Fayette County, Tennessee, currently has only one high school to serve its population, which is expected to grow significantly when Ford Motor Company brings 5,800 new jobs to the nearby Blue Oval City.¶
Mecca Jackson, who has proposed the Academy of the Arts public charter school, aims to offer a much-needed school choice option to the families who will move into the area and may not wish to send their children to Fayette-Ware High School.¶
“School choice, there is none on the public school sector at the high school level,” Jackson said. “There is no school choice unless parents and families have the financial resources to send their children to private schools or stay home and home school them.”¶
The Academy of the Arts would start with approximately 90 ninth-grade students in the 2023-2024 school year and grow to a full high school serving over 400 students by year four. The school’s goal is to educate students through the performing arts while also offering academic and entrepreneurial skills.¶
Students at the Academy would have the opportunity to major in disciplines such as Music, Visual Art, Dance, Fashion Design, or Film/Video/Drama. Jackson believes this arts-focused curriculum will help improve test scores in Fayette County, particularly for students of color.¶
“Regardless of all the dynamic things happening in schools, there is still a significant population of students who are not learning,” Jackson noted. “Fayette-Ware, in comparison, is underperforming relative to both the state of Tennessee and the county.”¶
The Fayette County Public Schools board voted down the Academy of the Arts’ application last August, prompting the school’s leaders to appeal to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. On Thursday, the commission held a public hearing where the district presented several concerns that led to the initial rejection of the application.¶
One significant issue raised by school board attorney Tom Minor is the proposed school’s lack of approval from the federal district court, which is required to meet student and faculty diversity requirements. Fayette County Public Schools is currently under a federal desegregation consent order.¶
“It has failed to address its required compliance with the board’s pending federal desegregation consent order and has failed to provide a detailed analysis of whether the operation of the school will negatively impact the board’s court-ordered obligation to remove all vestiges of discrimination from the district,” Minor explained.¶
Several Fayette County residents, including a town mayor and school principals, also voiced concerns during the hearing.¶
“The curriculum is not where it should be to meet the needs of our students,” said Oakland Mayor Mike Brown. “There is a need for fine arts. There is a need for CTE (Career Technical Education), but I’m not sure the curriculum I’m seeing here today will meet the needs of our students.”¶
Principal Stephanie Blade added, “As a principal, I haven’t spoken to a student in my building who’s been invited to a focus group, nor a parent, and that concerns me.”¶
Despite the opposition, some community members supported the Academy of the Arts. Former teacher and grandparent Paul Williams spoke in favor of the school, stating that it could benefit some of his 16 grandchildren.¶
“One of my major concerns is that these grandchildren... will have a program that best meets their needs,” Williams said. “I have two of those 16 that I believe would benefit greatly from the Academy of the Arts Charter High School.”¶
The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission will decide on the Academy of the Arts’ appeal at a meeting on October 18.¶
