Nine proposed public charter schools are up for vote this month. Will school boards follow the recommendations from independent reviewers who gave five applications high marks?

The approval process for proposed new public charter schools is about to begin its second round for school districts across the state.

Four school boards will be voting on amended applications this month from nine public charter schools that were all denied in the spring.

Four amended applications up for vote in Shelby County

The Memphis-Shelby County School Board is the first up in the process, voting tonight on four proposed charters, including two that received high marks from an independent review.  The Quality Charter Review recommended approval for Pathways in Education (PIE) and Empower Memphis Career and College Prep.

Board members will also vote on amended applications from CHANGE Academy and the Tennessee Career Academy.

Last week the district review team recommended denial for each amended charter application.  Reviewers found only one, Empower Memphis, met state standards and they recommended denying it because the proposed school is in an area that is considered “saturated.”

The district review made that determination about Empower Memphis by evaluating current enrollment data and not projected enrollment for when the school would be at full capacity.   Metro Nashville Public Schools used a similar tactic to deny the application from the Tennessee Nature Academy last year, only to see that denial overturned by the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.

Pathways in Education previously operated a public charter school in Memphis under the state’s Achievement School District (ASD) from 2014 through 2022. Leadership changes within the ASD led to the school’s closure, but the organization believes its model is still needed for at-risk students in Memphis.

“There is a very small, and I don’t want it to grow but I feel it’s a growing niche of students who are more than two years outside of their graduation cohort.  Meaning, they’re not going to graduate within the two years that they were supposed to graduate. And so that really limits what alternative school Memphis-Shelby County Schools can offer for them,” said PIE Regional Director Valerie Brennan.

American Classical Education submits two amended applications

American Classical Education (ACE) will also have an amended application up for vote tonight.

ACE chose to submit amended applications for two of the four applications it saw denied in the spring by school boards members in Maury, Madison, Robertson, and Montgomery County.

Maury County’s School Board will vote on ACE’s amended application tonight and board members with the Jackson-Madison County School System are scheduled to vote on an amended application there July 25.  The organization is no longer seeking to apply to open public charter schools in Robertson and Montgomery County.

ACE first gained attention last year when Governor Bill Lee expressed support for the organization in his state of the state address, but the group’s fortunes changed following public outcry over American Classical Education’s connections to Michigan based Hillsdale College and controversial statements Hillsdale President Larry Arnn made about teachers on video.

ACE was unsuccessful in applying to open three public charter schools last year though the organization did find approval this year from the Rutherford County School Board.

Three amended applications up for vote in Davidson County

The amended approval process moves to Davidson County next Tuesday where school board members will vote on amended applications from three proposed high-quality public charter schools.

Independent reviewers gave high marks to the applications from Invictus Nashville Charter School, Nashville Collegiate Prep High School, and Pathways In Education, but school board members denied all three in April.

Since then, Pathways in Education has made changes to its applications in Nashville and Memphis to increase the time spent in the classroom learning English, math, and science from two days a week, to a daily four-hour flexible schedule. Brennan says it will be especially useful to students in Nashville from immigrant families.

“What I see in Nashville is a growing immigrant population where we have served those students before.  Where the possibility of maybe those second-generation family members, maybe education may not be the family’s top priority,” said Brennan. “That’s kind of where PIE comes in where we say no you can get a high school diploma.  Don’t give up. Don’t fall into that gap.”

Invictus Nashville came the closest to approval in April with a 5 to 2 vote.  The proposed school would be the first public charter school to be founded by an MNPS graduate. Brenda Jones grew up in East Nashville’s Cayce Homes and aims to bring her Montessori curriculum model to Donelson and Hermitage.

“There are not a lot of school choice options in the charter realm in that area,” said Brenda Jones. “The Donelson-Hermitage area is still one of the most affordable places to live and there’s a lot of development going there, a lot of families are moving there. So there’s still a need as well in that aspect to provide more high quality options for families that are coming to the Donelson Hermitage area.”

Updated to include Madison County date.