Summary of Lakeside Cluster Leadership Council Meeting

A summary of the meeting was sent via email to those in attendance.  The summary is copied in its entirety below.

The Lakeside Cluster Leadership Council held an initial meeting on Wednesday, February 27 at Henderson Middle School.  PTA Presidents, School Council Chairs and school Principals in the Lakeside cluster were invited to attend or to ask other representatives to attend.  We are pleased that the meeting was attended by approximately 40 people and representatives from every school in our cluster.  Thank you to everyone who participated.

The Lakeside Cluster Leadership Council was created to maintain and strengthen the Lakeside cluster with communication, leadership and a commitment to the success of our school district as a whole.  Our agenda included several options for our cluster as follows: 

1.    Accreditation update--It is possible for individual high schools to pursue accreditation from an agency other than SACS in addition to or instead of SACS accreditation.  The Georgia Accreditation Commission (GAC) accredits both public and private high schools.  Lakeside High School is looking into this alternative means of accreditation.  Leaders at Lakeside High School are currently researching what this alternative accreditation entails (it may require approval by the DeKalb County School System), the cost, and the benefit of this kind of accreditation to the school and students.  We will report more as this process continues.

2.    Current Issues--The status of our school board members continues to be in a state of flux.  A coalition of parents from throughout the county called Concerned Citizens for a United DeKalb hoped to encourage the six suspended school board members to resign and hold a special election to replace them, thereby preserving voting rights.  It seems that this goal has not yet been achieved.  The Concerned Citizens for a United DeKalb plan to use the Facebook Page Parents for DeKalb Schools as their means of communicating with the community.  Please visit this Facebook page for updates.  We also will report any information we receive. 

3.    Building Bridges in the County--The people who initially met to create the Lakeside Cluster Leadership Council felt that building bridges throughout the county is critical to the success of our county as a whole.  We believe that there are many things that unite us, and better relationships throughout the county will serve everyone's best interest.  As individuals and as a cluster, we need to build bridges whenever possible.

4.    Charter Status--Druid Hills High School cluster is pursuing applying for Charter Cluster Status.  If this effort succeeds, it would include all schools in the Druid Hills feeder pattern.  Applying for Charter Status is a time consuming process.  We do not know the law in its entirety, but it is intended to give Charter schools (or clusters) flexibility from some school system requirements in exchange for a higher level of accountability. 

The petition for charter status must include a description of what flexibility the school wants, how finances, personnel and human resources will be managed, the extent to which parents, the community and other stake holders will participate in the management of the school and other innovative practices.  In addition, an application for Charter Cluster Status must include  A) A statement describing the rationale for petitioning as a high school cluster, B) A description of how each school will be held accountable for performance goals, and C) a description of how the high school cluster as a whole will be held accountable for performance goals.  The petition for Charter Status must be approved by secret ballot by a majority of faculty and instructional staff at the school(s) applying for the charter AND by a majority of the parents of students present at a meeting called for the purpose of applying for charter status. 

Charter Status is a big undertaking.  Druid Hills is holding a series of meetings for parents in their cluster to discuss the process.  If anyone in the Lakeside cluster is interested in pursuing this option, please let us know and we will share your contact information with our distribution list.

5.  Lakeside Cityhood--meetings are taking place to create the City of Lakeside.  Currently, cities are not able to create their own school systems, and the City of Lakeside movement is unrelated to the schools.  There is a bill in the State Assembly to allow cities to create separate school districts, but it will be a long time before that will happen, if the bill is passed. 

6.  Moving forward--We will continue to update this group as information becomes available.  We are interested in everyone's feedback about whether you think this group should meet again this school year and if there are any other items we should add to our agenda.