Triangle Math & Science Academy
Related-party deals
Page created August 11, 2013
Triangle Math and Science Academy is a Gulen charter school located in Cary, North Carolina. It was founded as a "sister" school of Triad Math and Science Academy in Greensboro.
Triangle's student information system login page (screenshot from http://www.aesny.org/triangle shown below) shows that the school is contracting to the Washington Education Foundation as well as Apple Educational Services. Both are Gulenist educational service providers. As of early 2013, Apple was a vendor to at least 19 Gulen charter schools in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, and also servicing several private Gulen schools in other countries.
Triangle Math and Science Academy is a Gulen charter school located in Cary, North Carolina. It was founded as a "sister" school of Triad Math and Science Academy in Greensboro.
Triangle's student information system login page (screenshot from http://www.aesny.org/triangle shown below) shows that the school is contracting to the Washington Education Foundation as well as Apple Educational Services. Both are Gulenist educational service providers. As of early 2013, Apple was a vendor to at least 19 Gulen charter schools in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states, and also servicing several private Gulen schools in other countries.
Here is a closeup of the lower right-hand corner of the login page shown above:
A Jan 25, 2012 Indy Week news article (link) about the connections of Triangle Math and Science Academy (and its sister school Triad Math & Science Academy) to the Gulen Movement mentioned that a consultant from the Washington Education Foundation had been visiting the Triad school and other charter schools.
On June 3, 2013, the Cary News reported that Triangle Math and Science Academy was planning to buy a warehouse in downtown Cary, renovate it, and use it as a new school site. The purchase and renovation together were estimated by Principal Alper Tekten to cost up to $6.5 million.
A page dedicated to the Fairfax, Virginia-based (Gulenist) corporation Pera Construction on thebluebook.com website shows two "Recent Projects Completed" (see screenshot below). One is for MARTI, Maryland Turkish American Inhabitants, a Gulen-affiliated "dialog" organization presently located at 1109 Ingleside Ave, Gwynn Oak, Maryland, and the other is a $2,744,000 project, said to be completed June 30, 2013, for the Triangle Math and Science Academy in Raleigh. The Triangle school has a temporary location in downtown Raleigh, but it is presumed that this construction project is for the renovation of the new Cary building. The lead person for Pera Construction is Talha Sarac, who might perhaps have some relation to Isa Sarac of the Gulen-affiliated Virginia International University. Talha Sarac is/was an officer of the Institute of Turkish and Islamic Studies, a Gulen-affiliated organization in Fairfax, Virginia.
On June 3, 2013, the Cary News reported that Triangle Math and Science Academy was planning to buy a warehouse in downtown Cary, renovate it, and use it as a new school site. The purchase and renovation together were estimated by Principal Alper Tekten to cost up to $6.5 million.
A page dedicated to the Fairfax, Virginia-based (Gulenist) corporation Pera Construction on thebluebook.com website shows two "Recent Projects Completed" (see screenshot below). One is for MARTI, Maryland Turkish American Inhabitants, a Gulen-affiliated "dialog" organization presently located at 1109 Ingleside Ave, Gwynn Oak, Maryland, and the other is a $2,744,000 project, said to be completed June 30, 2013, for the Triangle Math and Science Academy in Raleigh. The Triangle school has a temporary location in downtown Raleigh, but it is presumed that this construction project is for the renovation of the new Cary building. The lead person for Pera Construction is Talha Sarac, who might perhaps have some relation to Isa Sarac of the Gulen-affiliated Virginia International University. Talha Sarac is/was an officer of the Institute of Turkish and Islamic Studies, a Gulen-affiliated organization in Fairfax, Virginia.
Charter schools and related-party deals
The fact that Triangle Math and Science Academy is contracting to Gulenist corporations for various services illustrates how Gulen charter schools continue to engage in unethical related-party deals, despite a major front-page exposé in the New York Times in 2011 of the contracting practices of the Harmony Public Schools, a large chain of Gulen charter schools in Texas.
The fact that Triangle Math and Science Academy is contracting to Gulenist corporations for various services illustrates how Gulen charter schools continue to engage in unethical related-party deals, despite a major front-page exposé in the New York Times in 2011 of the contracting practices of the Harmony Public Schools, a large chain of Gulen charter schools in Texas.
Construction, not just of buildings, but also propaganda
Talha Sarac's Institute of Turkish and Islamic Studies has a "Senior Research Associate" named Margaret A. Johnson (photo shown on the website of the Ufuk Foundation, another Gulenist organization) who is an editor of a 2013 propaganda book (link) on the Gulen Movement entitled "Preventing Violence and Achieving World Peace: The Contributions of the Gulen Movement."
Talha Sarac's Institute of Turkish and Islamic Studies has a "Senior Research Associate" named Margaret A. Johnson (photo shown on the website of the Ufuk Foundation, another Gulenist organization) who is an editor of a 2013 propaganda book (link) on the Gulen Movement entitled "Preventing Violence and Achieving World Peace: The Contributions of the Gulen Movement."
The name "Pera" (as in "Pera Construction") and the Gulen Movement
The name "Pera" is one favored by the Gulen Movement. Pera was the name for Istanbul's Beyoglu district in Ottoman times. As reported by the Ottawa Citizen in a travel article, "Perhaps the most opulent example of Istanbul's trend toward preserving its Ottoman francophile century is the Pera Palace Hotel, a masterwork designed by Turkish-born Levantine architect Alexandre Vallaury, fusing neo-classical, art nouveau and oriental styles. ... In 2010, after a four-year period of planning, renovation and restoration, the Pera Palace emerged from hibernation as an authentic icon updated for modern sensibilities." The modern Pera Palace hotel is the project of a Turkish businessman named Ihsan Kalkavan, a follower of Fethullah Gulen (see this Turkish news article from November 15, 2006).
A 2009 theatre production at SUNY-Oswego (see link) entitled "Pera Palas" (palas = palace in Turkish) was instigated by the Turkish Cultural Centre Syracuse, a Gulenist organization, and Fehmi Damkaci, who has ties to two Gulen charter schools in upstate New York (Syracuse Academy of Science and Utica Academy of Science), and who is also the founder and organizer of the biased Gulenist "GENIUS Olympiad" competition.
There is also a Pera Construction International, operating in, for example, Skopje in the Republic of Macedonia, a region where Gulenists have been quite active.
The name "Pera" is one favored by the Gulen Movement. Pera was the name for Istanbul's Beyoglu district in Ottoman times. As reported by the Ottawa Citizen in a travel article, "Perhaps the most opulent example of Istanbul's trend toward preserving its Ottoman francophile century is the Pera Palace Hotel, a masterwork designed by Turkish-born Levantine architect Alexandre Vallaury, fusing neo-classical, art nouveau and oriental styles. ... In 2010, after a four-year period of planning, renovation and restoration, the Pera Palace emerged from hibernation as an authentic icon updated for modern sensibilities." The modern Pera Palace hotel is the project of a Turkish businessman named Ihsan Kalkavan, a follower of Fethullah Gulen (see this Turkish news article from November 15, 2006).
A 2009 theatre production at SUNY-Oswego (see link) entitled "Pera Palas" (palas = palace in Turkish) was instigated by the Turkish Cultural Centre Syracuse, a Gulenist organization, and Fehmi Damkaci, who has ties to two Gulen charter schools in upstate New York (Syracuse Academy of Science and Utica Academy of Science), and who is also the founder and organizer of the biased Gulenist "GENIUS Olympiad" competition.
There is also a Pera Construction International, operating in, for example, Skopje in the Republic of Macedonia, a region where Gulenists have been quite active.