Odyssey Charter School parents, teachers want answers to board's secret leadership decisions

Editor's note: This story had been updated to include the correct members of the personnel committee created in May. 

Odyssey Charter School parents and teachers have been packing board meetings this summer to question the hiring of a new co-administrator, the convening of committee meetings with little public notice and the resignation of a board president rumored to be in line for a full-time job. 

In June, they demanded to know why the board hired a second administrator at $150,000, plus a $7,500 signing bonus to cover health expenses. He will share control of the school with Denise Parks, who will also make $150,000.

The jobs were not advertised and stakeholders didn't know about the change in leadership, they said.

This week, they focused on the resignation of former board president Dimitrios Dandolos and rumors he might be hired for a third administrative job, also making six figures. If he was, they said, Dandolos would be doing many of the things he did for free as board chair.

Teachers and parents, who have donated thousands of dollars to the school, questioned the need for two, if not three, well-paid administrators.

Many of those speaking at the board meeting questioned why succession committee members are having meetings with little public notice. They complained that the regular board is having long executive sessions and then coming out and revealing decisions without input from teachers and parents.

 A newly formed succession committee has met three times this month — July 10, July 11 and July 17 — sometimes with only a day's notice.

“In the last four months, a lot of surprises have occurred with this board," said Jon Stewart, Odyssey's facilities manager, talking to the board at Wednesday's regular meeting.

Odyssey is a Greek-themed dual-language charter school that opened in 2006 and recently expanded into high school. Its 2017-18 enrollment was 1,662 students. 

Its new co-leadership model is unusual among Delaware schools, most of which have a single head of school, but more common in other parts of the country. 

Stewart spent much of Wednesday night advising the board's new president, Josiah Wolcott, on how to conduct a public session. Sometimes Wolcott would ask for advice, and sometimes Stewart chimed in. That included basic information from Robert's Rules of Order, which are often used to run meetings.

Stewart told the board that instead of worrying what it would do without Dandolos, it should rely on its more-than-capable school administrators. He urged them to discuss things in public, rather than in hours-long executive sessions and sparsely attended committee meetings. 

“I want to believe in you guys, and you have to give us your trust," Stewart said. "Trust, trust, bring it out front."

Wolcott said conversations about how to move forward would continue through August and that the board has not yet settled on whether to hire a third administrator. 

Dandolos was considered a particularly active board president. He was the point person on construction projects and spearheaded fundraising, all for no salary. He also speaks Greek and organized partnerships with Greek schools and colleges.

He was recently recognized by the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association for outstanding service to the school and is in the running for a national award.

Board members talked at length about how Dandolos can help attract new donors to the school, which could justify hiring him.

“It could be tens of thousands of dollars, it could be hundreds of thousands of dollars, it could be more than that," Wolcott said. 

There is a Hellenic education conference next week, which some board members will attend. The board voted to allow Dandolos to represent himself at the event as the immediate past board president. Many audience members bemusedly pointed out that Dandolos actually is the past board president and said they were unsure why a vote was needed.

When some board members said they may not hire a third administrator, some teachers charged that the board has misled them before. They pointed to comments at an earlier meeting that the school's administrative office would not be restructured, though it was soon after.

Staff also said the succession committee has met at inconvenient times – 1 or 3 p.m. – for teachers to attend.

Notice of all three meetings were posted on the school's website on July 9, just one day before the first meeting. A note on the meeting agenda said: “Notice of at least seven days in advance of this special meeting could not be given because it was not in the best interests of the school to delay discussion of the personnel matter described above to provide such notice."

Parents and staff lamented a lack of transparency in reorganizing the school’s leadership and hiring people to fill the new positions internally, noncompetitively and without input from school parents or staff.

At a May board meeting, minutes show that the group only met in public long enough to go into executive session for more than three hours. At another May meeting, they went into closed session and came out to vote on forming a new personnel committee.

That four-member committee consisted solely of board members George Hantzandreou, Josiah Wolcott, Abigail LeGrow and Tami Soltow.

Just a month later, on June 4, the committee recommended implementing a  co-leadership model. Under it, a head of school would oversee academics and a “campus operations officer” would oversee the business side, including food service, construction projects, transportation and facilities management. 

