The Ross Global Academy Charter School will close in June after five tumultuous years.  The school's founder, multimillionaire  Courtney Ross, made the announcement with "heavy heart," and "disappointment and anguish" in a five-page letter to parents and supporters, as reported on the nyc education news group.

In December, the DOE recommended that the school's charter, issued in 2006,  not be renewed. Ross Charter had three "F"s on its latest Progress Report --  "the worst progress report of any charter school in the city, with seventy-five per cent of its students failing English and seventy per cent of them failing math," according to the New Yorker.

Ross, who has invested much time and many millions into the school, asked State Education Commissioner David Steiner for another year to "showcase the  improvements made," but Steiner said he did not have the authority to extend the charter because it was authorized by the DOE, not the state.  Merryl Tisch, head of the Board of Regents, suggested that a "creative solution" be found, similar to that proposed by the Harlem Day Charter School, where the current administration would step down and let another charter organization take over the school's management. The DOE rejected that compromise, according to Ross. The DOE also turned down a proposal to allow the school to partner with the education schools at Fordham and New York Universities, she wrote in her letter.

Ross faced troubles even before it opened in 2006. First there was a protracted fight with a citywide gifted and talented school, NEST+M, which opposed its opening in their building. Ross lost that battle (and the principal of NEST lost her job) and the new school moved to the basement of Tweed for its first few years. The middle school then moved into a building that had been occupied by the School for the Physical City (now closed) starting in 2008. Yet another move came in 2009, when Ross moved to 420 East 12th Street,  with East Side Community High School. According to Ross, the Board of Trustees sunk $3.5 million into a renovation project at that building.

Meanwhile, Ross Charter changed principals even more often that it moved, and there was a corresponding turnover in teachers.  The 2010-2011 school year began with the school's  6th principal, Dr. Christina Alvarez. Now, a letter from the Board of Trustees reveals that she has been "terminated with cause" this month and Richard Burke, formerly executive director of the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning will lead the school for its final months.

Who will inherit the newly renovated space? It looks like that will be another charter school, Girl's Prep, which has had its own share of location troubles.  And the beat goes on...