An application for a new Hamilton County elementary charter school faced harsh criticism from school board members Thursday who said Adira Academy Charter School did not have a sufficient financial or academic plan.
“I don’t see anything (in this application) that meets, much less excels the standards in Hamilton County Schools,” said Janice Boydston, a member of the Hamilton County Board of Education.
A review of the Adira Academy Charter School application, submitted by Marcia Griffin, a Florida charter school organizer who plans to move to Chattanooga, was reviewed at a school board work study meeting.
The lackluster review gave the school’s mission four points out of 10. The education plan was given 25.46 points out of 40, the founding group was given 14.94 points out of 20 and the business plan was given 12. 91 points out of 30, board documents show.
Rick Smith, Hamilton County Schools’ deputy superintendent, said each measure needed to receive 80 percent of the possible points for the administration to recommend the creation of the school. No measure received a high enough ranking.
“We don’t find the application to be strong enough,” Mr. Smith said. “We expect Ms. Griffin and her team to come back with a rewrite. ... We are going to recommend to the deny this application.”
Ms. Griffin, who was present at the work study meeting with several of her colleagues, defended her charter school proposal and said she will address all the board’s concerns in a written response before it meets to vote on the application next Thursday.
Adira Academy, which would enroll kindergarten through fifth grade, is modeled after Eagles Nest Charter School in Coral Springs, Fla. Ms. Griffin’s parents founded Eagles Nest.
“I want to keep that dream alive,” she said.
Eagles Nest now has an elementary and a middle school with kindergarten through eighth grade, according to the Web site for the Broward County school system in Florida.
When Mrs. Griffin decided to move to Chattanooga to be near other family members, she learned there was no elementary charter school in the area and decided to try to do something about it.
“When I address all your concerns I hope to be given a fair chance,” she told the board. “I would like to be taken seriously. I am here to stay.”
Hamilton County school board Chairman Kenny Smith said the board is cautious about approving a charter school application since the system already has two struggling charter schools.
“This is an open-minded board,” he said. “But it is also not a rubber stamp board.”
Joan Garrett has been a staff writer for the Times Free Press since August 2007. Before becoming a general assignment writer for the paper, she wrote about business, higher education and the court systems. She grew up the oldest of five sisters near Birmingham, Ala., and graduated with a master's and bachelor's degrees in journalism from the University of Alabama. Before landing her first full-time job as a reporter at the Times Free Press, she ...
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