Fulton school district receives award for charter system

SEPTEMBER 5, 2014 JOHNS CREEK Cherell Lawson teaches sports medicine techniques during a class at Northview High School in Johns Creek, Friday, September 5, 2014. Lawson is an athletic trainer with Emory Healthcare at Johns Creek and was hired this year part-time to teach health sciences at Northview High School despite her lack of a teaching credential. Fulton County Schools would not have been able to employ her without a personnel waiver that came with their charter district status. Georgia school districts must decide soon whether they will push more authority down to the school level or face potential financial sanctions. The state mandate to consider choosing either a charter form of management the status quo or something in between called “IE2” is driven by the notion that more local control will improve outcomes. Districts that choose the status quo will lose all sorts of waivers, many, such as exemptions from class size limits and minimum number of school days, can save money in tight times. But details matter: how much local control do either charter or IE2 allow, and does it matter? We can look to several metro Atlanta districts — Gwinnett, Fulton, Decatur and Marietta — that have already reorganized under one of these new formats to see whether it’s made any difference. Atlanta, DeKalb and Cobb will be voting in coming months on staff recommendations — for charter district in Atlanta and DeKalb and for IE2 in Cobb. KENT D. JOHNSON / KDJOHNSON@AJC.COM