In the growing pushback to Gov. Nathan Deal’s Opportunity School District, the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners has authorized its chairman to draft a letter of support to its educational counterpart, the Cherokee County School District, for opposing the proposal.
“It’s a unique opportunity on a rather critical topic that we collectively indicate our support for that board’s decision,” Cherokee Board Chairman L.B. “Buzz” Aherns said at a recent commissioners meeting. Aherns said he would write the letter and bring it to the County Board for its consideration.
The Cherokee School Board voted 7-0 Sept. 1 to oppose a constitutional amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot creating a statewide Opportunity School District. The amendment would empower a superintendent answerable to the governor to take control of failing schools and shut them down, run them without local school board involvement or convert them to independent charter schools.
Ahrens said his letter would cite the importance to Cherokee of “high quality and high performing schools,” and that the county “supports the authority of the state’s local board of education to manage and control operation of the local public schools, opposing any legislation that attempts to override the constitutional authority of locally elected boards to make educational decisions for their communities.”
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