The LOA Board has submitted its response to the GCSS’ ethics complaint filed by Superintendent Houston of the Greene County School System (GCSS) against Dr. Tucker, and naming LOA. In the complaint The Greene County School District, through Superintendent Houston, alleges several ethics violations which are either unsupported by fact or based on an inaccurate interpretation of the law. Both Dr. Tucker and LOA deny any wrongdoing. To read LOA’s 9-page response with supporting documents, CLICK HERE. Following is a synopsis of LOA’s answer to the complaint:
1. The School District alleges that Dr. Tucker violated his duty to follow O.C.G.A. §20-2-2066 by granting enrollment preferences to the children of part-time employees.
State Law allows the charter school to grant an enrollment preference to part-time employees. The School District has misinterpreted law which says that “full-time teachers, professionals, or other employees” may have an enrollment preference. Specific legal interpretation of “Full-time”, shows that it only applies to teachers, and not professionals or other employees. The state legislature has revised the law to clarify this long-held interpretation. Dr. Tucker did not violate the Code of Ethics for Educators by utilizing the correct legal interpretation of the law over the School District’s interpretation.
2. The School District alleges that Dr. Tucker violated the standard of honesty by interpreting the law contrary to its own, and incorrect, interpretation. There is no proof or fact associated with this allegation.
3. The School District alleges that Dr. Tucker violated a standard by misuse of Public Funds and Property by enrolling and paying for students that the School District believes should not have been enrolled. There is no proof or facts associated with this allegation.
4. The School District accuses Dr. Tucker, without evidence, of denying students with disabilities, access to LOA (a quality education ), because of part-time employees’ enrollment preferences. LOA believes that this allegation instead shows that the School District is failing to provide a quality education to its students and, by requiring an enrollment cap, the School District is guilty of failing to provide an approprite education for hundreds of children.
5. Dr. Houston may have violated federal law by identifying specific students and their parent in violation of federal privacy laws.
6. Dr Houston presented several statistics on LOA’s enrollment practices. LOA has spent significant effort trying to understand the statistics. They are at best inaccurate. Below is an accurate description of preferential enrollment for the last 2 years.
