Charter School of the Year Finalists

The Georgia Charter Schools Association congratulates this year’s Charter School of the Year finalists. The finalists were chosen by a committee made up of non-Georgia Charter School Association staff members.The charter school selected for the top honor will receive $50,000 for their school thanks to a generous grant award from The Coca-Cola Foundation. This year, the winner will be notified by Friday, Feb. 16, prior to the Georgia Charter Schools Conference.The 2018 finalists are as follows:

• Amana Academy
• Dekalb PATH Academy
• The Museum School of Avondale Estates

This prestigious award was established to honor excellence in education throughout the charter sector. The committee that selected the finalists looked at school culture; financial leadership and fiduciary responsibility; whether the school has a strong support structure for staff in place; if the school demonstrates high student achievement through data; community impact; and how they plan to use the $50,000 grant from the Coca-Cola company if they are selected as 2018 Charter School of the year.

To qualify for this honor and accompanying grant, the applicants had to meet the following criteria:

1. Be a GCSA member school in good standing;
2. Demonstrate academic excellence as measured by your performance framework or CCRPI data (must have scored at least an 80 or higher on CCRPI);
3. Serve students in Georgia;
4. Operational five or more years;
5. Demonstrate operational sustainability and sound fiscal practices as evidenced by unqualified annual audits;
6. Demonstrate autonomous governance through the use of waivers as well as authority over academic, financial, and personnel decisions;
7. Be accredited or in the process of being accredited by either SACS-CASI or GACS;
8. Submit timely and complete application by Monday, Dec. 11, 2017;
9. If selected the winner, you will agree to present at the 2019 conference on how you used the grant and best practices; as well as, provide a written account on how the awarded funds were used submit a final grant report within 60 days of completing the project.