I. Executive Summary
This document outlines the aspirations of a committed and diverse group
of families in the Grant Park neighborhood to establish the best possible
public school for their children and the children of their neighbors. Our goal is to develop a true
neighborhood public school, one that is open and welcoming to all, which
provides a quality education for our children and enjoys significant parental
and community involvement.
Currently, the children of Grant Park are sent to five different
elementary schools in Southeast Atlanta, and many families obtain transfers for
their children to attend schools in other parts of the city. Still others
simply abandon the public schools altogether. We believe that for Grant Park to flourish as a neighborhood,
those past patterns must end. We
must pull together behind one school and let the children of our neighborhood,
in every race, creed and background know one another and learn from one
another.
After many months of study, we have concluded that the most likely means
of achieving these goals is for Atlanta Public Schools to create a single
attendance zone for the Grant Park neighborhood and that a public charter
school be opened in the fall of 2000 to serve the elementary-age students of
that zone.
Grant Park is undergoing a dramatic renaissance and is emerging as one
of Atlanta’s most spirited and eclectic communities. Grant Park families are made up of
people who have chosen to live in a place that is racially and economically
diverse. In recent years, the
neighborhood has experienced a largely-unnoticed boom in the number of families
with young children.
Reflecting this sense of community, the Grant Park Parent Network
("GPPN") was formed in the Spring of 1997. The network is a loosely organized group of parents who live
within Grant Park, and has grown to include families with nearly 200
children. The Parent Network is
non-political and has only one agenda, to help make Grant Park a wonderful neighborhood
for raising children. The most important
goal of this group is to establish a neighborhood educational option that meets
the high standards of this community.
Our vision is that all the children of our community, lower-income and
middle-class, African-American and white, Asian and Hispanic, will together
attend a challenging, nurturing, and egalitarian school - freed from the budget
and bureaucracy-driven constraints which sometimes stifle leadership and
excellence in traditional schools.
The Grant Park Neighborhood School will be a small, secure haven in the
city guided by a governing board composed of closely involved parents. The school will rekindle the larger
community’s commitment to all its children and begin restoring confidence
in the traditions of public education and reintroduce families to public
education. Under a curriculum plan
tailored to Grant Park’s unique student population and community
institutions, our school’s teachers and administrators will be empowered
to fully use their skills and to act as full partners in creating a warm
vibrant learning environment.
For most of the past year, a committee of the GPPN has been studying the
options for school improvement efforts in the neighborhood. Its members met
with Atlanta school officials, visited numerous schools, gathered research and
attended PTA, Neighborhood Planning Unit (NPU), and school board meetings. They examined the benefits and
disadvantages of seeking a charter school, versus other innovative efforts
attempted by Atlanta Public Schools in the past, such as site-based
management. For reasons outlined
later in this document, the group concluded that the current Atlanta Public
School plans for this area, while well-intentioned, are unlikely to achieve our
goals. We believe a charter school
can accomplish that.
Through articles in The Porch Press newspaper and town hall meetings, we
have sought input from all interested parents. A unanimous vote of support for the charter school concept
was received from the community during the October 1998 meeting of the Grant
Park Neighborhood Association. In
addition, the neighborhood association formed an ad-hoc committee to further
explore this concept. Also, Brenda
Muhammad, our school board representative, Vern McCarty, our city councilman,
and other neighborhood association and NPU leaders have indicated their support
for such a school. In February
1999, all 2,500 households within the boundaries of Grant Park will receive
information about our plans in an effort to include all residents in the
development of the school. Public
meetings will be held in the following weeks.
Charter schools are one of the newest and fastest-growing solutions to
many of the issues faced by traditional public education. The Grant Park Neighborhood School
would be an autonomous school operating under a charter, or contract,
negotiated between community organizers and the Atlanta Board of Education, who
would oversee the provisions of the charter and hold school operators
accountable for attaining educational results. This school would be grades kindergarten through five, with
the potential for expansion into the middle school grades. All children of Grant Park would be
eligible to attend, tuition free.
