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Miami real estate mogul Ophir Sternberg cares so much about education that he founded Lionheart Classical Academy in Peterborough, N.H., according to his company biography.

“Sternberg’s dedication to education led him to found The Lionheart Classical Academy, a chartered public school in New Hampshire. He is passionate about providing quality education to young learners. Sternberg’s notable titles and accomplishments, including his commitment to philanthropy through the Lionheart Academy, exemplify his entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to making a positive impact in his community,” the biography states.

But that’s not quite accurate. Sternberg did not found the school alone, and he is not among the handful of dedicated Monadnock area residents who worked together for months to launch the charter school. 

Instead, Sternberg is the landlord, the owner of the Sharon Road commercial property Lionheart rents for $38,000 a month. He also has the naming rights for Lionheart, named after his investment firm Lionheart Holdings, a currently publicly traded company. He won the name in exchange for a $1 million pledge that has not gone as planned, so far.

The charter school is pushing back on concerns of financial problems expressed by founder Fred Ward and parent Kevin Brace. The school’s board recently announced a $5 million endowment from an anonymous donor. Additionally, the board says it anticipates an audit report showing it is already on good financial footing, and operating at a surplus of more than $1,000 per student. The board is also denying claims it has met outside posted meetings. 

Sternberg’s connection to the school and former Board Chair Barry Tanner are among the issues made public recently. The entrepreneur began contacting the press this week to tell his side of the story in response to inquiries. Sternberg told NHJournal on Wednesday he cares deeply about the school and its mission.

“They are serving a real need for the community,” Sternberg said. “I hear great things about the school and the education the students are receiving there.”

Asked about the “founder” claim, Sternberg said Tanner and other people in the founding set consider him a “founding partner.”

“I was called the founding partner for my contribution to help get the school going,” Sternberg said. 

On Saturday, Sternberg provided NHJournal screenshots from several emails in which Tanner thanked Sternberg for his generosity.

“And Ophir, I want to personally thank you for partnering with us, supporting LCA with incredible generosity and friendship,” Tanner wrote in one email about the lease.

Sternberg also said Saturday he would change his company biography to reflect he did not found Lionheart Academy alone.

While Tanner is no longer on the board, he’s the one who negotiated the lease and the naming agreement pledge with Sternberg in 2021. Tanner and Sternberg also attempted to go into business together.

Sternberg acknowledged he and Tanner tried to buy the Hancock Inn in a partnership when the historic bed and breakfast went on the market a couple of years ago. The venture was never disclosed to the Lionheart community, but Sternberg said it had nothing to do with the lease and naming agreement. The Hancock Inn did not come up for sale until a few months after the Lionheart deals were done, he said.

Tanner declined to talk about his one-time potential business partnership with Sternberg when contacted last week. It’s since been learned Lionheart Academy’s board lost all copies of the signed conflict of interest statements board members like Tanner would have signed.

As for the $1 million pledge, Sternberg said the original agreement was for 10 annual payments of $100,000, with the first payment made in 2021. But, the following year, Sternberg and the board agreed to change the donation from cash payments to stock in one of his businesses. The stock, valued at $1 million, would not be accessible by the school for a year. By the time the school could sell the stock last year, it was virtually worthless.

“Publicly traded stock is always speculative,” Sternberg said.

If the company’s fortunes fared better, Lionheart Academy could have ended up with more than $1 million through the stock gift. Sternberg is adamant he will cover the donation balance, though he hasn’t made any more payments yet. The plan for the stock donation always carried his backstop guarantee to pay any difference if the stock was valued at less than $1 million.

The plan right now, Sternberg said, is to renegotiate the Sharon Road lease in order to give the school its donation through lower payments. 

Lionheart paid no base rent for most of the first year it leased the building in 2021, only paying $6,600 a month in maintenance expenses and taxes. But starting in the fall of 2022, the school made monthly base payments of $24,000 on top of maintenance and taxes. The base payment has been rising every year as the school expands and it is currently set to go to more than $29,000 a month on Oct. 1, with close to $9,000 more a month in maintenance and taxes. 

