Dyer County admits rejecting Trimble Academy without seeking expert guidance
Willful Blindness? Dyer County Admits Rejecting Trimble Academy Without Seeking Expert Guidance
Good afternoon.
We have an important update on the effort to establish the first public charter school in Dyer County. School board members voted against authorizing Trimble Academy earlier this year on the recommendation of a district appointed review team. This week, we learned that the district did not seek to add expert guidance on that team.
The review committee just started looking at other charter schools. How did they operate, what did their plan look like...So, we just tried to comb through other applications and talk to other people to see how they did it.
Cheryl Mathis, Dyer County Director of Schools
By the numbers
600Residents live in Trimble.
16Waivers requested by Trimble Academy that the board cited as a concern, though many are commonly approved statewide.
$200,000Budgeted by Trimble Forward Alliance for building repairs to its proposed location.
Voices
Trimble Forward Alliance · President
It is old-fashioned schooling, the three Rs, reading, writing, and arithmetic topped off with robust literature, history, and fine arts curriculum that teaches students how to learn, not just what to learn.
Margaret PraterCharter Commission · Executive Director
In your reason for denial, in the conversation at the school board, there were concerns that they requested so many waivers; are they ready to operate a school? Yet many of the waivers are, I think, what we would see, are regularly common and approved waivers by charter applicants across the state.
Tess Stovall
What to watch
Oct TBD
Charter Commission Appeal Decision
The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission will decide Trimble Academy's appeal.
That's all for this week. We'll keep following the Trimble Academy story as it develops, along with the other issues shaping Tennessee communities. Thanks for reading.
