Archive for the ‘Cherokee’ Category

Readers of this blog will be familiar with the tensions in Cherokee between the school system and the legislative delegation and the board redistricting legislation that resulted. You can find quite a few posts on the issues if you search Cherokee.

It will be interesting to see whether the school system’s opposition to the state charter school amendment will have any impact on voters in November.

Here is a good summation of the Cherokee situation from the AJC’s Jeffry Scott:

For 10 months a battle has raged in Cherokee County over charter schools. A bill passed by the legislature putting a charter school amendment on the ballot November has done little to clear the smoke or diffuse the heat.

It has just ignited new opposition in the county and given rise to the prospect that the debate and battle could expand across the state, say opponents of the amendment that would give Georgia the power to create charter schools without local school board approval.

Over the last year …

Continue reading Cherokee provides view of natural tensions over charter school amendment »

The chair of the Cherokee County Board of Education is asking the governor to veto House Bill 978, which is one of the most surprising and invasive pieces of local legislation this session. I am uncertain why a GOP-led body would violate its less government/local control mantra to meddle in a county with a darn good school system.

This bill has already drawn fire from SACS, the accrediting agency that oversees Cherokee schools.

I doubt Cherokee will get much help from Nathan Deal, who often takes a see no evil, hear no evil posture with the Legislature, but this bill does strike at the heart of much of what the governor professes to believe about the rights of local voters to decide their representation.

HB 978 has been described as payback to the Cherokee school board for nixing a charter school application, which again surprises me as there were legitimate concerns about the project.

I think the lesson here is that politicians of any party will violate their own foundational …

Continue reading Payback to Cherokee schools by local lawmakers: Will governor provide the knock-out punch? »

Teacher absenteeism can adversely affect students. (AP Images)

The AJC has an interesting piece this morning on absenteeism among metro Atlanta teachers. The story by education writer Ty Tagami and database specialist Kelly Guckian is subscriber only and will not appear online so I can’t share a link. But I can provide a summary.

The AJC analyzed metro Atlanta attendance data for the past three years and found that teachers in nearly all districts missed on average more than 10 days due to illness, training, personal leave or jury duty. Sickness was the most common cause.

The story examines whether “mental health” days are increasing because of class size, diminishing respect and increasing responsibilities and accountability.

“It used to be that teachers only worried about teaching,” said Connie Jackson, president of the Cobb County Association of Educators. “Now, they have to worry about paperwork, evaluations, test scores, data management, keeping your …

Continue reading Teacher absenteeism: Are mental health days on the rise? »

In a stint as a field day volunteer at my children’s elementary school, I was assigned parachute play in which children held the edges of a giant colorful canvas and then ran under the chute.

A little boy who had already conquered the potato sack races, relays and hurdles eyed the parachute game with skepticism before asking, “How do you win?”

When I explained that the goal wasn’t to win but to have fun, he complained, “It’s not fun if there’s no winner.”

That seems to be a prevailing attitude in public education where we have always ranked students, and now, in the new age of accountability, rank teachers and schools. Teachers in Georgia are about to earn effective or ineffective rankings, as part of the state’s Race to the Top grant.

Colleges have a long history of public rankings and, concomitantly, of inflating their credentials to rise higher in those rankings.

But there is probably no ranking more controversial than class rankings, which is why many …

Continue reading Rancor in the ranks: Should schools continue to name valedictorians? »

The Cherokee legislative delegation continues to meddle with the school board, which strikes me as peculiar in a county noted for its public schools.

In a phrase, why mess with success?

Cherokee draws many of its new residents because of its schools. I first saw eight years ago at a lacrosse game between my son’s rec team and a Cherokee-based team. Almost all the Cherokee parents I met were Northern transplants, and they all told me the same thing: They moved to Cherokee for the public schools. (For those keeping score, the players from New York and New England brought great lacrosse skills South with them. Cherokee won.)

I don’t dispute that there are some unhappy Cherokee parents who want more charter school options or who send their children to private schools, including some influential lawmakers. But, by any objective measure, Cherokee schools are performing well.

