Morris Brandon Parents Seek Solutions

A group of moms concerned about overcrowding at the school appeared at the Buckhead Council of Neigbhorhoods Thursday night seeking solutions.

Converting Morris Brandon to a charter school, or making a proposed new Buckhead elementary school a charter school, emerged as possibilities during a wide-ranging discussion that covered the Nov. 8 APS SPLOST election, Buckhead school politics and the intricacies of creating charter schools.

Morris Brown and mom Katie Mori, who called for support of the APS SPLOST, said that Morris Brandon, with 1,200 students, is at capacity. She also pointed to E. Rivers Elementary, where the auditorium is being used as classrooms.

"The reality is we need more classroom space in the northern cluster," Mori said. She also criticized APS Superintendent Erroll Davis, who, she said, told parents that the APS would handle overcrowding by stationing more police officers at schools.

"I don't need police officers, I need teachers and instructors," Mori said, adding that Buckhead schools are different from those on the southside and that the APS can't use a "one shoe fits all" policy throughout the system. She said that number of students qualifying for free or reduced school lunches at Morris Brandon has increased to 14 percent and that the school needs help in dealing with students with "extremely different needs."

Mori asked APS charter schools director Allen Mueller, a speaker at the meeting, about how Morris Brandon could form a charter school or if the new elementary school proposed in the SLOST vote could be set up as a charter school.

Mueller earlier in his presentation explained that two types of charter schools are possible, the "startup" type, run by outside businesses, or the "conversion" variety in which an existing public school is turned into a charter with greater autonomy. Mueller said that all of APS' charter schools, none of which is in Buckhead, are run by outside organizations, such as the KIPP Academy.

Mueller said the process for a public school to switch to a charter involves creating a plan and holding a vote of faculty and parents. Under APS policy, such a school would receive autonomy, incuding financial independence and use of funds based on a formula of $9,000 per student.

Another Morris Brandon mom, Claire Stratton, asked Mueller if the charter school process, which allows "waivers" from some public school policies, could be set up to limit enrollment at Brandon.

District 4 school board member Nancy Meister, who represents Buckhead, asked that if the enrollment would be limited to, for example, 900 students under a charter arrangement, what would happen to the other 300 students living in the zone?

Mueller answered "you don't have to accept any kids beyond your capacity."  However, he said, "capacity can't be defined as a way to keep kids from being served."

Referring to the E. Rivers situation, Meister said that capacity shouldn't be defined as "taking the auditorium and creating four classrooms."

Summing up the discussion, which also included Riverwood High parent Kim Rask talking about the Fulton school's success in converting to a charter school, BCN Chairman Jim King said charter school status for the new Buckhead elementary school had emerged as a real possibility.

King said that "people don't feel they're getting their money's worth" as taxpayers from APS but that a charter school would provide "opportunities for efficiencies we've never seen before."

If the SPLOST passes, an elementary charter school drawing from the entire Buckhead community instead of serving a separate district would avoid political battles over which neighborhoods would be served by the new school, King said.

APS at-large school board member Courtney English said that although APS has no "conversion" charter schools, he believes the school board is open to them.

"I'm confident absolutely in this board's ability to say 'go for it,'" he said.