STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION CHARTER COMMITTEE STATE OF GEORGIA GILDA DAY individually and on behalf of 119 similarly situated

employee educators of Floyd County School System, Petitioner, vs. FLOYD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, and SUPERINTENDENT JEFF MCDANIEL

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Respondents. PETITION TO HOLD SUPERINTENDENT MCDANIEL IN BREACH OF THE CHARTER AGREEMENT, TO REVERSE THE REDUCTION IN FORCE, AND TO TERMINATE THE CHARTER: COMES NOW GILDA DAY individually and on behalf of 119 other similarly situated RIFd employees of Floyd County Schools, and hereby files this petition pursuant to the States invitation for public comment and in response to the Superintendents letter dated April 24, 2013. INTRODUCTION The Superintendent and locally elected officials of the School District are currently intruding and infringing on the people of Floyd Countys right to common sense, Constitutional local self-governance by breaching the requirements of the charter system contract. As such, the Reduction in Force should be reversed, all programs and resources reinstated for Fiscal Year 2014 and this State should terminate the charter system due to the

Superintendents persistent failure to adhere to material terms of the peoples charter agreement pursuant to O.C.G.A. 20-2-2068. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: 1. It is important to have an understanding of the historical background of the issues presented. Floyd County Schools (FCS) is a charter system where parents, teachers, and community members of Floyd County have the right, responsibility, and duty of local selfgovernance concerning the important decisions that impact their local schools. In order to obtain this charter status, FCS entered into a charter agreement with the State Board of Education. FCS must abide by this contractual agreement in order to maintain the charter system. Pursuant to the Charter Agreement, members of the community, parents, principals, and teachers must make up a Local School Governance Team (LSGT) and Local School Coordinating Council (LSCC) to make the important decisions that include budgets and staffing for local schools.1 These important decisions must not be made unilaterally behind closed doors or dictatorially decided by the elite few in positions of governmental power. Rather, the people of Floyd County through their community leaders, parents, principals, and teachers who are members of the LSGT and LSCC have the duty and responsibility to local self-governance and involvement in these vitally important decisions including such matters as budgeting and staffing. To date, the Superintendent and District are in breach of the charter agreement because they did not include, inform, or involve the LSGT, LSCC, parents,
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See Page 4, Item 13, section B of the CharterSchool Level Governance: The Governing Council shall maximize school level governance which is defined as decision making authority in personnel decisions, financial decisions, curriculum and instruction, resource allocation, establishing and monitoring the achievement of school improvement goals and school operations. Also see: http://www.floydboe.net/charter/local_school_governance/innovation_begins_with_you

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principals or members of the Floyd County community in the decision to implement a Reduction in Force which relates both to budget and staffing decisions. Nor did they seek input from the local schools governance or principals in the decisions as to which positions and personnel would be affected. Not only did FCS breach the charter system agreement, but they also breached their own Floyd County Board of Education Reduction in Force policy which requires the administrator's observations and knowledge in choosing which educators to RIF by failing to involve any Principal input from each local school. Additionally, they have breached the majority if not all of the Essential Innovative Features as required by the Charter agreement on page two, number five, sections a-j: a modified calendar, high school scheduling designed under a hybrid block model, Physics First for 9th graders, LINKS classes, freshman academies such as High School 101, and utilization of community partnerships and resource management (using school governance teams to set budget priorities.) 2. Shortly after he took office, SUPERINTENDENT MCDANIEL informed the people of Floyd County that 120 of their communitys educators will lose their jobs after this school year and recently he suggested that more lay-offs are to come in the future. Even though the Board of Education approved the budget and found FCS to be in excellent financial standing just a few months ago, there has been no explanation and no hard and fast numbers provided by SUPERINTENDENT MCDANIEL as to where this supposed sudden budget deficit has come from and why. In fact, it appears that once the projected revenue numbers are actually out, they will show that such a claimed deficit is indeed false.

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3. When analyzing financial records and statements reflected on the Board of Education website, FCS appears to continue to be in good financial shape. It makes no sense for the Superintendent to even be able to comment on the projected revenues since at the time of the RIF and to date there has been no indication of projected state or local funding, i.e. tax digest releases or preliminary allotment sheets from the state for FY 14. At the time of the RIF, the Superintendent had no figures to support a realistic projection of revenue for FY 14. In fact, the General Assembly had not even started its session so there were no budget projections at all on the state level. To date, the Governor has already ruled that K-12 is exempt from any 3 percent cuts in state funding. On the local level, digest projections were not possible. Furthermore, the Superintendent did not account for any additional funding that came via charter system, the equalization increase in 2008, and mid-term adjustments. He also did not account for additional local revenue or any local revenue for that matter. Nor did he raise the option of the Board raising the millage rate back to previous levels in an effort to save school funding, jobs, and precious resources. 4. Superintendent McDaniel also did not take into account the furlough days that saved our District some three million dollars. Perhaps this is because he is trying to do away with furlough days. Notably, keeping the furlough days prevent the Superintendent and his administrators from being able to utilize state funds to provide themselves raises pursuant to O.C.G.A. 20-2-216.6. Nevertheless, taking into consideration the furlough days, another three million dollars should be credited to the budget revenues. Having three million dollars in

