Oakland Academy Charter School Responds to BOE Decision

Featured Stories, Opinion

On February 9th, The Gilmer County Board of Education voted to reject the application for the Oakland Academy Charter School. According to Superintendent Bryan Dorsey, the application was rejected due to the district’s financial situation, meaning that the school district does not have the money to support another school.

The Oakland Academy Charter School Board of Trustees issued an official statement on February 14th, addressing the BOE’s reason(s) for rejecting Oakland’s application.

Read Oakland’s official statement below.February 14th, 2012

Statement of the Founding Board of the Oakland Academy Charter School

In making his recommendation for the BOE to deny the charter petition for the Oakland Academy Charter School, Mr. Dorsey stated, “Approving the charter would harm all students in the district due to the financial consequences of funding an additional school.”

The Founding Board of the Oakland Academy Charter School offers the following response to this statement by Mr. Dorsey based on the requests that we have received:

1. The implementation of OACS for Gilmer County students should in no way harm any student much less “all students in the district” as stated by Mr. Dorsey. Georgia Department of Education Communications Director Matt Cardoza said in an official statement that there is “no reason for salaries of teachers in the traditional public schools in that system to decrease — and no evidence it’s ever happened.” NO EVIDENCE. The Superintendent has no data or evidence on his side. In fact, the state of Georgia’s is saying that in their 14 years of working with charter schools that the basis for his recommendations has never happened. There is NO EVIDENCE that salaries of teachers have ever been decreased. We cannot accept this suggestion as valid when educators that oversee all state charter schools say that it has not happened.

2. The charter school petition promotes a plan to provide better results for students and spending less money per student by using academic and organizational innovations. One strategy that OACS will employ to raise student achievement is to increase parental involvement in the charter school by requiring parents/family to participate in volunteer activities/services for a minimum of 30 hours annually for each family. This parent participation requirement will enhance one of the primary predictors of student success: parent involvement in the education of their children. The charter petition lists 15 specific ways families can volunteer and references other possibilities including using a substitute volunteer, such as a family member or friend, who may complete or assist the parent/family with the volunteer hours.

3. The successful implementation of these innovations can lead the way for other Gilmer schools to become “conversion charter schools” or the school system to become a “charter system” adopting these and other academic and organizational innovations to improve what we do for students. This should HELP all the students in the district.

4. Is this school system “All About the Money” as the Board has promoted? Should the school system be “All About the STUDENTS and their safety and education” and using the money and other resources as a means to make the most educational improvement for students? Education costs! Someone has said that “one thing that costs more than education is the lack of it”. Regarding costs and charter tentative budgets included in the charter petition and supporting documents on the CD, OACS requests only 97% of the charter school students’ share of local and state money. This decision leaves the remaining 3% of the charter school students’ share of money with the school system to use as it sees fit along with the full 100% of the remaining Gilmer students’ share of revenues. How would this harm “all” Gilmer County students?

5. The Oakland Elementary School building is not in use. It is used for very limited storage. Could it not be better used by educating our children?

We will have additional statements in the coming period.

Thank you.

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