As Avondale Charter School Plans For Lottery, Tensions Between Decatur & Avondale Remain
Decatur Metro | February 19, 2010While there has been heated debate in the past year over the legality of Georgia’s new charter school law, which gives a state board authority to create charter schools around the state, there’s little debate about the popularity of its latest iteration in Avondale Estates: The Museum School.
According to a press release sent out by the school and pasted on the AJC’s Get Schooled blog, a lottery will be held tomorrow at Avondale Estates City Hall to determine which students currently living in DeKalb’s Avondale and Midway Woods attendance zones will make up the first classes of kindergarten to third-graders. After this initial year, the school will add a grade a year up to eighth grade.
With such intense demand, what’s the controversy? Well, like with anything involving a child’s education, it’s exceedingly complicated.
Since the 2008 Georgia legislative session, when House Bill 881 was passed and created the Georgia Charter School commission, local boards of education across the state have been crying foul, arguing against the state commission’s constitutionality, as well as the constitutionality of collecting local tax dollars to fund charter schools.
But with the bill passed, charter schools have begun to pop-up around Georgia and the metro-Atlanta area.
Among the first was Ivy Preparatory Charter School in Gwinnett County. Upon receiving their first installment for fair and equal treatment funding, the Gwinnett County School System sued the state for the dismantling of the state charter program for the reasons stated above. Atlanta and DeKalb quickly joined Gwinnett’s lawsuit in the week’s following, while Bulloch and Candler schools filed a similar suit of their own.
Back in Decatur, the school board requested that the superintendent draw up a resolution in support of Gwinnett’s lawsuit. Because the school system didn’t have “damages to speak directly to in relation to the legislation”, as no charter school had yet been created inside the city school district, this resolution of support was the most that could be done, according to the school board’s attorneys.
The resolution (pdf) passed on December 8th.
Less than a week later, the State Charter Commission approved seven new charter schools, including “The Museum School” in Avondale. According to former Chief Programming Officer for Georgia Charter Schools Association, Andrew Lewis, Avondale Estates is a community “which has been deeply frustrated by DeKalb County’s inability to provide their community with a quality public education.”
At the time of the resolution’s adoption, Lewis was the only city resident who spoke against the CSD board’s resolution. Lewis stated that “I attempted to explain to each board member how, in an exemplary school district with with so few students, there is not a desire/marketplace for an independent charter. It fell on deaf ears.”
Decatur and Avondale usually work in tandem on many shared goals. The recent annexation legislation of College Avenue is just the latest example of this ongoing collaboration. But on the issue of state-approved charter schools, the two communities’ self-interest don’t match up. Decatur is wary that this new legislation will result in a loss of local control and the funneling of money out of an already cash-strapped charter district. Avondale is desperately looking for ways to improve education, beyond the DeKalb County school system.
It’s a rare powder keg between our two cities.
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I can see the tension as you describe. All I know is that I pay school taxes in a horrible school district. I don’t live in Avondale Estates, but we are in the school district for the Museum School. If we don’t get our child into that school in two years when she’s of age we will most likely move out of DeKalb County.
I’m in the exact same situation as David except my child will go to kindergarten next year.
I don’t understand the word tension here- why are there tensions between the 2 communities??
Decatur has officially stated that it supports the lawsuit brought by Gwinnett against the state-approved charter school legislation. The Museum School exists because of this legislation. If any of the lawsuits are successful, it would eliminate such schools.
This includes more children than Midway Woods. It includes any child zoned into Midway Elementary and Avondale Elementary upon the closing of Forrest Hills Elementary. Although many of the children living in Forrest Hills go to private, charter, or magnet schools, hopefully others will be able to attend the Museum School.
I don’t understand. isn’t the dcs a charter school system? why would they be protesting other charter schools?
Yes sorry cranky, it’s confusing. And I’m realizing maybe I didn’t do a very good job explaining it!
CSD isn’t against LOCALLY APPROVED charter schools, just one’s created by the state commission. From what I’ve gathered, what CSD worries about is that, IN THEORY, someone could create a state-approved charter school in Decatur, start attracting students, and all that tax money would follow the children.
The argument against that is that an area with good schools doesn’t need to worry about independent charter schools, since there isn’t a real need for them.
And that’s where the tension is.
CSD can’t join the Gwinnett lawsuit, so they voluntarily came up with a resolution supporting it. Folks associated with the Museum School have taken offense, because CSD, not under any immediate duress, are now essentially making it known that the very law which made the Museum School possible, is illegal and should be repealed.
In addition, the way the CSD system charter is working, there isn’t yet a whole lot of ressemblance to a charter school. The amount of influence that the SLT’s have had has been minimal and system impact principal is often invoked when CSD doesn’t want an SLT to do something. After this issue came to light during the last School Board election, the SLTs have been able to get a bit more traction. This is a good or bad thing depending on your view of how much influence parents, the community, and teachers should have on governing their schools.