“We think this team-based approach is the best use of our people,” Wolcott said at a board meeting in June. “Both these positions will be co-leaders in the school, and they’ll report directly to the board."

That same night, the board approved a contract for head of school Parks with a base salary of $150,000 plus benefits for two years starting July 1. Riccardo Stoeckicht, who had been acting as a consultant, was offered the same as a new campus operations officer, plus the one-time bonus. 

Longtime headmaster Nick Manolakos, who had been the sole administrator, made about $165,450 a year before the board voted not to extend his contract past its end date of June 30.

Parks, who was interim head and previously supervisor of schools and instruction, will also receive $10,000 a year in tuition reimbursements as she pursues her doctorate. She made about $117,957 in her previous position, according to data from the Delaware Office of Management and Budget.

School staff said during a board meeting that they were happy to have Parks promoted but wanted to see her lead the school without Stoeckicht, with whom they have less experience.

Stoeckicht previously served as president and CEO for Innovative Schools and had been working for the school as a consultant on financial and other matters. His contract was about to end, but in 2018 Odyssey already had paid him $92,311 for his services, according to Delaware Open Checkbook. 

When several staff members said June 4 that they were concerned about the quick hiring, the personnel committee's LeGrow said that in an ideal world they would have had a nationwide search.

“But we aren’t living in that ideal world,” LeGrow said June 4. “The reality of the situation is we’re up against a timeframe, that didn’t, in our view, as a committee, allow us to perform that search.”

Odyssey owns several buildings in the Barley Mill complex, and rents space to other schools. 

The board said Stoeckicht has been working on fitting out a building for Ithaka, a stand-alone, nonprofit early learning center expected to generate $300,000 annually. Ithaka's opening, which was supposed to be this fall, has been postponed until 2019, because it did not meet its 100-student enrollment target, according to its website. 

Among other things, Stoeckicht also worked to get the Spanish-themed charter school Academia Antonia Alonso as a tenant. 

“If I were to tally all the work that Riccardo has done over the years for free … we couldn’t afford him," Dandolos said last month. “Trust me here.”

Dandolos said Stoeckicht also has a good reputation among Odyssey’s investors and has helped the school manage its finances.

Stoeckicht also was the first president of the Community Education Building in Wilmington, which is owned by the Longwood Foundation and is home to Great Oaks Charter School and Kuumba Academy.

On June 4, in response to questions from parents and staff, Stoeckicht emphasized his experience working with tenants and reminded everyone that Odyssey is a landlord.

“What if Academia chooses to move?” he said. “What are the implications when you lose a million dollars of revenue, on the Odyssey business side, on Odyssey operations?” 

“I believe in the vision that the board has to create a global education campus," he said.  “But there is a considerable heavy lift in terms of designing what this campus looks like to entertain the kinds of relationships and rapports to build long-term success, not only for Odyssey but also for its tenants.”

Parks said on June 4 that she was comfortable with the new arrangement and that the business office would report to both Stoeckicht and her, which she felt was important.

Even so, several parents and teachers were upset about the $300,000 in salaries. They also worried hiring yet another administrator could cut into the academic budget. 

Odyssey's finances already have been stretched by several construction projects, staff said. 

Odyssey had been trying to raise $400,000 by the end of June to renovate its gymnasium, arts and sciences center, according to its website. Its total 2018 fundraising goal is $2 million, $650,000 of which has already been raised and $400,000 of which would come from a reserve fund.

Teachers and parents have invested thousands in the school, with some of the money automatically withdrawn from educators' paychecks, to make upgrades and pay for new programming. They should have had some say, they told the board, even if Stoeckicht could eventually get Odyssey new tenants and additional revenue.

One teacher pointed out that they only get one-year contracts, and get paid less than educators at public school districts like Red Clay.

Staff at the meeting Wednesday night said instead of trying to figure out how to move forward without Dandolos, the board should restructure itself so a board member's resignation isn't such a huge deal. 

Dandalos' stepping down was not a surprise, they said, yet the board has proven itself ill-prepared to move forward and did not have a plan for his departure. 

Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.

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