Savannah Classical Academy charter renewed, enrollment cap stays

by Steven Glover

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Savannah Classical Academy will remain open under a new eight-year charter, but its enrollment will stay capped at 640 students.

The Savannah-Chatham County Board of Public Education approved the renewal Wednesday. The new term is set to run from July 1, 2027, through June 30, 2035, pending state approval.

The board did not approve SCA’s request to raise its maximum enrollment to 1,000 students or to give enrollment preference to students from Tybee Island Maritime Academy.

SCA CEO Barry Lollis said the cap could limit the school’s ability to bring in new students as current students advance through the grades.

“If I maintain the current enrollment I have, and I only enroll kindergarteners … I can’t bring in 75 kindergarteners the following year because I’ll exceed my cap,” Lollis said. “And all those families that are looking to come to Savannah Classical Academy, I will have to turn away.”

The district’s charter review panel found that SCA met all five performance standards in its current contract, covering academics, finances, governance, legal compliance and organizational compliance. The district said the school’s 2025 Content Mastery scores were higher than district and state scores across elementary, middle and high school grade levels.

SCA also recently received Georgia’s Title I Distinguished School recognition for the third consecutive year. The award goes to schools among the state’s top 5% of Title I schools, based on English language arts and math scores from the 2024-25 school year.

Lollis said the school wants to grow in a planned way.

“We want to take more, and we want to enroll more, and we want to do that in a planned fashion just like any other school does,” he said. “It’s critical to our growth.”

In a letter to SCA, Superintendent Denise Watts said the district was not recommending an increase to 1,000 because it wanted a more developed plan for facilities, financing, staffing and the effects of expansion. The district said SCA can seek a future increase through the charter amendment process.