The Cobb school board on Thursday voted 7-0 for a Walton High School charter renewal for another five years.
Recent meetings with staff and parents included 100 and 99 percent approval for the renewal, respectively, according to deputy superintendent Alice Stouder.
Walton opened in 1975, and in 1998 became one of the first charter schools in Georgia. It’s called a conversion charter, which the state no longer allows.
Having charter status means Walton can develop academic and policy changes from certain local and state mandates and rules. In the past Walton has created programs like the International Spanish Academy (2009) and a STEM Academy (2014) to boost academic immersion in those subject areas.
For this charter rewewal, Walton requested eight waivers, including flexibility for scheduling, developing and implementing curriculum and assessment tools, controlling technology funding and acceptance of non-traditional classes toward graduation requirements.
Future plans with the new waivers include the creation of an honors graduate fine arts program, as well as a “Walton Digital Courses” program that would be taught online-only or in a hybrid format for topics “outside the general required curriculum.”
Here’s a full copy of the Walton charter petition, which underwent what East Cobb school board member Scott Sweeney called “an arduous process” to be renewed. The waiver information begins on page 17 of the document.
Also new is a redesigned Walton Governance Board, a five-member panel of parents and community members who work with school officials to oversee charter goals, the school strategic plan and other functions.
The new charter period will run through 2023.
SPLOST loan request approved
The school board will take out a $40 million loan to get ahead of its SPLOST construction schedule for this year and save some money while doing it.
In another 7-0 vote at Thursday’s meeting, the board voted to approve the loans, which must be repaid by the end of the year from later SPLOST revenues.
The loans will be used to continue projects approved in the Cobb Education SPLOST IV, which is in the final year of collection. The penny sales tax that’s collected for school construction and maintenance is expected to generate around $130 million in 2018, but Cobb school officials say construction costs are expected to increase 4-5 percent.
That’s why they want to take out $40 million in short-term borrowing now, instead of waiting for monthly collection monies. That would “allow us to get an acceleration on these projects” and complete them concurrently, Cobb schools superintendent Chris Ragsdale said at a school board work session Thursday afternoon.
He added that the loans are “not going to cover every project.” Bids for the loans are expected to go out in February, with the funding available in March.
Among the SPLOST IV projects still in progress or that will be underway soon include the rebuilds of East Cobb Middle School and Brumby Elementary School and new gyms at Lassiter High School and Walton High School, as well as a new fine arts building at Walton.
The short term construction notes would be sold in $100,000 denominations, primarily to large institutions. School officials say they will save more in construction expenses because of the loans than the estimated $700,000 in interest, fees and other costs to obtain them.
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