The charter school operator IOTA Community Schools will continue to run Wooddale Middle School after the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission (TPCSC) voted Thursday to reverse a decision by Memphis-Shelby County Schools leaders to deny their application.

Wooddale Middle School leaders are taking their appeal to state leaders after Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board of Education members recently voted to deny Wooddale’s amended application to transfer into the district from the state-run Achievement School District.

Members of the Memphis-Shelby County Board of Education voted to approve amended charter applications for both the Memphis Grizzlies Preparatory STEAM School for Girls and Journey Northeast Academy at Tuesday’s board meeting.

Ben Frazier says traditional public schools have failed his autistic son.Frazier told members of the Memphis Shelby County School Board last week that his family has faced a lack of communication and accommodation at district-run schools, but everything changed when he enrolled his son at Wooddale Middle School.“When I got my child to Wooddale, everything changed. Wooddale is a family-oriented school. They take care of the kids,” said Frazier. “It’s a neighborhood school, they deal with the community. The staff keeps the parents informed, everything that I was not getting when he was not at Green Dot Schools, I’m getting now. My son is excelling, he came out of his shell, you can’t even tell that my son is on the spectrum because they have worked with him so much and I appreciate Wooddale so much for everything that they have done.