About Us
Our History
Mission Statement: Partnering with parents and community to inspire students to achieve personal and educational excellence.
Educational Philosophy: Children supported by family and community can learn to their maximum potential when offered a rigorous, content-rich, hands-on curriculum through stimulating teaching in a safe and nurturing environment.
Charter: A written grant by a legislative or sovereign power, by which an institution such as a government, company, school, or city is created and its rights and privileges defined.
On February 12, 1733, the ship Anne sailed down the Savannah River bringing 114 settlers and General James Oglethorpe to found the colony of Georgia. Two hundred sixty-six years after the Anne arrived in America, a group of parents led by Martha Giddens Nesbit applied to the state of Georgia for another kind of charter, partly inspired by General Oglethorpe’s vision to create a haven where all could thrive. They wanted a chance to start a school for adolescent learners in Chatham County that would provide a setting where parents could become more involved in their children’s education, have some flexibility with regulations then in place while maintaining educational and fiscal integrity.
The parents were granted a charter by the State of Georgia in 1999, the first start-up charter school in the state’s history. Oglethorpe Academy opened in August of 1999 at the Pearl Lee Smith building, a vacant former elementary school on Stiles Avenue, with just under 200 students serving 6th and 7th grades. An eighth grade was added the following year.
In 2004, the school changed its name to Oglethorpe Charter School. Another milestone was reached in 2012 when the school moved to its present state of the art facility at 7202 Central Avenue in Savannah, Georgia. At the close of the 2023-24 school year, we celebrated our 25th year of partnering with parents and the community to inspire students to achieve personal and academic excellence.
Today, our dedicated professional faculty and staff proudly serve 600 students selected through an open admission process with no entrance criteria from all parts of Chatham County. We continue to follow our mission:
Partnering with parents and community to inspire students to achieve personal and educational excellence.
-
-
Oglethorpe Founders
-
Savannah Morning News article about Oglethorpe Academy in 1999
-
Picture from "Savannah's Historical Public Schools" by Larry W. Smith published 2004
-
Oglethorpe Academy building facing Stiles Avenue
-
Hastings Building, 8th grade wing at Stiles Street location
-
7th Grade Breezeway at Stiles Street location
-
6th grade hallway at Stiles Street location
-
Building ramps on the portables at Stiles Avenue location
-
Library Media Center at Stiles Street location
-
Students walking to the Temple of Glory on Stiles Avenue for an assembly
-
Bird's Eye View of the New Building on Central Avenue
-
Ribbon Cutting for the New Building on Central Avenue
-
Oglethorpe Charter School, 2012
-
Blanket Waiver for Oglethorpe Charter School
Pursuant to O.C.G.A. §20-2-2065 and Georgia State Board of Education Rule 1 60-4-9-.04, the Charter School will be waived from state and local rule regulations, policies, and procedures and/or provisions of Title 20 of the Official Code of Georgia, other than the provisions of the Charter School Act of 1998. The charter school will not be subject to the provisions of this title or any state or local rule, regulation, policy, or procedure relating to schools within an applicable school system regardless of whether such rule, regulations, policy, or procedure is established by the local board, the state board, or the Department of Education; provided, however, that the state board may establish rules, regulations, policies, or procedures consistent with this article relating to charter schools. In exchange for such a waiver, the charter school agrees to meet or exceed the performance-based goals included in the charter and approved by the local board, including, but not limited to raising student achievement, and will comply with all the requirements of the single statewide accountability system.