Published Friday, February 20, 2009
Charter company planning Coweta school
The Newnan Times-Herald
The Southeast's biggest charter school management company is making its moves in Georgia.
Ernest Taylor, a Newnan resident and a board member with the recently established Georgia Charter Foundation, announced the nonprofit organization's plans to establish charter schools in counties across Georgia -- including Coweta -- along with its for-profit partner, Florida-based Charter Schools USA.
Taylor, president of an Atlanta executive search firm, spoke about the companies' plans at the Newnan Rotary Club luncheon Friday at Newnan Country Club.
Fort Lauderdale-based Charter Schools USA, established in 1997, operates 19 charter schools on 14 campuses in Florida, according to its Web site.
Taylor said the company plans to establish new schools in four to five districts in Georgia by the fall of 2010 and is in discussion with eight other counties to also manage and start new charter schools. He expects Georgia Charter Foundation and Charter Schools USA to open 10 new charter schools in Georgia within the next two years.
The districts which will "break ground in the next 90 days with schools open in the fall of 2010" include Atlanta, Cherokee, Coweta and Forsyth, he said.
In Coweta, Taylor said the company is considering a K-8 Charter Academy between Sharpsburg and Senoia, the county's fastest growing area.
Community input meetings have been under way as part of the company's efforts. Charter Schools USA is holding meetings in Cobb County, and Taylor mentioned meetings were already held in the SummerGrove subdivision and area churches in the Coweta area. Another meeting is scheduled in Senoia on March 10 at 6 p.m. at the Freeman-Sasser Building, according to an online flyer.
Taylor projected the Coweta campus to be built for 1,500 students, but would begin with a 750-800 student body for the elementary and middle grades. Taylor explained Charter Schools USA typically builds K-8, then adds a grade each year "so it'll take us five years to get to the K-12 school." Of its charter schools in Florida, four are K-12.
In response to questions, Taylor said the schools' initial construction would be funded by investors. Maintenance and operational funding would come from the county school district. Taylor said the initial application for the charter would be made with the local school district. Georgia charter school law also allows for organizations to apply with the state if the local school district denies the application.
Taylor offered Rotarians an overview of charter schools and outlined how Charter Schools USA has been able to achieve its success in Florida. He cited Charter Schools USA's performance-based pay system for teachers, the parent-based governing councils, freedom to expel students with chronic discipline problems, lower student teacher ratios, the ability to operate leaner and more efficiently and its practice of hiring teachers who have majors in the subject they teach.
"We basically run like a private school, with uniforms," he said, but with public funding and more freedom from state regulations.
Rotarians asked questions ranging from whether the investor-owned buildings would be exempt from property taxes to whether charter schools would deplete the public schools of high-quality teachers. Taylor deferred most of the finance questions to Charter Schools USA representatives who'll attend the community input meetings and noted charter schools' "goal is not to take the créme de la créme of a county."
