A charter school that aims to open in Macon next year has glaring deficiencies in its petition to the Bibb County School District that have prompted alarm and concern among Bibb school board members who are set to vote on its fate later this month.
The Infinity Academy Corp. plans to open an elementary school downtown next school year. The entity is not registered with the IRS as a nonprofit, a requirement for charter schools to operate in Georgia.
At least one person on Infinity’s eight-member governing board is no longer a board member. Retired educator Pamela Burkhalter, listed in the petition as the governing board chair, said she resigned in May. Documents that appear to bear her signature were forged, she said.
“That is not my signature. Period. I am stunned,” Burkhalter told The Macon Newsroom upon seeing for the first time a notarized affidavit the school submitted to the Georgia Board of Education in March. “Seriously. I never signed anything via a notary for The Infinity Academy. Never.”
Burkhalter said she started serving on the Infinity school’s governing board in February but resigned because she thought someone else might be a better fit.
Burkhalter and Christopher D. Holmes, the founder of the school, once worked together in Bibb schools.
The proposed charter school’s 177-page petition was not made publicly available by the Bibb County School District, which published a summary of it online. The Macon Newsroom obtained the full petition from the district through a request made under the Georgia Open Records Act. The district provided the petition a week after it was requested.
The petition details plans for opening a small school downtown next fall. The school curriculum would be focused on science, technology, engineering, art and math with an added emphasis on community service work.
Holmes, who lives near Atlanta, said the signatures in the petition were a formality and the petition could not be amended after it was provided to the school district and the state. Asked about how Burkhalter’s name came to be on the document, Holmes said she gave him permission to sign on her behalf. Burkhalter said she did not give Holmes that permission.
Bibb school board members hesitated to approve the charter school upon Superintendent Dan Sims’ recommendation at the school board’s monthly meeting in July. Three board members voiced concerns at that meeting about the short time they were afforded to review the lengthy charter petition.
School board members were provided the petition days before the July meeting. Sims initially recommended that the board deny the petition but, shortly before the July meeting changed his recommendation and asked for the board’s approval.
Sims said he and staff had spent a significant amount of time reviewing the prospective charter school’s petition since the district received it in April and he expected the board’s only role would be to ask questions before approving it.
The board voted to table the matter and take it up at its meeting in August to allow board members more time to review the petition.
Board members expressed dismay and surprise when contacted by The Macon Newsroom about the apparent forgery.
Freeman said he knew Burkhalter as a former district employee and her presence on the board lent more credibility to the school.
“One of the positives, in my book, was the people who were involved,” school board president James Freeman said in a recent phone call. “Then, to find out she’s not involved [and] maybe there’s some fraud about her involvement, that’s deeply concerning.”
According to the petition, The Infinity Academy board includes Erin Keller, vice president for development at NewTown Macon; Wesley Fondal Jr., an education consultant and the executive director of Starbase Robins; Donie Hogan, owner of the Alexander Ballroom and Catered Events; Harold Young, executive director of the Tubman African American Museum; Tonya Lofton Coons, a former Bibb County School District employee and entrepreneur; Sabrina Barnhill, nurse and owner of Labelleza Interior Salon and Sherry Olivier, chief operating officer at Vein Specialists of the South.
Board member Daryl Morton said he would like the board to pause its consideration of the petition until allegations of fraud are investigated and addressed.
“Making a decision on a charter application is incredibly important because of the money involved and also the children attending the school,” Morton said. “Allegations of fraud in the application process is deeply concerning and goes straight to the heart of the viability of the charter school.”
If the Bibb school board denies Infinity’s petition, Holmes said the charter school will seek a contract with the State Charter Schools Commission. If the school board approves the charter contract with Infinity, it will add an additional school to the district which is early in the process of exploring potential school closures.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story misstated Pam Burkhalter’s former position in the Bibb County School District.
To contact Civic Journalism Fellow Laura Corley, call 478-301-5777 or email [email protected].
