A group of black community leaders vowed Friday morning to fight a state take-over of Howard School of Academics and Technology.

Judge Walter Williams, a Howard graduate, said at a press conference in the lobby of the school gym, "We are proud of the hard work of the students and staff at Howard. We as community leaders and supporters of Howard will fight vigilantly against any state take-over or change of administration at this time."

As a part of the state's application for a $501 million prize in the federal Race to the Top program, Howard is among the schools listed as going under an Achievement School District to be operated by the state.

Options under the designation include conversion to a charter school, closing the school, or replacing the principal and/or staff.

Howard is the only Hamilton County school among nine designed for the state take-over.

Rep. JoAnne Favors, who was among those at the rally, said legislators were not given advance information about the Race to the Top program during the recent special legislative session. She said officials said they feared if they did so that the information would fall into the hands of other states who would copy it. Rep. Favors commented, "As if I would give it to Georgia."

She said she had serious concerns about the program and read the bill 15 or 20 times. She said after the state education association agreed to go along with it, there was no reason for her to continue to fight.

Rep. Favors said there was a section in the bill about the state take-over of schools, but she said it did not specify which schools. That was added later when the state's proposal was submitted to the federal Department of Education.

Rep. Favors said, "I still think we can work with our state education department and overturn this."

The community leaders spoke highly of current principal Dr. Paul Smith.

George Ricks, school board member and longtime Howard cheerleader, said he is "the best principal we've had since I've been here."

Judge Williams said, "Dr. Smith called me the other night at 10 o'clock. I thought he was at home, but he was still at school."

Judge Williams also said, "Dr. Smith, the faculty and staff and especially the students need to know that the community is behind them. With all of the progress that has been made at Howard, now is not the time to pull the rug from under them. The state should be an enabler rather than an inhibitor to moving Howard up to the prominence that it held for many years."

He said in the last three years "Howard has turned the corner in the areas of academics, school climate, discipline, parental involvement and attendance."

He said:

Math achievement increased from 51% to 72% last year

English achievement increased from 83% to 94% last year

Incidents of fights have decreased from 174 in 2008 to 94 in 2009

Parent meeting attendance has increased from 14 parents to over 300 at the last gathering

The four-year on-time graduation rate has increased each year from 24.6% in 2005 to 47.4% in 2007 to 56.6% in 2009. The projection this year is for between 67% and 81% graduation rate

There has been an increase in renewable scholarships for students from $700,000 in 2008 to $2.1 million in 2009

There has been a decrease in truancy since 2008 from 83% to 17% in 2009.