GREENE COUNTY
Lake Oconee Academy (LOA) parent Todd Ciavola asked to be put on the agenda during public comments at last week’s Greene County Board of Education (BOE) meeting.
Ciavola is a 22-year resident of the area with two children who recently graduated and another who is currently a sophomore. He wanted to address concerns regarding an independent survey he conducted regarding LOA as a Greene BOE charter school.
Ciavola took to the podium to share the results of an online survey he conducted, which sought to address a perceived lack of accountability of the present five-member board, which includes Chairman Michael Tompkins, Vice Chair Sarah Peacock, Secretary Richard Schmidt, Jennifer Vaughan, and Krista Jaskyte.
His concerns centered on BOE appointments, lack of published monthly meeting materials, video documentation and achieving, meeting protocols, and having parents elect new board appointments.
Ciavola stated he has visited LOA several times to address these issues and so far has not received a detailed response. He claimed that LOA operates with a degree of intimidation that does not serve parents well. Ciavola also claimed he asked the Board of Governors to survey to evaluate parents’ operational issues with the meetings, teacher evaluations, financial discussions, parental board member elections, and more.
To date, Ciavola said he has received few answers, prompting him to conduct his online survey. He claimed 67 parents responded with similar viewpoints to address these concerns.
Ciavola was active early on in the establishment of the charter school in 2005 when he attended and spoke at several state-level BOE meetings. It marked a time of dissent in the county, with Greene County schools near the bottom of the state’s rankings and vocal opinions regarding the building of Lake Oconee Academy from pro and con sides.
Ciavola became a regular attendee at the board of governors meetings and was concerned with a high teacher turnover rate experienced two years ago. He also questioned the accuracy of high school math test scores reported by the board, the absence of published agendas or minutes, and a lack of circulated handouts to parents, among other procedural concerns for the meetings.
“I went to the board many times and received no answers or consensus of concerns,” said Ciavola. “Initially, this started with concerns that what they were sharing relative to specific math test scores was not accurate. I did my research and found that the data was different and wanted to know more about what they were sharing with us.”
Ciavola claimed he has been told many times that he should be happy with the victories of the school and he should be happy with that. “I am not being a troublemaker, I want to be a problem solver,” he said.
Tompkins responded by saying the board has addressed these questions directly to Ciavola, and he feels the board does operate with transparency. LOA posts agendas in advance and gives recaps of the meeting on the website for the school, he said. Tompkins claimed that Ciavola wants a seat on the board, and he feels this is partly the motivation for Ciavola’s complaints.
Tompkins said the school publishes agendas in advance and has often given attendees ample time over allotted minutes to talk to the board. Though there have never been video recordings of meetings, Tompkins said the board would be open to that should parents request it.
“There are always two sides to the story,” Tomkins said. “I do not feel Todd is forthcoming in his reality of the situation here.”
Tomkins asserted that each board member works hard, and each brings unique skill sets that have helped lead LOA to success. He is not in favor of a parent-elected board, claiming an earlier experience serving with that scenario on Union Point’s charter school board showed “it was a disaster.”
“LOA is a business,” he said. “We collaborate as a board to bring the best results for our students. Our members understand that. Each (board member) brings a unique skill set here.”
Tomkins added that Ciavola’s survey pool was very small, and the school has more than 1,080 students. He claimed that more parents are attending monthly meetings and when there is a clear signal from a larger pool of parents, the board will respond accordingly.