Published Sunday, February 07, 2010

Schools puzzled by charter approval

The Newnan Times-Herald

Although community support for a charter school in Senoia appears to be strong -- and a public forum is planned for Monday night at the Freeman-Sasser Building -- the Coweta County School System has a number of questions about the proposed school that underlie its ongoing appeal.

A Georgia Charter School Commission review committee initially recommended denial for Charter Schools USA applications in Coweta and Cherokee counties, but the Georgia Charter School Commission's full board ultimately decided not to take that advice when it came to the Senoia application.

The Coweta school system wants to know why.

"The two petitions and appeals were basically identical, as indicated in the committee's report," said Dean Jackson, spokesman for the Coweta County School System.

"The committee recommended denial for both. The commission received the reports, and voted to not award the Cherokee petition's appeal, but awarded the Coweta petition's appeal," he said. "There was no comment about why."

In its Summary of Findings, the committee noted that the "Cherokee Charter Academy Petition is substantially identical to the petition submitted by Charter Schools USA for a similar school in Coweta County."

So for what reason, then, did the full commission turn down the Cherokee County charter school application but approve the application for the school in Senoia? No answers or explanations were given, Jackson noted.

The review committee also stated that "while the petitioning group expressed its desire to provide an educational program that would 'raise the bar' in Coweta County, the application suggests otherwise by setting an accountability framework that can be met by simply maintaining the same levels of achievement as the traditional public schools in Coweta County."

In light of the fact that 100 percent of Coweta County schools made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in the 2008-2009 academic school year, enrolling a planned 860 K-8 students in a district with a total enrollment of 21,525 students and six existing middle schools "could prove difficult," the committee members stated in their report.

"Without sufficient enrollment and related funding, there may be a substantial impediment to the successful opening of the school," according to the committee's report.

Richard Page, vice president of operations for Charter Schools USA, remains undaunted and said he is looking forward both to Monday's 7 p.m. community meeting at Senoia's Freeman-Sasser Building and to the state board's final decision on Coweta County's appeal.

"We're going to have a community forum to talk about the status of the school and what's happening with it and how the community can continue to be involved," said Page.

Meanwhile, the Georgia Board of Education meets next week, "and is the last word on the appeals process," Jackson said.

"Coweta County's position is that we stand by the Charter School professional committee's summary recommendation," he said.