Is Sky YMCA about to take over Sarasota YMCA?

[Unregistered]

Inside information that Sky family YMCA is about to take over Sarasota YMCA. Both YMCA organizations are hurting for money, but the Sarasota branch is really in trouble. Is Knight still at the helm of this sinking ship too?

[Media]

VENICE — The SKY Family YMCA CEO Pat Ryan abruptly resigned, so Sheriff Tom Knight, the chairman, is now CEO, juggling duties with his job as sheriff. The YMCA grosses $24 million annually and operates in southern Sarasota, Charlotte, Bonita Springs and Lee Counties. It is rapidly expanding it's growth model into early childhood education:

• In March 2018, it opened the SKY Family YMCA Sunshine Education Academy at the new Rod & Elaine Hershberger Child Care Center, in conjunction with PGT Innovations.
• It then built another $1.8 million campus called Sunshine Education Academy on Center Road.
• It is now getting ready to build a $2.2 million academy in Bonita Springs.

Knight said, “I had a 7 a.m. YMCA meeting with them yesterday. And I was on the phone with them in the parking lot before I came to this interview with you. And I’ll go back there this afternoon. They email me on purchases for approvals.”

Full story:
https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/2...ky-family-ymca

[Unregistered]

VENICE — The SKY Family YMCA CEO Pat Ryan abruptly resigned, so Sheriff Tom Knight, the chairman, is now CEO, juggling duties with his job as sheriff. The YMCA grosses $24 million annually and operates in southern Sarasota, Charlotte, Bonita Springs and Lee Counties. It is rapidly expanding it's growth model into early childhood education:

• In March 2018, it opened the SKY Family YMCA Sunshine Education Academy at the new Rod & Elaine Hershberger Child Care Center, in conjunction with PGT Innovations.
• It then built another $1.8 million campus called Sunshine Education Academy on Center Road.
• It is now getting ready to build a $2.2 million academy in Bonita Springs.

Knight said, “I had a 7 a.m. YMCA meeting with them yesterday. And I was on the phone with them in the parking lot before I came to this interview with you. And I’ll go back there this afternoon. They email me on purchases for approvals.”

It’s complicated and it’s related to making money off school vouchers.

Key GOP players have been doing backroom deals in preparation for voucher education revenues from the State. For example, big money is made by renting land, buildings or facilities for exorbitant prices to privatized educational corporations that get their State money from school vouchers. The bulk of those State vouchers end up paying for exorbitant rental prices (for the facilities). Conversely, the privatized school staff are grossly underpaid with little job security, when compared to public school teachers. A huge portion of the voucher money is used to rent educational facilities and lands for outrages fees. That’s where the key GOP players are making their money off the vouchers. It's a legal real estate scam, albeit it's an unethical way to scam taxpayer dollars.

In this particular case, Knight is in the back pocket of key GOP personnel who are gaming the voucher system by building-out the educational facilities through the SKY YMCA corporation, in preparation for charging exorbitant rental fees. That’s why there is a huge push to build-out the educational facilities now, to receive a greater flow of incoming State vouchers.

Again, it’s complicated and Knight is caught-up in it, whether he knows it or not. However, he will be handsomely rewarded for allowing the use of the "office of sheriff" to give this financial scheme the illusion of ethical legitimacy (at his retirement because he is not running for reelection).

[Unregistered]

It’s complicated and it’s related to making money off school vouchers.

Key GOP players have been doing backroom deals in preparation for voucher education revenues from the State. For example, big money is made by renting land, buildings or facilities for exorbitant prices to privatized educational corporations that get their State money from school vouchers. The bulk of those State vouchers end up paying for exorbitant rental prices (for the facilities). Conversely, the privatized school staff are grossly underpaid with little job security, when compared to public school teachers. A huge portion of the voucher money is used to rent educational facilities and lands for outrages fees. That’s where the key GOP players are making their money off the vouchers. It's a legal real estate scam, albeit it's an unethical way to scam taxpayer dollars.

In this particular case, Knight is in the back pocket of key GOP personnel who are gaming the voucher system by building-out the educational facilities through the SKY YMCA corporation, in preparation for charging exorbitant rental fees. That’s why there is a huge push to build-out the educational facilities now, to receive a greater flow of incoming State vouchers.

Again, it’s complicated and Knight is caught-up in it, whether he knows it or not. However, he will be handsomely rewarded for allowing the use of the "office of sheriff" to give this financial scheme the illusion of ethical legitimacy (at his retirement because he is not running for reelection).

This is what you get when a Sheriff is more interested in his own post retirement political aspirations than his current appointment.

The school voucher concept is good, but unfortunately, certain people have devised a way of profiting off of it by stealing the lion's share of the vouchers. It's unethically ingenious and legal, but it's the children who are stolen from (in the bigger picture). Knight is entangled in that voucher mess with SKY YMCA schools Inc.

[Unregistered]

It’s complicated and it’s related to making money off school vouchers.