In its campaign to revamp the school board, the Cherokee delegation won the help of the full House yesterday, …

Continue reading The raw politics under way in state Legislature may give Cherokee school board a raw deal »

The efforts of Cherokee legislators to realign the school board may be derailed by the accreditation agency that gives schools, including Cherokee, an important seal of approval.

Loss of accreditation could impede the ability of students from Cherokee to qualify for college scholarships, something that would not sit well with parents in this education-minded county.

House Bill 978 would realign the Cherokee county school board and effectively remove the elected school board chair and vice chair. Now, the school board has seven members elected county-wide who elect their chair and vice chair.

(You can read a condemnation of the legislators by Cherokee school chief here.)

I view this letter from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools as a rebuke of the lawmakers and a caution to leave well enough alone. We will have to see if the Cherokee delegation sees it the same way.

The letter was sent to Cherokee school board chair Mike Chapman.

February 27, 2012

Mr. …

Continue reading SACS to Cherokee legislators: Hands off school board elections and the chairmanship »

Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin says the state will fall behind if it does not invest in education.

I have been surprised at the opposition toward the education SPLOST on the Nov. 8 ballot in Atlanta,  Fulton, DeKalb, Decatur, Gwinnett, Buford, Cherokee and Henry.

Given the stark reduction in state funds for education and the depressed housing market, schools are in desperate straits, and there would seem to be no more critical time to renew the penny sales tax for construction and capital improvements than now.

Among those who have not signed on — Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and the business community. In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this year, Reed said the penny — which has helped build or renovate 84 city schools or other buildings in the last 15 years— instead needs to go to a regional transportation plan expected to be put to voters next year.

Reed did not want the school system to seek to renew its SPLOST because Atlanta …

Continue reading Former Mayor Shirley Franklin: Georgia will be beat by states that invest in knowledge economy »

In response to a call for greater school choice in his county, Cherokee Superintendent Frank R. Petruzielo has proposed an ambitious academies model that would offer specialized programs in science, technology, fine arts and performance arts, as well as a rigorous IB academy.

These desirable new programs would be county-wide and require students to meet admissions criteria.

Here is a memo Petruzielo sent on the academy programs, which I think parents in Cherokee will find very appealing.  In the case of the science, technology, engineering and math academy, Cherokee could tap its Race to the Top funds, which have the expansion of STEM programs as a stated goal.

In response to Board Member Mike Chapman’s request at the August 18 School Board meeting that staff develop a conceptual framework and ideas for increased school choice within the School District, I am proposing for the Board’s consideration establishment of a Cherokee Academies initiative – – a system of …

Continue reading Cherokee to consider ambitious expansion of choice programs in its public schools »

A question that we’ve been debating here on the AJC Get Schooled blog is whether charter schools have a place in high-performing districts, such as Cherokee. This debate is not limited to Georgia, but is erupting nationwide as a reform movement originally cast as a way to help students trapped in failing schools expands to communities with successful public schools.

In this broader application, the charter movement is no longer about an escape route for poor children but about greater choice for all students.

But some parents in wealthy suburbs maintain that these “boutique” charters divert vital funds from schools that are more than meeting the needs of the community. They contend that there’s no rationale for a charter school when the local education is high quality.

But the parents who want their children to learn Chinese in kindergarten counter that they deserve more public options, and that even excellent schools may not be serving every child well. Such differences …

Continue reading The charter school battle shifts to suburbs and pits neighbor against neighbor »

In a 4-3 vote Friday met with a standing ovation, the Cherokee school board rejected Cherokee Charter Academy, one of eight new charters statewide whose futures were thrown into limbo by the state Supreme Court decision on May 16.

Like most of the other charter schools scheduled to open and the eight already in operation, Cherokee Charter turned to its local school board for approval, which was the best lifeline since it assured the best funding. But many things were at work against the fledgling school, one being the short time frame for local approval due to the late ruling by the Supreme Court.

By issuing its decision in mid May after hearing the case in October, the high court left a window of only a few weeks for schools approved by the now illegal state commission to find legitimacy through local boards of education. I think that the schools already in operation had a slight edge over schools like Cherokee Academy, which had not yet opened and had no record on which to …

Continue reading Is it tougher to open a charter school in a high achieving district? »