Charter schools are going to cost Hamilton County Schools, officials say.
Ivy Academy and Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy still are public schools, but their students will take with them their share of property and sales taxes as well as Basic Education Program money from the state, said Hamilton County Schools Chief Financial Officer Tommy Kranz.
CHARTER SCHOOLS
Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy, an all-girls middle-high school is scheduled to open July 27 in the James A. Henry building at 1200 Grove St. The first day of school at Ivy Academy, an environmentally themed charter high school, is scheduled for Aug. 10. Administrators are accepting applications for rising sixth- and ninth-graders for the all-girls school, and rising ninth-graders who wish to attend Ivy.
For more information, go to www.ywlaf.com, or www.ivyhighschool...>
If 180 students from Hamilton County Schools enrolled in the two schools next year, it would reduce money to the district’s traditional schools by about $1.3 million, he said.
“I’m worried about it, but it’s not the top priority,” he said.
Maxine Bailey, co-director of the Girls Leadership Academy, said her school is not taking money away from the district. State and local money follows each student, she said, no matter which public school they choose to attend.
Charter schools, like magnet schools, offer parents another choice for their children beyond traditional public education, Ms. Bailey said.
“If the promise of better results and higher graduation rates are recognized, then (charter schools) have a benefit to the district,” she said.
Hamilton County Board of Education Chairman Kenny Smith said charter schools would end up helping many students, but there is a financial concern.
“Anytime we go in a new direction, we have to consider money,” he said. “Our budget crisis is real ... we can’t have a charter school just to have one.”
Mr. Kranz said his biggest concern is that, though students will leave other public schools to attend the charters, the district won’t necessarily be able to cut teaching positions. Because students may come from many different schools, there may not be enough of an exodus at any one school to be able to justify cutting a position, he said.
“We may not have a corresponding reduction in expenses,” he said. “If I’m seeing more revenues leaving the system, who gets penalized? The existing children in the district’s schools.”
School board member Everett Fairchild said he doesn’t remember discussing the financial impact of charter schools when they voted to approve the two upcoming schools.
If a bill to open charter school enrollment to all students — not only those zoned for a high-priority school or students who themselves have done poorly on state standardized tests — passes in the Tennessee Legislature, Mr. Fairchild worried about the future impact.
“If the law changes, we could very well suffer again,” he said.
Kelli Gauthier covers K-12 education in Hamilton County for the Times Free Press. She started at the paper as an intern in 2006, crisscrossing the region writing feature stories from Pikeville, Tenn., to Lafayette, Ga. She also covered crime and courts before taking over the education beat in 2007. A native of Frederick, Md., Kelli came south to attend Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in print journalism. Before newspapers, ...
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