Key GOP players have been doing backroom deals in preparation for voucher education revenues from the State. For example, big money is made by renting land, buildings or facilities for exorbitant prices to privatized educational corporations that get their State money from school vouchers. The bulk of those State vouchers end up paying for exorbitant rental prices (for the facilities). Conversely, the privatized school staff are grossly underpaid with little job security, when compared to public school teachers. A huge portion of the voucher money is used to rent educational facilities and lands for outrages fees. That’s where the key GOP players are making their money off the vouchers. It's a legal real estate scam, albeit it's an unethical way to scam taxpayer dollars.

Once the following voucher Bill passes (and it will), then the SKY YMCA voucher program will be a huge money maker. Knight is in at the ground level:
http://www.mysuncoast.com/2019/03/14...florida-house/

[Unregistered]

Please take the job!

[Media]

A proposed school voucher called the “Family Empowerment Scholarship” is going to be voted on in the Florida Senate this spring. It would allow families to put their children in private schools, using tax dollars to pay for it.

Sarasota School Board Chair Jane Goodwin is against it because the Sarasota School District has already seen a $30 million annual funding decrease for the past three years. Instead of taking away money from public schools, the government should focus on funding them.

Goodwin explained that if taxpayer money is going to be spent on private schools, then private schools should be held to the same standards. "There's no oversight as to the staff's background. Whether they have a degree, whether they have a teaching degree. What they teach…"

Goodwin said that “education is a complex business. We have made it so complex that people outside can’t understand it. And what’s happening now is that brand new legislatures that go to Tallahassee don’t understand it, so they vote for whatever somebody tells them to do. And then when I sit down and talk to them, they say [in genuine surprise], ‘Oh, does that really happen?'”

Full story:
http://www.mysuncoast.com/2019/03/20...ucher-program/

[Unregistered]

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YMCA making money off "Family Empowerment Scholarship" while dropping historical YMCA services

Inside information says that Sky family YMCA is about to take over the Sarasota YMCA, but both YMCA organizations are hurting for money. Is Knight still at the helm of this sinking ship too?

Sheriff Tom Knight, the YMCA chairman, is juggling YMCA duties with his job as sheriff.

The YMCA grosses $24 million annually and operates in Sarasota, Charlotte and Lee Counties. It is rapidly expanding it's growth model into early childhood education:

• 2018 - opened YMCA Sunshine Education Academy at Rod & Elaine Hershberger Child Care Center, in conjunction with PGT Innovations.
• 2018 - built a $1.8 million campus (Sunshine Education Academy on Center Road).
• 2019 - getting ready to build another $2.2 million academy.

Knight said, “They email me on purchases for approvals and...”

Full story:
https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/2...ky-family-ymca

SARASOTA — The YMCA is permanently closing its Sarasota fitness centers.

“Despite our best efforts to stabilize the financial operations at Sarasota’s fitness centers, they continue to operate at a loss – and the YMCA can no longer support them,” said YMCA President Steve Bourne. Sample YMCA yearly salaries and bonuses include:

• $252,000 – CEO Laura Gilbert
• $142,000 – CEO Steve Bourne
• $153,000 – Bonnie Gauspohl, HR director
• $157,000 – Brena Slater, foster care director
• $704,000 – Annual executive pay (excludes regular employee's pay)

Full story:
https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/2...tness-branches

It’s complicated and it’s related to making money off school vouchers.

Key GOP players have been doing backroom deals in preparation for voucher education revenues from the State. For example, big money is made by renting land, buildings or facilities for exorbitant prices to privatized educational corporations that get their State money from school vouchers. The bulk of those State vouchers end up paying for exorbitant rental prices (for the buildings-facilities). Conversely, the privatized school staff are grossly underpaid, with little job security, when compared to public school teachers. A huge portion of the voucher money is used to rent educational facilities and lands for outrages fees. That’s where the key GOP players are making their money off the vouchers. It's a legal real estate scam, albeit it's an unethical way to scam taxpayer dollars.

In this particular case, Knight is in the back pocket of key GOP personnel who are gaming the voucher system by building-out expensive educational facilities through the YMCA corporation, in preparation for charging exorbitant rental fees. That’s why there is a huge push to quickly build-out the educational facilities now, to receive a greater flow of incoming State vouchers that are getting ready to flood the system.

Again, it’s complicated and Knight is caught-up in it, whether he knows it or not. However, he will be handsomely rewarded for allowing the use of the "office of sheriff" to give this financial scheme the illusion of ethical legitimacy (at his retirement because he is not running for reelection).

The YMCA is continuing to rapidly build expensive educational facilities to make money off of them via the new school voucher system -- while dropping non-lucrative services to the community, such as historical fitness centers.

Florida's newly created voucher is called the "Family Empowerment Scholarship" and it's the state's fifth voucher program. It's unique because it uses taxpayer money to pay private-school tuition for students whose parents make $80,000 or less a year. These "private schools" include the new ones that the YMCA is building as fast as possible (to make money off the voucher system).

It's a rigged scam in the context that select GOP personnel had their cronies begin building these school facilities before the Family Empowerment Scholarship had been passed into the law -- in order to be pre-staged, to begin making money as soon as the new voucher law was passed by the legislation.