Petruzielo: State Takeover Plan Would Drain Money From At-Risk Students

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Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Frank Petruzielo is never shy about expressing his opinions on state education policies that have an affect on local school systems.

The superintendent lived up to that promise on Thursday when he and his senior staff updated the Cherokee County School Board on various topics during the board’s annual Trends in Education strategic work session.

The work session is held before the first school board meeting following the start of the school year.

Topics covered included public education funding, the local impact of major state legislation, an update on new state accountability systems for students and teachers and a status report on district initiatives [including Cherokee Academies (STEM Academies, Fine Arts Academies, College and Career Academy), dual-enrollment programs and emerging trends in educational technology… including virtual learning].

Local funding continues to slowly improve as property values recover, Assistant Superintendent for Financial Management Ken Owen noted during his report on the state of public education funding.

However, Owen noted it’s a slow process, as the tax digest needs to grow by another $1 billion to reach pre-recession levels.

“It will take at least another four years to get there,” Owen said.

No improvement in state funding is expected, Owen reported, unless Gov. Nathan Deal and the Georgia State Legislature further reduce the state austerity budget cut that this year totals $11.1 million.

Owen added that federal education funding is “stagnant,” and will remain so for at least the next one to two years.

Owen also addressed the need for the board to call for renewal of the Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax in the fall of 2016 to ensure that the district can continue to keep up with facility and technology needs, while at the same time reducing bond debt.

Without this SPLOST, he said, school construction and the purchase of any new technology would come to a halt, and the property tax rate automatically would be increased by 5 mills to fulfill the obligation to retire bond debt incurred by 15 years of construction to meet the demands created by the county’s explosive population growth.

“Much of the Ed SPLOST is paid by people who don’t live in this county,” but come here to shop, eat and play, board member Mike Chapman said, as to one reason why he thinks SPLOST is a better model than property taxes for this purpose.

“We need to always talk about that,“ he added.

Staff members presented updates for the board on state legislation impacting the district, including options under review by the governor’s Education Reform Commission, increasing State Health Benefit Plan participation costs for Cherokee County Schools and employees and the governor’s proposed Opportunity School District state takeover plan.

Dr. Petruzielo said he and his staff will make presentations to the board over the course of the next year at its work sessions on “major congenital defects” in the Governor’s Opportunity School District state takeover plan. The constitutional amendment to give the state this power will be on the ballot for voters to decide in November 2016.

The first of these issues was covered during Thursday’s work session and focused on the loss of local control of schools currently vested in local school boards, taxpayers and parents.

“Parents, the community and the school board lose all control over the school in its entirety,” Dr. Petruzielo said of the Governor’s plan, noting that loss would cover a wide range of operations from the hiring and firing of employees to choosing the curriculum used in classrooms. “The school facility and all it contains (including the technology) would become property of the state, despite the fact that this investment was largely paid for using local Ed SPLOST dollars and through partnerships… like the wonderful aquaponics lab at Canton Elementary School STEM Academy funded by the Rotary Club of Canton.”

Dr. Petruzielo added the state takeover plan is just another attempt by lawmakers to siphon money away from the at-risk children who need it most in order to receive a high-quality education and instead turn it over to for-profit companies. 

“Every few years, there’s a new labeling system devised by the federal or state government to negatively categorize schools that struggle with extra challenges like poverty or families learning English as a second language,” he added. “We don’t need labels to know which of our schools face these challenges... our teachers see it when their students come to class hungry or when their parents can’t help with homework that’s in English. We also don’t need the threats that always follow these labels... like the governor’s ‘opportunity’ state takeoverp plan. What we need is for Federal and State government leaders to give traditional public schools the full funding that our children and grandchildren deserve and allow us the same flexibility that is served up without question to profiteering charter companies.”

The Cherokee County School Board at its Aug. 13 meeting unanimously approved the school district’s proposed application and contract for the state-required flexibility-based education reform model.

Cherokee County has chosen the Strategic Waivers School System model, formerly known as IE2, which addresses district-identified challenges and provides flexibility through waivers from mutually-determined State (Title 20) Statutes and State Board Rules in order to increase student achievement.

The proposed contract, which will be considered for approval this week by the State Board of Education, is for an initial term of five years of individual school performance accountability (using College and Career Ready Performance Index scores) and provides Cherokee County schools with seven years of contracted flexibility through waivers.

Deputy Superintendent Dr. Brian Hightower said he and his staff have heard only positive response to the plan from administrators, teachers and parents since the district and the school board began its model review and selection process more than two years ago.

A public hearing was held prior to the regular meeting; no speakers attended.

The application includes a long list of waivers that the district may opt to use as it pursues new initiatives; but it’s not obligated to use them all.

“The contract is built on two facts: flexibility and accountability,” Dr. Hightower said. “We’re up for the challenge and the opportunity.”

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Petruzielo said the proposal builds upon the district’s strong foundation of its accountability policy and supporting strategic and improvement plans, and is designed to allow for greater flexibility at the school, zone and district level.

Also during the regular meeting, School Board Attorney Tom Roach provided an update on the process to fill the District 1 seat on the Board, which was vacated when Kyla Cromer was appointed school board chair.

Roach accepting applications from the public through Aug. 19 and then will share those applications with the board and local media.

If the board chooses to make an appointment after reviewing the applications, it can do so at the Sept. 3 meeting.

However, Roach said the Secretary of State’s Office has advised that following that vote, he needs to submit an order of appointment prior to the new board member being sworn into office. He said he expects the new board member could then be sworn into office at the Oct. 15 board meeting.

The term expires Dec. 31, 2016.

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