Educational Choices Foundation?

My spidey-senses must have been tingling for a reason last night.  This morning at the transfer station, I was handed a flier by a very nice gentleman, whom I had the pleasure of speaking with for a few minutes.

Tom Murray and Ken Eyring’s Charter School has a name now, The Windham Academy.  The flier also references the Educational Choices Foundation (ECF), which is the non-profit group that Tom and Ken created last year to operate their charter school.  They appointed Thomas Frischknecht, who is affiliated with The Founders Academy in Londonderry, to the board of directors for the ECF. 

I’m not sure if Ken Eyring, Tom Murray, Michelle Levell, and Jim Fricchione, are also board members for the ECF, or just board members for The Windham Academy.  Hopefully someone can clear that up.  This information was gathered from the Eagle Tribune article published on 20-NOV-2013 by John Toole.

Here’s the problem, the Educational Choices Foundation doesn’t exist.  See for yourself; please refer to the links below. You won’t find any information relating to the Educational Choices Foundation, nor The Windham Taxpayers Coalition, either. 

The link below was taken directly from irs.gov, you can search for all recognized non-profits/exempt organizations:

http://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/pub78Search.do?searchChoice=pub78&dispatchMethod=navigateSearch&pathName=forwardToPub78Search&submitName=Return+to+Search

The link below allows for searches/queries on filed 990-PF forms, which is a public document private foundations must file with the IRS.  990-PFs detail fiscal data for the foundation, provides the names of the trustees and officers, application information, and a complete list of grants:

http://foundationcenter.org/findfunders/990finder/

I find this very troubling, and question the ethics and approach used to present “facts” to the residents of Windham.  Are we being intentionally misled, or are Tom and Ken in way over their heads? I can’t help but think that Ken will continue to drum up controversy and create tension amongst the Windham School Board, only to offer a solution for the problems he helped create. We’ll see, it has only been a few meetings, but his approach during the WSB meetings seems to be favoring confrontations, as opposed to collaboration with an honest effort to improve things in an amenable way.

This is exactly why I requested the Windham Tax Coalition release a group of their members.  I want to know who has a stake in what, and ultimately, what they are trying to accomplish and why. Dealing with phony pseudo-groups and individuals hiding amongst a larger group makes it difficult to decipher the truth and genuineness of literature and advertisements.

Since it is Saturday, and I am already looking forward to tomorrow night, I’ll end with this. I think I would have an easier time supporting a charter school in Windham championed by Lord Petyr Baelish and The Hound ;)