The Fulton County school board appears ready to make a push to become the largest system in the state to take the charter school tenets of flexibility and increased parental involvement system-wide.
Board members don't officially vote until Feb. 24 on whether to petition the state to become one of Georgia's first charter school systems, as well as its biggest with 92,000 students. But at a board retreat last week, the consensus of the majority was to proceed, officials said.
"I feel good about moving forward to develop more specifics of the petition," Linda Schultz, school board chairwoman, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
School Superintendent Cindy Loe said she's also supportive of going ahead with plans for the system to become a charter system.
"I think it could be a great thing for the system and for the community as a whole to rally around," Loe said, "and I think that there are great potentials for continuing to improve student achievement from having that support and buy-in from the community."
Currently, eight of the state's 180 public school districts -- city systems Cartersville, Decatur, Gainesville and Marietta, plus Floyd, Putnam, Warren and White counties -- are state-approved charter school systems, with school-level control over budgets, programs, personnel and innovation. Several other systems have pending charter applications.
All systems have until 2013 to pick one of three paths: retaining the status quo or becoming either an IE2 system or a charter system.
Last year, Fulton nixed the idea of becoming an IE2 system, which presents with the potential for greater flexibility from state rules but a top-down administrative approach. The status quo was never considered a viable option.
Board members solicited feedback from the public last fall on the pros and pitfalls of a charter system. Nine hundred people appeared at a series of public forums. Eighty others submitted written comments and more than 70 students weighed in as well.
"I was impressed by the quality of suggestions that we received during the forums," Schultz said. "It was clear to me that our staff, parents and community felt we could improve student achievement with additional flexibility in specific areas."
School board members have said they want the switch to a charter system to be cost-neutral. One of the next steps would likely be considering each recommendation for what rule changes might be required and what expenses might be involved, Loe said.
For example, one of the frequent themes in the feedback was the desire for smaller class sizes, she said. That would not require a rule change, but it would have to be pointed out that reducing class sizes means hiring more teachers, Loe said.
"Class size is so expensive, that would be a hard thing to do," she said.
Martha Greenway, deputy superintendent for organizational advancement, said the feedback from parents and staff showed an interest in more flexibility in the delivery of instruction, providing the potential for more innovative learning via the Internet, in-the-field experiences and hands-on experience.
There were calls for more foreign language and music programs and for teachers to be evaluated more on performance and less on years of service, Greenway said.
Among student groups, one of the stated priorities was a system that promotes teachers who are really engaged and committed to student learning, something that might not have always been achieved in the past, she said.
Loe said a lot of ground still has to be covered before the transition to a charter system starts, which would be August 2012 at the earliest.
"We're still on track for that possibility, if everything keeps looking positive," she said.
