East Lake’s Charles R. Drew Charter School has been named the 2012 Georgia Charter School of the Year by the Georgia Charter Schools Association (GCSA). Drew principal Don Doran accepted the award at the GCSA’s annual conference, held earlier in October in Atlanta. The Charter School of the Year award is granted in partnership with the GCSA and The Coca-Cola Foundation, and includes a $50,000 grant. Drew Charter School was recognized for “academic excellence as measured by standardized achievement tests, operational sustainability and sound fiscal practices,” according to the GCSA.
Drew Charter School, which serves over 1,000 children from Pre-K through grade eight, also recently received approval to amend its current charter from the Georgia Board of Education. The Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education approved the charter amendment in July. This charter amendment allows Drew to build a Senior Academy (grades nine through twelve), completing the school’s mission to provide children with a “cradle-to-college” education. Plans call for the Senior Academy to accept its first class of freshmen next year and groundbreaking for the new, 200,000 square foot facility will take place early in 2013. The Senior Academy will be located adjacent to Drew’s current campus in East Lake.
The school has retained Southern Teachers Agency, a Charlottesville, VA-based education placement firm, to conduct the search for a principal for Drew Senior Academy. Founded in 1902, STA is the oldest educators’ placement service in the country.