Once granted a charter, the school would receive funding from the
Atlanta school system at the same level as a traditional public school.
Grant Park and Atlanta have an historic chance to fundamentally change
the course of inner city neighborhoods and schools. With the support of enlightened leaders and innovative
educators, we must seize this opportunity.
II. Our Vision
Our vision is that all the children of our community, lower-income and
middle-class, African-American and white, Asian and Hispanic, will together
attend a challenging, nurturing, and egalitarian elementary school freed from
the budget - and bureaucracy - driven constraints which sometimes stifle
leadership and excellence in traditional schools. The Grant Park Neighborhood School would be a small, secure haven in the city guided by closely involved
parents and professional educators, rather than a distant, sometimes
unreachable bureaucracy. The
school will rekindle the larger Grant Park community’s commitment to all
its children, begin restoring confidence in the traditions of public education
and reintroduce families to the benefits of public schools. Under a curriculum
plan tailored to Grant Park’s unique student population and community
institutions, our school’s teachers and administrators will be empowered
to fully use their skills as full partners in creating a warm, vibrant learning
environment.
While preserving all that is best about traditional public schools --
doors open to children of all races and creed, strong community support and
inclusive values -- the school would operate under an independent charter
approved by the Atlanta School Board and the Georgia Board of Education. The charter would determine class size,
hours of operation, curriculum and other school activities. The school would be governed by its own
independent board of trustees made up of parents and educators, which would
decide how to allocate school funds, guide the leadership of the school, and
chart a course for academic excellence. Our aim is to create an environment for
children, teachers and engaged parents which is exempt from certain state and
local rules, regulations, policies and procedures, so that the school and its
community are free to innovate. The school’s curriculum will be developed
in consultation with Atlanta Public Schools, the Georgia Department of Education
and education experts from local universities and colleges. But in every area,
the overarching goals will be to maximize the academic performance of all
students while deeply involving parents, teachers and the community in the
lives of children.
Every family in Grant Park would be eligible to send its children to the
neighborhood school, regardless of race, color or creed. No tuition would be charged.
As a neighborhood
school our school would become a vital part of our community. It would instill a spirit of
involvement among its students and a sense of responsiblilty towards and from
the local community. A
neighborhood school can foster a sense of citizenship and involvement in the
political process on a level that children can understand. Most importantly
the children can benefit from the resources of a dedicated neighborhood and
gain confidence from the support demonstrated from an extended school
community.
The students of the Grant Park Neighborhood School will be encouraged to
share the same motivated, independent spirit on which this community saved its
homes and banded together against crime and indifference. They would learn to
appreciate, restore and preserve the ecology and grace of our Frederick Law
Olmstead-designed park. Through a relationship with neighborhood institutions
such as Zoo Atlanta, the school’s children would learn an appreciation
for the world’s animal life and their own responsibility to be its
stewards.
The development of each student at the Grant Park Neighborhood School will
be closely monitored, with teachers and administrators in frequent contact with
parents. Every classroom and office will be equipped with technology, and
teachers will be equipped to use e-mail and the Internet as well as more
traditional means to update parents on each child’s performance, the
school’s ongoing activities, assignments and special opportunities.
The teachers and administrators also will be required to report
frequently to the school’s governing board and auditors. Specific
achievement and development goals will be set, and the school’s staff and
leadership will be held closely accountable for the attainment of those goals.
At the same time, our school and its parent leadership will recognize the
unique skills and experience of the school’s educators. So long as goals
are being achieved, the administrator and teachers will be empowered to
implement the curriculum, programs and policies as their best judgment
dictates. Our goal is that teachers will be enthusiastic leaders of their classrooms
and feel as if it is a privilege to be a part of the Grant Park Neighborhood
School.
