About Lake Oconee news. (Greensboro, GA) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (May 19, 2017)
Page A10 Lake Oconee News M Friday, May 19,2017 LOA Continued from A1 drawing, to notify non-resident winners that their positions would be revoked. The DOE ordered a second lottery for those positions, using only a pool of Greene County res idents who had applied. At a special called meeting of the LOA board Monday night, it was announced that the DOE and LOA agreed to fill the slots with Greene County residents who were on the lottery wait list instead of conduct ing a second drawing. LOA attorney Richard Schmidt also announced that after scruti nizing the list of people picked in the lottery, there were only seven people who could not prove resi dency in Greene County. Schmidt added that the 29 new positions authorized by the Greene County Board of Education last week were already anticipated in the April 5 lottery so those will not be additional openings. Louis Erste, associate superin tendent for policy, charter schools, district flexibility, and govern mental affairs for the Georgia Department of Education told Lake Oconee News Tuesday night that LOA will still be required to submit paperwork by May 25, proving they complied with the residency requirement. “The deadline for information still stands,” said Erste. Special Program But there’s more. In a surprise move, the board also announced that the seven students who were selected but lived out of the county, will be offered a “separate program” created for them for the 2017-2018 school year. “State presented it to us,” Schmidt told the Lake Oconee News. “It’s a workable plan in a bad situation.” The LOA board hired an Atlanta law firm, McGuireWoods, to help them create the program that would be funded only with private money. No public money would be used and the students will not be required to pay a tuition. Neither LOA nor the Greene County School System would lose any state funding, according to LOA board member David Mapp, “It’s more so an effort to insulate the school,” Mapp explained to the audience, “so we’re not liable for the type of implications and litiga tions that potentially come.” In an “open letter to the people of Greene County and beyond” released after the meeting, the school said that since the lottery on April 5, “persons who were accepted in the lottery have quit their jobs and moved to Greene County, have bought new proper ties here in Greene County or have signed leases. In other words, they have relied in good faith to their detriment.” Appealing to AG But this doesn’t mean the school is acquiescing to the state DOE. The LOA Board also voted to use the McGuireWoods law firm to help them seek an opinion from Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr on whether or not LOA can include non-Greene County resi dents in future admissions lotter ies. Erste told Lake Oconee News in an email statement on Tuesday that “once we receive LOA’s request to seek an AG opinion, the Depart ment will determine whether it will seek such an opinion.” Just as strongly as LOA believes its position is correct, Erste believes LOA is wrong. “Both the State Board of Ed ucation/Georgia Department of Education and the State Charter Schools Commissions agree,” he wrote, “that students must be resident in a charter school’s at tendance zone to be eligible to par ticipate in that school’s enrollment lottery.” Why non-residents? In an interview on May 10, the day following the DOE ruling, Schmidt said it’s important to the county for LOA to be able to attract people who live elsewhere. “If people from outside the county can come here then it’s a huge leg up in the economic de velopment process,” Schmidt said. “It is a huge leg up in our ability to attract quality teachers. So, we don’t have to hijack quality teachers from our Greene County school system.” More than 50 people attended Monday’s LOA board meeting. Some point out that adding non-residents to the lottery pool lowers their child’s chances of being selected. On Facebook, Trent Smith posted this comment: “If people so desire to send their kids to LOA then buy a house here and take your chances like we as tax payers have done, or should be doing...I’m all about growth of the area, more jobs, better education for our kids, 4' Mark Engel/Staff LOA Board member David Mapp explained to the audience that a special program is being set up for the seven non-resident students whose selection for admission to LOA has now been revoked. etc....other school systems don’t bend the rules to boost growth, the people move there for better education [which] in turn boosts growth.” A post from Jessica Short says ‘We have paid taxes so, sure, our kids should have first choice. “ “In our country,” LOA attorney Schmidt told Lake Oconee News, “you don’t get to make that argument legally because we have something called the Equal Pro tection Act. You’re not allowed to discriminate against people in that way. You’re just not.” Pre-K exception The LOA Pre-Kindergarten program is not included in the ban against non-residents being Mark Engel/Staff LOA Board Attorney Richard Schmidt told the audience that the school is complying this year with the Department of Education's interpretation of the residency requirements for admission but is seeking an opinion from the Georgia Attorney General. included in the lottery. On May 10, Tucker said that four of the 44 children selected in the lottery for the Pre-K program were from outside of Greene County. They will be allowed to remain in Pre-K, according the LOA attorney Schmidt. The DOE’s Erste agrees. “Geor gia’s Department of Early Care and Learning oversees pre-K,” he said. The LOA charter does give special preference for enrollment to kindergarten to “children who matriculate from a pre-kindergar ten program which is associated with the school.” ^■^CHO/CE DENTAL U/| Iw CARE Russell A. 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