Forsyth schools seek flexibility from state

Forsyth County Schools on Thursday unveiled a plan to join Gwinnett Schools as the second district in Georgia to seek freedom from state mandates on education to better serve students.

The district of about 32,500 students is seeking flexibility in several areas including class size, expenditures and graduation requirements administrators say prevent some talented students from advancing through the curriculum faster and others from graduating on time.

“When laws and state board rules are made, they are made with the idea of what’s best for 180 school districts in Georgia,”said Schools Superintendent L.C. “Buster” Evans. “What works for one system may not work best for another district. We believe that some flexibility will give us some opportunity to do some things in a way that will help us.”

Forsyth’s flexibility proposal is part of the district’s new strategic plan for improvement. Evans and his staff called on Gwinnett Schools for advice in crafting the draft and informing parents about IE2, the legislation that gives districts more local control over education in exchange for greater accountability.

“A lot of people are interested in IE2 and the flexibility that it offers,” said Sloan Roach, Gwinnett Schools spokeswoman. “Mr. Wilbanks [Gwinnett’s superintendent] has been talking to various people.”

If granted flexibility, Forsyth, which had 98 percent of its schools meet adequate yearly progress goals for students, promises to raise the number of students who exceed benchmarks on standardized tests and work on closing the achievement gap. Administrators say they could do that if they were allowed to spend more class time with students still learning English and increase the number of students served in early intervention programs district-wide.

And while Gwinnett Schools was criticized for developing a flexibility proposal without first seeking input from teachers and parents, Evans said Forsyth has taken deliberate steps to be “transparent.” Before its strategic plan was developed, administrators held community focus groups like marketing executives testing the water for a new brand of toothpaste.

Evans even blogged about IE2 on the system’s Web site.

“It is our goal that by the time this is approved all of our stakeholders will have a clear understanding of what our intent is and how we plan to move forward,” said Lissa Pijanowski, associate superintendent for academics and accountability.

Forsyth’s preliminary proposal will be available on the system’s Web site. Two public hearings will be held so parents can provide feedback — one before the school board vote on Feb. 26 and the other after revisions have been made to the draft.

Gwinnett only had one public hearing, which is all that the law requires.