The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission provided a mixed bag for supporters of two public charter schools vying to transfer into the Memphis-Shelby County School (MSCS) district.Commissioners unanimously upheld the transfer appeal from Cornerstone Prep Lester Friday but denied Fairley High School. The decision means Cornerstone Prep will continue to operate as a public charter school as it transitions to MSCS while Fairley faces an unknown future with Green Dot Public Schools no longer serving as its operator.Cornerstone Prep and Fairley are in the final year of a ten-year contract with the state-run Achievement School District (ASD), an intervention that serves the lowest achieving schools. Both schools applied to transfer into the district in hopes of continuing the turnaround work as public charter schools.

Tennessee Public Charter School Commission Executive Director Tess Stovall is providing mixed recommendations for two public charter schools seeking to transfer out of the state-run Achievement School District (ASD) and into Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS).Stovall is recommending commissioners approve the appeal from Cornerstone Prep Lester (CPL) and deny the appeal from Fairley High School at a hearing Friday morning.

Fairley High School’s fight to remain a public charter school in Memphis is receiving a boost from the more than 200 people who submitted comments in support of the school to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.The school’s future has been uncertain since the Memphis-Shelby County School Board voted down its request in July to transfer into the school district.Fairley High School was once a traditional public school but a decade ago the state moved it to the state school system intervention for low-achieving schools known as the Achievement School District (ASD). Fairley is currently in the last year of a ten-year contract with the ASD and its leadership with Green Dot Public Schools hoped a transition to Memphis-Shelby County Schools would allow the school to continue as public charter school.Under state law, Green Dot had the option of appealing to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission to overturn the district denial.  Green Dot did just that and as part of the process, the commission is considering comments submitted by the public online and at a recent hearing.

Patricia Adams graduated from Fairley High School in 1989, when the school was still a traditional public school in Memphis.Since then, she’s witnessed the school undergo two different leadership changes, including what she calls a rebirth when Green Dot Public Schools took over to run Fairley as a public charter school in the state-run Achievement School District (ASD). Adams is currently serving as the organization’s Director of Operations.

Members of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Board of Education voted to deny four out of five applications Tuesday night from public charter schools vying to transition from the state’s Achievement School District (ASD) and into MSCS.The vote means an uncertain future for Humes Middle School, Martin Luther King Jr. College Preparatory High School, Cornerstone Prep Lester, and Fairley High School in the 2024/2025 school year. Each school could face closure, a merger into the district’s Izone turnaround school model, or potentially even remain open as public charter schools if leaders successfully appeal to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.Each of the five schools applying for transition to MSCS is doing so because the school is in the last year of a ten-year term with the Achievement School District. The ASD 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.

Fairley High School students and alumni told the Memphis-Shelby County School Board they want the school to remain open as a public charter school.Fairley is among five public charter schools that have applied to transition out of the state’s Achievement School District (ASD) and into Memphis-Shelby County Schools. School Board members denied all five during Tuesday evening’s meeting.