View Cart Checkout. I was excited to learn how she became so involved in community and public service, and her take on how the school was formed. Tell me about your family and your kids and how you ended up getting involved in the school. Michael was part of the founding 3 rd grade class and the very first 8 th grade graduating class at TMS. Back in , my husband, Rich and I first found out about a group of parents, some of which were part of the Avondale Education Association, who were interested in Education in Avondale Estates.
At that time, the group had already worked with Avondale Elementary School and were meeting at City Hall and beginning to explore a state law change that would allow communities to create charter schools with approval directly from the state. Did you know a lot of the other parents? She walked door to door on our street talking to families with small children who might be interested in knowing more about the education options in the community.
We talked about this idea of creating a school. And there was no looking back. We had some great technical expertise and leadership in the group and also looked to examples of other schools who had already been through the startup stage. We spoke to the Atlanta Neighborhood Charter School leaders who were super busy with their own school and still made time to help.
The Georgia Charter Schools Association had some great resources and support as well. But I will say, for a majority of issues that came our way, we just had to figure out. The core group started meeting pretty regularly โ weekly every Thursday at 7 pm for a good 2 years. There were many late nights sometimes until early morning and then continue on for some of us with specific action items to be researched and delivered before the next meeting. We just had to push through and kind of figure it out.
This sounds like a full-time job! How were you able to balance three kids, a career and starting a new school? After having twins, I was at a stage in my life where I had decided to stay home with my three boys after a year corporate career in tax and human resources.
