Category Archives: Charter Schools

DeKalb has waited long enough

Atticus LeBlanc is a community leader and activist. He ran for the DeKalb County Board of Education District 3 seat last year, which represents Avondale Estates. He lost to the incumbent, Dr. Michael Erwin, but the following excerpts are from a piece he wrote at the time on DeKalb charter schools.
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Atticus LeBlanc

Subject: DeKalb has waited long enough
By: Atticus LeBlanc
I think parents have been waiting far too long for DeKalb’s elected leaders and school administrators to demonstrate their commitment to actually improving student outcomes. With all due respect to my opponent, it doesn’t matter how you measure DeKalb’s performance. . . it’s terrible. (See our latest grades and scores from the state here) The challenges facing our school system may indeed be great, and we cannot expect drastically different outcomes overnight, but how can we expect to actually improve those outcomes if we aren’t changing the way we are operating our schools?
Since the new board was appointed [in March of 2013], there hasn’t been a single policy change affecting the management structure of our schools. We still have high level administrators at the top delegating down to the local schools. We still have just as many amazing parents that are being ignored. We are still losing great teachers at alarming rates.
With the notable exception of Tapestry Charter School (which focuses on autistic students, and whose debate at BOE was still unnecessarily contentious), our board has still not given our children any additional opportunities to improve their education. While KIPP, Drew Charter, and The Museum School continue to outperform the vast majority of schools in the state and serve as models of student achievement, our Board has done nothing to either bring more of these types of schools to DeKalb, or to even attempt to model the best practices from these or other successful schools in our own public education system.
When McNair High School has a 44% graduation rate compared to 93% for KIPP, and the demographic and socioeconomic breakdown of the student body is virtually identical, shouldn’t we as stakeholders expect our Board of Education to at least start to make fundamental policy changes to address these disparities? Or should we continue to “be patient” while more students fall through the cracks?
[…]
I simply don’t understand how [Dr. Erwin] can justify sending their own child to a charter school because of the excellent education it provides, while at the same time denying the same opportunities to thousands of other kids in the District he serves. I also fail to understand how, when wait lists for charter school enrollment in DeKalb exceed the actual enrollment of those schools, our Board and administration cannot see we have pent-up demand for more of these schools.
While I’m intrigued by the superintendent’s announcement that DeKalb will pursue status as a “Charter System” as one of the three options that must be selected by Districts before the summer of 2015, please forgive my cynicism for suggesting that a “Charter System” under the current administration will look a lot like the broken system we already have. (Coincidentally, a Charter System under the state’s definition also provides the most funding, with the fewest regulations.)
We have not seen any indication from [the administration] that they have any desire to empower local parents, principals, or teachers, and I don’t know why we should expect that to change. The DHCC petition represents a great litmus test for their attitudes regarding local control, and they both fought to deny the petition in November, and continue to stifle or ignore dialogue regarding how to work together toward a mutually agreeable solution. Although the DHCC leaders met with staff on multiple occasions after the vote, and re-submitted the petition in time for the May BOE meeting, the resubmittal was excluded from the agenda on both the May and June meetings.
So while Mr. Erwin continues to ask for our patience, I am asking: “What is stopping us from pursuing fundamental change to our school system now?” Unfortunately for all of us, we can’t afford to wait any longer.

Charter School Showdown – Part II

Chronicling the law, policies, memos and emails between DeKalb Schools and the Ga Department of Education.