Similarly, the Grant Part Parent Network will be a dynamic promoter of
the school, relaying to the community by similar means the needs and
accomplishments of our students. Through our relationships with higher
educational institutions, the media, local business, major corporations and our
neighbors, we will pursue ongoing fundraising and public relations campaigns
aimed at equipping the school superbly, rewarding the staff for exceptional
achievement and generating a broad awareness in the community of the important
role of public education in our neighborhood and city.
Physically, the Grant Park Neighborhood School will be an idyllic
sanctuary at the city’s center. Regardless of its actual location, which
is yet to be determined, the grounds will be landscaped to be a calm, inviting
home for learning. Individual classes, with the help of parents and supporters,
will plant and tend small gardens on the grounds. Children will learn about the
environment from the flora around them. Visually, the school will be a bright
cheerful place with large windows and natural light cascading into classrooms.
The artwork of teachers and students and bright bulletin boards will line the
hallways.
Among the school’s highest aims will be not only to educate the
children but to teach them a set of values and a deep sense of the principles
of equality and citizenship which lie at the heart of our democracy. The
children will learn to be responsible for their own actions and of their
responsibility to one another. Community service, even exhibited in small ways,
will be strongly encouraged, through visits to our neighborhood senior
citizens’ centers and projects in the park and at the zoo.
This is a neighborhood forged on these instincts of self-sufficiency and
citizenship. With the support of enlightened leaders and wisdom of professional
educators, we believe a school can be built on them too.
A. What does Atlanta
gain?
The Grant Park Neighborhood School represents a tremendous opportunity
for both Atlanta as a city and Atlanta's public school leaders. A dramatic
moment is at hand in Atlanta's intown neighborhoods; thousands of families,
black and white, who in past years might have fled the city as their children
reached school age, today want instead to raise their children in a rich,
racially-diverse and urban environment.
A key component of leveraging that enthusiasm will be for families to
find schools in which they have a deep sense of involvement, where their input
is clearly welcome, and where they are convinced their children will be safe
and well-taught. If Atlanta Public Schools can welcome the creativity and
innovation offered by these new participants in the city's schools, all the
children of the city will benefit.
If the Grant Park Neighborhood School succeeds, the benefits to Atlanta
and to public schools will be palpable.
First, hundreds of middle class parents and students who otherwise may
not enroll their children in public schools will be delivered back to public
education. As these young families
become re-accustomed to and re-invested in the public school system, Atlanta
Public Schools will have a remarkable opportunity to recapture a constituency
long thought almost entirely lost.
Our school will also build on the accomplishments and experiences of
families who stayed with public schools and have worked tirelessly to make them
strong. As children matriculate
through the Grant Park Neighborhood School and into middle school, Atlanta
Public Schools can demonstrate its expanding ability to offer safe and
academically superior schools to all citizens, both those enrolled in
traditional elementary, middle and high schools as well as those attending
charter schools such as the one in Grant Park.
Finally, the experience of the Grant Park Neighborhood School could
serve as a model for others seeking to improve public education in
Atlanta. This school will
demonstrate the value of restoring meaningful attendance zones, so that the
energy and goodwill of a neighborhood can be marshaled behind a community
school. On many fronts, our
successes will hopefully map the way for other charter schools. Our inevitable
mistakes will shed light on the pitfalls which other reformers should avoid.
And the presence of our school, as a dynamic and innovative new player in the
city's educational offerings, will hopefully stimulate creativity and
inspiration at traditional public schools intown.
B. Why a charter school?
For most of the past year, a group of Grant Park parents have been
studying ways to promote school improvements in the neighborhood, as well as
the desires of parents in the community.
Its members solicited input from parents, met with Atlanta school
officials, visited numerous schools, gathered research and attended PTA, NPU
and board meetings. They closely
examined the benefits and disadvantages of seeking a charter school, versus
other innovative efforts attempted by Atlanta Public Schools in the past, such
as site-based management or reconstitution of an existing school. The committee
also studied the Atlanta Public Schools’ current plans to consolidate
Grant Park’s aging Slaton Elementary School and Ormewood Park’s
Anne E. West Elementary School into a planned new facility in the eastern area
of the neighborhood.
