{"id":68731,"date":"2025-12-02T23:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T23:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/68731\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T23:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T23:24:07","slug":"fort-pierce-private-school-received-taxpayer-money-after-it-closed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/68731\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Pierce private school received taxpayer money after it closed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Early Learning Coalition of St. Lucie County told WPTV it paid Creative Learning Lab Academy, the defunct private school in Fort Pierce<\/a>, about $20,000 for preschool services after their final closure in October<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Those payments came after teachers told WPTV they are still missing paychecks from their work at both the private school and preschool. Officials from the Early Learning Coalition, who disperse state dollars to various childhood services, said they paid the school around $180,000 in less than a year.<\/p>\n

WATCH: School received taxpayer dollars after closure<\/p>\n

Tony Loupe, who is the executive director for the coalition, said the group makes payments after receiving records from providers about their from prior months. He said the contract the group uses to make School Readiness Service payments requires those payments go directly to the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pay the entity that is contracted with us,\u201d Loupe said. \u201cIf once they receive those funds they choose to move those funds somewhere else, that\u2019s their business decision and we don\u2019t know anything about that.\u201d <\/p>\n

He also said the organization received phone calls from teachers, who didn\u2019t get paid by the school. Loupe said it\u2019s \u201crare\u201d teachers don\u2019t get paid and ultimately up to the school\u2019s owners on how to spend the money. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely puts us in an awkward position,\u201d he said to WPTV\u2019s Ethan Stein in an interview last Monday. \u201cThe issue of teachers not getting paid is with the preschool and the owners and not us. I wish I had the ability to be able to pay them directly. But that would be in breach of our contract.\u201d <\/p>\n

WPTV first learned teachers were working without pay after our news team obtained an email saying the school was unable to make payroll. At that time we knew Step Up For Students, a different nonprofit who distributes state-funded scholarships to make private school more affordable, paid the school about $44,000.<\/p>\n

Loupe said it\u2019s the responsibility of the owners, Christopher and Balanga Madison, to make those payments. Christopher Madison hasn\u2019t responded to WPTV\u2019s requests for comment about the payment issue.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:Teachers at Fort Pierce school wait for paychecks<\/p>\n

Tayla King, who used to teach at the preschool, said she is one of many teachers who are missing paychecks. She said the money she worked for, but never received, has put her in debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just felt like I was just doing that [teaching] for no reason,\u201d said King. \u201cLike all that time that I put into working, like all of that was for nothing. Like I just wasted my time.\u201d<\/p>\n

King said she left her job at a different daycare to work at the preschool because she believed in owners Chris and Balanga Madison’s vision to create a Black-owned school for underprivileged children. She said she loved the kids and the other staff members, but she thinks it all fell apart when the school couldn\u2019t make payroll back in August. <\/p>\n

Education<\/p>\n

Teachers report no background checks at this Fort Pierce school<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very in financial debt,\u201d King said. \u201cI had to try to borrow money, try do something so I can borrow rent, try to pay bills and everything. I personally feel like they owe me more\u2026 now that they put me in a financial struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

King said she had to borrow money from family and friends to make ends meet. She said she can\u2019t afford a lawyer and since Florida dissolved its Department of Labor in 2002, she now has to file a complaint with the United States Department of Labor. <\/p>\n

King said she was struggling to get a response or anybody on the phone during the government shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t even call anyone,\u201d she said. \u201cI call the line. They hang up on me. It\u2019s just very frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

King said she\u2019s also frustrated she didn\u2019t get paid after spending money to decorate her classroom.<\/p>\n

Education<\/p>\n

Teachers waiting for paychecks from this school now facing another obstacle <\/p>\n

Multiple teachers also told WPTV earlier this month that they didn\u2019t receive legally required background checks before they started working at Creative Learning Lab Academy. However, King said she did receive a background check. <\/p>\n

State law requires teachers and any other school employee to get a level two background investigation. Those investigations include sending fingerprints to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which did tell WPTV it had some prints on file for the Fort Pierce private school.<\/p>\n

However, multiple employees told WPTV they didn\u2019t receive any background checks before entering the school even though offer letters said a successful \u201cbackground screening\u201d was required for employment.<\/p>\n

The Florida Department of Children and Families told us in October it is still working to get our news team information about any possible investigation or regulatory action against the school\u2019s owners. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Early Learning Coalition of St. Lucie County told WPTV it paid Creative Learning Lab Academy, the defunct…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-68731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}