NAMPA — Seven teachers from Nampa Classical Academy have written e-mails to the Idaho Public Charter School Commission in strong support of the new school.

The teachers said they are not mistreated, as four former board members claimed. And they said school employees have conducted themselves ethically.

Idaho Department of Education officials opened an ethics investigation on two Nampa Classical Academy teachers and the school's headmaster earlier this month.

But the teachers who wrote e-mails said the school functions well academically. They also said the ethics allegations are completely unfounded.

Nampa Classical Academy parents have also written 35 e-mails in support of the school to Charter Commission program director Tamara Baysinger. Three e-mails to Baysinger from school parents questioned the way school leaders have operated the academy.

One of the four former board members declined to respond to the teachers' letters. The other three could not be reached for comment.

"I'm trying not to be too involved (in) all of that right now," former school board secretary Melia Loftus said.

Nampa Classical Academy opened in September with more than 500 students. The Charter Commission sent a notice of defect to the academy Friday listing nine topics of concern including Title I funding, proper education certification, failure to provide public records and open meetings violations. The school has 30 days to outline ways it will correct the defects.

Nampa Classical Academy math and science teacher Vickie Reid wrote a six-page e-mail answering the teacher mistreatment and ethics violation accusations point-by-point. She praised headmaster Val Bush and teacher and operations director Isaac Moffett, both of whom are part of the ethics investigation.

Teachers are treated with respect and not asked to do anything they are not willing to do to improve the school, the teachers wrote.

"Most of (the accusations are) made-up stories or totally ridiculous," Reid wrote.

Sixth-grade teacher Danielle Dwello expressed a similar opinion.

"One thing that has been very obvious from the beginning is that our administration has not been asking anything of us that they themselves have not been giving," Dwello wrote.

Several parents said their children were happy and getting a good education at the school.

"My kids can't wait to go to school each day," parent Roger Kellogg wrote.