A state agency overseeing charter schools in Georgia could force two of them to close this summer due to financial concerns and troubling academic performances.
Commissioners at the State Charter Schools Commission are expected to vote Wednesday on staff recommendations to shutter the over a decade-old Cherokee Charter Academy and the newer Fulton Leadership Academy.
The Cherokee school is the only charter school in that county. It enrolled more than 600 elementary and middle school students last fall. The Fulton school had nearly 200 middle and high school students as of the last official count, in October.
The Fulton school hasn’t met academic requirements since 2020-21, and then only because of the middle schoolers’ performance on state tests, the commission staff reported. Too few high school students were tested that pandemic year to affect that measure. The school also has struggled with rising lease costs and continuous enrollment declines, which is a factor in state funding.
The Cherokee school met academic requirements last year, but it was the first time since 2013-14. The school failed to meet the commission’s financial standards due in part to declining enrollment, which had fallen to 590 by December — below the targeted 675, the commission said. And commission staff was troubled by turnover on the school’s board.
The principal of the Fulton school had no comment. A spokesperson for the Cherokee school issued a statement that said the school was “surprised and disheartened” by the agency recommendation, which the school said was “without legitimate basis.” The statement added that there’d been “nothing but positive interactions” when the state agency visited the school.
“The Commission has renewed other schools that have not even risen to the standard that we have achieved, which makes this recommendation even more perplexing,” the statement said, without identifying those schools.
The Cherokee school expressed hope that the appointed commissioners over the state agency would disregard the staff recommendation and choose to renew its charter.
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