Macon Charter board moves to hire school leader

Despite the possibility that the state could take away its charter, Macon Charter Academy appears set to name a permanent head of school.

The school's governing board held a called meeting Monday to discuss that move and unanimously chose to hire Georgia Ellis Gary pending further contract negotiations.

"We need a head of school today and through the end of the school year," said Ed Grant, the board's president.

Grant and Gary declined further comment until Tuesday's meeting when more details are expected to have been finalized. No information on Gary's background was provided to media Monday.

He said that the board already had been in the process of filling the post vacated by Ron Boykins in January. Tahisha Edwards, formerly an assistant principal at MCA, has since filled the position on an interim basis.

Notification from the Georgia Department of Education that it was recommending that the state school board terminate MCA's charter put the decision on hold for a couple weeks.

"We just never got to that after the March 31st letter," Grant said.

Before the board went into a closed-door session Monday, Grant took a couple questions from parents who attended the meeting. Grandparent Charles Butler said his family had "stuck it out" through the school's documented issues, but he wanted answers about the status of the school going forward.

"I don't know whether it's politics or money or what," Butler said of MCA's problems, which included state-level probation beginning in September.

Grant said he had no reason to think the school would close before the end of the school year.

"We feel pretty certain to that, actually," he said of students being allowed to finish the year at MCA.

Beyond that, a vote by the state board regarding the 2016-17 school year was more likely, he said.

"Right now, it seems as though they are going to be voting not to allow us to open in August," he said.

MCA opened in August 2015 in the Macon Coliseum because its Pleasant Hill facility was not yet ready. From there, issues of governance, operations and finance landed the school on probation with the state, and in addition to Boykins, two full governing boards resigned before the school was open for a full year.

Those issues had not improved, according to state officials, leading to the recent call for termination.

The MCA board also is set to gather for its regular meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m.

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

This story was originally published April 18, 2016 at 8:53 PM with the headline "Macon Charter board moves to hire school leader ."