The school system was approved to become the largest charter system in Georgia on July 1st. This means that we can waive certain state laws to implement innovations to improve student achievement. Principals were asked to indicate in which of the next three years they wanted to begin operating under this new system. After careful review and discussion, I requested that we be part of the first group, which will begin this school year. I want to take a few minutes to give you an overview of what this means and why I think it is best for our school to join this process now.

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In October of 2010, before even deciding to pursue a charter system, the school system sought open-ended input from stakeholders on these questions. This input was gathered in facilitated forums held throughout our school system, in small group discussions and via the internet.

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This slide summarizes the community engagement process. Once the results were analyzed it became clear that the schools our stakeholders desired could best be achieved through waivers from some state laws. Therefore, in October of 2011 the school board voted to formally develop a charter system application.

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This slide details the roles each level of governance will hold. As part of the charter system, our school will have a School Governance Council. In a moment I will provide more detail on how this will be structured. This group will be able to recommend innovations for our schools. However, community members were very clear that they still want oversight and accountability by an elected Board of Education and a group of professional educators. There were many concerns that School Governance Councils may not always represent the interests of ALL students or properly evaluate the impact of their reforms. Our community is concerned about unchecked experimentation. They expect freedom and flexibility while maintaining accountability. Therefore, there will still be system-level services and expectations. The School Board and Superintendent are still accountable for overall system results and will continue to oversee personnel practices such as principal hiring and ensure consistent curriculum standards.

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As I am sure you can understand, in order to be efficient and accountable, there are some practices that have to be held in common across the entire system. Even though we will have flexibility, there are some non-negotiables that our school will need to implement according to system guidelines. The significant ones are listed on this slide.

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This slide shows the broad categories within which we can innovate – People, Instruction and Resources. Some examples of areas of innovation are included underneath. Everything we propose must be aligned with the specific needs of our students. We will be held accountable for performance results aligned with our innovations. The system is providing a group of School Flexibility Analysts who will be available to assist us in developing our Requests for Flexibility and measuring their results.

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The options listed here can be exercised by any school with a certified Governance Council. I will explain how we establish a School Governance Council in a moment.

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The following slides show innovations that schools could implement through Requests for Flexibility. These would be earned by schools with certified School Governance Councils, following school community input, a vote of 2/3 of the School Governance Council members and approval of the Superintendent’s designee (most likely, our area superintendent). In order to gain approval, we will have to demonstrate that the flexibility innovations are aligned to specific student needs and will be properly implemented and evaluated. This process of approval and oversight is in direct response to input from administrators, teachers and parents. They want assurance that innovations are instructionally sound, in the best interest of ALL students, and are properly evaluated.

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Here are some additional areas for flexibility. Keep in mind, these are only examples to give you some ideas of the types of things we might propose.

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These are the members of the School Governance Council. In October or November we will hold elections. All employees will vote for the teacher representatives and then I will appoint two additional employees. Parents will have one vote per family and will elect the parents. After the elections, the appointed members will be named.

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As schools move into this model, the first year will be a planning year. In this planning year, the School Governance Council members will be elected and trained. The specific election methods are still being worked out by the school system. The training will be fairly extensive, approximately seven hours over one or two days. In this planning year, we will only be able to request those “universal flexibility” options. This is to ensure that the School Governance Council takes the time to think carefully through the needs of the schools and research any major innovations. Major innovations requiring waivers to state law will be proposed next year and most likely fully implemented school-wide in 2014-15. In this initial stage of implementation, some School Governance Council members will serve for the Planning Year plus one year, others will serve for the Planning Year plus two years. That way not everyone will roll off at one time. We will ask candidates to select either the one- or two-year slot. After this initial stage, all terms will be for two years. (FOR HS PRINCIPALS: students will not serve in the Planning Year, they will be named in the Spring for next school year.)

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These are the things we will be involved in most immediately. More detailed information will be forthcoming, all of which will be available on the school system website. I promise to keep you informed as more information is available.

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Customize this slide and the comments to reflect areas you hope to improve through the charter system, why you wanted to be part of this first group, and ideas you have for innovation to benefit your students.

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