Houston County BOE disapproves Opportunity School District

On Nov. 8, not only will Georgia voters be faced with the challenge of choosing which president to elect, but they will also have to make a decision on whether to approve Gov. Nathan Deal’s proposal, Amendment 1, Opportunity School District (OSD).

Deal’s proposal was created to turn around struggling schools in Georgia. It would authorize the state to temporarily step in to assist chronically failing public schools and rescue children languishing in them.

In the proposal, persistently failing schools are defined as those scoring below 60 on the Georgia Department of Education’s accountability measure, the College and Career Performance Index, for three consecutive years. The OSD would take in no more than 20 schools per year, meaning it would govern no more than 100 at any given time. Schools would stay in the district for no less than five years but no more than 10 years, and would then return to local control.

However, at October’s Houston County Board of Education meeting, members unanimously approved a resolution opposing the amendment.

The resolution states: “The Houston County Board of Education supports local control as granted by existing constitutional authority vesting exclusive control over public schools to local boards of education as the level of government closest and most responsive to the taxpayers and parents of the children being educated. The Houston County Board of Education opposes any legislative measures infringing on that authority and cannot support the amendment of our state constitution to create a state-directed OSD as proposed by Senate Resolution 287 to place a constitutional amendment on the Nov. 8 ballot.”

The resolution also states that unless defeated, the proposed constitutional amendment would allow the state to take over local schools under conditions determined by the General Assembly with the OSD led by a superintendent answering directly to the governor and having the authority to control even the physical facilities paid for by local taxpayer dollars.

The board encourages citizens to educate themselves more about the amendment before voting, because “an OSD is a redundant and excessive state-directed push for reform, even though there are laws and procedures already in place that can achieve the same results without creating additional layers of government at great expense and with unknown levels of power.”

Houston County Schools Superintendent Dr. Mark Scott gave his opinion on the OSD amendment.

“Many of you know me as the superintendent of schools for Houston County; however, I am also a citizen, taxpayer and voter in the state of Georgia,” he said. “Like many of you, I have watched all of the commercials on television, I have read articles in newsprint and I have even witnessed a debate over the issue of Amendment 1.”

The ballot question will read: “Shall the constitution of Georgia be amended to allow the state to intervene in chronically failing public schools in order to improve student performance?”

“I do not support changing the constitution of Georgia to allow the state to take over schools from local boards of education, as described in the enabling legislation already passed by the General Assembly,” he said. “This legislation places up to 20 schools per year under the authority of the OSD superintendent, who is appointed by the governor. The appointed superintendent will have the authority to determine which schools are taken from the local school districts, how much local tax revenue will be taken to support the school and will ultimately seize control of the school building.”

Scott explained that without any consultation with the local community, the OSD superintendent is empowered to close down any school, reorganize staff/fire and replace teachers and principals at will, transfer any school to the State Charter Schools Commission or direct local school boards to make changes at an OSD school via a contract.

“The proposed OSD emulates a model that has not been successful in other states, and in many schools, the students are performing at a lower level than before the take over. I can’t find an educational plan for the OSD in the enabling legislation, nor have I heard of any researched-based instructional interventions,” he said.

Scott further noted it does not address student performance, instructional strategies, teacher quality or assessments. Also, he said it does not address community issues of poverty, unemployment and inadequate health care, and it does not provide any additional financial resources for the targeted schools. If converted to a for-profit charter school, the funds for the school would be less than that provided by the local board.

“In our state, we need to intervene in failing schools; however, Amendment 1 and the OSD is not the type of intervention we need,” said Scott. “We need our elected state school superintendent and his staff working collaboratively with locally elected boards of education to implement research-based educational interventions in our struggling schools. We need consistency in how students are tested and how a school’s performance is measured.”

According to Scott, last year, Senate Bill 364 positively changed the landscape of testing in the state just one year after the entire battery of assessments had been changed. He said the current measure of school performance is the College and Career Readiness Index (CCRPI). He added that not only has this metric changed every year, it is currently being completely overhauled to meet the new federal requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act.

“I encourage voters to research Amendment 1, to read more than the misleading ballot question and most importantly, to get out and vote,” Scott advised.

Early voting ends Nov. 4. Voting will take place from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Board of Elections Office (old courthouse) located at 801 Main St., Perry; Houston Health Pavilion Conference Center (west side, back of building) located at 233 N. Houston Road, Warner Robins; and Central Georgia Technical College — Roy H. “Sonny” Watson Health Sciences Building located at 71 Cohen Walker Drive, Warner Robins.

Also, voting will take place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at the Board of Elections Office in Perry and the Houston Health Pavilion Conference Center (west side, back of building) in Warner Robins.

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