Charter Conversion Schools Coming to Montgomery
First four will be converted between next year and 2022.
The announcement of the state’s approval for the first charter conversion school in Alabama came during a news conference today in Montgomery.
The four MPS schools that will be converted are Davis Elementary, E.D. Nixon Elementary Bellingrath Middle and Lanier High School. They’ll start with the two elementary schools between 2019 and 2020…Bellingrath will follow in 2020 or 2021…and Lanier High will be converted in 2021 or 2022.
The Alabama Education Association did not take part in the news conference, but State Superintendent Eric Mackey say teachers will be involved in the process:
“We haven’t been in the position where we can go out and meet with teachers or even the administrators at the school because we’ve been working at a different level certainly we want to engage them as quickly as possible.”
Q. “But specifically AEA— no contact with them during this process? No.”
AEA is the longtime union representing teachers. It’s been hobbled in recent years by the legislature, and no longer has the power it once did.
Also missing from today’s news conference: County Commission Chair Elton Dean, even though the commission oversees Montgomery Public Schools and is actively seeking a property tax increase for them. A commission spokeswoman told us Dean had a scheduling conflict.
Ann Sikes, Executive Director, Montgomery Education Foundation.
The schools will remain MPS property and will operate under many of the same rules other MPS school follow. The Montgomery Education Foundation will operate the new conversion charter schools.
Watch an Alabama News Network i-Team Report tonight.
“Tax Confusion”, produced by Tim Lennox, reports the projected income from the potential property tax increase would be $18-Million, but some tax experts say that’s too high.
