A nonprofit partnership zone for five of the county's most underperforming schools is a golden opportunity for those schools to have more independent, laser-focused, turnaround-oriented governance.
Members of the Hamilton County Schools administrative staff and various other stakeholders were briefed on the possibility of such an opportunity Monday by Tennessee Commissioner of Education Candice McQueen.
The schools, Brainerd High School, Dalewood and Orchard Knob middle schools, and Woodmore and Orchard Knob elementary schools, would exist - for at least a five-year period - in a district within a district that would have its own superintendent/director, very small central office staff, and board.
Such an eventuality would be an alternative to the schools being taken over by the state, the planning process of which already was in the works, according to McQueen.
However, a collaborative partnership like she is suggesting is one of the plans recently submitted by the state education department to the federal government to satisfy a portion of the Every Student Succeeds Act.
We believe such an opportunity would give the local schools a better chance of academic improvement, improvement that has been fleeting despite their inclusion in a locally managed iZone for the last several years and despite an infusion of millions of dollars in grant money.
Despite such advantages, "we have not seen the level of improvement we would expect to see" among the schools, McQueen said.
Were such a plan to be agreed upon by local and state stakeholders, the 2017-2018 school year would be one of planning for the district. Year one of the partnership zone would be the 2018-2019 school year.
"The message is we care about all 2,300 children in these schools," said McQueen, who later briefed Times Free Press reporters and editors on the possibility. Should it occur, "students will be better served [through] a more holistic approach."
Instead of being solely under the thumb of the Hamilton County Schools district, the schools would come under a partnership that would include the state, the district, the independent board, the Chattanooga 2.0 movement and a third-party organization like Massachusetts-based Empower Schools, which has helped to bring together community partners for school change elsewhere.
Interim Superintendent Dr. Kirk Kelly said he has had multiple conversations with McQueen during the current school year about the five schools, which have been on the state's radar for improvement for more than a decade. He said everyone in the room for the discussion Monday looked at such a turnaround plan as a "great, unique opportunity."
If all goes well, he said, "maybe it would be a model for the nation."
Although there will be time within the next month for more discussion about the plan among stakeholders - indeed, whether stakeholders believe it is the right move for the schools - "the urgency of the decision is there," McQueen said.
By mid-June, some type of agreement or memorandum of understanding between the local school district and the state would need to be drawn up, and it would need to be in place by the end of summer. In the fall, the district superintendent/director and board would be appointed (60 percent by the state, 40 percent by the district). In the spring, the structural and curriculum components of the district would be put in place.
The empowerment zone would be funded, just as the district is, by the state's Basic Education Program funding formula, McQueen said.
However, more of the money would be "funneled toward the schools." And, she said, such an innovative model could be ripe for local, state or national grants.
Staffs at the five schools should not worry this would be a "fresh start" - essentially starting over," McQueen said.
"We're not coming in and getting rid of all the teachers," she said. Instead, the partnership zone will "go forward" with "what we do know that works" and "vast supports to serve the students that are there."
Decisions, McQueen said, would be made school by school, but a successful strategy in one school could easily be replicated in one of the other five.
If the partnership zone strategy is adopted and implemented, she said, in time other underperforming schools in the district could be added.
But that's putting the cart before the horse. Local stakeholders must agree to go forward. With a full state takeover at 17 Memphis and Nashville area schools, the success has been mixed. But Hamilton County, uniquely, has a different opportunity in which "true, trusted partners" work together to find the improvement that has been lacking. We hope they take it.