Fulton County Schools touts charter-system engagement, new oversight tools and $4.2 million in charter-dollar spending

Ryan Moore, executive director of strategy and governance for Fulton County Schools, told the board on Jan. 14 that the district’s charter system saw strong engagement in 2024, including high School Governance Council (SGC) participation and an uptick in charter-dollar expenditures.

Moore said the district had about 400 SGC election candidates and maintained a 96% council staffing rate. He said the county disperses an annual state allocation for charter dollars — roughly $4.5 million under recent budget recommendations — and reported that schools spent about $4.2 million of those dollars in the prior year, the highest level in the system’s history.

The presentation outlined how Fulton uses a tiered “value added flexibility” (VAF) model to grant schools local waivers and opt-in program adoptions. Moore said 29 opt-in adoptions were in place, and 15 value-added waivers (VAFs) were active. He described VAF examples including instructional-minute waivers, adjusted graduation-credit paths, TAG delivery models and credit-recovery approaches. Moore said programmatic requests will now come through the VAF process so school governance councils, zone superintendents and the superintendent’s cabinet can review them before board consideration.

Moore also reviewed district-level governance and fiscal oversight improvements: a quarterly zone efficacy scorecard that checks school websites and posted minutes for policy and Georgia Open Meetings Act compliance; a proprietary member database to track SGC members, background checks and training; and a publicly viewable strategic action-plan dashboard that will show metrics such as net-promoter scores, charter-dollar expenditure and staffing rates year-to-year.

He highlighted specialized district programming — FCS Innovation Academy, Global Impact Academy and the Promise Career Institute — and said district flexibilities include calendar and course substitutions when those options meet or exceed state requirements. Moore said the district has been aligning charter-dollar spending with program specialists and created a “charter dollar matrix” to help schools connect with experts (for example, literacy specialists) when allocating funds.

Moore closed by announcing a new leadership development series for SGC members to be rolled out in May after elections are finalized, work this spring with GLISSE on cross-council strategic-implementation coaching, and that charter-system renewal will again appear on the board’s agenda in 2026.

Board president Kimberly Dove and Superintendent Mike Looney thanked Moore and his team for the work; no formal board action was taken on Moore’s report during the work session.

Ending: Moore said the district will continue to use SGCs as a primary vehicle for shared governance and monitor compliance and spending through the new scorecards and dashboards.