If everything goes as planned, the reopening of Thomasville Heights Elementary School this week will be the start of the most ambitious outsourcing of public education in Georgia.
This winter, after calling out Thomasville as one of the worst schools in the state, Atlanta school Superintendent Meria Carstarphen hired Purpose Built Schools to run the school. Purpose Built is a nonprofit affiliated with Drew Charter School, a well-regarded east Atlanta charter school.
Purpose Built’s plan for Thomasville — classes taught through projects rather than lectures, more tutoring, after-school programs — isn’t revolutionary. The school’s new leaders and many of its new staff are former school district employees.
But Carstarphen’s hope is that an outside organization will succeed where she says the Atlanta school district failed.
It's also an attempt to avoid the state potentially taking over Thomasville. If voters approve Gov. Nathan Deal's Opportunity School District plan this fall, the state could take over low-performing schools like Thomasville and close them, turn them over to charter school groups or run them itself. Carstarphen has said showing the state she's making dramatic changes could help shield the school from takeover.
Her plan is for Purpose Built to run a cluster of three schools in south Atlanta feeding into Carver High School, and eventually Carver itself.
By 2018, as many as 2,000 Atlanta students could attend public schools managed by Purpose Built.
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