By Will Bredderman, FloridaBulldog.org
Taxpayer-funded charter schools overseen by the wife of Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Rep. Byron Donalds gave tens of millions in construction contracts to a Jacksonville firm that, according to one irate academy’s lawsuit, simultaneously set up investment vehicles to plow money into her side ventures.
That’s just one allegation included in a civil complaint the Treasure Coast Classical Academy (TCCA), a K-12 charter in Stuart, brought in late 2024 against Erika Donalds’ Optima Foundation, recently rechristened the Educational Freedom Foundation. As the Florida Bulldog reported in June, Treasure Coast Classical was one of three publicly financed, privately run schools Donalds helped launch that severed their multimillion-dollar management contracts with her and her organization in 2023.
The auditor for the other two schools, Jacksonville Classical Academy and Jacksonville Classical East, described “deficiencies” in Optima’s accounting practices in a report to the state disclosing the terminated contracts. But Treasure Coast’s filing contained no such details — unlike the lawsuit, which alleged the Optima Foundation repeatedly violated their agreement, including through shoddy maintenance of records and school grounds, and not returning the academy’s property. It also accused Erika Donalds’ group of not properly apprising the school’s board of its dealings with subcontractors, including Jacksonville-based Summit Construction Management Group LLC, with which it alleges the nonprofit had an undisclosed conflict of interest.
“Optima encouraged TCCA to hire contractors, including but not limited to Summit Construction, without multiple bids and without disclosing that entities relating to Summit Construction had been formed to invest in newly-formed entities relating to Optima,” the suit states.
The complaint further accuses the foundation of paying a $127,487.98 invoice to Summit without the school board’s authorization.
A Martin County judge threw the suit out in May — not on its merits, but because Treasure Coast Classical’s contract with Optima compelled all litigation between the two to be conducted exclusively in the Donaldses’ native Collier County. Treasure Coast Classical has appealed the decision, and a lawyer for the academy declined to comment on the continuing case. School board members did not answer calls for comment and elaboration on the suit’s allegations, or as to how the school became aware of the alleged side dealings.
However, minutes from a March 2023 Treasure Coast Classical board meeting call for the construction company to “provide [an] affidavit of disclosure of any investment activity between Summit and any Optima related entity.”
Neither the suit nor the minutes explicitly identify what “newly formed entities related to Optima” had developed investment ties to Summit. But Florida Bulldog previously reported that Erika Donalds formed two for-profit entities, OptimaEd and Optima Management Services, in 2020 and 2022 respectively, which together have done millions of dollars of business with Optima Foundation and its affiliated charter schools.
That includes business with Treasure Coast Classical. Among the exhibits in the case is correspondence asserting Optima Foundation had subcontracted all of the school’s employees to OptimaEd, despite the board explicitly vetoing any such arrangement.
Erika Donalds, her foundation, and Summit co-founder Charles “Chip” Cordes all did not return repeated phone calls, texts and emails regarding the lawsuit, its allegations, and the relationships between their various ventures.
SUMMIT AND ERIKA DONALDS
Summit’s business with Optima-run schools goes well beyond the $11 million deal Treasure Coast Classical agreed to on April 18, 2023 — five months before the academy ended its relationship with Erika Donalds’ organization. In 2019, it served as contractor for the $14.4 million construction of Jacksonville Classical Academy, for which it later built a partition wall at a cost of nearly $100,000. The firm also renovated Jacksonville Classical Academy East in 2022 for $1 million.
John Rood, former U.S. Ambassador to The Bahamas, who launched the academies and chairs their boards, told Florida Bulldog via text that he was aware Optima and Summit had collaborated on various charter-related projects but not of any other financial ties. Rood, who established the real estate development firm Vestcor, lauded the Donaldses as well as the construction company in his messages.
“Erika did a good job helping us get the school started. I don’t think the charter school would’ve existed if it wasn’t for her assistance,” he wrote. “Summit also did a very good job. They came in as the lowest priced contractor and committed to getting it done in a time frame that none of the other contractors we spoke with, were able to commit to.”
Rood explained the Jacksonville Classical Academies severed their relationship with Optima as a cost-cutting measure.
Rood’s remarks contrasted with audit documents his schools submitted to the state in 2023, which both described the decision to terminate their contract with the Optima Foundation in the context of the organization’s alleged accounting failures.
Meanwhile, in 2020, Summit handled the construction of the $20 million campus of Naples Classical Academy
Cordes, the Summit co-founder, extolled Erika Donalds’ fiduciary acumen in an interview about the Naples Classical project with the Florida Business Observer.
“She understands the art of budgeting for charter schools,” Cordes said. “When you run a charter school, the day you open, it’s an $8.5 million business. Not a lot of people can handle that, but Erika can handle the pressure.”
Charles Cordes donated a total of $8,400 to Donalds’ successful 2020 primary and general election campaigns for Congress. His wife, Jeanne Cordes, contributed the same amounts on the same day. In 2021, Charles Cordes contributed another $2,000 toward Donalds’ re-election campaign.
Cordes established Summit Construction in 2009 after a career in the self-storage and door industry, according to his online biography.
In February 2024, Naples Classical’s board voted to give a contract for work on the gymnasium to Summit. Constructing charter schools appears to constitute a significant swath of Summit’s business, as it has also worked at the Duval Charters at Flagler Center, Southside, and Westside, two Kipp Academies in Jacksonville, Lizza Jackson Preparatory in Okaloosa, Mater Academy in Osceola, and the Clay Charter Academy.
Minutes from 2023 also indicate that Summit is set to receive the contract to build the long-planned but repeatedly delayed Optima Classical Academy in Fort Myers.
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