DeKalb BOE Denies Druid Hills Charter Cluster Petition

The vote Monday was five-to-four against the plan which would have created a charter cluster of Druid Hills High School, Druid Hills Middle School, and the five elementary schools that feed into them.

A primary issue is money: whether the school system can afford give up control of $40 million, the amount it spends on the seven schools now, and still maintain the current level of operations district-wide.

The former head of the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, Kathleen Mathers, is one of the leaders of the cluster effort. Mathers told WABE, “We’ll regroup and figure out what our different options are, and certainly any and all appropriate options that are available to us will be strongly considered. And we’ll move forward based on what seems to be best in the interest of our stakeholders.”

One option is to ask the state Board of Education to mediate between the cluster group and DeKalb school officials.