Lionheart isn’t the only tenant in the Sharon Road property. While the school will pay a total of $15.08 per square foot starting next month, Sternberg acknowledged the other tenant pays about $8 per square foot. 

“They’ve been there for many, many years before I got the building,” Sternberg said. 

Sternberg lives in Miami, but he spends summers in Peterborough, where he has a second “equestrian” home. Sternberg bought the Sharon Road property a few years ago and has no plans to sell, nor does he intend to give the property to the school where he’s a founding partner. He expressed surprise when asked if he would give the building to the school.

“I put the space up for a lease, and I agreed to make it as long-term as they would want,” Sternberg said.

The rent schedule attached to the lease Sternberg and Tanner signed runs through 2036, when Lionheart will be paying more than $60,000 a month. 

But among the concerns Ward has raised is the issue Lionheart Academy is now locked into perpetual fundraising, largely in order to pay large sums of money to founding partner Sternberg.

“I don’t really understand the controversy,” Sternberg said. “There are a few naysayers trying to create some controversy.”

Facing accusations of mismanagement and a potential conflict of interest, representatives for the Lionheart Classical Academy met with the state Board of Education behind closed doors on Monday.

Lionheart’s board of trustees representatives asked Board Chair Drew Cline for the non-public meeting to protect the reputations of the people discussed. The minutes for the hour-plus non-public meeting were immediately sealed, but it is likely the topic of discussion was the two letters sent to the BOE laying out concerns about the future of the charter school located in Peterborough.

Founder and major donor Fred Ward alerted the BOE last week about an alleged conflict of interest connected to the Sharon Road building the school leases for more than $24,000 a month.

According to Ward’s letter, written by attorney Richard Lehmann, former Lionheart Trustee Barry Tanner failed to disclose his business relationship with landlord Ophir Sternberg when he negotiated the lease and the naming rights.

Lionheart Academy takes its name from Sternberg’s Lionheart Capital. The $1 million donation Sternberg agreed to make in exchange for the naming rights has largely evaporated, according to Ward.

Lionheart parent Kevin Brace sent a letter to the BOE Monday morning with his worries, including the fact the trustees seem to have lost their conflict of interest statements.

“At the Sept. 12, 2024 LCA Board of Trustees Meeting, the board announced that it had lost the Conflict of Interest forms that the board signed at the May 2024 Board of Trustees meeting. It should be noted that Barry Tanner was the Chairman at the time of that meeting, and his disclosure is now missing. It should be noted that I requested these forms under Right to Know and the board never notified me that the documents were missing. In light of the allegations in Dr. Fred Ward’s correspondence to The New Hampshire State Board of Education, the fact that these documents are now missing is extremely alarming,” Brace wrote.

It is standard practice for boards to have members sign a statement acknowledging they understand the conflict of interest policy, or law, that applies to their institution.

Contacted by NHJournal, Tanner declined to discuss his business with Sternberg. According to Ward, Tanner and Sternberg sought to buy the historic Hancock Inn together around the 2021 time frame when the lease and naming deals were negotiated.

Brace, a former corrections officer with a background as a civilian police commissioner, started going to board meetings this summer after Executive Director Kerry Bedard was fired. He said he was shocked to find out what had been happening.

“As the parent of a child attending Lionheart, I could not sit back and watch an out-of-control board who allowed a landlord to overcharge for rent, accepted junk stock, and refuse to follow state law,” Brace told NHJournal.

Brace’s letter to the BOE raises several questions about the management of the board, including the concern the board is meeting illegally outside of posted meetings. Charter schools are legally public, and the boards are required to follow the same open meeting and public records laws as public school boards.

“On July 26th 2024, LCA Board of Trustees Chairwoman [Kimberly Lavallee] admitted to Commissioner [Frank] Edelblut, [Right to Know] Ombudsman Thomas Kehr, and I in an email that the LCA Board of Trustees had a meeting and took action that was never noticed to the public,” Brace wrote.

Brace also claims board members use a messaging app to conduct board business.

