It was a long time coming, and for supporters of the new Georgia legislature-approved Coweta Charter Academy at Senoia, the school’s grand opening last week was a fitting accomplishment to a quest by local residents for an educational alternative that began nearly two years ago.
Florida-based Charter Schools USA operates the new school, having signed a lease/purchase agreement for the Peachtree Baptist Church property on Ga. Highway 16 just west of Senoia. The existing building provides classroom space for the current K-3 grades. The 11-12-acre site will provide adequate room for the expansion needed to accommodate grades 3-7 expected to begin a year from now.
Academy Principal Terry Stollar in her remarks thanked the audience for their support and their efforts in bringing the new school to fruition. Those included Charter Schools USA, the Georgia Charter Educational Foundation and, as importantly as any group, the citizens of Coweta County.
“This couldn’t have happened without the parents and the community,” Stollar said, adding that Charter Schools USA has high expectations for the school, its students and staff.
One of the speakers at the grand opening was Georgia Charter Educational Foundation member and Coweta resident Earnest Taylor, who in his remarks cited the hard work and commitment from a large group of people in Coweta and beyond that made the school possible.
Taylor also noted something he had learned in the past few years with his involvement with the charter school movement and its apparent challenge to the public school model.
“I found it was not about educating kids. It was about power and control,” Taylor said in assessing the resistance by public schools to the idea of having charter schools established in Georgia.
