The Georgia agency that oversees state-authorized charter schools has ordered the closure of two of them at the end of this school year, one in Cherokee County and the other in Fulton County.
The appointed members of the State Charter Schools Commission agreed with the agency staff’s analysis: that the schools — Cherokee Charter Academy and Fulton Leadership Academy — failed to consistently meet requirements for academics and that they lacked financial stability.
The commissioners voted 4-2 to close Fulton Leadership after they voted 4-1 to close Cherokee Charter.
Charter schools are privately operated but publicly funded, with oversight from government authorizers. In Georgia, the state and school districts can authorize charters. The schools usually operate on five-year charters, and face ongoing threat of closure due to non-renewal. In some cases, authorizers renew charters for shorter terms while demanding improvements. Both of these schools are nearing the end of a one-year extension to their five-year charters.
The commission’s decision was final, with no process for appeal. Despite the closure of these two schools, seven others that were up for review this school year were renewed, the commission noted in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after the votes.
Commission Chairman Mike Dudgeon said in the statement that both of the non-renewed schools had ample time to meet the requirements that they agreed to in accepting their charters:
“We are sad these schools will have to close, but we cannot support the charter community effectively without accountability as a cornerstone.”
The Cherokee school said in a statement to the AJC that it will “pursue all legal means available to address this injustice and is working with its attorneys to determine next steps.”
The closure of the Cherokee school, which educates about 600 students from kindergarten through eighth grade, will leave that county with no charter schools. It’s been in operation for about a decade, and one reason given for ending its charter was a consistent failure to meet academic requirements over that period. It met those standards last school year, but that was the first time since the 2013-14 school year. Recent turnover on the school’s board also was a concern mentioned in the state analysis.
The school in Fulton, also operating for about a decade, has not met academic requirements since 2020-21. And those results were partial, based on the performance of only the middle school students. Too few high school students took the tests to register a result for them that year.
Officials with the school expressed optimism at Wednesday’s meeting, saying that they could turn around their finances if given enough time to raise money. They requested at least a two-year probationary period rather than closure.
But several commissioners said Fulton Leadership Academy had fundamentally problematic finances. It is operating under a lease with an annual 3% “escalator.” Commissioners anticipated it would run out of money midway through the next school year.
“Dire” was how one commission member described the situation on Wednesday, before the vote to not renew the school’s charter. “It ties our hands,” said another.
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