The lottery for Liberty Tech Charter School’s first year in operation is complete. Though the school will serve multiple counties, the large majority of students attending the new state charter school in Brooks will come from Fayette County.
The Feb. 20 lottery included more than 1,000 pre-registrations that were filtered to 748 applications, according to school representative Christi McCully, adding that 75 percent of the applications were from Fayette County.
The new state charter school in its first year will serve 282 students from Fayette, Coweta, Spalding, Clayton, Fulton, Henry, Coffee, Meriwether and Pike counties and Illinois, once the family moves here, McCully said.
Once the lottery was complete, the numbers showed 171 students from Fayette, 19 from Coweta, 24 from Clayton, 14 from Fulton, eight from Henry, two from Meriwether and one each from Pike and Coffee. The family from Illinois will be driving down for the interview, said McCully.
McCully said 24 student positions are currently being left open for the children of teachers who might want to attend the school.
Two of the things that make Liberty Tech different are the educational model and the 210-day school year.
The educational model includes:
1) Virtue supported by Aristotle’s Cardinal Virtues and a year-long, K-12 etiquette program from the American School of Protocol
2) Daily physical exercise and daily recess
3) Collaborative learning where students learn to work in teams to solve hands-on, real-world problems
“The educational model is a merger between Classical Education, which teaches students how to think, not what to think, and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) which equips student for the future,” said McCully.
McCully said the model is placed on a 210-day school year to promote mastery and provide the time for students to investigate a wide variety of topics to help them determine a career path.
Liberty Tech recently announced the hiring of its principal, Mike Stewart, a Fayetteville resident and assistant principal at The Museum School of Avondale Estates.
Liberty Tech will operate in the old Brooks Elementary School.
The Fayette County Board of Education on Jan. 19 approved the three-year lease at $6,000 per month. Liberty Tech will lease the school in “as is” condition and will be responsible for all utilities, maintenance and repairs.
The school board in 2014 turned down a proposal that would make the charter school a part of the Fayette County School System. Liberty Tech was subsequently approved by the Georgia Charter Schools Commission.
Liberty Tech is a public school, so teachers will maintain their state teacher retirement benefits, said McCully.
Like other Georgia public schools and school systems, Liberty Tech will receive state funds for its operation
What state-chartered schools do not receive are local property tax revenues which, in some communities, totals up to 50 percent of the total funding. Given the significant difference in funding, the state provides some additional allotment money, said McCully, though the sum does not equal what would be brought in by property taxes.
McCully said that, unlike many charter schools, Liberty Tech did not engage an education management organization that would have taken a percentage of the school’s funds.
McCully said Liberty Tech will also hold fundraisers, though the school will not rely on students for those efforts.
In terms of operations and the money involved, McCully said Liberty Tech operates with a smaller administration and for at least the first five years will not run buses. Parents will be responsible for student transportation.
Operationally, McCully said Liberty Tech is run by a 12-person volunteer board that makes policy decisions and by the principal who is responsible for day-to-day operations. The board, made up of parents and community members, answers to the Ga. Charter Schools Commission, the Ga. Dept. of Education and to stakeholders.
Nearly all the board of trustees are Fayette County residents, many of whom have school-age children and work in areas such as emergency management, architecture, auditing, residential development, cellular wireless, education, software consulting and healthcare.
As for compliance with state and federal regulations, all state-chartered schools beginning this year must follow the State Charter Schools Commission Compliance Performance Framework template that monitors the overall functions of the school. Beyond that, the commission will make unannounced visits to the school for monitoring and data-checking purposes.
“We are doing it all ourselves. Liberty Tech is truly a grass roots organization run by local families,” McCully said.
For more information on Liberty Tech visit www.libertytechcharter.org.
