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Thursday, May 4, 2017

FULL SPECTRUM'S MANAGEMENT PROPOSAL: It All Begins With “I”!



“During those years I became interested and involved in vision as it relates to learning. In collaboration with colleagues, a series of activities were developed that addressed vision skills we identified as those critical skills successful learners were using. We termed these techniques Integrative Visual Learning (IVL).”

                                                 Full Spectrum Management Proposal

                                                 April 19, 2017

It doesn't bode well for a business whose proposal kicks off with “I” and ends with “I have made it clear I am willing to negotiate a fair fee for both parties involved and welcome discussion for resolution”, a clear reference to previously-threatened legal action

But that's apparently how Mark Noss rolls.

Roughly a year ago, on April 10, 2016, Noss told the Traverse City Record-Eagle (referring to the GTA's proposed math and science center expansion) he had agreed to “put my personal assets on the line and take the risk on behalf of the school.” 

Now, with his own ass on the line, Noss is fighting to keep his lucrative management contract, and ensure the GTA doesn't cap his public money gusher.

This story focuses on the introductory statement preceding the Full Spectrum proposal, including “Integrative Visual Learning”, management fee levels, the $1.0 million Traverse City State Bank line of credit, a purported $211,000 contribution, and Noss' apparent intransigence regarding his management fee. 

IVL

Should someone call Dr. Freud for a consult? How can the co-owner (with Steven Ingersoll) of an IVL-related copyright not get the name right?

Or is 'Integrative Visual Learning' somehow supposed to confuse us?

MANAGEMENT FEE LEVELS

Ironic that the guy who sat at the head of the GTA board table (and at the feet of Steven Ingersoll) now makes his 9 percent management fee a big deal. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Mark Noss on the board while former manager Ingersoll was being paid a king's ransom for managing the GTA?

Wasn't Noss part of the group that authorized nearly $4,000,000 in management fees to Steven Ingersoll's Smart Schools Management just between 2009-2013 alone?
 
Here are the figures, taken from official GTA audits and confirmed by Ingersoll's own forensic accountant, David Hammel:

2009: $368,549
2010: $327,412
2011: $1,098,537
2012: $822, 303
2013: $1,347,234

LOC 

Mark Noss' insistence that the GTA assume responsibility for repayment of Steven Ingersoll's Traverse City State Bank line of credit was firmly knocked down in my three-part series, available at this link (Part 1), and these two (Part 2, Part 3).

Here's the thing: I'm hoping the GTA board asks Noss why he assumed responsibility for repayment of nearly $1.0 million in debt racked up by Steven Ingersoll if he didn't use the money himself...or share in the proceeds? 

$211,000 PURPORTED CONTRIBUTION

Again, addressed (and clarified) in an earlier post.

Noss didn’t “contribute” $209,789.34 in the 2016 fiscal year to the Grand Traverse Academy, as he claimed. 

He merely booked the amount as a “Prepaid Expense” for the current fiscal year. (Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

By shifting the amount into the FYE June 30, 2017, Noss was able to record his so-called fee “reduction” in the FYE June 30, 2016, craftily engineering a financial balance sheet maneuver that ultimately paid off with positive PR—while maintaining a tight grip on his $852,341 management fee payment for 2016.

And finally, in an attempt to scrub Steven Ingersoll from his professional and personal history, Noss relates the story of his role in the formation of the Livingston Developmental Academy near Brighton, Michigan—leaving out Ingersoll while misspelling the name of the school's current namesake (Charyl Stockwell), who died in 2001.

Here's how Charyl Stockwell's father Chuck (owner of GTA contract bidder CS Partners) described the experience on the school's site

“Steve saw Charyl in December of 1993. For the first time we began to hear an explanation of Charyl’s learning problems that made some sense. Charyl had an exotropic left eye and Steve showed us how her visual condition affected her learning. He was also able to analyze her test scores and tell us what they meant. When Steve described the developmental nature of such problems, it just didn’t ring true for Charyl, however the rest of his explanations made a lot of sense. He explained his treatment methods, and in January we began to pull Charyl from school and take her to Bay City two days a week for vision therapy. 

Charyl responded well to the vision therapy but she continued to have other physical symptoms that worsened over the fall. We switched pediatricians and the new doctor could find no source for Charyl’s health problems. Finally in February, we took Charyl to another neurologist for another evaluation. At our insistence, the doctor ordered a MRI. A week later, we went in for the appointment that radically changed the direction of our lives. They had given Charyl the MRI and were prepping her for an EEG when the doctor stopped the test and pulled us out of the room. The MRI had revealed a large tumor directly behind Charyl’s eyes. The tumor was blocking the flow of cerebral fluid from her skull, causing severe hydrocephalous. The doctors insisted that she be admitted to a hospital immediately for emergency surgery.”

1 comment:

  1. Looks like Noss isn't learning much from his and Ingersoll's IVL... hell, he can't/doesn't even call his own 'curriculum' properly when he says "Integrative..." that should be exhibit A for LSSU to revoke that curriculum (oops...alleged curriculum)

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