1. The complaint claims that LOA has acted illegally by allowing children of part-time employees to receive a lottery preference. That claim is based on an interpretation of a vague statute. The School District has one interpretation based on a simplistic and incorrect reading of the statute. LOA has had a grammarian make an interpretation which agrees with LOA’s interpretation. LOA also considered the statute in context, which supports its interpretation. The State School Board Assistant superintendent for Charter Schools agrees with LOA’s interpretation. The state legislature has now acted to clarify the law consistent with LOA’s interpretation. To claim that LOA or Dr. Otho Tucker has acted illegally is irresponsible, inaccurate, and potentially defamatory;
2. Dr. Houston has conducted an incomplete investigation. The complaint was filled with numerous inaccuracies. He never notified Lake Oconee Academy that the complaint had been filed, nor asked for comment, clarification or information. He never afforded Lake Oconee Academy the simple professional courtesy of allowing the school to confirm or refute his incorrect conclusions, nor did he send LOA a copy of the Complaint before sending it to the Lake Oconee News;
3. The timing of the complaint in itself may have breached those same ethics rules since the alleged breaches described were held well beyond the 90-day requirement to report such allegations once known. These allegations were all discussed at length during the charter renewal process last summer and fall, months before the 90-day deadline;
4. The complaint has violated FERPA, the federal law which protects student and family privacy, by identifying specific students and their parents;
5. LOA does not, at this time, have the investigatory materials that Dr. Houston used to draw his conclusions, but that information is an open record which will be requested. When received, the Board of Governors will conduct its own investigation and report its findings to LOA’s stakeholders;
6. Because of the apparent political nature of the entire circumstances, we will look to see if any laws were broken by accessing personal information of students and employees for a political purpose.

1. The article is filled with numerous inaccuracies, especially with respect to the statistical information which is both overstated and misconstrued to the extent we can reconstruct the numbers;
2. The complaint was only filed with the Georgia Professional Standards Commission;
3. Lake Oconee News has taken the position that the ethics complaint (an open record) is a secret source, and refused to send the complaint to Lake Oconee Academy, which would have allowed LOA to respond in an informed and constructive way, allowing more accurate and responsible reporting.