Muscogee County School Board to reconsider tabling $6.4M alternative education plan

A month after tabling the superintendent’s controversial recommendation to hire a private, for-profit company to run three alternative education programs for $6.4 million annually, the Muscogee County School Board is expected to reconsider the delay.

The 80-minute discussion about the issue during Monday evening’s work session resulted in this consensus: The debate about whether to contract with Camelot Education of Austin, Texas, hasn’t produced the clarity the delay had sought, despite two public forums conducted since then, one by the Southern Anti-Racism Network, which included Camelot officials, and one by parents of special-education students, which didn’t include Camelot officials.

SARN is scheduled to conduct another forum with Camelot officials, Thursday in the North Columbus Public Library, starting at 5 p.m.

The community and the board still seem divided on the issue.

The 5-3 vote April 10 to table superintendent David Lewis’ recommendation to hire Camelot included the promise to form a community advisory committee, which would further explore the Muscogee County School District’s options to solve the problem that both sides of this proposal agree should be addressed: MCSD must change the way it educates students with severe emotional or behavioral problems, severe discipline violations and those who are over-age and under-credited.

The board hasn’t appointed that committee, however, and the board didn’t move significantly closer to establishing it during the work session, although representatives did agree it should comprise approximately 15 members, including one suggested by each representative, plus subject-matter experts.

District 8 representative Frank Myers broke the logjam when he said he would make a motion at Monday night’s action meeting to reconsider tabling the recommendation. Such a motion must be made by one of the five board members who voted to table the decision for three months: Myers, John Thomas of District 2, Vanessa Jackson of District 3, Naomi Buckner of District 4 and vice chairwoman Kia Chambers, the nine-member board’s lone countywide representative, who made the tabling motion April 10.

Chairwoman Pat Hugley Green of District 1, Laurie McRae of District 5 and Cathy Williams of District 7 voted against tabling the recommendation. Mark Cantrell of District 6 was absent then.

If the board does indeed put the recommendation back up for consideration, it would need a separate vote to hire Camelot.

Lewis emphasized that a citizens advisory committee, from his perspective, still should be formed even if the Camelot proposal is approved because Camelot would welcome such input in its operations, he said.

Chambers distributed to fellow board members a summary of the forum conducted by parents of special-education parents.

This story was originally published May 8, 2017 at 8:15 PM with the headline "Muscogee County School Board to reconsider tabling $6.4M alternative education plan."