“I was notified by a parent that some LCA Board members were on an app called ‘Band,’ and that they were acting in their official capacity as board members. I requested a copy of those conversations, and the board did not turn them over to me,” Brace wrote.

One of the major concerns Ward raised in his letter, Lionheart’s financial stability, seems to be addressed thanks to a generous, anonymous donor. Hours after Ward sent his letter to the BOE last week, Lionheart announced it was getting a $5 million endowment from an unnamed individual. 

But Brace is worried the current board is not up to the task of managing a gift of that size.

“Given the LCA Board of Trustees track record of handling large donations, I believe the State Board of Education should examine this donation,” Brace wrote.

Sternberg agreed to give Lionheart $1 million in cash through regular $100,000 installments in exchange for the naming rights, according to Ward. However, after one payment was made, Sternberg’s donation was changed to a gift of stock in his investment company, according to Ward’s letter. The school was locked out from accessing that stock for about a year. By the time it was available to cash out, Lionheart’s stock was worthless, Ward states.

Both Ward and Brace are worried the school is stuck with a lease agreement that requires them to pay for upgrades to the building without a written stipulation they can buy the property at any point. Braces blames poor board oversight for this predicament.

“They were supposed to be working for the school, not the landlord,” Brace said.

It’s not clear yet if the BOE will take any action on the Ward and Brace letters. Brace told NHJournal he simply wants to make sure the school can continue educating students like his daughter.

“All I am asking for is for the State BOE to provide some much-needed oversight. I do not want the school to fail. It’s hard for me as a parent to trust that this current board is really doing the right thing, especially given their recent history of turning a blind eye and telling everyone that things are great,” Brace said.

Lionheart Academy is pushing back on founder Fred Ward’s concerns that the school is in financial trouble, touting a new audit and an anonymous $5 million pledge. 

Ward, who has given $700,000 to the Peterborough school, had attorney Richard Lehmann send a letter Thursday to New Hampshire Board of Education Chair Drew Cline outlining what he sees as red flags. A day after Ward’s letter was sent, however, Lionheart attorney Robert Best sent Cline a response calling Ward’s claim “outrageous.”

“Dr. Ward’s allegations are ill-informed, inaccurate, and frankly, defamatory. The school is shocked and saddened that a founder of the school would work in such a manner to attempt to damage the school,” Best wrote.

According to Best’s letter, the school expects a clean bill of health from the pending audit by the accounting firm of Nathan Wechsler. The school is doing so well, in fact, it anticipates paying off its operating line of credit in the coming months, Best wrote.

Lionheart’s Kimberly Lavallee did not respond to NHJournal’s request for comment on Thursday after Ward’s letter was sent to Cline. Hours after being contacted by NHJournal, the school also announced a pledge for a $5 million endowment from an anonymous donor. 

Best’s letter does not give many details on the $5 million gift. Instead, he focuses on the the school’s self-reported strong financial position. The school spends less per student than other charter schools audited by Nathan Wechsler, Best wrote, and Lionheart does a better job than other Nathan Wechsler charter school clients of attracting donations and grants.

Speaking to NHJournal last week, Ward said the school ran a significant operating deficit since it opened in 2021. His frustrations over the board’s lack of transparency and concern about the school’s future moved him to act, he said.

According to statements Nathan Wechsler accountants made during a board meeting after Ward’s letter was sent, Lionheart spent $7,862 per pupil in its 2024 fiscal year, and received $9,000 per pupil from the state, a surplus of $1,138 per child.

Best wrote the school is heading into 2025 with better than expected finances. 

“Lionheart’s FY25 financial position is ahead of budgeted expectations as of September, 2024,” Best wrote. “Lionheart exceeded its budgeted expectations on a number of revenue streams in FY 2025.”

But the new influx of donated dollars doesn’t address one of the main concerns regarding the school: the lease Lionheart has for its Sharon Road building. According to Ward, former Lionheart Board Chair Barry Tanner negotiated the $24,000-a-month lease with building owner Ophir Sternberg without disclosing he has a potential business relationship with Sternberg.

