The embattled head of Ivy Preparatory Academy has been invited to speak at a congressional policy briefing in Washington, D.C., Friday to share how she overcame roadblocks to open Georgia’s first charter school for girls.
Nina Gilbert will join a panel of national school reform experts this week for a charter schools presentation.The seminar, hosted by the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, will rally support for multiple charter school authorizers in states and new federal policy to help improve the quality of the campuses.
Gilbert has been asked to talk about her rough road to approval that began with a rejection by Gwinnett CountySchools, which denied her charter petition in 2007. Ivy Prep won Georgia Board of Education approval later on appeal, but it operated on a shoestring budget with only state and federal dollars before the state's newest authorizer, the Georgia Charter Schools Commission, opened for business. Both the commission and the school of 290 girls now face a lawsuit filed in September by Gwinnett Schools officials who argue that the campus was opened and funded illegally.
“Many people in politics and policy are not well-acquainted with charter authorizing; this is really an effort to show folks on the Hill several of the aspects of charter school governance,” explained panelist Nelson Smith, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, who will also speak before congressional staff and others Friday. “Nina Gilbert’s participation arises out of the history of getting her school started. She has had the experience of trying several routes to get a charter authorized.”
In 2009, Ivy Prep was approved as one of Georgia's first commission charter schools. The designation allowed the campus to receive state and federal funding plus a controversial matching share of local dollars carved from the state allocation of Gwinnett Schools. The bump moved Ivy Prep's per pupil allotment from $3,000 to $7,000.