An Atlanta Public Schools advisory committee is expected to recommend the district pursue a new organizational structure that gives the district more freedom from some state laws — and potentially a little more money — in exchange for greater state accountability, district officials say.
A preliminary poll of the committee showed strong support for APS becoming a “charter system,” one of three options open to school districts across Georgia. The committee has not yet finalized its recommendation.
Districts can also choose a model called “Investing in Educational Excellence,” or “IE2,” or reject both the charter and IE2 models.
The General Assembly adopted these new models in the late 2000s, after districts complained that state rules were tying them down.
But Georgia districts have a big financial incentive to pursue either charter status or “IE2.”
Rejecting both options may cause them to lose money-saving waivers that have allowed them to exceed state caps on class sizes and to cut attendance calendars below the minimum 180 days. The waivers, popular during the recession, are still used in most of Georgia’s 180 districts as a way to balance budgets.
In charter systems, officials must re-engineer central offices to support decision-making by local school governance councils. Under IE2 there’s no requirement for those governance councils. Both types of systems get waivers.
An initial poll of the APS advisory committee assembled to recommend a model showed little support for rejecting both models.
But much of the difference between the charter system and IE2 models may depend on how they’re implemented.
“I do think we have more than one good choice,” APS advisory committee member Clare S. Richie said of the two models. But “the next step is where the rubber meets the road.”
Gwinnett County Schools chose IE2 in 2009. Fulton County is in the third year of its charter.
Cobb is leaning toward IE2. DeKalb is headed down the charter route.
After the committee presents it recommendation to Superintendent Meria Carstarphen, she will present her own recommendation to the APS board. The school board is likely to take up the recommendation at its October meeting and vote on it in November.
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