The first public charter school in Hamilton County will serve girls only.

After school administrators praised the Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy’s application at Tuesday’s work session, the board on Thursday voted to approve the school’s opening in July 2009.

Hamilton County has received several charter school applications since the state began allowing them in 2002, but all of them either have been denied or have withdrawn their applications after approval.

“I think they made one mistake in their application,” joked Hamilton County Board of Education member Rhonda Thurman of the newly approved school. “They said they planned to advertise (to get students to come) — I don’t believe you’re going to have to advertise.”

Seven of the eight board members voted for approval, while the eighth member, Joe Conner, abstained from voting because he was absent during Tuesday’s work session discussing the school.

Within the next 30 days, members of the Young Women’s Leadership Academy Foundation, the school’s sponsoring organization, will begin negotiating with school system officials to draft a contract, said school board attorney Scott Bennett.

Mr. Bennett said the negotiations would include specifics about the school’s operation, such as funding sources and finding a facility.

The next step for the charter organizers is to begin a national search for a school director and finalize the facility’s location, said Maxine Bailey, executive director of the foundation. At Tuesday’s work session, members of the charter school’s planning team suggested using either the old Franklin Middle School building or the James A. Henry building on Grove Street.

The academy, which will operate on a year-round schedule similar to Hardy Elementary, will serve girls in schools failing to make adequate yearly progress — currently Howard School of Academics and Technology, Lookout Valley Middle-High, Ooltewah High, Soddy-Daisy High and East Side Elementary — or students who themselves have failed to score proficient on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program tests.

Ms. Bailey, who said she got goosebumps Thursday each time she talked about the school’s approval, said she was especially excited for local parents whose daughters soon will have another public school option.

“I’m very proud of Hamilton County Schools for recognizing the opportunity here,” she said.

Yolanda Sanders’ daughter, Mikeyla Davis, wants to be a doctor, she said, so the specific math, science and technology focus at the new school will serve the sixth-grader well. Although Mikeyla likely won’t be able to attend the school for several years — the academy will begin in 2009 only with grades six and nine and will continue to grow one grade per year — Ms. Sanders said she’ll take what she can get.

As for 12-year-old Mikeyla, currently a student at East Ridge Middle School, she thinks going to a girls-only school will help her focus on her studies.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun,” she said. “There’s a lot of boys in my class now and they’re talking to me, so I have to go to another part of the classroom.”

Another charter school hoping to open in Hamilton County, Ivy Academy, expects a vote today from the Tennessee Board of Education on the school’s second state appeal, following two rejections from the local school board.

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