State approves Dougherty County Schools move to charter system

ATLANTA — The State Board of Education on Thursday approved the Dougherty County School System’s application to become a Charter School System, paving the way for educational leaders, parents and community stakeholders to collaborate for student success in Dougherty County, according to a news release from the DCSS.

The designation allows the system to shed much of the regulatory restrictions the state has placed on local school systems in exchange for improvements in student achievement and innovation at the school level. With the state’s blessing, the system plans to begin Phase I of the Charter System implementation with the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

The Georgia Department of Education has required systems to re-think the way they do business and decide whether they wished to stay as they were – keeping all the regulations and protocols in place – or take the step to shed some state regulations to maximize student successes in exchange for increased accountability for school improvement.

The DCSS went one step further, choosing arguably the most difficult path in terms of preparation and complexity, but one that allows parents and community stakeholders to have more of a say in education.

“We knew this process was going to be a lot of work for our people, but we also knew that we needed to get our parents and community more involved in our schools,” DCSS Superintendent Butch Mosely said. “Staying status quo just simply wasn’t an option for us and the middle option — becoming a strategic waiver system — didn’t go far enough. So we’re going all in for our students and community and we’re confident this will pay off.”

The biggest difference between the two flexibility options – strategic waiver system and charter school system – is the creation of Local School Governance Teams (LSGTs). These groups are attached to each school in the system and, while they include the school principal and a small number of school-system employees, they’re anchored by a handful of parents and community leaders.

Ultimately, these LSGTs will have input on school-related decisions including financial priorities and personnel recommendations; school improvement plans and opportunities for school innovations.

In its application process, the system identified some of its chief challenges and opportunities and then spelled out ways it intends to address those challenges. Ufot Inyang, DCSS Associate Superintendent for Academic Services, believes that some of these ideas, which include overhauling the Pre-K model and creating new ways to reach the district’s broad student population, can fundamentally change the way students in Dougherty County learn.

“The emphasis here is on innovation,” Inyang said. “With the charter system, we’ve been training and teaching our school administrators to approach their jobs in a new way; to radically re-think the educational process and share that philosophy with their teachers.”

Thursday’s approval comes after system officials, LSGT members and community leaders made a presentation to the SBOE’s Charter Committee on Wednesday, prompting the committee to put the charter system application on the agenda for the full board for consideration.

Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle applauded DCSS’s move to a Charter System.

“In today’s competitive 21st century economy, we must ensure that every student is equipped with the knowledge and training they need to find a high-quality job,” said Cagle. “Innovative charter systems are an important tool to provide access to a world class learning environment that realizes the full potential of each student and I appreciate the Dougherty County School System’s diligent work to improve education in Georgia.”