Sternberg, a Miami-based entrepreneur who resigned as chairman from the nearly bankrupt BurgerFi chain this summer, did not respond to a request for comment. Tanner declined to comment on his relationship with Sternberg.

Sternberg also negotiated naming rights for the school with Tanner. Sternberg owns Lionheart Capital and agreed to a $1 million donation in exchange for the naming rights. However, after making one $100,000 payment on that pledge, Sternberg changed the arrangement.

According to Ward, Sternberg gave the school stock in Lionheart Capital rather than cash. The stocks were locked as part of the agreement, and by the time the school could access the account last year, they were worthless, Ward contends. 

Best’s letter does not address the Sternberg/Tanner relationship, nor does he yet refute the concerns about Sternberg’s $1 million donation. Instead, Best promises a more detailed response soon.

“Lionheart also disagrees with and finds his allegations of poor board oversight or conflict of interest to be equally outrageous. We look forward to providing a more thorough response to those elements of his letter in the coming days,” Best wrote.

Lionheart is one of many new charter schools in New Hampshire that got start-up money from a $46 million federal grant to the state. Lionheart received $1.5 million in 2019 through the grant.

Lionheart uses a classical education curriculum developed by Hillsdale College, a non-denominational Christian school. Kristina Vourax, communications director for Hillsdale’s K-12 Education Office, reached out to NHJournal last week to put some distance between the college and Lionheart. 

“Lionheart is not part of our Member School network, nor do we work with its board or headmaster. In addition, the Hillsdale K-12 Education Office did not assist Lionheart in its founding effort,” Vourax stated in an email. “Lionheart has signed a curriculum license agreement with Hillsdale College to use our K-12 classical curriculum scope and sequence.”

Lionheart Classical Academy (LCA) in Peterborough was supposed to be the refuge for parents and families in the Monadnock region who wanted an escape from a secularized public education where unaccountable bureaucrats rule.

But now, the K-7 charter school is in danger of financial collapse after questionable board deals that were hidden from the public, according to Lionheart founder Fred Ward.

“We have two problems, and they are at war with each other,” Ward said. “We want that school to work. But the thing we’re pissed off at is that, the way they are going, they are going to go bust.”

Lionheart Classical Academy

Lionheart was one of the many tuition-free charter schools that got start-up funding from the state in 2021. A $46 million federal grant for New Hampshire to expand charter schools resulted in $1.5 million for Lionheart. The school officially opened in 2022 with grades K-5, with plans to eventually expand to a K-12 school.

Ward and Lionheart parent Kevin Brace are now calling on the state Board of Education to intervene. Ward’s attorney, Richard Lehmann, sent a letter to BOE Chair Drew Cline on Thursday laying out the alleged history of conflicts of interest, insider dealing, and a board of trustees that kept parents in the dark with illegal, non-public meetings.

“I was just shocked at the incompetence of the board,” Brace said. 

The school takes its name from the investment firm owned by donor and landlord Ophir Sternberg. Sternberg got former board chair Barry Tanner to agree to name the school after his Miami-based Lionheart Capital. Sternberg also owns the Sharon Road building Lionheart leases. The lease agreement obtained by NHJournal shows the base payments started at more than $24,000 a month in 2023, and going up three percent a year as the school uses more space in the building.

But, when the naming rights and lease agreements came together, Tanner hid the fact he was in a business relationship with Sternberg, according to the letter. 

“Dr. Ward and/or others have been told that Tanner and Sternberg together made an offer to acquire the Hancock Inn, in Hancock, New Hampshire when that property was listed for sale in the summer of 2021,” Lehmann wrote.

Tanner made his academy agreements with Sternberg without any transparency or board oversight, according to Lehmann. Reached Thursday, Tanner declined to comment on the letter, saying he has not seen it. He also declined to comment about his alleged business relationship with Sternberg. Tanner said he’s no longer on the board, but said he is still somewhat involved in the school.

“I’m just a fan, I guess you could say,” Tanner said.

Tanner still makes financial donations to the school, but declined to say how much he’s given. Ward, who like Tanner was part of the original founders group, has given $700,000 of his own money to Lionheart.

Sternberg did not respond to a request for comment.

