Other threads on Wellspring
http://wwf.avigation.net/viewtopic.php? ... =gluhareffhttp://wwf.avigation.net/viewtopic.php? ... =gluhareffhttp://wwf.avigation.net/viewtopic.php? ... =gluhareffhttp://wwf.avigation.net/viewtopic.php? ... =gluhareffSome interesting history:
http://www.thenewsrecord.com/archives/2003/04242003.htmParents Dismayed By Wellspring Closing
Wellspring Academy, a special school for at-risk youth which has been operating in Halifax County since 1986, has been closed. That was the word from Bob Gluhareff, owner of the academy. Gluhareff on Tuesday referred all questions about the school to his Danville attorney Glenn Pulley or to local law enforcement officers.
According to Halifax County Sheriff D.J. Oakes, a fast moving chain of events which began last Friday, April 18, 2003 led to the school's closure.
Oakes said he was called out toWellspring around 1 a.m. on Saturday morning when four of the students at the school did not return as expected. The students, he explained, had been taken from the school premises by a counselor, whose paycheck had bounced. The counselor, he said, had 20 of the school's 70 students in her charge, and she took four of them to South Boston where she lives and had them contact their parents. Two of the four, Oakes said, were at the school under court order.
The sheriff said the counselor had the boys all call their parents to advise them of their whereabouts and to describe for them conditions at the school. Most of the students at the school were still on spring break.
Oakes said he called in employees of the Halifax County Social Services Department to investigate conditions and to talk to the four boys who were later found in a garage apartment in South Boston near where the counselor lived. Several of the parents who lived in far away places, he noted, were by that time already en route to pick up their children.
The boys, the sheriff said, were taken to the Halifax County Sheriff's Department where Social Service staffers questioned them about the conditions and one, according to Oakes, asked to be taken back to the school.
"They were brought back to Wellspring and slept in the living room of Gluhareff's home," Oakes said, noting that he thought everything was okay at that point.
But, Oakes continued, the counselor, whom he described as "disgruntled" because her paycheck had bounced, had called the parents of most of her other charges, and they began coming to the school, questioning what was going on.
"By Sunday," Oakes said, "Gluhareff called and said he was closing the school down because he simply could not weather the storm (from the parents). He (Gluhareff) called his employees and on Monday everyone was paid," according to the sheriff.
Oakes said Tuesday that he is awaiting a final report from Social Services on their findings at the school.
Commonwealth's Attorney John Greenbacker, who was called by Gluhareff over the week-end about the situation said simply, "Allegations of any wrong doings will be turned over to the Virginia State Police for their investigation."
But parents and staffers had a different take on what happened over the week-end. One parent, Susan Dalgleish of Charlotte, N.C., whose 17 year old son has been enrolled at Wellspring since last July, said events of the week-end had been "a real eye-opener about the boys' treatment" at the school for her and several other parents she met over this past week-end.
"We don't want him (Gluhareff) to ever be able to regroup or resurface to be in charge of at-risk youth again," she said. Noting that she had paid $46,000 to the school since her son enrolled on July 12, 2002, she said that while she would like to get some of her money back, her prime goal was to see the school shut down.
She added that a number of parents have banded together to file a class action lawsuit against the academy and that an attorney has been hired to file suit. The parents, Dalgleish, said come from Colorado, two sets from New York and others from Maryland and other locations, as well as herself.
She defended the counselor's actions in removing the four boys from the school last Friday. Lisa Grant, the counselor, she said, had only the safety of the four boys in mind when she took them to South Boston. "She was careful to have each of the boys call their parents to let them know they were safe and where they could be found." Grant, she said, always worked under the assumption of doing what was best for those boys in her care. "It's all about the boys," Dalgleish said was the focus of Grant's actions.
Dalgleish said when she enrolled her son at Wellspring and paid $25,000 for his first three month stay there, she had been told personally by Gluhareff that the school was certified and that he would be doing testing on her son and working out a plan for his personal development there. In October, she said, she paid another $21,000 for the coming months' tuition. Now, she says, her son has never had the opportunity to take SAT tests, nor has she received any academic report on his work.
Another parent told the Lynchburg News & Advance that her 16 year old son had only been at the school for three weeks when she was told it was closing. She said she had been required to make a $25,000 deposit at the time she enrolled her child and is now told the money will not be refunded. A San Diego, California parent also told the News & Advance that she had enrolled her son on April 11, making a $25,000 deposit which she is now being told will not be refunded although the boy was there for only ten days.
"The kids have been traumatized and the parents shocked," Dalgleish said, noting that now her son tells her he was consistently yelled at during his stay at the school and told he "was worth nothing." She said students had advised their parents after the unfolding of the week-end's events that they were scared to say anything about conditions, fearing what the repercussions from the school administration might be. Their telephone calls to the parents were monitored, Dalgleish contends.
