MACON, Ga. — An actionable plan for the Bibb County School District to start exploring potential school closures was presented to the school board at its regular meeting Thursday along with an ask by the superintendent for the board to approve a new charter school that plans to open downtown next school year.
The plan to start considering school closures comes a little more than two years after the board committed to studying the topic during a called meeting during which then-schools superintendent Curtis Jones said he didn’t “see a way around it.”
The district has too few students and too many school buildings, a position requiring the district to spend additional local tax dollars to operate schools where enrollment totals fall below the state’s minimum threshold for it to fund certain positions and services.
All told, enrollment is projected to fall below the Georgia Department of Education’s minimum at 11 of the district’s 21 elementary schools, two of its six middle schools and four of its six high schools, according to a budget presentation to the school board in March.
The “school consolidation plan” will start this month with the formation of a steering committee including “key stakeholders” with plans to hold public forums in December, Bibb County Schools Chief of Staff Katika Lovett told the board.
“The plan emphasizes thorough planning, rigorous data analysis and active community and student engagement so that we can make an informed decision that will prioritize financial efficiency as well as enhance student outcome and experiences,” Lovett said.
As the district begins the process to decide which schools to close – or whether to close any at all – Superintendent Dan Sims asked the board to approve a prospective charter school the board was first informed about earlier this week.
Infinity Academy wants to open downtown next school year with initial enrollment of 135 elementary students. The school plans call for a “slow growth model” that caps enrollment at 255. Its proposed academic program is based on four elements: STEAM integration (science, technology, engineering, art and math), “whole child approach, accelerated learning for all students and servant leadership,” Sims said of the proposed school.
Charter schools are public schools operated by private, nonprofit entities that have contracts with either a local school district or the State Charter Schools Commission. The contracts stipulate charter schools do not have to follow certain state rules, such as teacher certification requirements, in exchange for improved academic performance.
Local charter schools are entitled to a share of their home district’s local taxpayer dollars, are subject to some local guidelines and may enroll only students residing within the school district. State charter schools authorized by the State Charter Schools Commission must first have been rejected by the local school district and are funded solely by state dollars.
Two state charter schools operate in Bibb County: Cirrus Academy and the Academy for Classical Education, ACE. Local school districts have no control over state charter schools but are affected because schools are funded based on enrollment. ACE opened in 2014 as a local charter school but became a state charter school.
“If we approve the Infinity Academy as a (local) charter, the students who attend continue to be our students,” Sims said. “If we deny the charter school, the charter organization will then go to the state level for approval and consideration.”
Sims said the approval of a charter for Infinity boils down to “the question of whether we want to be in collaboration with another charter school or in competition with another charter school.”
Sims recommended the board approve the charter petition as it is an “opportunity to increase our portfolio and decrease the threat of competition with another entity, one where we can easily forecast a strong collaborative relationship.”
Board member Daryl Morton said he only learned Tuesday that the board would be asked to approve the charter petition, a matter he described as “a very important decision.”
“I know y’all have been working on it a long time,” Morton said to Sims and administrators. “Let’s be realistic about something: we don’t run this school if we approve it. They run themselves. And I’ve been on the board long enough where I have dealt with two local charters and I didn’t get collaboration from either of them. I know for me, if we’ve got time, I’d like a chance to look at this. I think, as a board, we have to because we’re talking about significant investment money resources.”
Besides ACE, the only other local charter school to operate in Bibb County was Macon Charter Academy, a short-lived school that was crippled by major governance, financial and management issues before its state-ordered closure.
Sims said he and staff had spent a significant amount of time reviewing the prospective charter school’s application submitted to the district in April.
“I just want to make sure we’re clear that we own that responsibility, and while we’re happy to provide information to you as a board, we have spent significant hours in that space,” Sims said, adding that he understood the district was responsible for reading, reviewing and getting feedback on the charter application before bringing it to the board. “I really cannot think of anything else that we would do outside receiving any other questions from you.”
Board member Kristin Hanlon also wanted more time to study the application and how it might impact the district financially.
Board president James Freeman said the board went “back-and-forth” via email “about this and what was the right thing to do.”
“I think we all see the pros and cons of going forward with this,” Freeman said. “But from the public’s point of view, my biggest concern is … do we have another charter school in Bibb County that is not part of our system, that is potentially taking some of our best and brightest out of Bibb County Public Schools? And that’s a very large concern.”
Ultimately, Sims decided to drop the recommendation for approval from the agenda.
To contact Civic Journalism Fellow Laura Corley, call 478-301-5777 or email Corley_le@mercer.edu.