Charter School Loss

I’m not a journalist. Let me repeat: I”M NOT A JOURNALIST.

 

Let that be the disclaimer that this will not be a sterile and drab report from last night’s Jackson-Madison County School System board meeting. This is my non-journalistic approach to relaying the story that took place last night in what can only be described as a good, ol’ fashioned ass kicking.

 

To build a little context surrounding the events leading up to last night, let me summarize as best I can:

 

• A little over a year ago, Governor Bill Lee had a conversation with Larry Arnn – President of Hillsdale College and purveyor of conservative indoctrination under the guise of classical education – and vowed to open 50 new charter schools under the Hillsdale umbrella across the state of Tennessee.
• Arnn made disparaging public comments about teachers, essentially calling them dumb.
• American Classical Education – under the direction of Hillsdale College – applied for charter schools in five counties in Tennessee:Clarksville-Montgomery, Rutherford, Maury, Robertson, and Jackson-Madison.
• The application was submitted and, last night, a vote was taken by the school board on whether to approve or reject the application.

 

When I refereed high school basketball, I officiated some games that were nail-biters. Those games were fun, intense, and when they were over I was just happy to have been part of something so highly competitive. There’s something special about two opposing sides each giving their best effort – throwing punches and counter-punches – and knowing that regardless of who won or lost, both teams did everything in their power to win that game.

 

Then, there were games that were just the opposite. Games where the clock would run in the fourth quarter because the score was so out of reach for one team. Games where, even as an official, you say a silent prayer each time the ball is hurled at the basket that it will somehow miraculously go in just to get a team on the scoreboard…in the second quarter. Games where you’re calling fouls that aren’t happening just to see if a team can make a free throw just to get to double digits…in the fourth quarter.

 

If last night’s school board meeting was a basketball game I was officiating, I’d have been saying a lot of silent prayers for the charter school team.

 

This past December, American Classical Education (ACE) sent their letter of intent to  apply for a charter school in the Jackson-Madison County School System. In February, they officially applied. The application itself had some pretty alarming mistakes off the jump. You know, like getting the name of the county correct on the application and making sure the non-profit contacts on the application were listed correctly. And while, at the very least, the baseline for applying to a certain county should be getting the name of said county right, that wasn’t even the worst part of the application process.

 

Each application submitted to a respective district is graded using the same rubric provided by the state of Tennessee. The rubric ranks the application in four standards that are imperative to opening a public school in Tennessee and providing all students with a rigorous and equitable education. The rubric can be seen here.

 

During the board meeting, the charter review committee presented its findings on the ACE application process. It wasn’t pretty.

 

When grading the application by ACE based on the rubric provided by the state, the review committee broke down the evaluation process into three sections: 1.) Academic Design and Capacity. 2.) Operations Plan and Capacity. 3.) Financial Plan and Capacity. Each of these sections were evaluated and could be placed in one of three categories: “Meets or Exceeds Standard”, “Partially Meets Standard”, or “Does Not Meet Standard.”

 

Let’s take a look at how each section broke down during the evaluation:

 

Academic Design and Capacity – Partially or Does Not Meet Standard

 

In this section, the application was evaluated and scored on the following areas:

 

School Mission and Vision

Enrollment Summary

Academic Focus and Plan

Academic Performance Standards

High School Graduation and Postsecondary Readiness

Assessments

School Calendar and Schedule

Special Populations and At-Risk Students

School Culture and Discipline

Recruitment and Enrollment

Parent and Community Engagement and Support

 

As a veteran educator in JMCSS, a few of these areas stuck out to me in regards to the student population we serve in Madison County. What does “postsecondary success” look like at an ACE charter school? How do they plan to meet the needs of special populations and at-risk students – behaviorally and educationally? What does their discipline model look like, and does that model have space for restorative practices? How will they engage parents? All of these areas are fundamental to a successful public school in any community, but especially in Jackson.

 

To their credit, ACE did have plans in place to ensure students graduate and are prepared for postsecondary success. They also had a Code of Conduct in their proposed handbook. Annnnnnd, that was about it.

 

The proposed curriculum in the plan was not aligned to Tennessee standards. The Literacy curriculum was not approved by the state; neither was the Math curriculum. They didn’t even mention a Science curriculum.

