Cherokee Charter Academy Gets 5-Year Renewal

CANTON, GA — Cherokee Charter Academy was among eight charter schools that had its renewal petitions approved this week by the State Charter School Commission. Other schools approved by the commission were Atlanta Heights Charter School, Coweta Charter Academy, Fulton Leadership Academy, Georgia Connections Academy, Ivy Preparatory Academy at Gwinnett, Ivy Preparatory Academy at Kirkwood and Pataula Charter Academy.

Cherokee Charter's petition indicates it would like to expand its attendance zone by reaching students not only in its home county, but also those in Bartow, Cobb and Pickens counties. The school currently serves a kindergarten through eighth-grade body and has about 832 students enrolled. It aims to expand its enrollment to include students through the 12th grade and projects an enrollment of 1,745 students to reflect that goal.

“Charter schools operate on performance contracts and therefore earn the right to exist one charter term at a time,” said SCSC Executive Director Bonnie Holliday. “These eight charter schools demonstrated a track record of success and earned a renewed charter term by providing high-quality educational opportunities for students.”

The SCSC formulates charter renewal recommendations based on a school’s performance record in academics, finance and operations as measured through the SCSC accountability instrument, the Comprehensive Performance Framework (For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here).

While the school was granted a five-year renewal, Cherokee Charter's petition indicates the school did not meet the commission's academic performance standards for both 2014-15 and 2015-16 (data for the 2016-17 school year is not yet available).

However, when compared to its proposed amended school zone, the commission states the school "outperformed the comparison district (Cherokee County School District, Bartow County School System, Cartersville City Schools, Pickens County Schools, Marietta City Schools, and Cobb County School District) in all grade bands served utilizing a combination of the CCRPI Achievement, Progress and Single Score measures." Cherokee Charter also met financial and operation performance standards.

Readers should note CCA's population is drastically smaller than the aforementioned school districts. Student population estimates for those districts are: Cherokee County, 42,200; Bartow, 14,000; Cartersville City Schools, 4,500; Pickens County, 4,350; Marietta City Schools, 8,900; and Cobb County: 112,000.

In its petition, CCA states it wants to improve academic achievement across all areas, particularly in the subject of reading. Its new math curriculum, according to the petition, is "more rigorous and better aligned to the Georgia Standards of Excellence." It's also invested more in professional development and seeks to expand its initiative targeting advanced and higher-learning students from the third-grade classes to those who are older.

The school, which notes its current sixth-grade group is its "lowest performing" crop of students, experienced considerable fifth-grade teacher turnover, losing three math teachers in one year and two language arts teachers in the preceding school year. To close the achievement gap, Cherokee Charter Academy promises to bolster tutoring groups available to the students in this grade level.

SCSC performance standards reflect the SCSC organizational mission to provide students with better educational opportunities than they would otherwise receive in traditional district schools, meaning that a state charter school is expected to outperform the schools in its attendance zone. State charter schools can meet academic standards through student proficiency or student growth.

In a statement, Principal April Wallis praised the commission's decision to renew the Canton-based school's charter.

"We are so proud of our students, teachers and parents for their unending dedication to excellence," she added. "This five-year renewal shows that the State Charter School Commission of Georgia is confident in our ability to serve students consistently well and that we provide a viable option for parents."

The SCSC is a state-level, independent charter school authorizing entity. It has the power to approve or deny petitions for state charter schools and renew, non-renew, or terminate state charter school petitions in accordance with Georgia law. Since its inception in 2013, the commission has authorized 32 state charter schools located throughout the state. Twenty-nine schools are currently operational and three are scheduled to open in the 2018-19 school year.

More information about the renewed state charter schools, including the schools’ renewal petitions and staff recommendations, is available on the SCSC website. More information about Cherokee Charter Academy can be found on its website.

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