Pinellas County (Fla.) district will try to close charter school with Scientology ties

From The Tampa Bay Times: Pinellas County (Fla.) school district officials say they will try to close the Life Force Arts and Technology Academy, a charter elementary school criticized by parents and former teachers for using Scientology study methods. Life Force, in Clearwater, could become the first Pinellas school to have its charter terminated. A memo by Pinellas County schools superintendent John Stewart criticizes the school's budget, discipline system and leadership. He says the school's curriculum was changed without permission from district officials.

FEBRUARY 2012...from The Tampa Bay Times: Pinellas County (Fla.) School District officials are recommending that the school board vote against a proposal that would allow a charter school tied to Scientology to stay open through 2016. Leaders of the Life Force Arts and Technology Academy in Clearwater have asked the district last month to amend the school's charter to provide for a fresh start. But amid concerns that the elementary school uses a Scientology teaching method criticized as a covert recruiting tool, district superintendent John Stewart says the School Board should reject the charter amendments. Rejection would not close the school or cancel its charter, which expires in June 2013. But it could set the stage for future sanctions and prove troublesome in bankruptcy court, where a judge is considering the school's Chapter 11 reorganization. From The Tampa Bay Times: Some parents and former teachers at Life Force Arts and Technology Academy, a charter school in Clearwater, Fla.,contend that it has become a recruiting post for Scientology. Life Force receives about $800,000 a year in public funding, Critics say Life Force has begun pushing Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's "study technology," which the critics characterize as a Trojan horse that the religion uses to infiltrate public classrooms.