LOA holds routine meeting with hint of cooperation
The Lake Oconee Academy Board of Governors held its first meeting Monday night since the lawsuit against the Greene County Board of Education over funding was resolved.
The settlement came on Jan. 19, when the BOE approved an offer from LOA, Greene County’s only public charter school. On Feb. 1, both sides officially filed with the Fulton County Court Clerk a request for dismissal with prejudice of the 28-month-long legal action.
However, the two boards must soon begin what is expected to be a more contentious process of renewing LOA’s charter, which expires in June 2024.
It is a critical moment for the future of education in the county. At least three large housing developments are expected to be built in Greene County in the coming years and growth continues among existing properties. This, along with the disparity in test scores between LOA and the other county schools, has generated quiet talk of alternative structures for the county school system.
Still, LOA’s board meeting this week was an otherwise routine session until a spirit of cooperation broke out.
“Since we’ve got a lot of this stuff behind us, and we’ll call it ‘stuff,’ LOA CEO Otho Tucker said, “ I think we can really make some solid moves on getting things done. Both sides have been very receptive about working together as critically and diligently as we can.”
Tucker mentioned that LOA is talking with Greene College and Career Academy CEO John Ellenberg and others in the school district.
“We know it’s a tight timeline,” Tucker told the board, “but we’re looking at how we might regenerate some of that opportunity to bring some (Greene College and Career Academy) kids to Lake Oconee Academy and Lake Oconee Academy kids to the Career Academy.”
He would not give further details. This large-scale program of allowing students from Greene County High School and LOA to take specialty classes not offered at the other school has been tried before. It essentially fell apart when the two schools could not agree on how they would each reimburse the other for teaching additional students.
Tucker also mentioned that LOA is cooperating with the county school system on educating special-education students. He said state-required dyslexia testing and the science of reading, how a student learns to read, are other areas for working together.
Some ideas were supported by two BOE members – Steve Kilgore and Perry Lee – who regularly sit in the audience for LOA Board meetings. BOE Chairman Mike Lynch, who has been attending meetings, was not in attendance this week.
Also, at Monday’s LOA Board of Governors meeting:
Tucker said the Georgia State House voted to include $1.2 billion in the approved state budget to fully fund the state’s Quality Basic Education (QBE) program.
He added that each school in the state will get $60,000 towards security expenses. Also in the budget is $5 million to encourage paraprofessionals with bachelor's degrees to become certified teachers and $3.3 million for heavy equipment simulators for career training in schools.
LOA’s enrollment waiting list stands at 272 children, 58 of whom are priority students because they are children of school employees or have siblings already enrolled.
Tucker said they have a very small chance of getting into the school. Enrollment restrictions on LOA through the end of the current charter were part of the lawsuit settlement.
The new arts building at LOA, which is already being used, will soon be receiving backorders of doors for the theater and a kiln for sculpturing classes.
Tucker said that 45 of the school’s 66 seniors (68.2%) have already received acceptance into college.