While the committee found scores of educators and parents dedicated to
providing quality education, they became convinced that a neighborhood charter
school is the way most likely to succeed in bringing large numbers of Grant
Park families to public education.
The first reason for this is a simple one. The new school currently planned by APS will not be large
enough to accommodate the rapidly growing population of children of the two
neighborhoods. Independent
demographic research indicates that a minimum of approximately 530 children of
elementary school age currently live in Grant Park. Within a few years, that number will have increased to more
than 650, studies show. Another 300 children of that age currently attend Anne
E. West. As a result, the
West-Slaton school, planned for 537 students, is at great risk of being
seriously overcrowded and understaffed from its opening day.
Secondly, the opening of a charter school would sustain the current enthusiasm
and momentum of parents in Grant Park behind public schools. The West-Slaton facility will not open
before 2001 or later. Given the years of delay which have already been
experienced, many of the families with toddlers currently living in the neighborhood
may have already given up by then.
The opportunity to reconnect them to public education will have been
lost.
The most powerful advantage of the charter school concept, though, is
that it will operate independently of the larger public school bureaucracy and
the regulations which govern it.
This is important because so many Atlanta parents have lost faith in
traditional public schools. Some
are worried about the safety and learning environment of schools which have
grown larger and larger as a result of state funding formulas. Some are concerned that classes
themselves are too large to allow the kind of nurturing environment needed in
an exemplary elementary school.
Others have been frustrated in their dealings with the school system, on
matters ranging from inconsistent bus routes to unclear administrative
procedures. For almost all parents, the Atlanta Public School’s system of
haphazardly-followed attendance zones is confusing and discouraging. To win these families back to public
education, they must be offered a school in which parents tangibly feel a clear
sense of collective input and control.
A charter school appears to be the most likely route to achieving that
end.
C. The alternatives
before us:
Currently, there are two scenarios for the Grant Park Neighborhood
School:
The first would be an entirely new school, using the boundaries of the
Grant Park neighborhood as its attendance zone and housed in a new or renovated
structure not currently used as a school. Ideally, this school would open in an
interim location in the fall of 2000.
The other option is to seek charter school status for the new
"West-Slaton" elementary school currently planned for construction on
the east side of Grant Park. Under
this plan, we would also seek to use as its attendance zone the Grant Park
neighborhood, in addition to the current attendance zone of the Anne E. West
school in Ormewood Park. Under the
most optimistic scenario, this school would open in 2001.
Both options have certain advantages. Essentially the same charter and guiding principles would be
used under either scenario. The
first option, of an entirely new facility, has key positives. The school would be considerably
smaller than what is currently planned by Atlanta Public Schools for the
West-Slaton Facility, which would house a minimum of 560 students. This would mean the neighborhood school
would be more likely to achieve the lower student-teacher ratio desired by most
parents and educators and create a more intimate learning environment.
Secondly, the new facility scenario removes the Grant Park Neighborhood
School from the doubts still hanging over the planned West-Slaton
Facility. Construction of
West-Slaton, which was first approved by Atlanta Public Schools in the early
1990s, is years behind schedule.
Though the property on which the school will be built was purchased in
1998, substantive work on the project continues to be delayed. Furthermore, the school system has
repeatedly postponed critical decisions on the allocation of necessary
additional funds for the project and key policies on attendance zones for the
West-Slaton school. School officials now say the new school is underway, with
completion planned for 2001.
The creation of an entirely new school also would clearly establish that
the Grant Park Neighborhood School is a complete fresh start, with its own new
faculty, leadership and curriculum.
In this environment, parents and educators would see clearly that they
are empowered to develop a new and innovative learning environment.
