The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission sent another strong statement to the Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education that it can’t deny high-quality public charter schools without data and facts.
By a unanimous vote Wednesday afternoon, commissioners overturned the MNPS school board’s July decision against applications for KIPP Southeast Nashville College Prep Elementary and KIPP Southeast Nashville College Prep Middle School.
“The application and the thoughtfulness here is what I wanna see for any school I will vote to approve,” said Commissioner Wendy Tucker. “This is what it looks like to want to serve all kids and to want to really focus on being able to meet the needs of all kids.”
Tucker praised the applications for both KIPP schools for their detail in serving special needs students with a high-quality education and the organization’s successful 17-year history of running schools in Nashville.
KIPP Nashville originally applied to open the two public charter schools to serve a growing population in Antioch. The schools would join two other KIPP Nashville schools in the area to feed students into the soon to open KIPP Antioch College Prep High School.
This would create a similar model the organization is currently using in North and East Nashville to funnel students from two elementary schools and two middle schools to KIPP Nashville Collegiate High School.
MNPS school board members voted the proposal down claiming these additional charter seats were unnecessary in the Antioch and Cane Ridge clusters and the district continued to make that case in general terms at Wednesday’s hearing.
“The district itself has already allocated resources towards renovating and building existing schools in the area and already has other charter schools opening in the next school year,” said MNPS in a letter to the commission. “MNPS and in fact the charter commission have a duty that is larger than the short-term benefit to the students who desire to attend KIPP schools in the Antioch area.”
Commissioners disagreed.
Several members of the commission referenced the long wait list at other KIPP schools as a sign the schools are needed, and Commissioner Alan Levine questioned the lack of MNPS data and facts to explain why school board members don’t believe the schools are in the community’s best interest.
“I can’t gather from their letter why this is contrary to the best interests of the students, the LEA, and the community and because I can’t articulate from their letter or I can’t gather from their letter why they say it’s not in the best interest, it strikes me as just being sort of a statement without any supporting information to back that up,” said Levine. “I take their concerns very seriously and if they’re going to say something they really ought to back it up with the facts and the data so that we can actually consider it.”
The decisions in favor of KIPP Nashville’s appeals were the first of 9 new start appeals commissioners will eventually decide this month.
The charter appeals process has faced criticism from school choice opponents recently of being a rubber stamp for public charter schools, but Wednesday’s meeting showed once again that those criticisms are off base.
Commissioners were originally scheduled to decide three appeals from American Classical Education, but the organization withdrew its appeals following public comments to the commission in opposition. Additionally, leaders of Saber STEM Academy in Nashville withdrew their appeal before today’s scheduled vote following a recommendation against approval from Tennessee Public Charter School Commission Executive Director Tess Stovall.
The commission also unanimously voted down a third appeal Wednesday from a proposed school in Clarksville.
Oxton Academy Appeal
The commission’s decision against Oxton Academy ends its supporters hopes of opening Clarksville’s first public charter school next year.
The proposed school would have served up to 300 students with a high-quality curriculum that’s tied directly to career education to offer practical, skill-based knowledge, and industry certifications. The concept was designed to appeal to recent dropouts, at risk students, and military families.
The Clarksville-Montgomery County School System School Board narrowly voted down Oxton Academy’s charter application by a 4-3 vote last July despite the proposed school receiving a positive recommendation from the district’s charter review team.
Several commissioners were supportive of the concept of Oxton Academy but questioned the public support for the school and whether its leaders were truly ready to open it next year.
Commissioner Chris Richards encouraged Oxton Academy leaders to reapply next year.
“There are a tremendous number of students that can’t use the services of a traditionally scheduled school. They are the sole breadwinners for their families. They have part-time or almost full-time jobs and for them to be permanently hampered in the process of obtaining a high-school diploma because they have these kinds of needs breaks my heart and this operator clearly gets it,” said Richards. “I think this is a very important effort that ought to be brought forward again perhaps with better documentation.”
The charter commission will decide appeals from Founders Classical Academy of Brentwood and Founders Classical Academy of Hendersonville on October 17. Commissioners will wrap up the appeal process by deciding an additional four appeals from West Tennessee and Nashville on October 18.
