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Former charter school staffers claim they've been stiffed

The now-shuttered Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School doesn't have a phone, and that's making life quite messy for the school's former employees, one ex-staffer said yesterday.

THE NOW-SHUTTERED Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School doesn't have a phone, and that's making life quite messy for the school's former employees, one ex-staffer said yesterday.

The lack of a phone means the state's unemployment office can't verify the many claims filed by staffers seeking relief now that they're jobless, said Sultan Ashley, who worked in community relations and partnership development for Walter Palmer.

Ashley spoke yesterday for a handful of former employees, all gathered at the Northern Liberties school in sub-freezing temperatures, calling on school authorities to provide them with answers.

Former staffers are facing "foreclosures, eviction, repossession of their cars," Ashley said. "We're not being able to take care of our families."

The terminated staffers also have had to contend with, according to Ashley:

* Non-payment of their salaries for the month of December.

* Canceled health insurance retroactive to Nov. 15.

* Garnishments such as student-loan payments, city, state and federal taxes and pension-fund payments have not been paid to the appropriate entities.

Walter Palmer's transition team leader David Weathington, who says he is a volunteer in charge of liquidating assets, denied Ashley's allegation regarding communication with the state's Department of Labor and Industry.

"That's not true," he said. "The transition team person" has verified unemployment claims.

"I'm unemployed, too, and in the same boat," added Weathington, the school's former chief academic officer.

The team is waiting for reimbursements from Title I, nursing and food programs to pay out garnishments, Weathington said.

They better hurry up, said former staffer LaToia Davis, who is relying on friends and family to make it through the month.

The single mother of a son and daughter said, "My bills have to be paid. I have to pay my landlord."

If Davis can't, she said, "I'm going to be homeless."

Palmer officials notified staff and families last month that the troubled charter school would close its doors for good on Dec. 31.

Online: ph.ly/DNEducation