Nina Gilbert went from working for a public school to launching her own brand of charter schools when she got angry about the lack of educational options for poor students in her community.
Six years and two court battles later, Gilbert, founder of Ivy Preparatory Academy in Norcross -- Georgia’s first state public charter school for girls -- is now executive director of the state’s first homegrown start-up charter school network.
"If someone had given me a glimpse of what the past four years would have looked like or what I would have had to endure, I probably wouldn't have started on this journey," said Gilbert, 44. "I am so glad faith is blind."
Ivy Prep, a high-performing middle and high school of 500 students, grew despite being turned down by two local school districts. Gilbert's second campus, a K-6 college prep school for 420 boys and girls in DeKalb County, opened last week, and she hopes to expand statewide.
Ivy Prep has petitions pending to open K-12 schools for boys and girls in Gwinnett and is considering locations in Atlanta and South Georgia.
"It has always been our goal to replicate Ivy Prep," said Angelia Howell, Ivy Prep's director of business operations and co-founder.
Without knowing what a charter school was, Gilbert, a former Gwinnett County Schools administrator-in-training, quit her dream job at an alternative school in 2005. She said she no longer could sit quietly as students were labeled and shuffled by address, ability and attitude.
Gilbert didn't set out to open multiple schools. Born into a family of educators, she had a passion for teaching. Her father, Walter Scott taught high school in LaGrange.
Her mother did, too. When Elizabeth Scott, a special education teacher, got a job in Gwinnett, the state's largest school district, Gilbert followed in her footsteps. She worked at Norcross Elementary and Richards Middle soon was on a management trainee track.
But bothered by the lack of options for students, she and longtime friend Howell launched a nonprofit organization called Turning Points Educational Services in 2005. They invited parents who were frustrated with their children's schools, discipline records and treatment by teachers to join them.
"Kids of color were not being as successful as other students," Howell recalled. "We started talking about what we could do as mothers to close the achievement gap."
Gilbert soon received so many requests from parents who wanted her to home school their kids that she and Howell decided to open a school. She learned about charter schools while surfing the web.
Gilbert later received an $80,000 grant from the national organization Building Excellent Schools to help her research her idea for a single-gender girls school. Gilbert chose the single-gender model because she said it decreases distraction in the classroom.
Despite the national credential, her petition was denied by the Gwinnett school board in 2007. It was approved by the state in 2008 and Ivy Prep opened anyway.
At the time, Ivy Prep was operating with half the money it would have gotten had it been locally approved. Gilbert eventually sought full funding from the Georgia Charter Schools Commission and was approved as one the first commission schools in June 2009.
Three months later, Gwinnett schools sued Ivy Prep and the state, alleging that the commission was illegally opening and funding charter schools with local money.
The lawsuit eventually was settled by a state Supreme Court decision that dismantled the commission and the network of schools it approved and funded.
Ivy Prep scrambled to keep its doors open. In June, Gilbert applied to Gwinnett schools and won approval for a one-year charter.
Gilbert’s critics take issue with Ivy Prep’s expansion. Some parents say it is too much, too soon and that her charter schools are underfunded and understaffed compared with what's available in local schools.
Ivy Prep of Norcross has a $3.3 million operating budget, but it only takes in about $2 million in public funding.
Ivy Prep is operating at a deficit. It lost $1 million in funding when the state’s charter school commission was dissolved. The money Ivy Prep receives now from the Gwinnett school district is less than what it received from the state as a commission charter school. The school is in the process of addressing the gap.
It receives about $4,400 per pupil, including local, state and federal funds. The average Gwinnett County public school expenditure per student is is $7,549.
Expenditures at Ivy Prep are held down by Gilbert’s staff being willing to sacrifice financially to achieve their mission; principals earn teacher’s pay, for example.
The new campus in DeKalb is being funded by state and federal dollars at $5,477 per pupil for the boys school and $5,287 per pupil for the girls model.
DeKalb County school board Chairman Tom Bowen said while Ivy Prep may have a “good reputation” for academics in Gwinnett, its application to DeKalb Schools was “incomplete” and lacked vital documentation of its educational plan for students. A denial letter from the district also questioned Ivy Prep’s rapid expansion into DeKalb -- it opened the school in 30 days.
Gilbert, a mother of three who is working on her doctorate in educational leadership, defends her brand with results -- strong standardized test scores and long wait lists. Ivy Prep offers extended days, single-gender learning and laptops at its Norcross location.
Gilbert shaped Ivy Prep's core values -- perseverance, respect, engagement and professionalism -- to prepare students for the rigor of college. Ivy Prep has met and exceeded state goals in several areas for students on Georgia's Criterion-Referenced Competency Test since the school first began taking the exam in 2009. In 2011, 94 percent of students met or exceeded in math, 97 percent in reading and 98 percent did so in English/language arts.
“Nina’s been through hell and back; she and her concept have been formed in a crucible,” said BJ Van Gundy, a former member of the state charter school commission who works as a consultant.
“Gwinnett County should have approved Ivy Prep in the first place," Gundy said. "The culture of that school is amazing. I would like to see it cookie-cuttered all over the state 100 times.”
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