There will be no charter career academy in Dougherty County... at least for now.
In an extended meeting, board members voted that down, passed a budget, and re-hired five teachers cited in the CRCT cheating probe.
Most of today's meeting was spent discussing the proposed charter school which has been in the works for more than a year. But after a long question and answer session and a dozen speakers, the board voted not to move forward with the Albany college and career academy.
About 100 people packed into the board room today to see what would happen to the future of Albany college and career academy. Those behind the charter believe this will improve the graduation rate. The biggest issues addressed were the location of the school which is Albany High, the lack of information about the budget and the governing board of directors.
"All we need to do is go back at another meeting with a clarified solution. Likely we will have already modified the charter by then and try again. So I'm not disappointed for the long term prospects of this," said Russ Moore of Seamless Education Associates, Inc.
Moore, who was hired by the school board to assist with this process is obviously optimistic that this isn't the end of Albany college and career academy. He believes with some modifications to the charter they can move forward.
We spoke to some school board members who were behind this charter school and they felt the opposite- that they have lost an opportunity to help at risk students.
They also changed their minds on firing some of the teachers named in the CRCT investigation.
The board voted to reissue the contracts of five teachers named in the probe and they agreed to terminate two paraprofessionals.
Tommy Coleman, the school board attorney told members that there was no evidence to terminate the five teachers who were not given new contracts because of the CRCT investigation.
He gave recommendations to reissue their contracts and to terminate two paraprofessionals. Coleman says those two should have been terminated months ago.
The board vote unanimously to follow both recommendations.
The board also voted today to re-hire child nutrition services director Vanessa Hayes on a split 4, 2, 1 vote.
That's a reversal of their decision in May to fire her.
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