NORCROSS, Ga. — Parents and students are working hard to fire up an S.O.S. -- save our schools.
People turned out in force Saturday morning at Ivy Prep Academy in Norcross, to save the school which is one of 16 charter schools that may be forced to close following a Georgia Supreme Court ruling.
Ivy Prep opened in 2008 and will open this fall. After that, if something doesn't change, it may not stay open long.
Dee Dee Hudson, co-president of Ivy Prep's Parent Teacher Student Association, led a rally for several nicknamed "parent warriors."
They're all fighting to keep the charter school open.
"We want school choice. It's all about choice. That's the reason we're here today," Hudson said.
The future of the all-girls school was put in jeopardy last month when the Supreme Court ruled the commission that approved the charter school was unconstitutional. The issue: that taxpayer dollars are taken from the public schools and funneled to the charter schools.
On Saturday morning, Channel 2's Amanda Cook was there as Ivy Prep students, called scholars, shopped for discounted school uniforms and listened to testimony from students, parents and teachers about Ivy Prep.
"She was a decent student, but when she came here, her grades went up. She's a straight A student now," said Marlon Madden, talking about his daughter who is a student at the school.
Saturday's rally was a push for momentum, to endure the summer-long fight to get local school boards and legislators to change their minds and approve the needed funding to keep charter schools open.
"We're frustrated that a decision was made around school choice, and we feel like that choice has been taken away from us," Madden said.
"We have a right, as all parents do, for your money to follow your children," Hudson said.
The next step for the parents and teachers is to go to the school board meetings in both Gwinnett and DeKalb counties this week to start laying out the reasons to keep the school open.
WSBTV