More important than any of those issues, however, is that creating a
separate, smaller charter school would best fulfill our vision of an intimate
neighborhood school, made up of all the children in our neighborhood and
embraced by all its institutions and leaders.
Alternatively, the advantage of establishing West-Slaton as a charter
school would primarily be the building itself. Assuming that the delays in construction are in fact
resolved, the new school would provide a state-of-the-art facility, with far
more physical resources than the school could provide in a interim
facility. Despite the risks of
delays, operating West-Slaton under a parent-governed charter is a viable
alternative, though only if the school system agreed to realign its attendance
zone.
D. A note about Slaton
Elementary:
When this effort began, many Grant Park neighbors expressed enthusiasm
for revitalizing Slaton Elementary School as a traditional public school or
converting it to a charter school.
Indeed, the Grant Park Parent Network believes that in many respects
those possibilities would be the best options for creating a true neighborhood
school. However, neither option
appears possible at this time, due to several decisions made by the Atlanta
Public Schools.
For several years, APS has planned to close Slaton Elementary and merge
its student body with that of Anne E. West Elementary. A new school facility is
planned for a site on Mercer St. on the eastern side of Grant Park.
School officials have repeatedly indicated that under no circumstances
would they consider any proposal to renovate the architecturally graceful turn
of the century Slaton School building.
Even basic maintenance on the building has been largely abandoned in
recent years, resulting in considerable further dilapidation and hardship for
current students. As a result,
officials say the decision to consolidate with Anne E. West cannot be
reconsidered.
Over the past year school officials have indicated that they would not
permit the use of the Slaton building as a school. Regardless, under current school system plans, the building
will not become vacant until the two existing schools are consolidated in 2001,
making it unavailable for the Grant Park Neighborhood School’s immediate
needs.
Nonetheless, should the school system reconsider its position regarding
the Slaton Elementary building, we would enthusiastically explore the options
for using Slaton as our neighborhood school.
III. What is a Charter
School?
Charter schools are one of the newest and fastest growing solutions to
many of the problems and issues currently faced by traditional public
education. A charter school is a
public school, just like traditional schools are. It is funded by the local system. It charges no tuition.
All children are eligible to attend, regardless of race, creed, color or
background. Charter schools are
nonsectarian.
How charter schools differ from traditional public schools is that they
are autonomous from the local school system. The school operates under a charter, or contract, that has
been negotiated between the organizers, who create and operate the school, and
a sponsor, who oversees the provisions of the charter and holds the operators
accountable for attaining educational results. Organizers may be teachers, parents, or others from the
public or private sector. In
Georgia, charter schools are sponsored by the local school boards. In the case of the Grant Park
Neighborhood School, the sponsor would be the Atlanta Board of Education. Once granted a charter, the school
receives educational funding as though it is the same as a public school. But the school is exempt from state and
local regulations concerning the organization of a public school. When the term
of the charter expires, it may be renewed if the school has achieved specific
educational results, has not violated any laws or grossly mismanaged its
affairs, and continues to attract students, parents, and teachers.
Charter schools were formed out of public school reform efforts in
1991. Since that time, thirty-five
states have established charter school laws and over 1125 charter schools are
currently operating in twenty-six states and the District of Columbia. They serve over 250,000 students. Currently, Georgia is home to twenty-nine
operating charter schools. The
success rate of Charter schools, as measured by openings and closings, has been
high with 98% of original charter schools in the country still in operation.
As measured by scholastic achievement, charter schools have also seen
many successes. Within a charter
school setting, teachers are often empowered to develop their own curriculum
and employ innovative instructional and assessment methods. Charter schools also promote equal
opportunity. They attain their
educational results while being tuition-free, non-sectarian, non-selective in
student admissions, and non-discriminatory on the basis of race, religion, or
disability. Recent national
assessments of charter school performance indicated overwhelming parent and
teacher satisfaction and striking gains in student achievement as demonstrated
by standardized testing.
