The Bibb County Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to deny a local charter school contract with Infinity Academy after learning of “disturbing” deficiencies in the proposed school’s application.
Infinity Academy wanted to open a small elementary school downtown as part of the Bibb County School District, but reporting from The Macon Newsroom found the school is not a registered nonprofit as it indicated to the district.
The person listed as board chairman in Infinity’s petition to the school district resigned months earlier and said she never signed documents that appear to reflect her signature. At least one other board member listed in the charter petition also had resigned.
School board president James Freeman said the district conducted its own investigation that “led to some disturbing things that we found,” including an apparently forged signature on a notarized document.
“That’s illegal,” Freeman said of the alleged forgery. “It eroded the confidence we had in everything that had to do with this application.”
Freeman said he was excited about the prospect of opportunities offered by the local charter school, but “I could not in good conscience go forward with what I found to be just starting us off on the wrong foot.”
The Infinity Academy’s founder, Christopher D. Holmes, previously told The Macon Newsroom the school would seek a charter contract with the State Charter Schools Commission if it was denied by the local school board.
Sherry Olivier, treasurer for Infinity and chief operating officer at Vein Specialists of the South, addressed the school board after its tentative vote to deny the charter contract.
Olivier said Infinity has a pending application for nonprofit status with the IRS and offered “an apology if there was any confusion at all.”
Since designing the school, Olivier said, “this board and Dr. Holmes has operated with integrity and transparency and if there was any miscommunication, it was not intentional.”
As of Thursday night, Infinity’s website inaccurately stated the academy “is 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.”
Board mulls millage rate
The school board is set to have a special meeting Monday to tentatively adopt the millage rate for fiscal year 2025.
Superintendent Dan Sims indicated in previous meetings that he prefers an increase of 1.5 mills, but that wasn’t among the recommendations presented to the school board at Thursday’s meeting.
The board approved a budget that includes a $10 million deficit that will either need to be addressed through cost cutting, using reserve funds or raising property taxes.
Sims declined to voice a preference for any of the four options presented Thursday.
Here are the four options the board is considering:
1) Maintain the current millage rate of 14.67 mills, which would mean a 5.50% property tax increase. The average home value in Bibb County is $200,000. Maintaining the millage rate would mean homeowners would pay $63.04 more in property taxes next year. A property owner with homestead exemption would pay $57.52 more.
2) A partial rollback of the millage rate by .50 mills for a millage rate of 14.174 mills. The partial rollback would increase property taxes by 1.91%. For the owner of a $200,000 home, the increase would mean $23.04 extra yearly. For a home of the same value with homestead exemption, it equates to an annual property tax increase of $21.02.
3) Increase the millage rate by 1 mill to 15.674. This would increase property taxes by 12.69%. For the owner of a $200,000 home, the increase would amount to $130.52 more in annual property taxes or $143 for homeowners with a homestead exemption.
4) A full rollback of the millage rate to 13.909 mills. Adoption of the rollback would not result in a property tax increase but would likely require the district to reduce programs and possibly need a tax anticipation note by 2027 to meet payroll needs.
The board is set to meet and tentatively adopt a millage rate at 5 p.m. Monday at the Professional Learning Center located at 2003 Riverside Drive.
To contact Civic Journalism Fellow Laura Corley, call 478-301-5777 or email [email protected].