School ChoiceThe central office is refusing to give up control of conversion charters, and a showdown may be brewing between the State DOE and DeKalb unless the new Superintendent makes a course correction.
The Law
In the past, conversion charter schools had minimal autonomy. That changed in November 2014 when the GaBOE approved new Charter School Rules.  For example, Charter School Rule and Guidance says,  “[DeKalb Schools must] allow local charter schools to exercise substantial autonomy over decisions affecting the school. The nonprofit governing board of a charter school shall have authority to make personnel decisions, including selection of the principal or school leader; financial decisions and resource allocation decisions”
Jose BozaDistrict’s Policies
The district is rewriting the DeKalb Schools charter policies and said here“There is nothing in the proposed IBB or IBB-R that prevents a charter school, conversion or start-up, from requesting whatever level of autonomy they desire.
Charter Petitioners
However, actual guidance from DeKalb administration conflicts with their statement that conversion charters can request whatever level of autonomy they desire.  When conversion charter school petitioners meet with DeKalb administrators at a closed petitioners meeting, they are given this  Local & System Governance Decision Making Matrix document prescribing the extremely limited autonomy they may have.  It allows the conversion charter governance board to take surveys, provide some input into personnel decisions, and have control over essentially the same level of funding that a Principal controls today, which is around 1% of the school’s budget.
Georgia Department of EducationState DOE Memorandum
The state DOE released a June 2014 CHARTER SCHOOL RENEWAL MEMORANDUM  in response to districts across the state refusing to relinquish control saying,
“• Charter renewal applicants – including conversion charter school applicants – that are not granted full autonomy by their school districts will be recommended for denial.
• Full autonomy means that the charter school’s Governing Board must have the final authority in personnel decisions, financial decisions, curriculum and instruction, resource allocation, establishing and monitoring the achievement of school improvement goals, and school operations.”
DeKalb Schools Response To The State DOE Memo
Regarding the June 2014 state memo, DeKalb schools said at the July 2015 board meeting, “The State Memo referred to is not the most current State Board Rule or Guidance on the autonomy granted to charter schools, both start-up and conversions, and thus is not controlling law, rule, or guidance”  [since the state BOE revisited and clarified the BOE Rules in November 2014.]

Louis Erste

Lou Erste, Ga DOE, Throws Down The Gauntlet
Just days before the July 2015 board meeting, Lou Erste (Ga DOE Associate Superintendent for Charter Schools) sent this email to Dr. Jose Boza (DeKalb Schools Director of Charter Schools) saying that the state would recommend for denial any conversion charter where the school district only offered control over 1% of the budget.
Furthermore, Lou Erste reminded Dr. Boza that DeKalb Schools must approve high functioning conversion charters or else the state will not approve DeKalb’s petition to become a charter system saying, “[the state will not] recommend approval of a charter system contract for a district that fails to demonstrate it is a good charter partner with regard to its conversion charter schools.”  If the district is denied Charter System status, it would revert to a Status Quo School System losing all waivers including class size, classroom expenditures, certification and salary schedule waivers.
If Dekalb does not follow the law and GaDOE policy on its existing charter schools, why would GaDOE approve the DeKalb Charter System Petition? The Charter System is all about DeKalb sharing decision-making with its schools. With a poor track record on sharing decision-making with its conversion charter schools, the State would be hard-pressed to believe that DeKalb will follow through in a Charter System.
The State’s Latest Memo
Last Friday the state issued a new July 2015 CHARTER SCHOOL RENEWAL MEMORANDUM restating the previous June 2014 memo.  Additionally, the state has requested, “Conversion charter school applicants must also include a statement from their school district detailing the district’s plan to ensure the conversion charter school will operate with substantial autonomy and how the district will ensure its effective support of the charter school, including what, if any, changes it will make to its central office to ensure that the charter school is properly supported and operates with substantial autonomy.”
Moving Forward
The administration has been rewriting the DeKalb Schools charter policies.  Thus far the proposed revisions have not addressed conversion charter school autonomy, funding, or a description of how DCSD central office operations will change in accordance with new SBOE Rules. The new charter policies were scheduled to be discussed at the last two board meetings.  Each time the charter policy discussions were removed from the agenda at the last minute.  At the last board meeting I was told the new superintendent is evaluating the district’s position on charter schools.
Dr. Green will soon be meeting with board members and designated staff to discuss the Charter System and Charter Policy.  According to the Charter Petition Process Timeline, petitions for start-up charter schools were due May 15 and conversions/renewals/clusters are due Aug 14, so there is no time to lose.
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