Sixteen-year-old Joshua Penny scored a 90 on his trigonometry quiz last week. It was the first time this semester that the Jonesboro High School student has gotten anything lower than a perfect score in the honors math class.

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Joshua Penny in Jonesboro High School during an after school Future Business Leaders of America meeting. Joshua is president of the club.

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layton County high school student Chelsea Bivins reads her poem 'A King's Life Celebrated' at the Clayton County Performing Art Center.

RELATED: • Read a statement from School Board Member Haynes (PDF) • Read a statement from School Board Member Davis (PDF) • Related Story • Read SACS' report (PDF) • More Clayton news • More state and local news

"He forgets to mention that I got a 100 on the quiz," laughs his twin brother, Kaleb.

Most siblings fight over the remote control or the last cookie. Not the Pennys. The twin boys compete for grades, extracurricular titles and college brochures.

While the competition is all in good fun between the boys, their parents know it translates to competition of where their dollars go.

"These kids are talking Ivy League schools," father Richard Penny said. "We're trying to steer them toward Georgia schools, but without HOPE [scholarships], it won't matter."

The Penny twins and their younger brother are just three of the 52,800 students who will be affected if Clayton County schools lose their accreditation. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools said Friday the district is "fatally flawed" and recommended its accreditation be revoked effective Sept. 1.

Joshua was sitting in Spanish 2 class Friday when an administrator announced the accreditation news over the intercom.

"It is one of the most depressing days of my entire life," Joshua said Friday night. "Several people in my class even began to cry. It's just really sad that this has had to come to this. It is almost as if they forgot about the students and their futures when they held the investigation."

A loss of accreditation would mean Kaleb wouldn't get his HOPE scholarship. Some colleges — like Joshua's Ivy League dream school, Brown University — likely won't accept him. It means Joshua and Kaleb may not be able to transfer their credits to other high schools. And it means their parents probably won't be able to sell their Jonesboro home for what it's worth.

And it could trickle down and affect 11-year-old Kyle Penny, who doesn't know what accreditation means but knows he's tired of his brothers talking about it.

"It's really a reality check," said Monika Penny, the boys' mother.

After losing a grandfather in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and a family income to corporate downsizing, the Pennys decided they needed a fresh start. Five years ago, they packed up their home in Hampton, Va., and moved to Jonesboro.

"One of the factors coming down here was the HOPE scholarship because we would have twins in college at the same time," Richard Penny said. "That was a big attraction."

With their sons making the honor roll nearly every semester, the family based their financial future on the HOPE scholarship. Joshua would use the money to study international affairs at Georgia Tech — or Brown, if he landed a private scholarship. Kaleb would finesse his photography skills at Art Institute of Atlanta.

'A boiling point'

On Wednesday, the Penny twins gathered after school with about 20 other Jonesboro High students for a Future Business Leaders of America club meeting.

The group — almost all honors students — listened to a local carpet salesman talk about the benefits of owning your own business.

Chelsea Bivins, the club's secretary, sat in the back of the classroom whispering to Joshua.

It all seemed pointless if she wasn't going to be get her HOPE scholarship to attend Georgia Southern University, her mother's alma mater.

"How am I going to get into college? I don't want to be looked down upon. I don't want them to say, 'Oh, she was in Clayton County schools,' " Chelsea said. "If I do something bad, I'll take the blame. But I didn't make any mistakes."

Like her father, the 16-year-old has been outspoken about the SACS investigation. Last month, Chelsea told the board of education to shape up. "Since it is affecting me, I thought I should have a say," she said. "Since kindergarten, I've been working hard so I can get scholarships and make sure my parents don't have to pay for college."

In between playing on the varsity softball team, teaching peewee cheerleading and participating in the National Honor Society, Chelsea researches accreditation and attends community meetings with her father.

Lt. Charlton Bivins of the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office has coached Chelsea and her two siblings in softball, football and other sports for years.

"All the kids Chelsea's age are my kids," he said. "As a citizen, I am just embarrassed by the type of behavior by the board. It's crazy — cussing each other out and having to have security there. Now it got to a boiling point where it is affecting all my kids."

Chelsea is helping her father collect recall signatures for board members while her mom, Terri Bivins, tries to keep on the sidelines of their activism.

The mother of three has been teaching in Clayton County schools since 1999. This is the second time in five years SACS has investigated Clayton schools.

"For me, it was 'oh my goodness, again,' " said the eighth-grade teacher. "I immediately thought 'I will need to move her [Chelsea].' Being a teacher in Clayton and knowing it has nothing to do with educating them bothers me."

The question

The Penny boys spent Saturday like most weekend days: working.

Joshua scooped ice cream at Bruster's in Jonesboro while Kaleb greeted customers at Krystal in Lovejoy.

Neither of the teens wanted to a get a job, but not working wasn't an option, Richard Penny said.

"We try to show them the things they can have if they work hard," said Richard, a freight broker. "They have physical jobs and see they don't want to work like that for the rest of their lives."

Joshua, who is third in his class, still doesn't think making waffle cones will help him in his quest to work for the CIA and then run for president in 2032. (He already has a slogan, handshake and platform.)

Right now, he's borrowing the slogan from one of his other favorite presidential candidates: Keep HOPE alive.

"It started as a joke, but now it's real," Joshua said. "The first thing I thought when I heard about accreditation was we should have classes like managing a budget on a minimum wage."

"And sanitation 101, since that's going to be the only job we can get," Kaleb added.

A national accreditation board will vote March 15 on Clayton's accreditation. The district has until Sept. 1 to improve and follow a strict set of requirements outlined by SACS. Accreditors and many in the community think that's a long shot.

"We're pretty disappointed," Richard Penny said Saturday morning. "They are not trying to give the kids a chance or find another option."

The Pennys are praying the governor or state department of education will do something.

"They can jump in up to their elbows, mobilize and get these people some help," Richard said. "I would like to see if Kathy Cox and Sonny Perdue had kids in Clayton public schools. What would happen then?"

The state Department of Education has little power over accreditation issues, said Dana Tofig, the state education spokesman.

"We can't step in and take over the school system," he said. "No Child Left Behind gives us some authority on a school-by-school basis, but there is nothing in the law that says we can take over the district."

A spokesman for the governor said Perdue was out of town Friday and had not fully researched the Clayton issue.

The Pennys spent Friday night looking at private schools. The cheapest they found was $5,300 a year per student. "That's tuition at some Georgia colleges," Richard said.

They also are considering sending their boys back to Virginia to spend their senior year living with their grandparents.

"But that defeats the whole reason we came: HOPE," Richard said.

HOPE was the family's back-up plan. They have no large savings stuffed away.

And the Pennys are one of the more well-off families in Clayton. About 74 percent of the students in Clayton public schools fall under federal poverty guidelines.

"If they are locked out of colleges, where do these kids go? If a Georgia public college won't let them in, who is going to let them in?" Richard Penny asked. "What happens to these kids? No one is answering that question."