Georgia’s 180 school systems have a 2013 deadline to pick a path for their future, and Fulton County’s could be to become the state’s largest charter school system.
Fulton County is among the few school districts that have formally started examining their three options: charter systems, IE2 systems or the status quo.
Educators say a vote for the status quo -- just on its face -- is likely to have little appeal to locally elected school boards in a state where the clamor is for better schools, improved SAT and CRCT scores and higher graduation rates. Chief arguments against the other two options are their relative newness and the absence of a track record on student achievement.
IE2 systems and charter systems enter into contracts with the state, committing to higher academic achievement in exchange for flexibility on issues such as teacher pay, class size and the courses they offer. The basic difference: The policy decisions still largely come from the top in IE2 systems, and they are made more at the school level and with more parental involvement in the charter systems.
About 950 people -- including 373 employees -- attended community forums this fall about the prospect of Fulton taking the charter concept from 12 of its schools to all 101. Staff is still sifting through the public comments, which are expected to weigh heavily in the school board's decision on whether to petition the state for charter status. That vote by the local board will likely be held in February.
Board Chairwoman Linda Bryant stresses that no decision has been made.
"People are telling me they're interested in the concept if it will improve student achievement," she said.
The Fulton school board took a much more cursory look last year at IE2, but it rejected that model, which is in place in neighboring Gwinnett County, the state's largest school system.
"IE2 works well if you are very centralized," said Martha Greenway, Fulton’s deputy school superintendent for organizational advancement. "That doesn't really fit our culture and values."
Charter concept under the microscope
Fulton, with 91,864 students, would be the state's largest charter school system if the local school board decides to go that way and the state Board of Education approves. A handful of the state's smaller school systems -- including Decatur, Floyd County, Gainesville and Marietta -- have already adopted the model that's also trendy as part of the mix in traditional public school systems.
Some bigger school systems in Boston, Las Vegas and Charlotte have charterlike flexibility, just not the charter name.
In Fulton, 10-year school board member Julia Bernath said she and her fellow board members "know that we are not content to continue with the status quo.”
“As good as we may be as a system, we still have so much room to improve," Bernath said, "and if we keep improving at our current pace, decades will pass before we close the achievement gap."
Kelly Himes Brolly, a mother of three from Alpharetta, sees positives in a charter system's flexibility and ability to provide more opportunities for students, such as independent studies and online college classes. On the other hand, Himes Brolly is concerned that the governance boards at each school could have positive or negative results, depending on the board's powers, makeup and relationship with the principal.
“It will depend upon the details,” she said. "I do have confidence in our superintendent [Dr. Cindy Loe], our board and our CFO, Robert Morales, and hope that if they do adopt a charter system that they will bring in the changes slowly and incrementally. I continue to wonder whether charter systems are just the latest swing of the pendulum or a well-founded shift in the educational model."
Greenway said the public response is still evolving.
"When they first heard about it, some people said, ‘Why not? Wow, we can be flexible'," she said. "Then I heard people talking about having concerns about the local governance. And now people have gravitated to the middle."
Parents, some of whom are doing their own research, want details, including what will be the higher academic goals for each school and how the local school governance boards will work, Greenway said.
"The [school] board is not going to override the community," she said. "We all know our board well enough that if the community is not supportive or there's a lot of divisiveness, they are not going to move forward."
Steve Dollinger, president of the Georgia Partnership for Education and Loe's predecessor, said parents need to ask the tough questions but be open to the possibility.
“On the one hand, you don’t want to be guinea pigs,” Dollinger said. “On the other, you don’t want to miss opportunities to make better schools.”
Flexibility is charter's big draw for systems and individual schools
Decatur City Schools in DeKalb County was one of the first to look at becoming a charter system after the enabling legislation passed in 2007, said Bruce Roaden, the school system's community relations director.
"It seemed to be something that fit what we do already and fit where we wanted to go," Roaden said. "With flexibility comes opportunity."
As a charter system, Decatur schools were released from the state class-size requirements, ahead of the school systems that later were exempt because of the lingering economic downturn. But leaders’ initial hopes of federal money and exemptions from high-stakes testing never materialized, Roaden said.
