Atlanta Board of Education Approves New Charter School
credit Nick NeSmith/WABE
The Atlanta Board of Education gave the green light to a new charter school Monday over the objection of the district’s superintendent.
Board members unanimously approved the Atlanta Classical Academy. Superintendent Erroll Davis recommended against the creation of any new charter schools while the Georgia Supreme Court decides if the schools will have to help district pay off more than $500 million dollars in unfunded pension liability.
Board Chair Reuben McDaniel says board members are concerned about the liability but did not want to turn down a high-quality school application.
“Both the superintendent knew and we knew that this was really his recommendation based on the overall economic issue, and I think as a board we really are pushing to try to figure out how we solve the pension liability without unfairly burdening charters or denying charter schools that would be good for students.”
Davis said he’s not anti-charter school, but in a scarce resource environment he could not advocate increasing the burden on traditional schools to create non-traditional environments. Atlanta Classical Academy is scheduled to open in North Atlanta next fall. The K-8 school plans to emphasize literature, composition, history, science, math and language.
WABE’s broadcast license is held by the Atlanta Board of Education.
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