This past week, there has been a renewed public debate going on about issues between LOA and Greene County School System leadership.
We would like to make it clear that the Greene County Board of Education supports the LOA students, parents, and staff. We regard LOA as an important asset to Greene County. It is not our objective to eliminate LOA or to merge it into the traditional school system without a collective agreement. No parent should be concerned that their child will be disenrolled because we won’t support it, and there are ways to avoid it.
LOA has released a number of statements that ordinarily would elicit a response from the Greene County BOE. However, there is a high level of urgency to resolve these conflicts—and we are embarking on a renewed effort to accomplish this by working not only with LOA but also with the state Board of Education.
Our hope is this will resolve our issues—and, other than the statement above, we believe further public debate would be counter-productive.
We understand there may be some confusion out there as to why the Greene County Board of Education is involved in this at all. It is important to know that LOA is part of and funded by the greater Greene County School System. As a charter school, they have a very high degree of operational independence.
In exchange for this, they submit a contract for approval by the state and by us that spells out in detail the objectives, conditions, and policies that the charter must meet to maintain that independence. Because we are the authorizer of the charter contract, as designated by the state, we are responsible for ensuring that LOA lives up to the contract they signed. That is why we are involved.
Mike Lynch Chairman, Greene County Board of Education