Parents of more than 500 children in Cobb County may have to find a new school next year.
The county school board is scheduled to decide next week whether to renew the charter of the Imagine International Academy of Mableton. The staff of Cobb Superintendent Michael Hinojosa is recommending denial of the 5-year-old school's request for a new two-year charter.
Cobb administrators who reviewed the school's application cited concerns about finances and academics. The K-8 school failed to meet test performance goals outlined in its 2006 charter, officials said.
"What is stated in the charter, and the actual performance, is not there," said school board member David Morgan, a former charter school teacher who represents the area where the academy is located. The school met testing benchmarks on five of 63 tries, he said. "How do we disregard that performance?"
The school's principal, Marcus Barber, said the school was doing well in some categories of testing, and he said the decision by parents to send 564 children there this year was evidence of superior service.
"They come to our school for a reason," he said.
Tyrone Lewis is one of those parents. He said the public schools that serve his neighborhood failed to make the federal benchmarks under the No Child Left Behind Act known as adequate yearly progress.
"The middle school in particular is one I don't want my children to attend," he said. If the Mableton charter is forced to close next year, he said, he'll choose private school before sending his kids into the Cobb school system.
Cobb administrators also are recommending denial of five-year charters for two proposed schools, the STEAM Academy of Cobb and the Turning Point Charter Leadership Academy School of Excellence, citing concerns that including their finances.
Officials recommended approval for one school, though: the International Academy of Smyrna's application for a charter renewal lasting five years.
The school was created under the Imagine umbrella. It was chartered at the same time as its sister school in Mableton but eventually broke away from the Imagine company.
Terald Melton, treasurer of the Smyrna charter, said the school saved $700,000 in fees by cutting ties with the for-profit Imagine company. The school also saved $500,000 by renegotiating its lease for a building once occupied by a Rich's department store, he said. "We literally cut over $1 million from our budget so that we could be here today," Melton said.
County school administrators determined that the Smyrna school was financially "viable" and that it brought something unique to Cobb. The school offers an international baccalaureate program for students ages 3 to 19.
Melton said his board of directors hopes to raise nearly $3 million over the next five years to build up financial reserves and to increase teacher pay. Teachers are paid 15 percent to 18 percent less than their public school peers, he said.
The Cobb school board is slated to vote on the charters Sept. 29. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at school system headquarters at 514 Glover St. in Marietta.
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