3 charter schools appeal to state on Thursday

By D. Aileen Dodd

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Imagine Marietta parents are planning to appeal to the state Thursday to save the charter school of 209 students after their petition to continue was rejected by an authorizing agency last month.

Imagine school officials say the Georgia Charter Schools Commission turned them down in December citing academic concerns without considering all of the facts.

The K-5 school is one of three campuses appealing to the state Board of Education for another shot at serving students. MET South High School and West Chatham Preparatory Academy also want another look.  The state board is scheduled to vote Thursday on the slate of commission schools seeking charters to open in the fall.

Imagine Marietta has received two awards from the state in recent years for academic improvement. It is one of the only campuses in Georgia offering a curriculum that keeps teachers and students together for three years working as a team as they move to upper grades.

“The school is fantastic; it promotes academic achievement and easy transition through the grades for children,” said Clarence Taylor, board chairman for Imagine Marietta who has two kids at the school. “I think [the denial] is a tragedy for the 209 students and families we serve and for the 120 people alone we had applications for that we had to turn away.’’

Imagine was one of 11 petitioners recommended for denial by the commission in December. It was the only existing school.

“We had our reservations about their academic success in comparison to the schools that were around them,” said Mark Peevy, the commission's executive director. “We looked at their ability to attract students. For the life of their charter, they had been well under their targeted number of students. When you only have half of the students that you thought you would have that means that the dollars aren’t there that you thought you would get.”

Imagine, which opened in 2006, made Adequate Yearly Progress goals for students in 2010, but still fell short of some of its contract goals and was denied renewal by Marietta City Schools before the commission also denied it. “The school made AYP every year except 2007,” said Carmen Hurst, regional director for Imagine. “We feel that some of the information given to the commission was inaccurate. We don’t want to give up.”

Commission chairman Ben Scafidi, however, said he had serious concerns about the school's future success due to its financial struggles and turnover on the board. "I do feel for the parents. I hope they can find an alternative."

The state Board of Education has never reversed a commission decision on charter recommendations. In addition to hearing the appeals, the state board also will decide whether to support the commission's approval of Georgia Connections Academy, a proposed cyber charter school and three bricks and mortar operations -- Cherokee Charter Academy (the county's first charter school), Heritage Preparatory Academy and Chattahoochee Hills Charter School.

Peevy said the decision to approve the four charter schools and reject the rest were made after careful consideration of their applications and input offered by school districts they would impact.

“I hope the state board will support our decisions,” Peevy said.