 

As far as meeting the needs of Tier 3 students (students who need heavy doses of individualized instruction or intervention), there was absolutely nothing in the plan that addressed how those students would be serviced. Along those same lines, there was no plan in place to make sure students weren’t being misidentified or over-identified when being placed in a special student population. Basically, if you were a student with a learning disability or a gifted student with an Individualized Education Plan, ACE had nothing in their application that would meet the needs of those students.

 

One of the core features of public education is its acceptance of ALL learners of all types. That aspect is one of the most beautiful characteristics of what public schools provide families in Madison County and all over the country. I guess a classical education only applies to a certain subset of students.

 

 Operations Plan and Capacity – Partially or Does Not Meet Standard

 

The operations section of the evaluation deals with how the actual school will be managed and sustained. It is evaluated based on the following domains:

 

Governance

Start-Up Plan 

Facilities

Personnel and Human Capital

Professional Development

Insurance

Transportation

Food Service 

Additional Operations

Waiver

Network Vision, Growth Plan and Capacity

Network Management 

Network Governance 

Personnel/Human Capital – Network-wide Staff Projections

 

Honestly, all these sound pretty damn boring to me, but they’re all necessities in the recipe for opening and managing a school using public money. Much like the previous section, ACE didn’t live up to its acronym.

 

The evaluation of this section noted that the proposed school did indeed have a strong and diverse board. It also noted that they plan to hire a principal a year before opening. So, good job, I guess?

 

While hiring school leadership a year in advance is good, there are some other areas of necessity the application failed to address – like having an actual building.

 

Last time I checked, education wasn’t an imaginary concept that was able to be cultivated by using telepathic powers. You kind of need a building, some classrooms, a cafeteria, maybe a gym if you want to have Physical Education classes. A building is kind of a necessary component to opening a school. Or is it? Just kidding. It absolutely is.

 

Even IF ACE had secured a building, they were still falling quite a bit short in other areas.

 

There was no strategy for the hiring or recruiting of teachers. Should they find some teachers, there was nothing in the plan to say how those teachers would be evaluated. There was no detailed plan to fund technology (at a point in educational history where technology is essential to learning).There was no safety or crisis plan ( at a point in educational history where both are vital). Thoughts and prayers, I guess.

 

The preceding paragraph only addresses a few shortcomings in that section. There were many others, including not having a transportation plan in a district that buses most of its students.

 

I’m not sure what else to say about this section other than that a building would be a good starting point for opening a school.

 

 

Financial Plan and Capacity – Partially or Does Not Meet Standard

 

While public money (taxpayers) does go into the funding of a charter school, the charters also have to have a plan for the way the money will be spent. There is also the reality that the money that follows students won’t be enough for the school to operate solely on that funding.

 

In this final section, ACE was evaluated on their financial plan, and it, too, did not make the grade.

 

There was no plan for fiscal solvency after Year 1. While the budget was presented in a somewhat organized way, it did not contain all expected start-up expenses. Most concerning, though, was the dependence on the school system’s resources – transportation, food services, and special education needs. Not only was ACE wanting to take taxpayer dollars, but they also wanted to use system resources to educate students in a school that was going to be run autonomously.

 

In the end, the financial plan wasn’t able to be evaluated as thoroughly as it could have been because ACE has not acquired a building.

 

As the presentation wound to a close, I was a little relieved. As much as I was against this particular charter school coming to Jackson, I was also embarrassed for them and their representatives in attendance last night. I had that familiar feeling I’d get in those lopsided basketball games I officiated – wincing with embarrassment each time they embarrassingly missed their mark on the evaluation.

 

Out of the 27 substandards scored on the evaluation, ACE only met or exceeded expectations on six of them. That’s a 22% success rate. I wouldn’t say that’s enough to justify using public money to try and open a school that doesn’t even have a building yet.

 

Before the vote was taken, JMCSS attorney Dale Thomas read…and read…and read a 51 paragraph resolution indicating why the ACE application did not meet the requirements for approval. FIFTY. ONE. Mr. Thomas was reading so many paragraphs and so many words that Ricky Catlett had to bring him a bottle of water around paragraph 42.

 

The board voted 7-1-1 to reject the application. Debbie Gaugh abstained. Harvey Walden voted against rejecting the application.

 

I’ve never wanted a Hillsdale backed charter school in Madison County, and I never will. And, I have to admit that some of the incompetence that went into the preparation of the application made me smile a little on the inside, but damn…there were times that I felt bad for that group sitting in the room. I was embarrassed for them.

 

There might be a day when Jackson and Madison County are ready for a charter school, but today ain’t that day and ACE sure as hell isn’t that school.