Dream Academy not a reality in Macon right now, Otis Redding’s daughter says
Dream Academy, a new state charter school that was slated to open in Macon this fall, will not become a reality any time soon.
“We have decided to withdraw the charter,” Karla Redding-Andrews, chairwoman of the school’s board of directors, told The Telegraph. “We know it’s disappointing ... but we’re not going to do it unless it’s 100 percent right.”
Dream Academy, led by the Otis Redding Foundation, had planned to have a curriculum with an emphasis on music, art and academics.
The school’s petition was approved by the State Charter Schools Commission of Georgia in August 2016. It was expected to open in fall 2018 but, late last June, announced it would delay opening until 2019 due to low enrollment.
The school was more than 200 students shy of the 503 students it needed enrolled for financial viability, Redding-Andrews, daughter of the late Otis Redding, said.
There were other problems, too.
“The facility has been the main culprit,” she said, describing standing water inside some parts of the building. “We were looking to make sure that the facility owner would correct the issues, but they were not corrected.”
The buildings on campus, which total 223,724 square feet all together, and the 5-acre lot at 151 Madison St. are owned by Education Capital Solutions LLC, a Delaware limited liability company. The company also owns Cirrus Academy’s facilities on Pio Nono Avenue.
EPT Macon, Inc., the company that owns Amstar 16 Cinemas on Zebulon Road, and Education Capital Solutions both are subsidiaries of EPR Properties, a publicly traded real estate investment trust with a unique focus on entertainment, education and recreation.
The Telegraph has reached out to EPR Properties but the company did not respond to a request for comment.
The building on Madison Street, constructed in 1990 and added on to in 2015, has been the site of a number of failed endeavors in education with the most recent being Macon Charter Academy.
Two months after buying the property in December 2014, Macon Charter sold it to Education Capital Solutions, tax records show.
Macon Charter shuttered a year after opening in fall 2015 due to issues with academic performance, finances, management and maintenance, according to the State Board of Education.
The campus, in the Pleasant Hill neighborhood, was home to Hope Academy and also Progressive Christian Academy in recent years.
The Christian school closed in 2012 after it was discovered that the school was being run without a license by a convicted felon.
Redding-Andrews said she will continue to pursue the goal to create Dream Academy in Macon and she appreciates “the undying support not only of the parents who had enrolled in 2018 but also the support from all the community partners and people who believed in what we’re trying to do.”
Editor’s note: Tim Regan-Porter, McClatchy’s South region editor, is a member of the Dream Academy’s Board of Directors.
This story was originally published January 30, 2019 at 12:00 PM.
