A leap of faith to a charter school

By Patti Ghezzi

The last thing I ever wanted to get involved in was a startup charter school.

As an education reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1996 to 2006, I witnessed frustration and disappointment as parents toiled for months on a charter petition, only to have the local board reject it.

Others enrolled their children in a charter school that posted the district’s highest test scores, but the school closed because of facility costs.

Some charter schools got so bogged down in day-to-day survival, they couldn’t fulfill their educational missions.

At school board meetings, I wondered why parents put themselves through such torture.

Now, I know.

When my daughter was born in 2006, I was thrilled to hear parents were working to make our neighborhood school an engaging learning environment.

I signed on as a third-grade tutor. An unwelcoming chill hit me at the door. Kids appeared to be subjected to endless CRCT prep.

My student’s burned-out teacher told the class she couldn’t wait to go back to corporate America.

Even determined parents who spent years building relationships with school leaders grew exasperated when a new administration wasn’t receptive to their involvement. Attempts to get help from the DeKalb central office were unsuccessful.

So when the state passed a law allowing charter petitioners to appeal any denial by a local board to an independent state Charter Schools Commission, a group of Avondale Estates parents decided to go for it.

I helped out here and there, but I resisted putting my heart into a charter school effort.

I followed the petition’s progress, especially when parents traveled to Tennessee to observe the museum school concept. Other parents worked furiously, writing the charter petition, locating a site and raising money.

Meanwhile, friends from outside Avondale asked why we didn’t work to make the existing school great the way parents have at Morningside Elementary School in Atlanta and College Heights Elementary School in Decatur.

Over the years, groups of Avondale parents tried. They never succeeded long-term. Kids scattered to various private and public schools. Families moved away.

A state-approved charter school represented an opportunity parents before me never had.

Through hard work, collaboration, compromise and more hard work, we got our charter, which was denied by the DeKalb school board but approved by the state Charter Schools Commission.

The Museum School of Avondale Estates will open in August. I hope to enroll my daughter in 2012.

For a while, a lawsuit hung over our heads. Filed by several districts, including DeKalb, the suit argued that the state law was unconstitutional and sought to dissolve the commission, closing the schools it approved. Thankfully, a judge ruled Friday that the commission and the funding mechanism are legal.

When you put your faith in a charter school, you can never exhale. Critics accuse charter schools of siphoning funds from traditional public schools. Some call us a “boutique” school.

Please. We are opening in modular classrooms on a church parking lot.

Worse, some have accused us of creating the charter school to keep our kids separated from poor, minority children.

In truth, many parents chose the charter school over private schools because they want a diverse learning environment.

Our attendance zone includes the neighboring Midway Elementary district and is as diverse as DeKalb County.

Come August, we will have a neighborhood public school that values learning and discovery over test scores and blue-ribbon labels, a school where the classroom extends into Atlanta’s many museums and educational institutions. And, my daughter will get to learn alongside her neighborhood pals.

I used to think parents were crazy for getting involved in startup charter schools, knowing how confounding the process can be.

I still think you have to be a little bit crazy. But if crazy is what it takes to get our school, I’m happy to roll with it.

Patti Ghezzi, a former education writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, lives in Avondale Estates and is a founding partner of Greater Good Communication.