Muscogee County School Board to conduct public hearings this week

The Muscogee County School Board is scheduled to conduct two public hearings this week to allow residents to ask questions and express their opinion about the administration’s proposed plan to pay a private, for-profit company $6.4 million per year to run alternative education programs in the district.

The hearings are set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday in the Muscogee County Public Education Center, 2960 Macon Road, in Columbus.

Superintendent David Lewis and his administration chiefs have said they want to improve alternative education in the Muscogee County School District by closing the Edgewood Student Services Center and reopening the vacant Marshall Middle School to create a learning center run by Camelot Education of Austin, Texas, whose contract would be renewable for up to three years.

After presenting the plan at a specially called work session March 16, the board was supposed to vote on the proposal during its March 27 meeting, but Lewis heard enough board members say they felt the decision was being rushed, prompting him to agree with the board to delay the vote until April 10 and schedule these public hearings during the interim.

This story was originally published April 3, 2017 at 11:05 AM with the headline "Muscogee County School Board to conduct public hearings this week."