Utopian Academy for the Arts was created in response to Clayton County’s dire need for alternative public education solutions and, ultimately, for education reform. After being denied for three consecutive years by the Clayton County Board of Education to authorize Utopian from 2011-2013, Dr. Miller appealed to the State Charter Schools Commission in 2013. Of the initial 16 applications received statewide, Utopian Academy for the Arts was the only school approved, also making history as the first charter school authorized by the State Charter Schools Commission of Georgia. Funded primarily by the Georgia Department of Education, the school is the county’s first charter middle school.
Utopian Academy for the Arts opened its doors in fall 2014 launching a distinctive model with single-gender core classes and arts-integrated learning; the school persevered through early local permitting hurdles in Riverdale and went on to grow into a K–12 network. Recognizing its unique approach and access to arts-based education, the Clayton County Public Schools System subsequently approved the vertical expansion to add the Utopian Academy for the Arts Elementary (est. 2020) and Utopian Academy for the Arts High School (est. 2022). In 2023, the charter school network launched its second middle school, Utopian Academy for the Arts-Trilith.
In 2015, the Georgia General Assembly passed House Bill 372—the “Utopian Academy for the Arts Act”—which, among other provisions, protects state-authorized charter schools from added local operating requirements once they’ve met state inspections and obtained a certificate of occupancy and also permits weighted lotteries to better serve educationally disadvantaged students; Gov. Nathan Deal signed it into law on April 22, 2015.
In 2023, Utopian Academy for the Arts was recognized as the Georgia Charter School of the Year!
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