckle Down publications for test prep.

In order to monitor student progress, we administer 4 full-length practice tests published by Coach and Buckle Down testing companies. Students are placed into pull out groups based on their respective areas of weakness. School is offering free Saturday school, along with free transportation and lunch.

They also reported a “general feeling of fear” among the school’s staff because of what appeared to be retaliation against teachers, parents and students who had spoken up about the school’s practices.

There has been no sign or record of withholding or threatening to withhold a favorable action that could discourage an employee, student or a parent from speaking up, out of more than 100 employees, hundreds of students and parents. It is obvious that the claim of “general feeling of fear” was limited to three former teachers who were let go because of poor performance or other legitimate reasons.

When his team made its initial unplanned visit to the school, they were told the high school students would be leaving for a field trip. But students “indicated that they did not know about the trip,” Dunbar wrote, and “a few teachers said it was put together at the last minute. Team members suspect that it was done because of the review.”

There has been no sign or record of withholding or threatening to withhold a favorable action that could discourage an employee, student or a parent from speaking up, out of more than 100 employees, hundreds of students and parents. It is obvious that the claim of “general feeling of fear” was limited to three former teachers who were let go because of poor performance or other legitimate reasons.