Category Archives: Charter Schools

Wayne Washington reported in the AJC that Ivy Prep Academy At Kirkwood will spend $14 million to buy the strip mall in which it is located. It’s raising some questions, as Washington reports,

It’s one solution to the most vexing problem charters face — finding a permanent facility. But the deal means the school, Ivy Preparatory Academy at Kirkwood, must collect rent, manage and repair property and face the prospect, if its three other tenants move, of losing the rental income used to help pay off $14 million in bonds used to purchase the property.

School systems spend a great deal of time and money on items outside of education.

• Every day DeKalb Schools serves 26,000 breakfasts and 4,600 after school snacks.
• Whitefoord Elementary, in APS, houses Whitefoord Family Medical Center providing comprehensive family primary health care.
• The west wing of New Birth church is home to the Leadership Prep Academy where DeKalb Schools pays $10,000/month for rent.

What is the role of the school system? The question is, “Should these schools be real estate developers?” asked state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta. As Washington reports,

“The deal allowed Ivy Prep, in operation since 2011, to spend $11.2 million to purchase the strip mall on Memorial Drive where it was once one of four tenants along with a Pizza Hut, a LIV Fitness center and the Kirkwood Family Medicine clinic. The school building had been the site for another charter school that failed.
Those tenants will now pay about $21,000 a month in rent to Ivy Prep, which itself was paying $31,250 per month before buying the strip mall.”

Continue reading Wayne Washington’s article in the AJC here >>

Chamblee Charter Progress is a nice website run by the CCHS governance team as they chronicle the “progress as our team of teachers, parents, and community members create a renewal petition for the 2015-2016 school year.”
Timeline of Charter Renewal Petition
August 26 – Draft petition posted for parents, teachers and community to read.
September 23 – Faculty, staff and parents/guardians vote on charter.
Parents: Yes – 409, No -17 : 96% majority
Faculty: Yes – 47, No – 31 : 60.3% majority
October 8 – Hand delivered the Charter Renewal Petition to DeKalb County School District (DSCD)
On or before January 2015 – DCSD is allowed 90 days by law to consider the CCHS Charter Renewal Petition before sending their decision to the State Dept. of Education for their approval.
July 1, 2015 – If approved, the new Charter takes effect through 2020.
Charter Update Fall, 2014
Posted on Chamblee Charter Progress
By: spannill
Thank-you to all our faculty members and parents that participated in the Charter Petition Vote on September 23.  We also thank the many volunteers who organized the voting process, staffed the voting polls, verified and counted the ballots.  The vote represented a major milestone in a long process and a significant success.
What is next?  With a majority of faculty and parents voting YES to submit our Charter Renewal Petition to DeKalb County School District (DSCD,) we have created the required 20 binders and 20 CDs of the petition document and all the appendices.  They were hand-delivered to DCSD today, October 8^th.
After the vote, we received questions from a number of people like this one:
To Whom It May Concern:
For the benefit of the parents, who are the downstream recipients of teachers’ efforts and attitudes, could light be shed upon the reason(s) why a faculty person, let alone 30%, would prefer the school lose its Charter status/designation?
Chamblee has been a conversion charter school since 2001 and the charter has been renewed five (5) times.   With the current renewal petition, the terms of the petition are substantially different.  The State of Georgia and DeKalb County have made significant changes in their expectations of Charter Schools recently. The State now requires Charter Schools to manage their own personnel, schedules and budgets. DeKalb County will only grant a charter if the school is innovative — not the same as other public schools. The truth is, they have pushed us to stretch and grow as a school community, and we believe the changes will benefit students, teachers, and our entire community.
So, why would 30% of our teachers vote NO to moving the Petition forward?  For our teachers, the question is not just about the future of Chamblee Charter High School, it is about their careers and livelihood.  While a teacher may think that the innovations in programming, budgeting and governance sound great, there are admittedly a number of unknowns and changes still to be implemented.  Change is exciting to some.  Others, given the choice to leap into the unknown, however promising, will prefer to stay with what they know. That is human nature and understandable.  Through continuing dialogue and opportunities for hands-on involvement, it is hoped that over the coming year all of our faculty and staff will become more informed, comfortable and excited about the proposed changes.
As the Petition moves through the review and approval process, first with DCSD and then the State Department of Education, we will continue to keep the communication flowing with faculty and parents to put us in the best position possible for success if (when!) the Charter Petition is approved for implementation effective July 1, 2015.  Keep up with our progress at www.chambleecharterprogress.wordpress.com.
The Charter Re-write Team