Do Not Close VIP Academy: An Anonymous Teacher Makes the Case

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8 min read

Last updated November 2, 2026

By an Anonymous VIP Teacher, guest contributor

Editor’s note: This guest article arrived through the Global Watchdog Tipline on November 2, the day after we opened the door to guest contributions. The author is a current VIP Academy teacher who asked to be published anonymously. On a staff this small, the reason is stated plainly in the article itself. Global Watchdog knows how to reach the author, and the piece was edited only for clarity and legal risk, as our guest article guidelines describe. The views expressed are the author’s.

The proposed closure of VIP Academy raises serious questions that deserve honest answers from the Bibb County School Board and district leadership before any final decision is made.

First: Closing VIP Will Not Fix the Budget

First, closing VIP Academy will not solve the district’s budget problem. VIP Academy is a small campus with very few staff. Closing it does not fix the structural shortfall that caused this crisis. It moves the district’s financial problems onto the students, families, and staff least responsible for them, and the underlying problem stays where it was.

Second: The Board Was Not Told the Truth About the Replacement

Second, the Board was not told the truth about the proposed In School Academies (ISAs) at each high school. The Board was led to believe the ISAs would be a comparable alternative for students who need a non-traditional setting. They are not, and they are not working. The ISAs offer no live learning, and no teacher delivers live instruction. Students sit in a classroom at their home high school and work through Edgenuity on their own while a teacher watches. That is supervision. It is not instruction, and it does not replace what VIP Academy provides.

The ISA model was not created to fill a gap in services. The district already has a virtual program that works: VIP Academy. A district that wanted more students to have access to non-traditional learning would refer those students to VIP. Instead, it built a weaker copy inside every high school, so students who would have enrolled at VIP stay at their home schools. Fewer students coming to VIP then becomes the district’s argument that VIP is too small and too costly to keep open. The ISAs were designed to take students away from VIP Academy, and that is exactly what they are doing.

The ISAs are also not being implemented the way they were presented to the Board, and they are not producing results. If the district cannot make its replacement program work, it has no basis for closing the program that already does.

VIP Academy is the only virtual program in the district where students receive live, teacher-led instruction. For students who cannot succeed in a traditional classroom because of health needs, scheduling conflicts, credit recovery requirements, or other circumstances, that instruction is often their only path to a diploma. Replacing it with self-paced software in the same buildings these students struggled in, and telling the Board it is equivalent, misrepresents what these students will actually receive.

Third: The Cost Figures Are Overstated

Third, the cost figures used to justify this closure are significantly overstated. VIP Academy has no assistant principal, so that salary should not appear in any total used to argue the campus costs too much. The principal’s salary was also overstated. Leadership pay is set by degree level, and our principal holds an Ed.S., not a doctorate. The financial case for closure must be recalculated with accurate numbers before any vote is taken.

Fourth: The Results Speak for Themselves

Fourth, the results speak for themselves. VIP Academy’s Milestones scores have grown every year in every subject. Algebra I grew by 26 percent, more than any other high school in the district. The district has also proposed putting VIP Academy’s original blueprint in place at every other high school, which admits the model works. Instead of supporting the virtual school it already has, the district plans to copy what we do and close the original.

Nine Teachers Doing the Work of Two Schools

The Board should also understand what this small staff carries. VIP Academy runs with seven content teachers (four high school, three middle school), two special education teachers (one for high school, one for middle school), one counselor, one administrative assistant, paraprofessional support, and one principal. There is no assistant principal. These seven content teachers cover every grade from 6 through 12. Each one teaches three different live courses at three different grade levels and also monitors students working in Edgenuity. The work also crosses school levels. Our high school teachers teach their content to middle school students as well as high school students, and some of our middle school teachers also teach high school courses.

Our high school science teacher shows what this looks like. He teaches three live courses: Biology (the EOC course, 10th grade), Environmental Science (9th grade), and Physical Science (11th grade). He also monitors every student taking science through Edgenuity. That is one teacher, three courses, three grade levels, and an independent-study caseload on top of it, and every teacher on campus works the same way. In practice, nine teachers are doing the work of an entire traditional high school and middle school staff. VIP Academy has still faced closure two years in a row.

Why Were VIP and SOAR Split Apart?

This raises another question: why were VIP Academy and SOAR Academy split into two schools? VIP and SOAR share the same building. Until the district divided them, they were one school, and both programs ran well under one principal and one assistant principal.

SOAR Academy now teaches its in-person students and also teaches students virtually. Those virtual students could easily be taught by VIP Academy’s teachers, who already deliver live virtual instruction every day, in the same building. Under one school, that is exactly what would happen. Splitting the schools blocked it. SOAR’s virtual students are counted as SOAR’s, and VIP’s enrollment stays artificially low.

SOAR is the district’s only alternative school, so it cannot easily be closed. VIP can. Separating the two schools kept VIP’s student count low and left it the one most exposed to closure. That was not an accident of the split. It was the result of it. The Board and Superintendent should explain why the district runs two virtual programs in the same building and closes the one with live instruction and rising test scores, and why it divided a school that worked as one unit.

Set Up to Look Small, Then Cut for Being Small

It also raises a harder question. Why has VIP Academy repeatedly absorbed budget cuts, staffing cuts, and two years of closure threats instead of getting the support a successful program needs to grow? Between the ISAs drawing students away and the split with SOAR holding enrollment down, VIP has been set up to look small and then cut for being small. Making disproportionate cuts to a high-performing, high-need program is hard to square with a stated commitment to student outcomes.

Afraid to Speak Openly

Staff have also been afraid to speak openly, and the Board should understand why. Our staff is so small that describing any specific incident would immediately identify the person involved. Retaliation is a real concern. Staff have reported feeling bullied by leadership, both by the campus principal and by the district office downtown. Teachers should not have to choose between telling the truth about their school and protecting their jobs. That this statement has to be framed so carefully says a great deal about the climate these educators work in.

The students who rely on VIP Academy need this environment to learn. Sending them back to traditional schools that have not worked for them, or into an ISA that offers no live instruction, would directly threaten their ability to graduate. Staff, students, and families should not have to lose a school they built and believe in because of budget decisions made above their level, especially decisions that rest on inaccurate information. Classroom staff and campus leaders do not control district funding. That authority belongs to the Board and the Superintendent’s office. The people being asked to bear the consequences did not create the shortfall.

Questions the Board Owes This Community

Before VIP Academy is placed on the chopping block, the Board and Superintendent owe this community clear, specific answers:

1. What alternatives to closure were considered?
2. Why was the Board given inaccurate information about the ISAs, and why are they not being implemented as presented?
3. Why were inaccurate staffing and cost figures presented to the Board?
4. Why were VIP and SOAR split apart when the combined structure worked?
5. Why are SOAR’s virtual students not being served by VIP’s teachers in the same building?
6. Why has a proven program been targeted two years in a row?
7. What will be done so staff can raise concerns without fear of retaliation?
8. How will the district serve these students if this pathway is eliminated?

Anything less fails to account for the impact of this decision on the people it will affect most.

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