Amid flag debate, ACE principal steps aside

Academy for Classical Education Principal Lara Relyea retired Monday, according to a news release from the north Macon charter school.

Relyea’s retirement comes after ACE received backlash for not lowering its American flag Sept. 11 following a declaration from President Donald Trump.

The order directed public buildings and grounds to lower American flags to half-staff through Sept. 14 in memory of Charlie Kirk, the right-wing media personality assassinated Sept. 10 in Orem, Utah.

The board held a closed-door meeting at 8:30 a.m. Monday with one personnel item on the agenda. At 10:36 a.m., officials emailed a letter to parents announcing Relyea’s retirement.

Relyea will be replaced on an interim basis by Laura Perkins, who co-founded ACE and served as its principal from 2014-24.

ACE is a state-approved charter school that opened in 2014. The school receives federal and state funding but has its own independent governing board and does not abide by Bibb County School District policies.

At the ACE board’s regular meeting Sept. 15, a number of parents showed up to express their dismay over the school’s failure to lower the flag. Witt Gaither, ACE board chair, later said the flag policy was amended to address “confusion surrounding ACE’s obligations” as a state charter school.

“Going forward, we shall comply with Presidential Proclamations and Gubernatorial Executive Orders,” Gaither wrote in an email to The Melody.

According to minutes from the Sept. 15 meeting, Relyea told the board there was “no political motivation” behind not lowering the flag.

“Looking back, I wish we had lowered the flag this year,” Relyea’s statement said. “The executive order to lower flags applied to government buildings and we do not yet have a board policy guiding our response to such orders.”

Jami Conover, whose children have attended ACE since its opening, said Relyea’s office had been emptied and her name was removed from its door mid-Monday morning. Conover claimed the governing board asked Relyea to retire, a detail The Melody has not independently confirmed.

Gaither wrote in an email to The Melody that Relyea requested to retire and the governing board had accepted her decision.

As of Monday afternoon, Relyea had not responded to The Melody’s request for comment.

Conover said she thought not lowering the flag was a political statement and “a really bad time to make one.” She also added the absence of an apology from Relyea at last week’s board meeting left people unsettled.

“This was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back — this has kind of been mounting,” Conover said.