GAINESVILLE - Come June 2015 every school system in the state of Georgia will have to determine which of four system flexibility options is best suited suited for them, and Hall County is in the midst of making that determination.<br />
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School board members and some school system principals spent an hour and a half at a work session Monday night listening to a presentation from DOE Associate Superintendent Louis Ernst on just two of those options - charter system and IE2.<br />
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The mandates to select a flexibility option come under a state law passed almost six years ago. The idea is to give each system the freedom to operate in a way that is best for its students, but still remain accountable to the state for student progress.<br />
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Hall County School Board Chairman Nath Morris said after Ernst's presentation that he knows a June 30, 2015 deadline is looming - and the state wants systems to create contracts before that date - but he wants to make sure the board understands the requirements behind each option.<br />
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"My goal as a board is to completely understand each one of the options and the rules have been set in stone and nothing's going to change," said Morris.<br />
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He noted that school officials have been reviewing each option for months outside of board meetings, so the work session Monday was not the first time officials had seen the requirements for the charter system or the IE2 (investing in educational excellence) system.<br />
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Morris said he and fellow board members want to select an option that will be least disruptive to the goals Hall County already has established for its schools.<br />
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"We want to make a transition that is less disruptive for our system, for our teachers, but mostly for our kids." <br />
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