Five public charter schools that have applied to transition out of the state run Achievement School District (ASD) and operate as charters under the authority of Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) face more uncertainty.
Tuesday the district’s charter review team recommended school board members deny amended applications to exit the ASD from Humes Middle School, Martin Luther King Jr. College Preparatory High School, Cornerstone Prep Lester, Coleman School, and Fairley High School.
“There are…amongst those schools, some concerns related to the low enrollment or underutilization of seats and buildings,” said Assistant Superintendent of Charter Schools Brittany Monda.
The Achievement School District is an intervention run by the state to serve schools that are in the lowest five percent of schools, or a low achieving school across the state. Much of the ASD runs in Memphis, including more than 20 public charter schools.
Each of these five schools is in the last year of a ten-year term with the ASD and the schools will face an uncertain future if the board denies their transfer application, including the possibility of closure.
“It would be a collaborative decision with the board, the community, our facilities team. There are a lot of actually different people and different bodies involved in any decision like that and that would be a collaborative conversation,“ said Memphis-Shelby County Schools Chief of Communications Cathryn Stout.
One possible destination for these schools, other than closure, would be to transition into the district’s IZone turnaround school model.
Deputy Superintendent Dr. Angela Whitelaw presented that as a possibility the district would recommend if the board denies the transition applications.
“If the board agrees with our recommendation, then we would bring those schools back on board with us, and just as we did with the other three ASD schools that we had on last year, then definitely we would be thinking with intentionality of ensuring they join our IZone family,” said Deputy Superintendent Dr. Angela Whitelaw.
IZone schools receive extra administrators along with an extra hour added to the school day and additional resources in the classroom. Additionally, students in these schools might receive extra workbooks, and extra computer time, and teachers are provided coaches to work with.
MSCS board members are scheduled to vote on the transfer applications from all five schools next Tuesday.
Schools denied by Memphis-Shelby County Schools also have the option of appealing to operate under the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission’s authority. Last year the Commission approved two ASD transition appeals and members approved another three ASD transition appeals in 2021.
