Shall the constitution of Georgia be amended to allow the state to intervene in chronically failing public schools in order to improve student performance?
That question will be put to Georgia voters in November. In the meantime, education and government officials in Clayton County education will tackle the question at a town hall meeting in Riverdale April 23.
At the heart of the question is a controversial plan by Gov. Nathan Deal to removed poor-performing schools from local jurisdiction and place them under state control in what's called Opportunity School District. Schools that had test scores below 60 on the College and Career Ready Performance Index for three straight years would be placed in the proposed district.
The district would be overseen by a superintendent who would report directly to the governor and not the state education department.
Clayton has three schools -Riverdale High School, Charles Drew High School and Forest Park High School - that could likely be placed in the OSD, according to school board member Jessie Goree who is one of the hosts of the Town Hall meeting.
“As a taxpayer and constituent, I’m opposed to it,” Goree told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday. “I’m opposed to anything that takes away local control of a board of education of a school in its district. The wording of the amendment makes it seems like it’s a great opportunity but in essence it’s not. Right now, there’s no accountability on the state level or no plan of action on what can be done with the schools.”
The 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. town hall meeting is an effort to “educate the public about what this specifically is,” Goree said. “We’re hoping to get parents from Drew and Riverdale that are two of the schools targeted that are in my district. Hopefully, by educating them they’ll know how to vote.”
The town hall meeting will be at the Riverdale City Hall, 7200 Church St. Riverdale City Councilman Kenny Ruffin also is co-hosting the event.
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