Macon Charter Academy, Prestige consultants close to striking deal

Pending final approval by its attorney, Macon Charter Academy will be signing a contract with Prestige Charter School Services.

The move will bring more structure to school operations, said Ed Grant, president of the school's governing board.

"They're going to be acting as a management consultant for Macon Charter," he said.

The contract, once attorney Rob Fortson reviews it, will be part of the plan submitted to the state Department of Education. The department recently gave the school a deadline of Feb. 8 to submit a plan for resolving operational and financial issues that have kept MCA on probation since September.

That deadline was extended until Friday, after which the plan will need approval from Bibb County Superintendent Curtis Jones and the state education officials.

Jones pointed out in an email Wednesday that besides fiscal considerations, the contract with Prestige would not require an amendment to MCA's charter, or contract, since Prestige isn't actually an educational services provider. Prestige has also worked with the Academy for Classical Education since it opened in 2014.

"The fact that they have worked with ACE is positive and shows that they have experience in working with the community and the school system," Jones said.

Prestige is expected to charge MCA about $15,000 per month, less than half the estimated cost for for Renaissance School Services. Working with Renaissance, an educational services provider, would have also required an amendment to MCA's charter, a request for which the Bibb County school board denied.

Prestige's time at ACE has been a positive experience, Principal Laura Perkins said. Prestige serves as the school's "back office people," she said, handling tasks such as the bidding process for vendor contracts.

"We didn't have anybody in place for that."

Perkins added that representatives of Prestige have been very accessible.

"They're a phone call or an email away," she said. "They've been very quick to respond, very helpful, very knowledgeable."

Representatives of MCA have also visited ACE recently to check out the operations there.

"We're certainly always glad to help out when we can," Perkins said.

Other details of the contract between MCA and Prestige will be available after the final deal is struck.

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

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 5:58 PM with the headline "Macon Charter Academy, Prestige consultants close to striking deal ."