Seven new charter schools approved by state commission

“This is a victory for Georgia students and innovative educators who are willing to be held to high level accountability,” said Ben Scafidi, chairman of the Georgia Charter Schools Commission. "This is a great day."

The latest additions are: Atlanta Heights Charter School, which will draw Atlanta Public Schools students; Fulton Leadership Academy, which will tap Fulton County Schools students; The Museum School of Avondale Estates and Peachtree Hope Charter School, both in the DeKalb County Schools' boundaries; Coweta Charter Academy at Senoia, which will tap Coweta County students; Heron Bay Academy, which will draw students from Henry and Spalding counties; and Pataula Charter Academy, which will attract students in Calhoun, Clay, Early, Randolph and Baker counties in southwest Georgia.

For Laura Leckband, founder of Museum School, the vote marked the end of a grassroots community effort that started with a town hall meeting in July 2008 and ended with a plan supported by the mayor and backed by 160 volunteers.

"This has been a huge team effort," Leckband said. "We felt like the level of education we had available to us was not what we had hoped it would be. We had people who were leaving our community to obtain better public education."

Avondale Estates commissioner David Milliron said, "What they have pulled off in this city, is history."

Five of the schools were approved with a recommendation from state charter schools staff and industry experts. Two others, Coweta Charter and Heron Bay Academy, were added after debate over issues with their petitions involving academic goals and budgeting. Coweta Charter used the student funding formula for Atlanta Public Schools by mistake on its petition. Heron Bay Academy needed to expand its reach beyond the development to include all of Henry and Spalding counties.

Heron Bay Academy, which will partner with a management company, was developed as a sort of deluxe amenity by leaders in the development and parents.

Brian Davison, who is president of the school's governing board is also president of the property owners' association at Heron Bay, a community with 900 homes plans to have 2000 at build-out. He said people spend a “fortune” to find homes in the right school district. Their approach was a reverse way of “going at it,” matching the right school to the neighborhood.

“Heron Bay has been one of the top-selling communities in all of metro Atlanta since 2004, we got there by listening to residents and what matters to them, sometimes it’s amenities, sometimes it’s walking trails,” said Davison, who also is president of the new school’s governing board president. “One of the largest issues for them is the education of their kids. While they have been reasonably happy with [local public schools] they will be extremely excited to have an alternative choice for their kids.”

Terry Bushell, a business management consultant for Fulton Leadership Academy, said the all-boys school will teach leadership and boast a curriculum that will focus on aeronautics.

“We have over 400 people who have already responded saying that they want their son attending Fulton Leadership Academy,” she  said.

The new charters will be fully-funded like other public schools in the state. They will receive federal and state dollars plus a matching share of local revenues carved from the state allocations of the districts students leave behind.

Scafidi advised those that did not make the cut to reapply. “It is not a death sentence,” he said.

Ivy Preparatory Academy in Norcross and the Statesboro’s Charter Conservatory for Liberal Arts & Technology are the state’s first commission-chartered schools.

"This is really ground-breaking,” said Tony Roberts, executive director of the Georgia Charter Schools Association. “This is the first time there was a mix of homegrown charter schools and schools that will be managed by management organizations. Parents in more places including outside the metro Area now will have more options for their students who may not be doing well in their current schools.”