Seems to be another example of our BOE moving away from innovative ideas......the State BOE contiues to approve these career academies across the State, but we seem to be falling behind in Walton. Many districts are moving towards being "Charter Systems" which require that each school has a "Local Governance Board" that has real input on how the individual school is run. I'd like to see that happen in Walton.......
State forces changes at WCA
Proposed charter amendments rejected
Posted: Wednesday, May 11, 2011 12:00 am | Updated: 4:39 pm, Tue May 10, 2011.
WALTON COUNTY — Last year, the Wal-ton Career Academy moved out of its permanent home on Bryant Road and into the individual high schools.
This year, the Academy will be an academy no more, as the career-vocational program changes its name and alignment, if not its mission.
Starting in the fall, the former Walton Career Academy Board of Directors will become the Transition Career Partnership, an existing state program nearly identical to the ex-charter school’s function.
The move, while primarily cosmetic on Walton County Public School’s end, was necessitated after the state rejected the system’s proposed amendments to the academy’s charter.
“They didn’t like what we have,” said Superintendent Gary Hobbs. “But we’re doing what we need to do for the students.”
With the charter expiring in June, the academy will cease to be a state-recognized charter school, but the various vocational and career-oriented classes under its aegis will continue in the individual high schools. The board of directors will also continue to operate, linking the business community to the educational system through such courses.
“It will become more an advisory board, with Athens Tech and the school system represented, as well as the business community,” Hobbs said. “That board will become the link between the business community and the schools and the students.”
The Transition Career Partnership, designed to combine business and education for the benefit of students, will continue the aims of the academy, even without the name.
“The requirements and goals are the same,” said Celeste Cannon, curriculum director for the system.
Jimmy Hogg, a long-time member of the WCA Board of Directors, said the new board will continue on as before.
“The transition will be better for the students,” Hogg said. “We’ll have more dual enrollment students than ever. It’s actually stronger than it was before.”
Walton County Board of Education members were happy the program’s aims would stay alive, and also happy to see the direct oversight of the charter school commission disappear.
“We have control again over what it does in our school system,” said Coleman Landers, chairman of the board.
Mark Banks, District 3, agreed, saying the new partnership was what the board had looked for in the program all along.
“I feel like this program is where we wanted it to be,” Banks said.
From the outside, the move will hardly look like a change, officials said, as courses would continue and current opportunities remain open to students. If anything, the only change would be more resources in the years to come.
