A group hoping to open a charter elementary school that primarily serves male students is seeking approval from the Hamilton County Board of Education in the spring.
The Empowerment Academy submitted a charter application by Hamilton County Schools’ deadline this month. It also submitted similar charter applications to the Metro Nashville and Memphis-Shelby County school systems.
Charter schools are taxpayer-funded and independently run public schools. Locally, the charter schools are all governed by their own boards of directors and authorized by the Hamilton County school board. There are nine such schools in the county, and they serve around 3,000 students.
The district’s charter committee is now responsible for reviewing the application using a state scoring rubric, as well as conducting capacity interviews to ask follow-up questions and gain additional information.
The committee will then submit a recommendation to the school board, which is responsible for approving or denying the application. If the board denies the application, there are steps prospective charter schools can take to resubmit or appeal the decision.