Parents of more than 200 students at Imagine Marietta school may have to look for new options for their kids next fall after the state upheld the rejection of its charter application.
Debate over the next class of charter campuses authorized by the Georgia Charter Schools Commission ended Thursday with the state school board overwhelmingly endorsing all of the commission’s picks and passes. Three rejected petitioners who appealed to the state board, including Imagine Marietta, had their denials upheld.
Barbara Allen, a grandmother with three students at Imagine Marietta -- the only one of the rejected petitioners that is an existing school -- said she does not want to see the school, which opened in 2006, close. It needs a charter contract to operate and receive money to educate students.
“If we are not capable of putting them in a private school, we should at least be able to put them in a charter school,” Allen said. “[Imagine] is an awesome school with very dedicated teachers.”
Imagine Marietta’s charter petition was denied by the commission in December for concerns about its financial stability and academic performance, despite meeting adequate yearly progress goals for students all but one of its years in operation. Marietta city schools had also denied a charter for similar reasons. A district official who addressed members of the state board said the campus had a mounting debt and stagnant population.
“Even though Imagine [the charter’s management company] has chosen to write off the $460,000 worth of debt, there is $360,000 remaining,” said Debra Pickett, an assistant superintendent at Marietta Schools. “They don’t have the enrollment to garner additional financial resources.”
Imagine’s board chairman, Clarence Taylor, said the company is working with them to address financial and enrollment issues.
“We are proud of our accomplishments, but we also recognize we have a lot of room to grow. Everything could be better. Rome was not built in a day.”
Imagine and other rejected petitioners can apply to the state board for approval as state-chartered special schools, but they would not be fully funded like commission charters. They may also re-apply to the commission.
“We have a commission and they’re doing an excellent job; we are looking at charters as well,” said Brian Burdette, a member of the state board’s charter committee. “We want good charters. We kind of have a good idea of what a good charter is. Why don’t you listen? If we tell you financially, you are not going to make it, having someone bail you out is not going to cut it ... How can a school run like that?”
Imagine Marietta principal Christy Tureta said the school intends to apply for special schools status to remain open, but it will still break the news of the denial to kids.
“We don’t want to give them false hope,” she said.
The state upheld the approvals of four other charter petitioners to open next fall: Cherokee Charter Academy, Heritage Preparatory Academy, Chattahoochee Hills Charter School and Georgia Connections Academy, a cyber charter with online instruction.
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