About Lake Oconee news. (Greensboro, GA) 199?-current | View Entire Issue (May 26, 2017)
Friday, May 26,2017 Lake Oconee News Page A3 GREENE COUNTY Charter schools confused outside applicants Mark Engel engel@lakeoconeenews.us Mark Engel/Staff Lake Oconee Academy in Greensboro is celebrating its tenth year and will complete its mandate by adding a 12th grade in the next school year. Located off Carey Station Road, the school recently purchased land adjacent to the campus for future expansion. CEO Otho Tucker of Lake Oconee Academy (LOA) says “the positions have been offered.” That’s a reference to the Georgia Department of Educations crackdown on LOA’s policy of not re quiring applicants for the school’s enrollment lottery to be residents of Greene County. The school determined that seven positions in grades K-12 had been offered to non-residents, and the state ordered LOA to rescind those offers and award them to Greene County residents. LOA, like all charter schools in the state, requires students to be residents of their attendance zones, in this case Greene County, before they can attend the school. The issue is if non-res idents should be allowed to participate in the school lottery, thus having the same odds of their child getting enrolled in the high performing school as parents who already live in the school’s district. LOA disagrees with the state’s interpretation. “Every bit of the law says the time of enrollment is the time you must prove resi dency,” said LOA Attorney Richard Schmidt, referenc ing the U.S. Constitution, the Georgia Constitution and the Georgia Depart ment of Education policies. One month after LOA’s lottery, Louis Erste, DOE Associate Superintendent for Policy, Charter Schools, District Flexibility and Governmental Affairs wrote a letter ordering the school to comply with state law. He referenced what he called “plain language of the statue” that says “a student must reside in a charter school’s attendance zone at the time he or she submits an application for admis sion.” A spot check by the Lake Oconee News (LON) this week discovered that the “plain language” is, at best, confusing to some admin istrators of other charter schools in Georgia. Erste admitted as much in an e-mail exchange with the LON on Tuesday. “Up until the LOA issue,” he wrote, “we were not aware charter schools weren’t complying with state law, state board rule and their charter contracts on this issue.” He would not say how many other schools he knows about that have the same policy as LOA but said, “we will be adding a question to the Charter School Annual Report Form to check for compli ance.” According to the Georgia DOE website, there are 115 independent charter schools in Georgia. There are another 326 schools in charter school systems in the state. Every January, parents scramble to see if their child can win Georgia’s “other” lottery to land a spot in a charter school which, in many cases, seems to provide a better opportuni ty for childhood learning. The Lake Oconee News reviewed the websites of and made telephone calls to eight charter schools across the state. LON found some allowing non-residents to apply to participate in their lottery and others just as ad amantly saying they cannot apply. Some school websites were simply unclear. At the Tybee Island Maritime Academy in Chatham County, there is no question. “They have to be residents when they apply.” The TIMA website says if openings cannot be filled by Tybee Island resi dents then “students from both Tybee Island and Chatham County will be placed in a lottery.” But the Coastal Empire Montessori Charter School, also in Chatham County, makes no reference to specific residency require ments on its website. Some of the admission policies were not available because the lottery had already been held. Still, in response to a clear question, “You don’t have to be a resident of the county in order to participate in the lottery?” we were told “Correct.” At the Charles Drew Charter School in east Atlanta, the website was very direct. “A student,” it said, “must reside within the Atlanta Public School zone on a full-time basis... to apply for admission to Drew Charter School.” Just 15 miles away in north Atlanta, Dr. Terrence Moore, principal of the Atlanta Classical Academy said students who have applied from outside the school district have been admitted in “a couple of cases but I don’t have the details before me.” Moore said he was familiar with charter schools in other states. “People do move because of schools,” he said. “People move from other states and from parts of Georgia to other parts of Georgia. But, obviously charter schools are going to do what the law allows.” On Grant street in south east Atlanta, the Atlanta Neighborhood Charter school’s website says “ad mission shall be open to any student who resides within the primary atten dance zone” and ’’all those applicants selected from the lottery will need to complete residency verifi cation materials to become officially registered at ANCS.” Like some of the other school websites, the subtle difference between appli cation (to the lottery) and admission (to the first day of classes) is lost. At the Academy For Clas sical Education in Macon, the question about non-res ident applications got cut off at the word lottery. “No,” we were told, “the system will throw you out!” In southwest Geor gia’s Mitchell County, the website of the Baconton Community Charter school screams in bold print on the application page: “Proof of residency is required to enter the lottery drawing and at the end of each new school year.” Meanwhile, the Lake Oconee Academy Board and Administrators are clear about one thing. Although they have agreed to comply with the DOE’s interpretation of the res idency requirement, they have retained a legal firm to seek a second opinion from Georgia Attorney General Christopher M. Carr. WHO can help with your HOME financing needs? We Can LAND LOANS • CONSTRUCTION LOANS LONG-TERM PERMANENT FINANCING t * * >,. 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