With state-mandated changes kicking in this year in regards to how school districts receive and manage funding from the state, things could look a little different for the parents, students and teachers of Catoosa County Schools.
The district’s new charter system, chosen from three options after months of internal debate and feedback from the community, will enable schools to have more flexibility in how they govern themselves, as well as more parental involvement.
Marissa Brower, communications specialist with Catoosa County Schools, said the increase in parental involvement is a major reason why the school system opted for the charter plan.
“We’ll have more decision-making authority at the school level,” she said.
The most significant change will be the creation of a local school governance team for each school. Each team will consist of the principal, two teachers, two parents and two community members. Parents will be voted in by other parents, teachers voted in by other teachers and the community members voted in by the rest of the board.
The teams will make recommendations to the superintendent on issues like class size and what kinds of focuses the school’s curriculum should have: for example, a greater emphasis on the arts or STEM classes. The superintendent then will be responsible for implementing their recommendations, though the school board will still be the main governing body for all the district’s schools and will have the final say on whether to move forward.
“In this structure we remain a ‘school system’ instead of a system of independent schools,” Superintendent Denia Reese said in a press release.
The Georgia General Assembly has allocated between $80 and $90 for each student of charter system schools, or about $864,000 to $972,000 for Catoosa’s entire school district. The superintendent’s office has said it will direct those funds to each school and let the local school governance teams determine how best to utilize the money.
The funds could be used for new programs within the school such as the Catoosa U program, through which students can earn high school credit hours for paid internships within the school system.
The local school governance teams will begin meeting this month in conjunction with the start of the new school year.
Catoosa County Schools is the only system in the North Georgia area to transisiton to a charter system. Walker County opted for the strategic waivers system, said Brower.
Brower said, to her knowledge, the next closest charter system is in Gordon County.