Opportunity Knocking?

Voters to decide on creation of statewide school district in November

By Collin Kelley

Voters will decide whether to create the Opportunity School District, which requires a constitutional amendment to takeover chronically failing public schools statewide, by referendum on Nov. 8.

During the Sept. 8 Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods meeting, Erin Hames, credited as architect of the OSD reform while working as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Legislative Affairs for Gov. Nathan Deal, outlined the details of the OSD and why it could help thousands of students in underperforming schools.

The OSD would create a new school district that would have its own superintendent appointed by the governor. Schools that have consistently fallen below 60 on the state accountability system for three consecutive years could be brought into the OSD.

The accountability system measures every school on student achievement, growth and progress, and whether the school is closing the gap between the lowest performing students and the state average. Schools are then given a score of 0 to 100.

Hames said there are currently 127 schools that meet the criteria for OSD, with 22 of those being in the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) district. No more than 20 schools in any given year can be taken over by the state and the OSD is capped at having 100 schools.

Hames said the OSD was modeled on similar reforms created by Louisiana and Tennessee. All of New Orleans’ public schools were taken over by the state after Hurricane Katrina and converted to charter schools, she said.

“The improvements made in New Orleans are incredible,” Hames said. “A