But the lease isn’t the only red flag Ward and Brace see. Sternberg agreed to make a $1 million donation to Lionheart when he was first approached by Tanner. The initial donation was to be paid in $100,000 a month increments. But Sternberg changed the arrangement in 2022 to instead give the school stock in his company worth $1 million.

Sternberg’s stock donation, however, was locked up until the fall of 2023 and the school could not sell, according to the agreement. By the time Lionheart Academy could access the stock, it was worthless, Lehmann wrote. 

“Even though LCA effectively gave away its naming rights for no consideration, the Board appears to have done nothing to address the situation and protect LCA’s interests,” Lehmann wrote.

Brace said he only recently learned about the worthless stock because the board tried to keep the problem quiet for months. Brace has been sending his youngest daughter to Lionheart since it opened and has been an avid Lionheart booster and school volunteer. But he became concerned when Tanner and the rest of the board fired Executive Director Kerry Bedard this summer without explanation.

“I always thought the school was in good hands,” Brace said.

Brace started going to board meetings and was shocked by what he witnessed. The board members refused to answer questions, did not make records of past meetings available in violation of state law, and ignored charter rules about members.

Under the charter, the board is supposed to have two to three members from the professional or educational community, two to three members from the founder or major donors group, and one to two parents. Currently, they have one professional, two donors, and five parents on the board. 

Board Chair Kimberly Lavallee did not respond to a request for comment.

More troubling is the fact the current board has been meeting in secret, communicating about school business through a messaging app, Brace said. Charter schools receive public funding and their boards are subject to the same Right to Know laws as public schools. Other Lionheart parents just now learning about the problems are upset, Brace said.

“They are just appalled at the way the board has conducted itself. We put so much faith and trust in this school,” Brace said.

Ward is worried the financial situation will sink the school he helped create. Lionheart spends about $10,000 per pupil while getting about $9,000 per pupil from the state. Charter schools do not receive any direct funding from local property taxpayers the way public schools do. With about 250 students right now, that means the school is running a deficit of at least $250,000 a year, Ward said.

On top of that, the school’s growth plan is to add a new class every year. Next school year, it will go from a K-7 school to a K-8 school. That will add at least 40 students, increase the operating deficit, and further squeeze the classes. The school library already doubles as a classroom for two separate classes, Ward said.

“The money is running out, the space is running out, and the numbers don’t work,” Ward said.

The current board isn’t saying how it plans to close the financial gap, according to Ward. In the past, it relied on large donors like him. But Ward’s stopped giving and won’t start again until he gets some answers. And he’s telling others to do the same.

“I can’t recommend other people donate until the school cleans up its act,” Ward said.

Ward points to the Sharon Road lease as one of his prime concerns. Lionheart’s lease with Sternberg requires the school to pay for all of its expansion improvements as well as upgrades to the building’s HVAC and plumbing. And all of that expense is on top of the $24,000 a month in rent. However, after making all of the improvements, the school has no written agreement that it will be able to purchase the building outright at any point. 

“The money is going to improve Ophir Sternberg’s building. I’m not going to take money out of my pocket and put it in Sternberg’s pocket,” Ward said.

Ward and Brace want the state to step in and investigate LCA’s finances and its board. They also want the school put on probationary status until the whole picture becomes clear.

“In the face of the apparent conflict of interest, the disadvantageous lease provisions, the failure to address the failure of consideration in the naming transaction, and the failure to ensure that public funds are expended solely to benefit LCA’s public purpose, the need for immediate investigation and potential corrective action by this Board is clear.” Lehmann wrote.

Lehmann’s letter to Cline comes as Lionheart is scheduled to go before the state BOE next week. The school’s board of trustees is seeking approval to change the Lionheart charter to allow more parents on the board, effectively so the board is no longer in violation of its own rules.

Cline did not respond to a request for comment.

Lionheart offers a classical education based on the curriculum plan from Hillsdale College. The conservative, non-denominational Christian college operates the Barney Charter School Initiative to help start up charter schools across the country, or to assist independent charter schools like Lionheart. Lionheart is not a Christian school.