Clayton County Public Schools

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Clayton County Public Schools
Choices for Innovation
IE2
Charter System
A new vision for a new day in public education
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By June 30, 2013All Schools in Georgia
Must Choose

1. Charter School System Status
2. Investing in Educational Excellence (IE2)
   Status
3. Status Quo

School Systems Across the State Must Consider
Options with GaDOE!
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Timelines
Phase V August 2013
Phase IV March November 2012
Phase lll October 2011 March 2012
Phase II January August 2011
Phase l October January 2011
Gather input from stakeholders (parents,
students, employees, community members)
Present findings to Board and make decision
regarding continued status
Develop and refine contract seek further public
input submit contract to SDOE
Begin implementation of IE2 or Charter System
Contract
Investigate IE2, charter system, and status quo
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Systems We Will Continue to Explore

• Approved Charter Systems in Georgia
• Putnam County Schools
• Warren County Schools
• Decatur City Schools
• Gainesville City Schools
• Marietta City Schools
• Chattahoochee County Schools
• Approved IE2 Systems in Georgia
• Gwinnet County Schools
• Forsyth County Schools

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At a Glance Current - IE2 - Charter System
Current IE2 Charter System
System/ State Relationship
Flexibility
School-Level Governance
Fiscal Impacts
Failure Consequences
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How Do These Choices Affect School Board
Governance?

• Status quo No change
• IE2 School Board can allow local schools to
  make certain decisions, but there is no
  requirement to do so
• Charter System Charter can allow School Board to
  retain current role however, local school
  councils must have ability to provide meaningful
  input into personnel, budget, and curriculum
  recommendations

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What is a Charter School?

• -Charter School Systems are public schools that
  receive state and federal dollars for education.
• - They operate under a charter, which explains
  what it wants to do and how it will operate.
• - Provides the opportunity for teachers,
  administrators, parents, and school boards to
  have greater flexibility to determine the
  educational needs of students within their
  district.

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Charter Schools Continued

• -While the charter school must meet all federal
  mandates, its allowed some leeway under the
  states Title 20 rules and may request waivers
  from provisions of Title 20.
• -Under Georgias charter school system law, all
  the schools in a system operate under a charter.
• - Under charter system status, schools have
  flexibility to relax class size and seat time
  restrictions.

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Charter School Continued

• - School systems are able to be more creative
  with student instructional time.
• - President Obama supports the charter school
  system concept and encourages school districts to
  pursue the option.
• - Charter school systems shall earn approximately
  100 in additional funds for each FTE for every
  year of the charter term.

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Charter Schools Continued

• In addition, charter systems are eligible to
  apply for federal implementation grants, ranging
  from 200,000 to 600,000, and state grants in
  the amount of 125,000.

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What is IE2

• IE2 (referred to as IE squared) stems from
  Governor Sonny Perdues education finance reform
  initiative and provides an opportunity for school
  systems to enter into a partnership contract with
  the Georgia State Board of Education and the
  Governors Office of Student Achievement to
  provide more local control regarding important
  education decisions and expenditures. Under IE2,
  school districts create a strategic plan that
  clearly identifies the flexibility sought from
  Georgia education laws, accountability goals, and
  federal NCLB requirements. Consequences that will
  be imposed upon the district if they do not reach
  their accountability goals will also be included
  in the strategic plan. According to HB 1209,
  IE2-contracted schools that do not meet their IE2
  accountability goals by the end of the contract
  period will be converted to charter schools. At
  this time, there are not any proposed funding
  incentives under the IE2 contract.

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Charter vs. IE2

• Both contracts, whether to operate as a charter
  school system or under an IE2 contract agreement,
  would be a contract with the Georgia Department
  of Education. The biggest difference between
  these two contracts would be the level of
  flexibility. IE2 would have far less flexibility.
  Another major difference between charter school
  systems and IE2 agreements are with school
  governance. Charter systems will have more
  parent/community involvement with school
  councils. If a system chooses status quo, the
  system will lose the ability to request any
  waiver, except class size, from the State Board
  of Education.

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Why Not Keep The Status Quo?

• We cannot ask for any flexibility from State
  Board rules except class size
• This limits our ability to use greater innovation
  to improve student achievement

Status Quo
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What About IE2?

• Innovation through flexibility
• Current charter schools cannot join the IE2
  contract
• Consequences can include loss of governance of
  non-performing schools (including possible
  takeover by outside organizations)
• Additional funding is not available

IE2
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What About a Charter System?

• Innovation
• Achievement
• Advantages
• Involvement

Charter System
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Innovative flexibility of State laws needed to
implement programs and sound educational practices
Innovative use of funds to implement programs
Innovative use of hiring practices aligned to
target programmatic needs
INNOVATION
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Ability to establish magnet and theme schools,
small learning communities, and other programs
through enhanced flexibility in staffing and use
of funds
Ability to creatively use resources to meet Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs) and other
accountability measures
Ability to increase funding opportunities to
implement additional support for staff and
students
ACHIEVEMENT
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Flexibility to adjust and respond to the unique
needs of their learning communities (i.e., change
in seat time, hiring industry-experts as teachers
Flexibility for current charters to join the
systems petition
Flexibility for earned empowerment
ADVANTAGES
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Possibility of increased school choice for our
stakeholders
Increased community understanding, knowledge, and
investment in schools
More meaningful input on school-based decision
making
INVOLVEMENT
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Why a Charter System?
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• Broad flexibility from Title 20 (State laws
  governing public education) and/or State Board
  rules allows schools to implement innovative
  programming
• Increased flexibility over budgets and hiring
  practices
• Innovative curriculum and instructional methods
  to better meet student needs
• Some portions of Title 20 cannot be exempted
  under any circumstance