Foothills keeps its feet: Alternative high school weathers deep budget cuts; officials say student experience won’t change much

But state funding for Foothills and other similar charter systems drew scrutiny from the Georgia General Assembly this past legislative session.

Those systems were overfunded, they said. And Foothills leaders concurred, actually raising the funding issue to state leaders, noting that surpluses in the program’s budget had gotten to be too much. That’s because Foothills can operate at a much lower cost than traditional schools.

“We deliver education at a much cheaper rate than a traditional school can, and it’s because of our business model,” said Dr. Sherrie Gibney-Sherman, Foothills Education Charter High School Superintendent. “Most of our employees are part time, so we don’t have the expense of benefits, that kind of thing for employees, not to mention their salaries. We borrow buildings, such as in Madison County we use the old high school.”

Cuts were coming. All agreed they were needed.

But how aggressive would legislators be with the saw? Would they be overzealous and gut Foothills, leaving it unable to continue?

That was a real fear.

And indeed, the cuts were deep. HB87, passed by the Georgia General Assembly and recently signed into law by the Governor, led to a 48-percent cut in revenues for Foothills, which has 16 north Georgia locations, including one in Danielsville. Revenues will drop from $27.4 million this year to $14.6 million next year.

So, can Foothills survive this major axe chop to the budget?

Gibney-Sherman says the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”

“Direct service to students is barely touched,” she said. “Students won’t see anything much different.”

Despite the cuts, the Foothills superintendent says she’s grateful to legislators for keeping the program intact. She said the bill also extends access to evening-school learning to students in the state who didn’t previously have access.

“The good news about HB87 is every student in the state of Georgia has the potential to have access to this alternative way of learning in high school,” said Gibney-Sherman. “So we’re very pleased with that. Just very grateful to our legislative body for having passed that. The bottom line is we’re grateful we have this opportunity, and everyone is on board and working at Foothills to figure out a way to accommodate HB87. The state is meeting with us every week to make sure we have what we need during this transition.”

There’s been a whirlwind of activity in recent weeks for Gibney-Sherman and other Foothills leaders to make sure students don’t see any differences in the services they receive.

But the $7.2 million budget cuts for the next fiscal year have hit the Foothills staff hard with administrators having to implement a “Reduction in Force” (RIF) plan.

The 16 Foothills sites across north Georgia employed 938 people this year, most of them part time. So far, 111 employees have been let go, with a maximum of 157 dismissed from duties by the time the RIF plan is finalized.

“When you have a 48-percent budget cut, you have to make adjustments, including activating a RIF plan,” said Gibney-Sherman. “We’re changing the way we operate, combining jobs, redefining them.”

Bonnie Knight, Regional Director for Finance and Human Resources for Foothills, is working to help ensure all gaps are filled.

“We have a group of student services staff, like counselors and career specialists and social workers, people like that, and that ratio has changed a little bit, but they still exist and the students will still get served,” she said.

Foothills is adjusting to a new economic model. Basically, legislators mandated that each participating school system, such as Madison County, have more financial responsibility and oversight for each student served by the program. After July 1, any student enrolled in Foothills who is not yet 18 will be considered a Madison County High School student, and called a “program student.” Any students over 18 will be considered solely Foothills students.

The local school system is required to allocate money to Foothills for any program student and count their performance numbers in their records, such as testing results and graduation rates. There are over 100 Madison County students enrolled in Foothills, which is no longer a “charter school” and will now be called Foothills Regional High School.

“The students’ academic work will be reflected in the records of the original school, even though we’re educating the students,” said Gibney-Sherman. “That’s a big change to our business model.”

Madison County School Superintendent Michael Williams said the school system is working with Foothills to make the mandated changes.

“We’re going to work on an MOU (memorandum of understanding) with Foothills moving forward to continue to offer this program for our students,” said Williams. “And so, there will be some internal things that will look different, but as far as serving kids, that shouldn’t look too much different in getting our students what they need.”

Williams said he is relieved that Foothills won’t have to shut its doors.

“I’m so glad that Foothills is going to remain,” he said. “It’s a great option for students and we’ll see and this MOU will be from year to year and we’ll make adjustments as we go. They have paid us a fee in the past and that’s what we were talking about. They paid $150,000 a year. That’s going to be cut. It’s based on the number of students we have attend Foothills.”

Gibney-Sherman added that there is a “grandfather clause” in effect until the end of June that allows any student under 18 who is enrolled in Foothills to be considered a Foothills student, not a “program student,” which is noteworthy as fees for “program students” are going up under HB87 from $150 to $500 per transfer credit course.

Gibney-Sherman says Foothills has a real impact on many young teens and adults who are working to toward a diploma and meaningful work. And she’s excited that the work will continue, and more students will find a positive pathway with the aid of Foothills.

“Foothills is fortunate to offer a number of options for students trying to work towards a goal of a high school diploma,” she said. “In addition to full time Foothills students, we have students as part of our Transfer Credit Community. They are still attending their home school during the day, but need a few credits in order to graduate on time with their class or to get ahead. In partnership with their home school, counselors, and a Foothills team, they arrange to pay for individual credits. The beauty of this program is it provides a flexible option for students working to stay on pace.”

For more about Foothills, visit foothillscharter.org.

Note: The Madison/Franklin Foothills graduation is June 3 at 2 p.m. in the MCHS Theater.

THE CHANGES:

•Class sizes will be slightly larger as the school moves from 12 students per teacher to 15 students per teacher.

•The hours of operation will move from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. This change will not begin until Aug. 14.

•For students under 18 years of age who attend Foothills, their official enrollment will remain with their resident high school and district.

•For those students under 18, academic and financial accountability measures — including student performance and graduation rates — will be assigned to a student’s former school.

•The tuition for transfer credit courses will increase from $150 to $500 per credit starting July 1, 2023.

•The official school name will change to Foothills Regional High School.