Nashville school board votes to deny 4 new charter school applications

Applications for four new Nashville charter schools and a request from Knowledge Academy Middle School were denied by the Metro school board Tuesday.

The board voted on applications from two new KIPP schools — one elementary and one middle — Tennessee Nature Academy and SaberSTEM academy, a K-8 school that would focus on STEM and offer Arabic language courses.

None of the schools met all the requirements laid out by the state's rubric for new charter schools, according to the MNPS Office of Charter Schools.

More: Four new charter schools proposed for Nashville, including Arabic-language school, nature academy

Each application is evaluated by the district's charter school application review team based on three criteria: academic merits, operations and finances. Applicants whose operator currently has other schools in the district are also evaluated on a fourth criterion: past performance.

Board commends nature academy's efforts

The Tennessee Nature Academy partially met academic and operational requirements, but did not meet financial requirements. The review committee noted the applicant's budget did not provide sufficient information about the cost of developing outdoor classrooms.

District officials also worried the school's proposed leadership team did not have experience operating a school, there were no plans for music education offerings or clearance around family engagement and English language learner opportunities.

Multiple board members commended the efforts of the applicant to implement a unique approach to education.

Board member Abigail Tylor said she liked the idea to offer class outside and emphasize education about nature and the outdoors, but said some of this work is already being done in Metro schools.

"It's extremely exciting what they're doing, and I know that's happening across the district already," Tylor said. "I would like to encourage Metro to hire a sustainability director so we can expand that at every school in Metro."

Board member Gini Pupo-Walker said she loved the idea and encouraged the applicant to make the necessary changes and apply again.

All charter school applicants are able to first appeal to the board and then to the state commission for approval.

Board members deny Knowledge Academy request, call it a 'loophole'

The board previously voted in August 2019 to revoke Knowledge Academy's ability to operate in the district, citing issues of fraud, misappropriation of funds and flagrant disregard for its charter agreement under former CEO Art Fuller, and to shutter the three schools.

Previously: Metro Nashville school board denies Knowledge Middle School's charter renewal

The closure was halted when the Tennessee State Board of Education overturned the board's decision and the district's Office of Charter Schools instead developed a support plan for the network, which began in January 2020.

The district did not recommend the middle school's renewal application this year after finding the school only meets one of four criteria areas of the application. The school appealed that decision to the state and later filed an emergency amendment request, which was denied by the board Tuesday.

The request was to consolidate the existing Knowledge Academy schools under one contract for 1,112 enrollment seats.

At all three existing Knowledge Academy schools, which serve grades 5-12, there are a total of 357 students enrolled, and there is no waitlist. The current capacity for Knowledge Academy middle school is 420, while the high school is 462.

Board member Sharon Gentry said the use of the emergency amendment process was an attempt by the school to get additional enrollment seats approved through a loophole.

"If we approve this, we are affirming bad behavior," Gentry said. "If I approve this application, I'm saying to every other charter partner we have that if you wake up one day and decide that you want to consolidate, add seats or do whatever you want to do, you can go through this loophole and declare an emergency."

District review team: Arabic-language school does not meet criteria to open

The district review team found that SaberSTEM Academy's application does not meet any of the three requirements and raised concerns about the school's reliance on a Michigan-based operator as well as a "lack of alignment with Tennessee education state standards, rules and procedures," according to the documents.

Salman Community Services would serve as the nonprofit operator of the school, according to the school's application. Salman is run by Education Management and Networks, a Michigan organization that operates charter schools in other states.

District documents note that there is also uncertainty around facility arrangements for the school, though according to the application if approved in time for the 2023-24 school year, the school would lease space out of the Islamic Center of Tennessee.

Several Nashville school board members are vehemently opposed to charter schools and argue they divert money from traditional public schools and circumvent local control.

Willingness to even consider approving a charter school application has become one of the foremost topics in this year's District 8 school board race in Southwest Nashville, though the majority of Nashville's charter schools are located in North and East Nashville.

New proposed KIPP schools only partially meet criteria to open

Both KIPP applications were found to partially meet most standards, with the district's review team noting that several KIPP Nashville schools have been recognized as Reward Schools in the past — the highest level of recognition for a school in Tennessee.

Related: Gov. Bill Lee criticizes federal government's attempt to 'limit local control' of charter schools

One item flagged in KIPP Southeast College Prep Elementary Schools' application was supposedly "inaccurate" assumptions about overcrowding in schools in Southeast Nashville.

Combined, the two KIPP applications proposed to eventually service nearly 1,200 students in the Antioch and Cane Ridge area, but district documents noted the district plans to build two new elementary schools in the area in the coming years.

"We began this process to relieve overcrowding in Antioch’s public schools," Erin Holt, communications director for KIPP Nashville said in an email Friday. "We remain committed to that and serving the needs of nearly 950 parents on the waitlist to get into our existing Antioch schools. We look forward to any feedback from MNPS and continuing in this process."

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Reach reporter Molly Davis at mdavis2@gannett.com or on Twitter @mollym_davis.

Meghan Mangrum covers education for the USA TODAY Network — Tennessee. Contact her at mmangrum@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Metro Nashville school board denies 4 charter applications