Chamblee Charter High School: Survivor

DeKalb County School System has 26 secondary schools (including the DeKalb Alternative Night School, DOLA Annex at McNair and Gateway to College). All are listed by GaDOE on their AYP report for DCSS, but DCSS does not report AYP scores for DeKalb Alternative, DOLA or Gateway to College.

Of the 26 secondary schools, only 7 – that’s just 27% – made AYP last year. These schools included Chamblee Charter High School, Lakeside High School, DeKalb School of the Arts, Dunwoody High School, DeKalb Early College Academy, Tucker High School and Arabia Mountain High School. Of the recently announced statewide SAT ranking, Chamblee Charter High School was #1 in DCSS and #20 in the state. Only Chamblee and Lakeside were in the top 25 schools in the state – Lakeside was #25.

Why is it – with 67% of DCSS’s schools not making AYP and big problems countywide (including a superintendent and a COO indicted on RICO charges; and internal affairs, finance and human resources departments that should, themselves, be investigated) – some contributors to this blog feel compelled to advocate for shutting down Chamblee Charter High School? Chamblee Charter High School is one of the few high schools in all of DCSS that is working.

Isn’t there plenty of other critical work to do?

• To right-size the DCSS central office;
• To pay principals and teachers commensurate to their critical importance to our students;
• To require reasonable accountability from our principals and teachers – yes – but also to give them the autonomy to lead and to teach; and
• To rehabilitate schools not making AYP?

Why are some contributors to this blog following the DCSS model of tearing down a successful school instead of doing the hard work of building up struggling schools that are failing our children?

Even before the magnet program for high achievers came to Chamblee High School in 1991, the school – DeKalb County’s second-oldest high school -- did well both academically and athletically. However, as rumor after rumor suggested that CHS might be closed, enrollment of resident students began to drop. People moved or enrolled their children in solid, steady, stationary private schools that were not closing. Later on, school enrollment was negatively affected in the 1980s when teachers were reassigned, by lottery, to “balance” teaching experience across DCSS. Some very experienced, very popular, excellent teachers who embodied the meaning, spirit and reality of Chamblee High School were arbitrarily reassigned to south DeKalb schools. This further fueled the rumors of CHS’s imminent closing.

Fortunately for Chamblee High School, Dr. Martha Reichrath arrived as principal in 1989. In 1990, DCSS suddenly realized that students in the Kittredge Magnet Program for High Achievers were ready for high school but, typically, DCSS had no plan. Dr. Reichrath offered CHS because there was room and because the “resident” students at CHS already were a diverse group with a strong tradition of academic excellence who could hold their own as academic equals with this influx of students. The magnet program was about one-third of the total CHS student body.

It has been a slow, long haul to re-grow Chamblee Charter High School’s resident program student population. The resident program’s re-growth was aided when Chamblee High School was named a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by the U. S. Department of Education in 1996. Subsequently, CHS also was named one of America’s Best High Schools by various national magazines such as Redbook and Newsweek. Then Chamblee became a charter school – approved jointly by secret ballot by the magnet and the resident programs’ parents and teachers – in 2000.

In spite of the terrible condition of the CCHS building; the rats, roaches, rust and mold; the apparent complicity of the fire department and health department inspectors, the EPA and OSHA; the “bait-and-switch” with SPLOST after SPLOST after SPLOST; a very weak and inept principal who is on record as not liking charter schools; and an inattentive board of education member, Chamblee has managed to thrive. Chamblee Charter High School is one of the very few bright lights in DCSS.

But the rumors about closing Chamblee have flared up again. This time the Internet is fanning the flames. These rumors are fueled by this blog and they have gained widespread acceptance by readers of this blog. Even though the CCHS attendance area is growing with young families whose children will be ready for high school in just a few years, none of the advocates for closing Chamblee Charter High School seem able to look past the end of their noses. Talk about closing CCHS sends these families with rising high schoolers straight to solid, steady, stationary private schools where there is no talk of closing.

So, I ask again: Why is it – with 67% of DCSS’s schools not making AYP and big problems countywide (including a superintendent and a COO indicted on RICO charges; and internal affairs, finance and human resources departments that should, themselves, be investigated) – some contributors to this blog feel compelled to advocate for shutting down Chamblee Charter High School? Chamblee Charter High School is one of the few high schools in all of DCSS that is working.

Isn’t there plenty of other critical work to do:

• To right-size the DCSS central office;
• To pay principals and teachers commensurate to their critical importance to our students;
• To require reasonable accountability from our principals and teachers – yes – but also give them the autonomy to lead and to teach; and
• To rehabilitate schools not making AYP?

Why are some contributors to this blog following the DCSS model of tearing down a successful school instead of doing the hard work of building up struggling schools that are failing our children?