Academy operators inspire loyalty despite problems with licenses, money
By Jamie Malernee and Akilah Johnson
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted August 20 2006
She's an "angel" and a "mother" to her school children. He is a "gentleman" and an "icon" in his community.
Together, the Plantation husband and wife have spent their careers helping troubled students while preaching the word of God, parents and colleagues say.
Yet Lynda and Reginald Browne -- leaders of a tiny Christian military academy under scrutiny after one of their students died at a school camping trip a little over a week ago -- have had financial and licensing problems and are now playing hide and seek with county and state officials, who are demanding to know where they have reopened the school.
Lynda Browne, 56, principal of Back To Basics Military Academy, was kicked out of a church location in Lauderhill on Tuesday for not having permits to run the private school. She's moved classes to a "secret" location, parents say.
Before Lynda Browne formed Back to Basics in 2005 with her husband Reginald Browne, the couple started a nonprofit counseling group. Reginald Browne, now 58, was fired from the group in 1995 after audits found it misused money. Before that, the state ordered him to stop calling himself a psychologist because he wasn't licensed.
Today, he is a minister who holds religious gatherings at his home, does marital counseling and hosts a Christian radio show, according to a pastor and a parent.
Many of those who know the Brownes remain absolute in their loyalty to the couple, saying the death of a 13-year-old boy in their camp has unfairly cast suspicion. The boy, Alex Cullinane, collapsed during a school-related camping trip at Oleta River State Park in north Miami-Dade County. An autopsy showed no trauma. Officials are still waiting on toxicology results.
"Their character should not be questioned, not when they are trying to do what's right," said Pastor Dennis Jackson Sr. of the United Christian Praise and Worship Center Church in Miami, who has known the Brownes and their work with at-risk children for 20 years.
`Not just blind faith'
The Brownes could not be reached for comment despite many attempts over the past week by phone, visits to their home and letters sent seeking an interview.
Academy parents Lynne Miller, Wendy Stott and Rebecca Chaparro insist the Brownes say the Lauderhill code violations are a misunderstanding. The couple thought their landlord's permit to run a daycare at Living Word Fellowship Church applied to their academy for grades 4-12.
"The school is working very closely with the city of Lauderhill to get the correct permits," said Miller, an associate professor of education at Florida International University.
Not if you ask Lauderhill.
"We do not know where the Brownes are. We have had no contact with the Brownes," city spokeswoman Leslie Tropepe said on Friday.
The city sent the academy a cease and desist letter Tuesday at the church, which is not affiliated with the school but rented it space at 5770 W. Oakland Park Blvd. since August 2005. Code enforcement went to the church Friday and confirmed the school moved out.
Last year, the school accepted $86,760 in state scholarship money to educate 14 disabled students enrolled in the John M. McKay Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Program. This year, 24 of the school's 32 students are enrolled in the program.
The Department of Education says Lynda Browne has 15 days from the day of her move to disclose the academy's new location, and 60 days to provide proof she meets local safety and building codes. If she doesn't, the department may withhold state funding.
The Broward County Heath Department has joined the hunt for the school's new location. Agency environmental director Howard Rosen said Friday it must be inspected.
Parents will not disclose the military academy's new site, which they say is large enough to house 32 students, teachers and drill sergeants. Miller and Stott said the students spent the week doing indoor exercise, getting grief counseling because of the death and taking academic assessment tests.
"When you finally find a program where your child flourishes and has a future, you're not going to give that up," said Stott, who has two teens at the school. She said the Brownes turned around her unruly 15-year-old son and supported him during a cancer scare.
"They are just angels sent from God," Stott said. "In all honesty, we thought he'd never finish high school. We couldn't get him to go. Now he's eager to go. We are not just parents who have blind faith."
Victor Jusino has little faith in the school. The Sunrise father said his ex-wife sent his 9-year-old son there against his wishes, using state money. Jusino said he talked to his son on the phone and the boy said that since the school moved they have been playing and watching movies all day.
"Why are they hiding? I don't get that part," Jusino said. "My concern is the learning. If they can't teach, bring them to somewhere where they can be taught. I'm worried. I'm angry."
Child advocates
The Brownes became well known in the child welfare and counseling community when they formed the Family Life Institute of Counseling Education and Research -- better known as FLICER -- in 1986. The group provided mental health services and AIDS education when few stepped up to help, said Keith Clayborne, a longtime friend and publisher of the Broward Times.
"AIDS was a taboo word in the black community, and the Brownes said, `There are people out here sick. We need to do something,'" he said.
But soon troubles began.
In 1991, the state Department of Professional Regulation sent Reginald Browne a cease and desist letter after finding he was representing himself as a psychologist. He has no such license in Florida.
In 1995, Reginald Browne was fired from his position of executive director of FLICER after an audit by the state Department of Juvenile Justice showed the nonprofit used more than $50,000 intended for construction to pay salaries. The state ordered the nonprofit to pay the money back. After Browne's departure, the group began to pay it back.
The group lost a county grant after an audit found Reginald Browne was running his own private counseling business without paying rent out of the same office as the county and state-funded nonprofit. The audit also found Lynda Browne was paid commissions for finding donations.
"When you're a small business person, hell, you can't afford to go from this building to that building. You do the best you can," Clayborne said. "It's going to paint a picture that something is shady about this guy, and he's not a bad guy."
In 1998, the Brownes formed a new nonprofit, R.L. Browne Ministries, and another, New Wineskin Christian Fellowship, in 2001. The fellowship is not associated with the New Wineskins Association of Churches, a group of churches seeking reform in the Presbyterian Church, said New Wineskin Initiative spokeswoman Brenda Edwards.
State records list the address of both of the Browne nonprofits as their home.
Jackson, the Miami pastor, said he ordained Reginald Browne as a minister at about that time, five years ago. Jackson said the Brownes counsel people and hold fellowship services out of their home. The couple also broadcasts a radio program called Back to Eden on a Miami gospel station, 1490 AM WMBM.
In 2004, Lynda Browne worked as an administrator at Elite Leadership Military Academy in Fort Lauderdale. Kurt Sullivan, then a drill instructor at Elite, was impressed by her caring ways. "If a kid didn't have clothing, she would go on her own private time and buy them shoes if they needed it. If they were hungry, she would buy them food," Sullivan recalled.
Miller and Stott, who had their children enrolled at Elite, befriended the Brownes.
`Counting on us'
Lynda Browne started her own school in 2005, and the mothers followed. While the school day starts with formations and ends with drills, they say the real focus is on teaching honesty and respect.
The two parents say there were no problems until Alex Cullinane's death on Aug 12. The boy's mother said the school told her that her son woke up a drill sergeant at 3 a.m., said he did not feel well, and then collapsed. She said Monday she does not blame the school.
After Alex's death, Lynda Browne said she had subcontracted with Fort-Lauderdale based Juvenile Military Training and Leadership Corps to conduct the camping trip. She said the National Guard trained the group's drill instructors.
State records show no such group exists. The Florida National Guard said it does not certify or train drill instructors.
A different group by a similar name, Juvenile Military Boot Camp, exists. Records show the Brownes list their home address as the company's address. Police records also show the Brownes' group was in charge.
Many people still hope the Brownes will be allowed to reopen their school in Lauderhill. Clayborne said the couple recently visited his office, crying and devastated -- but determined.
"I didn't know how to console them," Clayborne said. "I said, `Are you all going to continue to do this?' and they said `Yes. We have to. We have parents who are counting on us. We have students who are counting on us.'"
Staff Writer Marlene Naanes and Researchers Barbara Hijek and William Lucey contributed to this report.
Jamie Malernee can be reached at
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