Heron Bay Golf & Country Club is a master -planned community South of Atlanta that offers new homes in Locust Grove priced from the high $100’s to over $1 million. In an attempt to offer residents a strong sense of community, Heron Bay features an expansive list of amenities and even has a social committee that plans regular events. In addition, the community has plans to build a charter school, Heron Bay Academy, that will be within the boundaries of the community so that students living in Heron Bay can receive an exceptional education.
Heron Bay Academy will be among the first schools to submit a petition to the newly founded Georgia Charter School Commission. The charter application was submitted on August 1, 2009, with an answer expected by December 2009. The Georgia Charter School Commission was created by House Bill 881 in May 2008 due the high number of charter school petitions that have been denied by local school boards.
The General Assembly found in House Bill 881 that charter schools were a critical component to the state of Georgia’s efforts to provide efficient and high-quality schools within the state’s uniform system of public education. The Assembly also found that charter schools in the state have contributed to enhanced student performance while empowering parents to best fit the individual needs of their children.
A recent analysis of the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) data indicated that charter schools in Georgia, particularly those that are started independently from school districts, are performing better than traditional public schools.
The proposed school will offer in-depth education including rigorous core training in language arts, math, science, humanities, social studies and Spanish.
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My understanding was that Atlanta was still pretty much in the doldrums for house buying. Are a large number of the homes at Heron Bay already sold and occupied? Charter schools are often a great way to attract affluent home buyers to a new neighborhood. I hope it works out.
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I’m not familiar with Charter Schools. Are they similar to private schools but the tax base in the neighborhood supports it? If so… great idea.
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Charter schools are a great idea – I can understand why there is limited money available for them, but I also understand the demand for their services. A school that is accountable for results is quite a novel idea (as long as the concept isn’t applicable to the entire education system, which gets quite unmanageable and unrealistic). What I don’t understand, though, is why when 59% of charter schools have a waiting list, with an average of 198 students on each of them, that some of the public school money isn’t being diverted into this model. I read that the caps are the result of political trade-offs … sad, isn’t it.