A former student at the school called this newspaper yesterday to say that Wellspring "was good for me and a lot of other kids who went to school there." He was, however, concerned about what the closure might do to the counselors. "I never met so many people who were so dedicated to the kids and to their jobs. They put out so much effort," said Carson Stanley, who finished Wellspring last year and is now attending a community college near Charlotte, NC.
Stanley said he felt that the school had accepted a lot of kids who probably would have been in jail were it not for Wellspring. "Bob Gluhareff seemed to me to be a really honest person, one we all looked up to. Now I'm asking myself is he really just a con artist?"
Another counselor at the academy whose checks had not bounced, said she just didn't know what to think after being called Sunday and told the school was closed. "I was just floored. My emotions ranged from anger to hurt to dismay. I am really concerned about my parents and my boys. I'm working hard to help them get into another program, but the timing right now is bad," she said, asking not to be identified.
She noted that she and other employees had been called into a conference on Friday and told that some parents of the school's students had not honored their financial commitments, consequently staffers' pay would be cut by 20 percent retroactively to two pay periods.
Employees were also told at that time that they would not be able to get their checks on Friday as had been the practice, but rather they would have to wait until Monday to be paid. "I was never aware of any of the financial status of the school," she said. "My job was to work with the boys and their parents. Wellspring has done a lot of good for a lot of boys," she said. "The staff had helped a lot of young men work through their problems. This just comes as such a shock that I am numb."
That same counselor had only the best things to say about Grant, who had taken the four boys to her home on Friday. "Her method might have been wrong, but her motives were right. She has an unbelievable heart for the kids and always wanted to do what was in their best interest."
Reports said the school had financial problems other than the bounced checks to the employees. A food service provider reportedly is owned some $26,000 while a local restaurant owner who has been catering meals to the school says he has not been paid for his recent services.
Gluhareff ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Halifax County Baord of Supervisors in the November 2001 elections and was supported by Fifth District Congressman Virgil Goode to whom he had made political donations and who has made several appearances for special events at the school. He was also a staunch supporter of other Republican candidates, including Senator George Allen to whose campaign he had contributed $2,000 in 1999.
The Federal Election Commission lists a $4,500 contribution from Gluhareff to the Republican Party of Virginia in 2001 and the Virginia Public Access Project lists an $11,200 cash donation to Delegate Clarke Hogan. Gluhareff also donated another $2,000 in cash to the Class of 2002 Southside Leadership Fund which was set up to support Hogan, Delegates Robert Hurt and Danny Marshall.
School Counselor's Car Burned Early Monday
South Boston Police are investigating a car fire they were called to investigate early Monday morning at 1332 Shepherd Street. A 1989 Honda Accord which was parked in the driveway of the residence was fully engulfed in flames alongside a wooden privacy fence when officers first arrived around 4 a.m.
Fire department members quickly brought the blaze under control, but the vehicle was declared a total loss. Two other vehicles, a 1993 Ford Taurus and a 1986 Ford van also suffered minor damages.
According to South Boston Police Investigator Tim Van Aernem, the fire is being treated as "suspicious," although no cause of the blaze has yet been determined.
The owner of the car, Lisa Grant, was asleep at the time and was awakened by a neighbor who noticed the flames coming from the car. Grant was a counselor at Wellspring Academy prior to the school's closure this past week-end.
When Van Aernem was asked if the fire might be in any way tied to the events of the week-end at Wellspring, the investigator said "there is absolutely no evidence at this time to in any way tie the two together."
Anyone with information about the car fire or any other illegal incident is asked to contact Lt. B.K. Lovelace or Van Aernem at 434-575-4271 or call Crime Stoppers at 434-575-TIPS.
Was this ever resolved?
~~~
Another article states:
After the academy obtained nonprofit status in 1990, Gluhareff also advised some parents that a large portion of their tuition payments could be deducted on their taxes as a charitable donation, authorities say.
The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to say whether any parents would be held accountable for false filings.
At the same time, Gluhareff led parents to believe that their employers could match their "charitable donations" to the academy, documents show. As a result, four companies sent Wellspring Academy matches totaling $67,000.
Gluhareff is also accused of telling the parents of Wellspring students that children received counseling from licensed professional counselors on campus when in fact no one on staff was licensed as a counselor in Virginia.
The indictment charges Gluhareff with lying to a federal grand jury about the licensing status of his counselors and with faxing two letters to attorneys that claimed that "each student meets with his individual licensed counselor weekly."
[Were the 'counselors' simply not licensed, or not licensed in Va?]
The indictment states that some parents based their decision to choose Wellspring Academy in large part on the belief that their children would have access to licensed counselors.
Finally, Gluhareff sold timber rights to 90 acres of his land to a logger for $60,000. The problem, according to officials: Gluhareff had already pledged that land to BB&T for a $1.3 million loan.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-76791