Even before charges, school was in the spotlight
Brien N. Gardiner may be gone, but after yesterday's federal charges against two former officials of the first charter school he founded, he certainly won't be forgotten.
While the investigation was ongoing, Gardiner, 64, committed suicide May 13 in the parking lot of the Bethayres train station in Lower Moreland.
Gardiner, a former Philadelphia School District principal, founded the Philadelphia Academy Charter School in Northeast Philadelphia in 1999.
The school has 1,200 students in grades K-12 on two campuses: an elementary school on Roosevelt Boulevard near Byberry Road and a high school on Tomlinson Road near Jamison Avenue.
Philadelphia Academy was popular with families of police officers and firefighters.
The school officials indicted yesterday, former chief executive Kevin M. O'Shea and former board member Rosemary DiLacqua, had been Philadelphia cops.
In 2005, Gardiner founded a second charter school, Northwood Academy, an elementary school, on Castor Avenue near Orthodox Street.
Last year, Northwood moved to sever its ties with Gardiner and O'Shea.
But at one time Gardiner had been chief executive officer for both charter schools and took home a combined salary of $224,500.
In April 2008, the Inquirer reported that John F. Downs, the School Reform Commission's inspector general, was investigating Gardiner and O'Shea.
Parents had complained that O'Shea, had been promoted as CEO of Philadelphia Academy with a salary of $206,137.
The Inquirer reported that O'Shea's sister Constance O'Shea, his daughter Tara and his wife, Jamie, all made money from the charter school or the nonprofit Gardiner formed. Gardiner and the O'Sheas took home salaries totaling $541,200. *
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