"It's kind of hard being pioneers," he said. "There was lots of Lewis and Clarking on this."
Floyd County Schools, based in Rome, became a charter school system at the beginning of this school year, largely because of the opportunity for more flexibility, said Tim Hensley, assistant to the superintendent. A committee of teachers, parents, school principals, business leaders and community representatives looked at all three options and recommended charter to the superintendent, he said.
Charter schools, which adhere to the same model of flexibility tied to achievement, still make up a small percentage of the public schools in the state. But they continue to grow in popularity. Statewide, the number has jumped from 28 in 2003 to the current 171, according to the state Department of Education.
The latest state report shows that academically charter schools are keeping pace with the performance of the average public school in Georgia. For example, in 2008-2009, 85 percent of charter schools made Adequately Yearly Progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind Act, compared with 86 percent of all 1,867 public schools.
At North Springs Charter High School in Sandy Springs, junior Chido Mataba and seniors Alicer Andrew, Christina Buschman and Elizabeth Stowell say being part of a charter school has brought them a unique opportunity.
This semester, they have regularly finished their school day at Northside Hospital, getting hands-on experience in what they hope will be their future careers in medicine.
“It’s changed my life plan,” said Christina, who entered her senior year, thinking she wanted to be a psychiatrist but is now leaning toward a career in surgery.
Their teacher, Varda Cheskis-Sauer, as head of the school's mentorship and magnet internship programs, sends other students out to have real-life experiences at engineering and architectural firms.
That could not happen, Cheskis-Sauer said, if North Springs was not a charter school and did not have a waiver to give students credit toward graduation for "real life" learning.
The three options
Georgia school boards must choose to operate as an IE2 (Investing in Educational Excellence) system or a charter system, or maintain the status quo. They have to submit their intent to the Georgia Department of Education no later than June 30, 2013.
Here’s a look at the major differences:
IE2 is considered a more top-down system.
On governance: The school board can maximize school-level governance by giving schools the authority to determine for themselves how they reach their goals and targets.
Flexibility: The school district can seek flexibility from rule and law, but waivers must address at least one of the following areas – class size; expenditure control, certification and salary schedule.
Unique feature: Flexibility proportionate to negotiated accountability, subject to the district having a strategic plan.
Fiscal impact: Possible savings through negotiated, incremental flexibility.
Contract and consequences of not meeting its terms: 5 years, not renewable beyond 10 years, with consequences being the loss of governance of one or more nonperforming schools.
The charter system is considered more ground-level control.
On governance: The school district is expected to give each school some measure of local control over budgets, programs, personnel and innovation.
Flexibility: A district must state in its charter petition if and how broad of flexibility from law and rule, as allowed by the Charter School Act, will be used.
Unique feature: Significant emphasis on parent/community involvement, including a focus on school-level governance.
Fiscal impact: Possible savings through flexibility. Other funds may be available per full-time student, subject to appropriations by the General Assembly.
Contract and consequence of not meeting its terms: 5 years initially, then five- to 10-year subsequent terms NO CONSEQUENCE?
The status quo, in which the school board sets policy and the superintendent provides leadership down through principals
On governance: The local school board is in charge.
Flexibility: The system cannot obtain any waiver or variance.
Unique feature: The district has to hold a public hearing to declare intent to pursue the status quo.
Fiscal impact: Enrollment-based funding comes through the formula in the Quality Basic Education Act (QBE).
Contract and consequence of not meeting its terms: No contract; system must meet all federal and state accountability measures and any additional measures established by the local board of education.
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second potential chart
The charter lingo
Conversion charter school: A school that existed as a public school
before becoming a charter school.
Startup charter school: A school started by private individuals, private
organizations, or state and local public entities.
Local Education Agency (LEA) startup charter school: A new school
started by the local school system as a charter school. It is a new school.
State chartered special school: A charter school that has been denied
by a local board of education but has been approved by the State Board of
Education.
Commission charter school: A school approved by the Georgia Charter
Schools Commission.
Charter system: provides the opportunity for teachers, administrators,
parents and school boards to have greater flexibility to determine the
educational needs of students within their district and requires school-level
governance.
Source: Georgia Department of Education
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