A month after not securing the needed votes, Hamilton County school board members voted Thursday to allow Chattanooga Preparatory School to increase its enrollment.
Under its updated charter agreement, Chatt Prep, an all-boys charter school in Highland Park, will be able to enroll 575 students this school year. The school’s enrollment was previously capped at 500.
Charter schools are taxpayer funded but independently run public schools. Locally, they’re governed by their own boards of directors but authorized by the Hamilton County school board. That means any change to a charter agreement, including an increase in the maximum student enrollment, must be approved by the school board.
The board voted 8-2 to approve the enrollment increase. School board members Karitsa Jones, D-Chattanooga, and Jackie Anderson-Thomas, D-Chattanooga, voted no, and Felice Hadden, R-Ooltewah, was absent.