DeKalb County Schools decided Monday to offer a reprieve to two charter schools, granting them one-year waivers to remain open while those schools seek long-term authority to operate.
Peachtree Hope Charter School and The Museum School of Avondale Estates were among 16 charter schools statewide affected by a Georgia Supreme Court ruling in May. The court found unconstitutional the 2007 law that created the Georgia Charter Schools Commission, which gave the two schools and others like them the authority to operate. The court ruled the law unlawfully granted the state the right to approve and fund charter schools over the objection of local school boards.
Also on Monday, the court declined to reconsider its May decision, leaving an estimated 16,500 students uncertain about where they will receive an education in the next school year.
However, students at the two DeKalb charter institutions learned that their schools would remain in operation for at least a year. The two charter operations petitioned the DeKalb School System for waivers while they worked on their applications for five-year county charters.
Parents reacted with relief to the unanimous vote of the nine-member school board.
"I'm very happy to see that they have embraced us," said Canangela Robertson, whose 7-year-old son just finished his first year at Peachtree Hope. She has another boy, 5, set to start there in the fall and a girl, 2, who hopes to attend someday.
Robertson chose the charter school over a county magnet school for the arts. She said her eldest child was allowed to attend the charter school when the neighborhood school failed to make adequate yearly progress.
"I love the college prep curriculum they have in place," she said, also citing the daily Spanish immersion and the double daily sessions of math and English. "And they also offer art and music."
School board members questioned the charter school attendance lines and the demographics of the students at the schools, and said they hoped the long-term charter applications would address their concerns.
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