Teachers file whistleblower lawsuit against Community School of Excellence

Allegations include misconduct during school trip to Thailand last spring and diversion of federal money for unlawful purposes

Mo Chang, Superintendent of the Community of School of Excellence has been named in a whistleblower lawsuit against the school brought by a current and a former teacher.

by TESHA M. CHRISTENSEN

A teacher and a former teacher have filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the Community School of Excellence (CSE), a K-8 Hmong Language and Culture charter school in St. Paul.

Current teacher Megan Christine Deutschman and former teacher Ana Brooks Panone allege that eighth graders at the school were endangered during a school trip to Thailand last spring. According to an article in the Pioneer Press, the lawsuit alleges that superintendent Mo Chang “grossly mismanaged” the trip and that chaperones’ concerns were rejected as “Western thinking.”

Panone was allegedly fired in retaliation for reporting suspected abuse cases, a practice Chang is accused of hampering that has also been the subject of an investigation by the Department of Education. Meanwhile Deutschman took a family and medical leave as a result of a condition worsened by “the atmosphere of retaliation and fear created at the school.”

The suit seeks injunctions against the school to change the leadership, and seeks unspecified damages and attorney’s fees.

Controversy at the school has made headlines for over a year, and much of it has centered around CSE’s founder and director, Mo Chang, a longtime education who served as a charter school liaison for the St. Paul Public Schools. She has been accused of threatening staff for disagreeing with her, and contributing to a high level of turnover among the staff.

Last year, the Department of Education directed Concordia University, the charter school’s authorizer, to investigate allegations that the school has misused federal free- and reduced-price lunch funds, including having students punch in for meals they do not consume. Previously, CSE had been required to repay over $200,000 of misused food and nutrition (FNS) funds for similar issues.

CSE opened in 2007 with 176 students, and since has seen its population grow to nearly 1,000 students, according to its website. The K-8 Hmong Language & Culture and IB World School is housed in the former home of St. Bernard’s Catholic school at 170 Rose Ave W.