A new charter school could be coming to Knoxville. Here's what you need to know
Knox County could soon add its second charter school as organizers hope to open the district's first single-gender public school and first charter school for high school students.
Knox County School Board members are set to vote April 6 on the application for Knox Prep, a school operated by the same organization that runs Chattanooga Prep.
Here's what you need to know about the proposed new school:
Who would run Knox Prep and who can attend?
The school is proposed by Prep Public Schools, the organization that runs a charter school in Chattanooga called Chattanooga Prep.
Knoxville's version would be modeled on the Chattanooga school and would be an all-boys school "with a focus on innovation and leadership," according to its application.
How many students can attend Knox Prep?
Knox Prep will open in 2024, if approved, with 105 sixth graders. It's expected to reach full capacity of 700 students by the 2030-2031 school year. A new sixth grade class will be added each year as the preceding class advances.
Where will Knox Prep be located?
The school is planning to lease the current Boys & Girls Clubs of Tennessee Valley site at 967 Irwin St.
The school also has proposed a partnership with Knoxville College, the city's only historically Black college, to use its athletic space.
Where will Knox Prep students come from?
The school will operate in Knox County Schools Districts 1 and 2.
Administrators are focusing on students from the following schools:
Elementary schools:
Belle Morris
Gibbs
Inskip
Lonsdale
Maynard
Mooreland Heights
Norwood
Pleasant Ridge
Pond Gap
Ritta
Sarah Moore Green
Spring Hill
West Hills
West View
Middle schools:
Bearden
Gresham
Northwest
Vine
High schools:
Austin-East Magnet High
Fulton High
How would the school manage its finances?
For its opening year, the school has accounted for a $400,000 federal startup funding grant, and a total revenue base of nearly $500,000 supported by other donor funding, including $45,000 from local fundraising efforts. The school is anticipating expenses totaling nearly $491,000.
The school is projecting $720,300 in state funding in its first year allocated from the Knox County Schools budget, which is $6,860 per student, in accordance with the state's new funding formula called Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement.
The school principal will be paid $86,760 and the assistant principal will make $70,000. Teachers and counselors will make a base salary of $42,000, which is lower than Knox County Schools' lowest teacher salary of a little over $43,000.
The salaries will increase 3% each year from the second year on.
How many teachers will the school hire?
In its first full year of operation, the school will hire 10 teachers, including one special education teacher and one physical education teacher. The staff, including teachers, counselors and a social worker, will total 24 people in the first year and will gradually increase to 44 by the fifth year.
How will the school enroll students?
Administrators say they have been in contact with families served by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Tennessee Valley. This group includes 106 10-year-old boys, 96 11-year-olds, 82 12-year-olds and 72 13-year-old students.
The proposed school last year hired a Knoxville resident, Stan Carter, as its director of community engagement.
What will Knox Prep curriculum be like?
Starting in middle school, Knox Prep students will take pre-Advanced Placement-level coursework and practice for the ACT. In high school, AP-level coursework will incrementally increase, reaching a full AP schedule for juniors and seniors.
The school's application places emphasis on attending college, outlining ways in which students will be encouraged to attend one after graduation. Students will be taken on college tours and will be required to attend a college summer program before their senior year.
Chattanooga Prep opened its doors in the fall of 2018 with a class of 66 sixth graders. The school has not had a class graduate yet.
Students are required to complete 150 hours of community service by graduation.
What are some of the school's academic goals?
By the end of its second year and every year from then on, the school is hoping to have at least half its students who have been there for at least two years reading at or above grade level. The school will aim to have 65% of its students in grade 11 and 12 who have been at the school for at least two years to score a 22 or better out of a possible 36 on the ACT.
The possibility of an adjacent all-girls school
Knox Prep, in its charter application, said its vision is eventually to create a single campus that will house an all-boys school and an all-girls school, "with separate charters and programming but shared opportunities."
Who is in the leadership team?
Brad Scott, chief executive officer of Chattanooga Prep, is no stranger to Knoxville. A graduate of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Scott has experience working for Teach For America in Rio Grande, Texas, where he taught AP courses in economics, government and human geography.
Scott also has worked in Bengaluru, a south Indian city, and in Georgia during his 17-year career.
The school will bring on several city and county leaders as part of its local advisory council. Knox County Commissioner Dasha Lundy, who has long been an advocate for social justice in the community and has been the driving force behind Knoxville College's rebuilding efforts as the college's vice president, is among the listed advisory council members, along with seven others.
What is a charter school?
Charter schools are public schools funded by tax dollars that operate privately. State law only allows nonprofit charter operators in Tennessee.
In the last few years, charter schools have been at the center of debate over their influence on the public education system.
In Tennessee, charter schools first opened in 2003 in Memphis and Nashville. Since then, more than 100 have opened, with the largest concentration of charter schools being in Memphis. Knox County's only charter school is Emerald Academy, which opened in 2015.
Critics of charter schools argue that their independent nature leads to a lack of accountability.
Areena Arora, data and investigative reporter for Knox News, can be reached by email at areena.arora@knoxnews.com. Follow her on Twitter @AreenaArora.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Knoxville Prep charter school: Here's what you need to know
