New Macon Charter board approves trial period with Renaissance

About 24 hours after being appointed, the new Macon Charter Academy governing board had its first regular meeting Tuesday.

Chairman Ed Grant, flanked by fellow board members Daisy Ross and Joseph Brothers Jr., addressed the parents in attendance about the structure that the meetings would now take. During Monday's called meeting, parents voted vocally when a vote was called, and Grant reminded them that only board members had an official vote.

"Usually, when we have a board meeting, we're trying to take care of the school's business," he said, urging a more organized approach to meetings.

Grant also mentioned that the board would be taking resumes for two more board members and that a parent advisory council could be formed, as well.

Before further action could be taken to establish a contracted relationship with Renaissance School Services as a management company, a measure encouraged by the state Department of Education, the MCA charter had to be amended. The board approved the amendment unanimously, which allows MCA to work with any educational service provider during its five-year charter term.

Board members then turned their attention to the Renaissance contract itself.

"The situation we find ourselves in is we've got to act," Brothers said. "All of us together got to this point."

While the initial contract proposal called for an agreement that would extend through the school's charter term, Grant said he had discussed a 45-day trial period for the school and Renaissance with a representative of the company. Grant said that would allow Renaissance to better evaluate the school's situation and the school to get a better feel for the company's involvement.

The contract was approved unanimously with that stipulation, but Ross reminded her fellow board members that the school had not been presented with many options to this point.

"Our alternatives are going to be thin, according to what I've heard," she said.

Renaissance was the only educational service provider contacted by the Georgia Charter Schools Association that agreed to work with MCA, Renaissance Vice President Rob Giordano said at a previous meeting.

Board members also made sure a provision had been added that locked Renaissance into keeping the International Baccalaureate feeder program at MCA.

"That was a deal-breaker for a lot of parents," Brothers said.

In his report to the board, Principal Ron Boykins discussed the school's budget and how it was affected by dropping enrollment. The student count was 536 for December, which matched the number from November, but the previous drops had led the Bibb County school system to fund MCA on a month-to-month basis.

"It's because our numbers are fluctuating so much," Boykins said.

In four months of operation, MCA's attendance has gone from a high of 676 to the current tally. Those 140 students have needed to be absorbed back into other Bibb County schools, and Boykins said that was the explanation he got from district Chief Financial Officer Ron Collier for the monthly funding option.

Still, it has created potential shortfalls in the budget as some expenses, like technology and copier contracts, were contracted at the beginning of the year.

"What it requires us to do is adjust our expenses," Boykins said, noting that the budget could be short as much as $436,000 this year.

Giordano said last week that his analysis of the budget reflected it would be possible to reverse that trend and even get to a surplus, taking his company's contract into account.

Before it broke for executive session, the board took comments from parents. PTO President Andrea Bridges asked for confirmation on the timing of former board member Leontine Espy's resignation, which came just before executive session Monday.

Carolyn Glover, who has grandchildren at the school, took the opportunity to compliment the new board's leadership. She said that in past meetings she attended, the comment period and printed agendas were not part of the equation.

"I think it's the right thing to do," she said. "You've got to be open and honest if you're going to lead a meeting. You've got to be a leader."

After Tuesday's executive session, Renaissance President Rich O'Neill spoke to the parents and teachers gathered, and he reinforced past statements that the company's involvement with the school would not include extensive teacher or salary cuts.

"Every decision that we make will be based on the lens of what is best for the students of this school," he said.

To contact writer Jeremy Timmerman, call 744-4331 or find him on Twitter@MTJTimm.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 8:38 PM with the headline "New Macon Charter board approves trial period with Renaissance ."