Chattanooga’s first elementary charter school will open in August 2011 after being rejected by the school board last year.
Adira Academy changed its name to Chattanooga Charter School of Excellence, made improvements to its original application and now will operate as two separate single-sex schools under one roof, after the Hamilton County Board of Education approved the charter Monday.
“We feel like this is a strong application,” Deputy Superintendent Rick Smith told the board before its vote. “The financial and education plan had the most improvement.”
Hamilton County now operates two charter schools: Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy and Ivy Academy.
Chattanooga Charter school founder Marcia Griffin said she wanted her school to have single-sex classrooms the first time she presented her application last year, but didn’t have enough research to support it at that time. Leaders plan to open the school with grades kindergarten through second and an enrollment of 125 students, adding one grade per year.
Ms. Griffin, a certified public accountant by trade, said she felt the school’s original name, Adira Academy, was “too girlie” for boys.
“Chattanooga Charter School of Excellence has a ring to it, that we’re part of the community and we’re here for the long haul,” she said.
School board member Janice Boydston cast the only vote against the school, saying she doubted whether the school had any tangible improvements.
“We tell them what’s wrong (with the original application) and it’s easy enough to come back on paper with it fixed,” she said. “I’m not comfortable with their application. Somebody’s going to have to tell me how they can do a better job than what we’re already doing.”
When Ms. Griffin initially submitted her application in October, a team of central office administrators evaluated it based on its mission, education plan, founding group and business/operations.
In order to be recommended for approval, an application must score at least 80 percent in each category, but the school failed to do so in both the education plan and in business and operations. School officials then appealed to the state board of education and were denied again.
This time around, the application scored more than 80 percent in all four categories.
“I listened to (Rick Smith’s) comments and never took them personally,” Ms. Griffin said. “I saw how we could improve the application.”
Board member Chester Bankston said the board has to rely on the school system to evaluate the charter school applications.
“I don’t have a thing against charter schools if they get their scores up,” he said.
Ms. Griffin said a main focus of her school will be integrating art, theater and music into the academic curriculum. Although she hasn’t found a building yet, she hopes to locate somewhere within the city limits to better serve the at-risk population.
Members of the school system now will begin negotiations with leaders of the new school to develop a charter for its operation.
Continue reading by following these links to related stories:
Article: School board approves elementary charter
Article: Elementary charter school to appeal rejection to state
Article: Charter school rejected
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