The Leona Group (TLG) is a private company operating

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

schools in the states of

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

. It was founded in 1996 in Michigan by Dr. William Coats and operates 66 schools.

History

In 1996, Cesar Chavez Academy in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, was the first charter school to partner with the Leona Group, initially serving students in grades K-5; it now serves more than 2,000 students in all grades at five Detroit campuses. The next year, The Leona Group expanded to Arizona and opened five charter high schools in metro Phoenix; it would relocate its headquarters to Arizona in 2000. In 2001, the Leona Group broadened its reach to serve students in Ohio, beginning with Eagle Academy, which opened in Toledo. In 2002, three additional Leona Group schools opened in Toledo, along with the organization's first school in

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in Allen County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 at the 2020 census ...

. The Leona Group has since expanded its operations in Arizona and moved into the Florida market. In 2012, The Leona Group was selected to take over operation of the

Highland Park, Michigan Highland Park is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An enclave of Detroit, Highland Park is located roughly north of Downtown Detroit, and is surrounded by Detroit on most sides. As of the 2020 United ...

School District after it was ordered chartered by an

emergency manager Emergency management (also Disaster management) is a science and a system charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Emergency management, despite its name, does not actua ...

. Leona renamed the system to Highland Park Public School Academy System, but it continued to bleed students and run into a variety of headwinds. After the high school was shuttered in 2015, the last remaining school in the system, an elementary school serving grades K through 8, received an "F" grade from state authorities.

Criticism and school performance

In 2013, Michigan education advocates criticized the Leona Group's operation of the Cesar Chavez Academy, finding that test scores in 2012 were lower than those of the public schools in Detroit. In 2014, CCA's original elementary school scored in the second percentile on state exams. Financial problems and sliding test scores prompted the closure of another Leona charter school in Detroit, Allen Academy, at the end of the 2015–16 school year, when the authorizing agent opted to terminate its relationship a year after broadening its relationship to incorporate other management companies. In 2015, after it obtained an "F" rating from the state for the 2013–14 school year, the chartering agent of one of The Leona Group's schools in

, Timothy L. Johnson Academy, threatened to close the school at the end of the year if improvements were not made. Ultimately, the school's charter was renewed for a two-year term.

References

External links

Company website
Lansing, Michigan Companies based in Arizona 1996 establishments in Michigan {{US-company-stub