Morgan Defends STEM Charter

Vice Chairman David Morgan said during the board's work session on Wednesday that he didn't know how much his fellow board members did or didn't know about the proposed STEM charter school.

The STEM Inventors Academy . However, when CCSD backed out as the lead partner for the charter, the . Other partners, Southern Polytechnic State University and Kennesaw State University, also refused being named as leading partner for the school.

Morgan said the idea for the school came from Nate Riley, a constituent and MIT graduate.

"He knew there were Race to the Top dollars and thought it would be a good idea in our area," Morgan said. "From there, as his representative, I felt committed to help him explore that opportunity for quality STEM charter in our area."

Morgan also said that there was no Board of Directors with which he was associated.

"There was no Board of Directors because there was never a school," he said. "This was a group of people who got together to create a quality school in our area. That was the extent of my involvement."

However, board member Alison Bartlett said that the planning grant listed Morgan's wife, Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan (D-Austell) and one of her staff members as being on the Board of Directors.

"That’s where those concerns are coming up," Bartlett said.

While Bartlett said that the board does support STEM schools, state law does not allow boards of education to start up or modify charter schools.

"We have a history of supporting charters, but the way the new legislation is and the changes that keep happening, the public needs to know that we use the word charter, but what it meant 10 years ago and what it meant five years ago is not what it means now in the state of Georgia," Bartlett said. 

Board member Tim Stultz said it's a shame the STEM charter couldn't work.

"It’s been something that has been heavily promoted by the Governor," Stultz said. "I think it would have been a good program here in Cobb."

Also during Wednesday's work session, the board discussed the proposed Teach for America partnership. Though Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa's signature was on a contract with TFA to bring in “up to 20 teachers", he told the board that the school system is not under contract to hire anyone with TFA.

"There’s no future commitment to hire anyone," Hinojosa said.

Officials have said that private funders would front the additional $4,000 fee–$400,000 total– necessary for each of the teachers to receive intensive, continuing training during their two-year commitment. However, board member Kathleen Angelucci said it's "baffling" that the school system would consider bringing in 50 people with TFA after the board had been told that 350 teaching positions might need to be cut due to a $62 million deficit.

"Even if the funding for the training comes from grants, that is a temporary situation that doesn’t even speak to encumbering future budgets," Angelucci said.

Hinojosa said he anticipates more than 350 vacancies due to attrition, most of which are expected at Pebblebrook and South Cobb high schools.

"That’s why we felt comfortable that, through attrition, we could fill those positions," the superintendent said.

According to documents obtained from an Open Records request by the Marietta Daily Journal, Hinojosa had been working at least since August 2011 to bring the TFA teachers to CCSD.