In Georgia, 1996 and 1997 surveys of charter school performance, as
measured by Iowa Test of Basic Skills results, showed significant gains in
mathematics and reading scores.
For example, in 1997, the Sedalia Park Elementary School demonstrated
gains of 8 percentage points in grade 3 reading scores and 7 percentage points
in grade 3 math scores. At the
Midway Elementary School, third graders showed gains of 7 percentage points in
reading scores and 10 points in math.
In fact, recent case studies of six charter elementary schools in
Georgia indicate gains in reading and mathematics scores. These improvements confirm those shown
in 1996 case studies involving the same schools.
IV. Grant Park and the
Grant Park Parent Network
The City of Atlanta’s official boundaries of the Grant Park
neighborhood, and the area we propose to make into a single school attendance
zone, are Memorial Drive on the northern end, Connally St. on the western side
and the railroad tracks which cross Boulevard Drive on the southern and the
eastern borders.
Grant Park came into existence when in 1883, and again in 1890, Lemuel
P. Grant, an early Atlanta leader, deeded property totaling 131.5 acres to the
city of Atlanta in "consideration of the public good, and benefits to
accrue to my contiguous property."
In 1889 the Zoo was added and in 1893 the Cyclorama was placed there on
permanent display. The park was an
instant success, drawing many Atlantans to enjoy its attractions even before
the city’s official dedication.
As the park itself was growing and flourishing at the turn of the
century, the remainder of Grant’s holdings were subdivided and began to
take shape as a neighborhood. Many
of the homes that continue to grace the edges of the park were built during
this time. Shortly after the turn
of the century, as the horse and buggy lost ground to the automobile, so too
did the community of Grant Park.
As cars became affordable, more distant locations such as Buckhead,
Druid Hills and Morningside became attractive. Though no longer the "Grande Dam" she had once
been, Grant Park continued to thrive until the 1960’s when, again the
victim of the automobile, the six-lane Interstate-20 was constructed,
effectively severing the community and heralding a more precipitous decline.
This decline continued until the early 70’s when interest began in
revitalizing urban neighborhoods.
The 1980’s saw the Grant Park’s inclusion on the National
Register of Historic Places.
With this came a halt to demolition of older homes and efforts with new
construction to conform to the character of the older neighborhood.
Today Grant Park reflects the character and flavor of Atlanta as only a
community that has endured a full circle of evolution truly can. By this process, the population is
diverse in racial and ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, educational levels
as well as socio-economic status.
The diversity of this neighborhood is evident in a demographic study
utilizing 1990 census data and statistical projections prepared for GPPN by
Market Statistics, the oldest and one of the most respected market research
firms in the country. Based on an
examination of the census tracts which contain most of the Grant Park area,
estimated 1997 figures indicate there are 2,566 total households with 6,624
people in the neighborhood. The
population is 52.6% white, 46.1% black, 0.8% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 0.5%
American Indian/Eskimo. Of these
groups, 6.2% are of Hispanic origin.
The study estimates that in 1997 there were 657 children between the
ages of 0-5, 531 between 6-11 and 363 between 12-17 years old. In total there are 1,551 children 17
and under in the Grant Park Neighborhood.
For three decades, families living in Grant Park commonly left the city
when their children reached school age.
Hundreds of families disappeared from our community, first in a cynical
wave of "white flight." In later years, families grew discouraged by
the deterioration of public school facilities, attendance zones which dissected
the neighborhood into five different elementary school student populations, and
standardized test scores among the lowest in the city. Many neighborhood
leaders, middle-income families, businesses and community institutions simply
abandoned the area’s elementary schools.
Rather than the vibrant social melting pots which public schools are
intended to be, the pupil populations of the schools became increasingly
monochromatic, showing little ethnic diversity and made up overwhelmingly of
low-income children whose urgent needs from the system often went unmet. Even the buildings themselves fell into
physical decline, and the voices of community leadership which should have come
to their aid, fell silent.
