Smyrna Academy of Excellence couldn’t get the votes it needed from the Cobb County School Board for its charter at Thursday’s meeting.
Post 2 Board Member Tim Stultz, who represents Smyrna, made a motion to reject . However, the motion could not get the votes it needed from the board even with the support of Post 1 Board Member Lynnda Eagle and Post 5 Board Member David Banks.
Several board members praised the petition, but raised concerns over issues like special education instructors and classroom resources. Ultimately, board members said the decision came down to finances.
“Quite frankly my struggle with this is separating the passion and the facts,” said Post 3 Board Member David Morgan who represents south Cobb. “The numbers don’t add up. The superintendent and his administrators are saying that it is not a sound financial plan to sustain this school.”
The superintendent and his administration recommended earlier this week to deny SAE its charter petition. The petition was reviewed by the facilities, financial services, legal, office of accountability, curriculum and instruction and special student support departments. At the meeting Thursday, Hinojosa said no department head recommended approval of the charter.
Janet Rau, SAE’s interim leader, explained to the board that the school had gotten letters of support from local businesses and citizens who pledged donations totaling about $600,000. SAE’s Board Chairman Jimmy Arispe added that the governing board planned to pursue grants after it received its charter.
Post 6 Board Member Scott Sweeney asked Arispe how much money SAE had in its reserves. Arispe told him $5,000.
“It concerns me that we have an escalating cost environment with an unknown revenue structure and potentially future budgetary issues that we’re going to experience,” Sweeney said. “If what happens and I certainly hope this doesn’t happen we may very well have declining revenues in our accounts as we’ve experience year to year.”
However, Banks thought the board should approve the charter while they still had a say in the matter. , a piece of legislation that would give the state the right to create charter schools, is on the ballot this November. If passed, the state could decide to grant SAE it’s charter and set the terms of the district's involvement.
“If it’s approved by the state they’re going to pull the money out of Cobb County anyway,” he said. “But SAE would not be accountable to this board at all.”
Another concern raised by the superintendent and Cobb County staff was that the school did not have the backing of a charter management organization. Hinojosa noted that Cobb County’s three charter schools all had the backing of a charter management organization when they were formed and still lost money their first year.
Stultz countered that SAE’s plan to operate without charter management organization was a positive.
“I think that may have exhibited a large problem to begin with. I also look at what International Academy of Smyrna did recently and they disassociated themselves with their parent company (…) I think that’s what this startup charter is looking to do.”
But these arguments weren’t enough to sway a majority of the board. After he vote Eagle offered advice to SAE’s supporters.
“I just want to say to the petitioners, I hope that you will continue,” she said. “Don’t give up, go back, see what needs to be done, dialogue and try.”
Read More About Smyrna Academy of Excellence on Smyrna-Vinings Patch:
The SAE family would like to invite everyone to a Community Event on Monday, July 2nd at 6pm at Taylor Brawner Park on Atlanta Road in Smyrna to hear from the school founders on the next steps for the school. The school will open as an affordable k-12 private school this school year (2012-2013) serving the South Cobb community.
voting for improved educational options in W. Cobb are Tim Stultz, Lynnda Eagle and David Banks voting against are David Morgan, Scott Sweeney, Kathleen Angelucci and Alison Bartlett at the behest of Hinojosa David and Allison, this is duly noted for November.
CCSD admits that the $5900 requested per student in the SAE petition was markedly below the $8000 per student their internal costs reflecting the overhead administrative costs within the system. CCSD admitted to compensating teachers annually about $75,000 on the average, and yet half of South Cobb students fail to graduate in four years. SAE planned to hire teachers at $39,000 and graduate 100%. And lastly, the board member representing the SAE attendance zone did not demonstrate the courage of his stated convictions as a champion for closing the south Cobb student achievement gap by supporting a school with a true commitment to education. While our financial package did not fit the expected model, the sustained funding SAE could attract for our innovative STEM based project learning concept from foundations and corporations during our initial five years would more than satisfy the most conservative counter of beans. With the mindset of “screening out” rather than taking a step to raise the educational prospects of the least served, CCSD has lost an opportunity not to do what they have historically done.
I'm sorry, but we can't reasonably expect the CCSD to approve a charter with $5,000 and pledges, especially in this economy. The board members made a business decision, and based on the sketchy financial history of charters in Cobb and elsewhere, it was a good one.
It breaks my heart to see people move out of this area while our property values fall because there are not enough school choices. The main reason why CCSD voted no was due to finances- yet SAE cannot get significant funding without a charter (and giant Race to the Top Grant looked very promising). There are no students to generate revenue because there is not a charter! I firmly believe that with a charter, SAE would have been a model for what schools can and should be. Kudos to Tim Stultz, Lynnda Eagle and David Banks for recognizing this, and standing with us. The rest of the CCSD missed a big opportunity to make a positive change in our area- and we are heartbroken.
Thanks to the efforts of those that put in the sweat to get this going, and I am excited to help in any way I can to move this forward.
The real issue in the financials is that charter schools are funded at $2000 less per student then traditional schools - the board even discussed that themselves! I know that you do not support the charter concept but I want to make sure that there are answers to any questions or concerns. Thanks for posting! The conversations surrounding educational issues keep everyone aware and informed!
Diluting funds for the benefit of few hundred students at the expense of thousands of other students does not, in my view, improve education in our county. The SAE's goals of smaller classes, more hours in the classroom, and more days in the school years are entirely appropriate. But we should be willing to make the investments in and work as passionately toward these objectives for ALL of Cobb's students. In addition, given the sketchy history of charters in Cobb and elsewhere, given the uncertain nature of SAE's financial sources (pledges and grant applications), and given CCSD's general support for charter schools, the Board clearly made a business decision that was despite their support for charters, not because of any lack of such support.