In his prime, Deion Sanders was a primetime player with unique shutdown corner ability.
The tables were turned on Sanders when Prime Prep Academy, the charter school that bears his uhh…nickname was shut down by the Texas Education Agency. While athletics was always a major lure of Sanders' educational endeavor, there was more unnecessary drama attached that garnered unwanted attention than Juilliard's Performing Arts School.
In the two years since Prime Prep opened its Dallas and Fort Worth campuses have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Things began snowballing after a physical confrontation between Sanders and the school's CFO Kevin Jefferson resulted in a fracture relationships in the administration. In December, an investigation was launched into the school's reviews of employee criminal histories and various allegations that threatened the charter school's application.
An investigating whether the school's curriculum was enough for its athletes to be eligible to play college sports and an instance in which students were evicted from a classroom by a landlord who claimed the school was behind on rent. Ultimately, it was Sanders' orchestrated ouster of co-founder D.L. Wallace that send things spiraling out of control.
Ultimately, internal strife was too much for the school's foundation to bear.
After concluding an eight-month investigation, the Texas Education Agency announced that it would be putting Prime Prep out of its misery. There is an opportunity for the school to appeal, but the odds off success are slim.
Via WFAA 8:
In a letter sent to the chairman of Prime Prep on Tuesday, the TEA outlined the irregularities it found, and the state education rules that have been violated.
Most problematic, we are told, is the revocation of federal school lunch program monies which were allegedly misspent.
One TEA insider tells News 8 that in itself is usually the death knell for any state charter school.
According to the state, 67 percent of Prime Prep's students are eligible for free or reduced-price food programs — neither of which are available at the school now because of mismanagement. The state says $45,000 is owed back to taxpayers "due to the fact that no documentation was provided on the review date to support that the claimed reimbursable meals were served for the months of September, October and November 2013."
Deion Sanders told News 8 he is sickened by these developments, saying he blames co-founder D.L. Wallace. In a post on Twitter, Sanders called Wallace "a crook" and "heartless," adding that the school is "still suffering from his Devilish ways."
