Ivy Prep expects big payday Monday

By D. Aileen Dodd

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The days of the staff having to cover bare necessities like toilet paper and soap for the restrooms are over.

The state’s first commission charter schools can count on their long-awaited cash infusion next week. The campuses will receive full-funding for students like any other public school.

A state Department of Education official said this week Ivy Preparatory Academy in Norcross and Statesboro’s Charter Conservatory for Liberal Arts & Technology will finally receive matching local funds for the education of students. The first electronic transfer will hit the bank on Monday.

This brief moment of resolution sets up a pending legal battle as the school districts that must help fund the two charter schools sue to maintain control of their coffers. But just two months ago, both schools were unsure if they could merely operate.

The money will be deducted from state funds paid to the former districts of Ivy Prep and CCAT students. It will equal the share of local property tax dollars supporting students in those counties.

“The money will follow the kids,” said Kathy Harwood, head of school for CCAT in Bulloch County, who has been waiting on relief for weeks. “It is great news. I can’t believe it.”

The infusion will help Ivy Prep, which will receive more than $1 million this school year, to avoid financial crisis. Administrators couldn’t afford to pay teachers in August. State officials said last week it could take 14 days for the local matching share to be calculated and distributed.

“The payroll is going to be processed ... which is excellent news,” said Nina Gilbert, head of school for Ivy Prep. “We are closer than we have ever been to receiving the funding we need for our students. Now we can place 100 percent of our focus on teaching and learning.”

Once the funds are dispersed, however, a legal challenge is expected. Districts that will lose thousands of dollars are gearing up for battle over what they perceive as a threat to local control. Herb Garrett, executive director of the Georgia School Superintendents Association, has said school attorneys in Bulloch and Gwinnett counties are already working on the matter.

CCAT and Ivy Prep, whose charters were originally rejected by Gwinnett and Bulloch Schools, have been struggling to survive on state and federal funds since they opened as state-chartered special schools. In June, the Georgia Charter Schools Commission re-authorized the campuses as commission charter schools, a new designation that entitles them to receive matching local funds.

Andrew Broy, associate superintendent for the DOE, said calculating the local funding was complex, given the number of districts involved and the varying levels at which they fund students. Together, Ivy Prep and CCAT serve students from more than a dozen school systems. DOE budget, policy and charter schools officials worked overtime to solve the math problem and verify attendance, which factored into the allocations..

“Because there were different counties involved, there were different calculations for what the local revenue should be,” said Broy, who oversees charter schools.

Broy said Ivy Prep’s local allocation of $1,235,747 will be paid in monthly installments until the end of the fiscal year in June. Before the reallocation of funds from outside districts, Ivy Prep, a school of 310, only received about $546,018 in state funds plus federal dollars for students who qualified. Ivy Prep doubled its enrollment this school year and has about $2 million in budget needs.

Broy said CCAT’s local allocation is $372,537. The school of about 130 receives $708,421 in state funds plus federal dollars.

Harwood, who said she appealed to her state legislator for help in moving the funding process along, wants to boost teacher’s salaries. Her middle and high school faculty are paid on the state’s 2006 salary schedule. More money also would allow CCAT to hire a music instructor and update hand-me-down computers purchased for $20 each in surplus sales.

“I’m going to wait until it’s in the bank and then we are going to sit down and make plans,” Harwood said.

National charter school advocates and leaders in single gender education went to bat for Ivy Prep, spreading word of its predicament to the well-connected.

“Even with only seven weeks on the job, I didn’t feel that I could sit idly by and not reach out [to Gilbert] to see if we could help elevate her case,” Susan Beck, new executive director for National Coalition of Girls Schools. “By reputation, she is a very talented and committed educator entrepreneur. Academically, her school had a very successful first year.”

To stay afloat, Gilbert said she and her staff took pay cuts.

“We have all had to make sacrifices and personal purchases of soap ... and toilet paper just to make sure that the girls had basic necessities,” she said.

But the school didn’t skimp on students. Last year, Ivy Prep sixth graders received Apple laptops through a grant. Some toured Harvard University and attended President Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Gilbert says come Monday, she will be able to afford big-ticket items like projectors for classrooms and sports equipment. Her school also needs more lockers and a gymnasium.

“We are appreciative to all of those folks who worked overtime to make sure we could get this money,” she said.

If a lawsuit is filed as expected, the attorney general’s office will defend the state. Said Broy: “The Department of Education’s job is to comply with what the law requires. That is what we have done.”