Today, Grant Park is undergoing a dramatic renaissance and is emerging
as one of Atlanta’s most spirited and eclectic communities. Grant Park
families are made up of people who have chosen to live in a place that is
racially and economically diverse.
Many have resurrected century-old homes, braving the sometimes difficult
circumstances of urban life to recapture the nearly lost aesthetics of a
magnificent neighborhood and to rekindle a tightly-knit community of
self-responsible Atlantans.
Reflecting this sense of community, the Grant Park Parent Network
("GPPN") was formed. The
GPPN is a loosely organized group of parents who live within Grant Park, and
has grown to include families with almost 200 children. The Parent Network is non-political and
has only one agenda, which is to help make Grant Park a wonderful neighborhood
for raising children. The Parent
Network is open to any family with children living within the boundaries of the
Grant Park neighborhood. Its
primary focus is on pre-schoolers and children of elementary school age. As the Parent Network has grown, it has
developed several committees and liaisons to work on issues of importance to
the families in our neighborhood.
The most important function of this group is to establish an educational
alternative that meets the goals and high standards of this community. A unanimous vote of support for the
group’s goals and for a charter school was received from the community
during the October 1998 meeting of the Grant Park Neighborhood Association.
Brenda Muhammad, our school board representative, Vern McCarty, our city
councilman, and other neighborhood association and NPU leaders have indicated
their support for such a school.
What started out as an informal group has grown into a movement made up
of a new, multi-racial generation of families united in one goal.
V. What happens now?
In 1998 The Legislature of the State of Georgia passed the Charter
Schools Act of 1998. This law
allows private organizations to petition the state and local school board to
allow a new school or existing school to operate under a binding performance
contract called a charter. The
school would be free from most state school laws as well as rules, regulations,
and policies and procedures of the State Board of Education and the local board
of education in return for a high level of accountability based on attainment
of goals and objectives approved in a charter petition.
To reach that point, the Grant Park Parent Network, in cooperation with
the Grant Park Neighborhood Association, will conduct a broad community
awareness campaign in early 1999.
In late January and February, all 2,500 households within the boundaries
of Grant Park will receive information about our plans in an effort to include
all residents in the development of the school. Public meetings, neighborhood
discussions and briefings with all interested community and political leaders
will be held in the following weeks.
At the same time, subcommittees of the Parent Network and neighborhood
association will be working to identify possible sites for the school, raising
funds and identifying foundations and other organizations which might help
support our efforts.
As a consensus of broad community support for a school plan emerges, we
will seek to engage professional educators and/or consultants specializing in
working with groups undertaking the charter process and familiar with the
operation of schools. Working together with community leaders and advisors, we
will draft a charter petition for submission to the Atlanta Board of Education
and the Georgia Board of Education.
Our petition will address all requirements of the charter school
law. They include:
1) Improvement
Plan
a) Describe the
educational program, why it is in the community’s best interest and how
it will improve student learning and academic achievement.
b) Describe
the mission and vision of the school
c) Students - Identify
the age and/or grades of the school; number of students; enrollment process;
and attendance, discipline, promotion, retention and dismissal policies.
d) Curriculum
e) Instructional
Methods
f) Staffing
g) Calendar
h) Transportation
i) Food
Services
j) Special
Populations
2) Verifiable
Performance Criteria
a) Goals
and Objectives
b) Assessment
Methods
3) Parent,
Faculty, Staff and Community Involvement
4) Parent,
Faculty, Staff and Community Concerns
5) Control
and Management of the Local Board of Education
6) Charter
School Governing Body
7) Organization
as a Non-Profit Corporation
8) Personnel
Policies
9) Financial
Policies and Procedures
10) Proposed
Duration of Charter
11) Exemptions
Our objective is to seek approval of a charter during 1999 and open the
Grant Park Neighborhood School in the fall of 2000.