Leaders talk charter status possibilities

Madison County school leaders are eying a switch to a charter school system within the next couple of years, which — among other things — would provide more flexibility with state funding and provide individual school campuses with a little more autonomy.

If the system is to pursue a charter, the plan is to file for it by November 2011.

Madison County Schools Superintendent Mitch McGhee recommended a charter system plan to the board of education (BOE) at its Feb. 9 meeting but couldn’t yet speculate about what Madison County’s charter might look like.

“That’s why we’re taking a year and a half,” McGhee told the school board last week. “We have to take that time to get the input from the teachers, the community, all the different stakeholders and everybody to develop the charter.”

The state requires all school systems to declare one of three strategies by 2013 – a charter system, an IE2 system or maintaining the “status quo.”

Under a charter system, Madison County could waive strict state expenditure controls on areas like gifted, EIP or career technical classes, allowing extra money to be spent elsewhere. But nothing is specific at this point. That will be decided during the year-and-a-half planning period prior to the 2011 charter petition.

A charter system does require some form of shared governance between the local board of education (BOE) and each school that would have to be determined in the charter. That means more day-to-day decisions could fall into an individual school’s hands, but the BOE would ultimately have veto power.

“Y’all are still the governing body, the policy-setting body of the Madison County School System,” McGhee told the BOE.

How a school system gains charter status is somewhat vague, however.

A system must file a petition with the state, and if the state deems the plan, “innovative,” a charter is awarded.

Some school systems have had petitions revoked because they were not seen as “innovative.”

“You just can’t continue to do what you’ve been doing,” McGhee said.

A school system must renew its charter every five years, though it doesn’t have to prove itself innovative on each occasion if the state feels the original charter plan is working.

As for the other two choices offered by the state, the IE2 format doesn’t suit a school system Madison County’s size, McGhee said, and proclaiming Madison County Schools a “status quo” system — and all the bad connotations that come with that — is not an option.

Status quo systems won’t be allowed any waivers from state spending restrictions either.

“The only people that are going to end up there (status quo) are school systems that are either asleep at the wheel or really in disarray or having leadership issues,” McGhee said.

Systems currently changing to a charter are receiving about $100 per student from the state for the switch. But Madison County school leaders expect those funds to be depleted by the time they petition in 2011.

“None of us believes that’s going to be around a year from now,” McGhee said.

Madison County school leaders would have recommended going to a charter sooner, but the process was even more vague in the beginning and several school systems were getting rejected, McGhee said.

But he said system leaders now have a more solid grasp on what it takes to become a charter system, having observed what other school districts have gone through.

McGhee wants to send the state department of education a letter in May, proclaiming the Madison County School System’s intent to file a charter petition in November 2011.

“We’re not in a rush, but we’re not really ahead of the game either,” McGhee said. “We’re about on schedule to get this done in a timely manner.”

After submitting its petition for a charter, Madison County School officials could be summoned by the state to justify their plans.

“We have to be prepared to go in and do that as well,” McGhee said.

The charter system being considered by Madison County is not to be confused with the charter schools that have recently caused a stir — and lawsuits — in the Atlanta area.

Those publicly-funded schools were started without approval from a local school board through the Georgia Charter Schools Association.

“What we’re talking about are not those charter schools,” McGhee said.

Though the process is in the initial stages, McGhee sees great potential in Madison County becoming a charter system.

“This really has the potential to take us to a higher level up, to give us an even better boost,” he said. “So we’re really exited about it. We’re not viewing this as something that unfortunately we have to do. This is something we think that could ready be positive.”