The Coweta County Board of Education approved a letter Tuesday notifying the state of Georgia that the Coweta County School System will pursue IE2 status as the system’s flexibility option.
The letter of intent approved at the board’s Jan. 13 meeting changes the school board’s initial intent, declared last June, to pursue Charter System flexibility. The change was recommended to the board by Superintendent Steve Barker following recent clarifications of state rules governing “Investing in Educational Excellence” (IE2) status for school systems. Those clarifications made the terms of the flexibility option more reasonable than when the board first declared intent, and made IE2 a viable alternative for school systems, said Barker.
School system spokesman Dean Jackson said the letter approved by the board meets an obligation under Georgia law to formally declare intent by June 30. All school districts in Georgia must declare a flexibility option by that time in order to receive waivers from the State Board of Education. Waivers allow flexibility from a limited amount of state laws and state rules.
School system flexibility options that preserve waivers include IE2 and Charter System. Any school district that chooses to operate without waivers will become a Status Quo district where no waivers can be obtained.
The letter approved Tuesday by the school board notifies the state School Superintendent of the board’s intent “to have the Coweta County School System operate as an IE2 System beginning as soon as possible following the development and approval of a petition/contract. This intent was formally adopted by the Coweta County Board of Education on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2015.”
“This letter revises intent previously declared on June 10, 2014 in light of clarifications provided to all Georgia School Districts by the Department. Consideration of the various potential operational choices began for this board with activities and research in 2011. This Board has for some time been considering this important decision regarding its future intent,” said Barker.
Barker noted that he had advised the school board in June, when the original letter of intent was filed, that they could revisit the system’s intent to pursue Charter System status if state rules changed. He also noted that system and board work to prepare for a Charter System petition – including public focus groups and surveys, and work on developing waiver requests and system innovation plans for a charter system petition – were equally applicable to the development of an IE2 contract.
Recent changes in IE2 rules were also discussed by Barker and Coweta School System Director for Public Policy Mark Whitlock at a Jan. 7 listening session, held at Madras Middle school. Attendees at that meeting heard an outline of system flexibility options and the recent rules clarification, and indicated that they found IE2 a good option for the school system as well.
At that meeting, Barker said that selection of a flexibility option for the Coweta School System and the ability to continue to receive state waivers are important to the school system.
“Waivers are necessary for the Coweta County School System to operate within budget,” he said.
In order to begin the process of preparing the lengthy application required for the chosen option, and in order to ensure that waivers would be granted for the district beyond July 2015, Coweta County’s school board voted in 2014 to declare its intent to begin work on a Charter System application.
“At the time of this board’s selection of Charter System status, the guidelines and consequences outlined in IE2 were not good options for the district,” said Barker. “Primarily, the consequences required potential total loss of control of a school.”
Following clarifications of state rules regarding IE2 and Charter System flexibility options, the school board invited State Department of Education Associate Superintendent Lou Erste to present new IE2/ Charter System details to the board and district administrators in October. These new details included new guidelines for the IE2 option that were being discussed by the state board, as well as a new rule to be adopted governing the Charter System option. The state board in November implemented new IE2 guidelines that afford districts the opportunity to obtain waivers, implement flexibility and agree to more reasonable consequences. The state board approved the new Charter System rule, as well, Jackson said.
Both IE2 and Charter System options will allow a district to implement desired innovations while also utilizing flexibility from a limited amount of state laws and state rules. Charter System, however, would also require new local school governance councils, additional ongoing training, and holding required monthly meetings. School councils currently operate in all Coweta schools at this time, said Jackson.
Among the factors considered as a system flexibility option is chosen are other sweeping and significant changes currently being required of all Georgia districts. These include new evaluation systems for teachers and administrators that are required throughout Georgia. A new state assessment instrument, also a statewide requirement, must now also be implemented at each school.
These required changes will be the focus of implementation plans across Georgia school districts.