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additional revenue should help reverse the RIF, saving countless educators jobs and vital school resources. 5. Upon examination of our financial records posted on the Board of Education website, it reflects that we are in excellent condition and will end the fiscal year with a significant credit fund balance. In December, property tax was listed as very good and state revenues were listed on target. In March, property tax revenue was listed as excellent. At the most recent Board meeting this past April, they projected an ending reserve balance credit of $5,000,000. Nevertheless, how can it be claimed that FCS is in the red with a deficit when in fact we are in the black with a healthy ending reserve balance? Despite this, Superintendent McDaniel has made the decision to slash vital positions and programs impacting the entire Floyd County educational system. 6. The Charter Advisory Committee is a state level body state-level body with nine members. Three members are each appointed by the Lt. Governor, Speaker of the House and the Chair of the State Board of Education. On April 12, 2013 the Charter Advisory Committee voted unanimously that FCSs failure to consult with its school and system governing councils constituted a breach of the charter system contract, including but not limited to page 2, item 5, section hResource management (i.e. using school governance teams to set budget priorities) and page 4, item 13 section bSchool Level Governance. The Governance Council shall maximize school level governance, which is defined as decision making authority in personnel decisions, financial decisions, curriculum and instruction, resource

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allocation, establishing and monitoring the achievement of school improvement goals and school operations. 7. Before the Charter Advisory Committee recommends to the State Board of Education whether FCS actions constituted a breach of contract and warranted termination of the charter system contract, on April 16th, the Charter Schools Division Director Lou Erste asked Superintendent McDaniel if there had been any remedies of the situation which included a roll back of the RIF plan, reversal or revising the RIF plan or restart and modification of the FY 2014 process. 8. On April 24, 2013, Superintendent McDaniel wrote a letter in response. In this letter, he did not address any remedy of the breach of charter system contract such as reversing the RIF or modifying the budget process. There are few cited examples of any LSGT involvement since he became Superintendent and none of them address the issues brought forth as possible violations of the charter. The one about facility priorities is part of SPLOST planning and has been conducted under SPLOST II and III. He also claimed that the LSCC will in the future participate in the 2013-1014 budget process on May 16 and May 30th. But this is a case of too little too late, simply backtracking after the damage has already been done. Even worse, to prove that Superintendent McDaniel is deliberately circumventing the local school governance requirements, he admits that he intends to hold the first budget meeting with local school governance on May 16th, the very day after contracts need to be issued on May 15th, thus effectively keeping the LSCC from having any meaningful impact. If the LSCC recommends that a RIF is not necessary and the budget deficit is not as claimed,

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Superintendent McDaniel will have succeeded in further circumventing the local governance by holding the budget meetings AFTER the deadline date has been passed by one day. 9. Not only is the right of the people of Floyd County to local self-governance under attack, so are the Floyd County teachers constitutional, civil rights to due process. Defendants have disclosed their intent to erode this constitutional right to due process, robbing teachers of their right to a fair dismissal appeal, by claiming that they can simply because Floyd County is a charter system. Defendants counsel recently stated that it intended to deny all Floyd County educators the right to a fair dismissal hearing appeal, writing: Floyd County Schools became a Charter System in 2010 and as such was exempted [from the Fair Dismissal Act]. . . As such, we do not believe that the State Board has jurisdiction, or will exercise jurisdiction, over any appeal that you may later wish to pursue for your client. Nevertheless, Defendants position is absolutely false and reflects an attempt by the government to infringe upon the rights of the people. Under the Georgia charter statute, charter schools and systems are subject to all civil rights laws that protect both educators and students. See O.C.G.A. 20-2-2065 (b)(5). And, under Floyd County Board of Education policy, Defendants are subject to all provisions of O.C.G.A. 20-2-940, including providing educators the right to appeal. See Floyd County Board of Education policy GBN. 10. Without proper banking and financial regulations, Americans ended up with the subprime mortgage disaster that created financial havoc on the entire United States, plunging our economy into years of recession. Just as banking regulations are necessary to protect American consumers, state school laws, rules and regulations are necessary to protect our

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students, schools, teachers, and communities. These rules hold local school superintendents and school districts accountable and prevent dictatorships that wreak havoc on entire communities. If there is no accountability, class sizes can skyrocket, Teachers of the Year can be laid off, outstanding programs such as the Professional Learning Center and the College and Career Academy can be destroyed, and scheduling options to accommodate the specific needs of Floyd County students can go haywire. Most importantly however, the students of Floyd County Schools will lose vital services, resources, and educators because Reductions in Force are wrongfully implemented in clear violation of the charter system contract by circumventing the right of the people to local self-governance. Plaintiff files this petition because SUPERINTENDENT MCDANIEL has violated the trust of the people of Floyd County by irrevocably breaching the charter system contract, by excluding the local school governance and by implementing a Reduction in Force which was not necessary and should be reversed. WHEREFORE Petitioner Gilda Day individually and on behalf of all 119 other similarly situated educators demand: (a) That the Charter Committee and the State Board of Education affirm the recommendation of the Charter Advisory Committee that voted a unanimous opinion that FCSs failure to consult with its school and system governing councils constituted a breach of the charter system contract and; (b) That the Charter Committee and State Board of Education terminate the charter agreement pursuant to O.C.G.A. 20-2-2068 in order to hold the Superintendent fully accountable; (c) That the Reduction in Force be reversed;

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(d) That all programs and resources from the 2012-2013 school year as required by the charter agreement be reinstated and continued and; (e) That this State Board, the Governors Office and SACS investigate these governmental officials who are infringing on the rights of the people of Floyd County to local self-governance.

Julie Oinonen Attorney for Gilda Day, Petitioner Ga. State Bar No. 722018 Williams Oinonen LLC 44 Broad Street Ste 200 Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Ph)404-654-0288 Fax) 404-592-6225

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