Schools

Amana Academy Closes on North Fulton Purchase to Expand

The public charter school has filed a letter of intent to renew its charter, which expires after the 2013-2014 school year.

Amana Academy has closed on the 100,000 square foot Alpharetta Square shopping plaza on Main Street, which has been home to the public charter school since 2007. The school secured more than $8.6 million in bonds to buy the property.

The school did not use any county or school district capital program dollars to acquire the property, .

Amana Academy spent three years trying to secure a permanent home for the Fulton County charter school. One of the attempts was to get rezoning to move into a building off Marconi Drive, but that met with disapproval from many in the Windward community and Alpharetta City Council.

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In addition to buying the 10.66-acre shopping center, the school intends to use bonds proceeds to renovate 18,000 square feet of the plaza. New middle school classrooms and STEM labs, including a “Club Shop,” will be added in time for the 2013-2014 school year. Evergreen Construction, which Fulton County Schools used to build Cambridge High School, was chosen by Amana to complete the middle school renovation project.

Jaleel said 95 percent of the more than 660 students at Amana Academy live in North Fulton, mostly in Alpharetta and Roswell. This works for the school becaue of the students' familiarity with the current location and being close to Wills Park, downtown Alpharetta and business partners who support the school

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“What helped us was that we had solid financial standing, strong academic results, and an ethic of transparency with our authorizers – Fulton County Schools and the Georgia Department of Education," Jaleel said.

That's a big difference from how the school system says Fulton Science Academy Middle School dealt with its plans for a new school. Fulton Science Academy sought approval from the state and county after obligating the school to a bond issue, buying property, designing a school building – and insisting on a 10-year charter term.

Fulton County Schools' Susan Hale said FSA Middle School was offered a three-year renewal because of concerns on the "governing board’s long history of non-transparent dealings and operations." The FSA Middle School governing board’s refusal to accept a three-year term ultimately led to the school’s failure financially.

“Amana Academy now joins two other Fulton County charter schools (KIPP South Fulton Academy and Hapeville Career Academy) who own their own facilities. These schools have demonstrated exemplary financial management, governance transparency and academic performance over many years, thus earning the trust of the District, the State and financial partners," said Ken Zeff, chief of Fulton County Schools Strategy and Innovation Division.

Hale said the Amana Academy governing board fully and transparently informed the school system, various stakeholders and potential investors during the long process of securing the bond.

"They successfully gained approval from the GADOE Facility Services Unit for the building plans well in advance of the bond issuance. They were very clear in their communications with potential investors that the charter contract would end in June of 2014.  The school system was equally clear in its communications that the Fulton County taxpayer would not be responsible Amana Academy bond was a good investment," Hale said.

In December 2012, Amana Academy successfully completed the Georgia Department of Education’s site approval process. It secured approval for the bond issue s to fund the project via the Development Authority of Fulton County and the Fulton County Commission.

The school's existing charter contract expires June 30, 2014. Hale said the school's Governing Board already has begun the renewal process, having filed a letter of intent last week. The normal charter term for this type of school is five years, she said.

Calvin Stamps, Amana’s Governing Board treasurer, said, “It’s been a long road; this is a momentous time for our school.”


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