Cherokee Charter Receives Full Funding

, officials announced that the state would close the $2.9 million funding gap that organizers of the school were scrambling to fill.

"The state will forward fund the bricks-and-mortar state-chartered special schools for an amount equal to the average local share in their attendance zones," said Louis J. Erste, director of the Georgia Department of Education's charter schools division. "This will bring state-chartered special school revenues to the same amount they would have received as Commission schools."

With just 18 days to go before the start of the new school year, over the lack of information and movement at the county's first charter school.

Organizers said communication slowed, in part, because they were trying to nail down funding forCherokee Charter Academy.

The school didn't have $2.9 million in local funding it would have received as a district-approved or state-commissioned charter school. State-chartered special schools, the designation the state BOE gave to Cherokee Charter Academy and eight other , aren't eligible for it and had to find alternate funding sources.

Erste's announcement came as parents were beginning to pursue other educational options for the 995 students accepted during a May lottery.

It's not clear if the county's first charter school will open Aug. 1 as planned.

In an interview with Canton-Sixes Patch on Tuesday evening, charter organizer Lyn Michaels-Carden said the school was "in the process" of hiring teachers.

"We have not hired our entire complement," she said.

After the announcement, Michaels-Carden emailed Patch.

"YEAH," she wrote. "I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off right now."

Stay tuned to canton-ga.patch.com, hollysprings.patch.com and woodstock.patch.com for updates.

CHARTERS GET FUNDING

 This will help the following seven schools:

1. Atlanta Heights Charter School (Atlanta Public Schools) 
2. Charter Conservatory for Liberal Arts and Technology (Bulloch County) 
3. Cherokee Charter Academy (Cherokee County)  
4. Coweta Charter Academy (Coweta County) 
5. Fulton Leadership Academy (Fulton County) 
6. Heritage Preparatory Academy (Atlanta Public Schools) 
7. Pataula Charter Academy (Baker, Clay, Calhoun, Early Randolph Counties) 

This will NOT affect the following nine former Commission schools:

Virtual schools
8. Georgia Connections Academy (Statewide) 
9. Provost Academy (Statewide) 
10/11. Odyssey School/Georgia Cyber Academy (Statewide)

Locally-approved charter schools:

12. Ivy Preparatory Academy (Gwinnett and DeKalb Counties) 
13. The Museum School of Avondale Estates (DeKalb County) 

Schools that do not yet have new charters:

14. Peachtree Hope Charter School (DeKalb County)
15. Chattahoochee Hills Charter Schools (Carroll, Coweta, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton Counties)
16. Heron Bay Academy (Griffin-Spalding and Henry Counties)