As the start of a new school year creeps closer, one Hamilton County school is already in full swing and setting some firsts. Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy (CGLA) is Hamilton County's first charter school, Tennessee's first gender charter school, and the county's first public middle/high school to blaze the year-round trail.
CGLA kicked off its school year last week with a total of 50 sixth graders, 25 ninth-graders and 7 teachers. Over time, the school will serve a maximum of 350 girls, grades 6-12 from across the district.
In a time of mounting budget concerns and eminent school consolidations, how does CGLA pull off such small operations? Well, it's a charter school, and by law, charters are granted control over their own curriculum, staffing, organization and budget—all in exchange for the academic results promised in their charter contract.
To begin with, charters are usually started by a non-profit partnership between parents, teachers, and community members who want to fulfill a need for higher quality education and provide an alternative to traditional district schools with a focused or themed curriculum. In this case, "the curriculum is centered on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)," according to the Young Women's Leadership Academy Foundation, the charter school's sponsor:
With an extended day and a year round calendar, CGLA offers academically underperforming girls an accelerated and integrated remediation approach to move them to proficient and advanced levels within core academic subjects.
CGLA teacher Katrina Keene told the Times Free Press last week, "We're going to get them blogging, video conferencing, doing wikis, digital photography and Facebook, and incorporating it all into the curriculum."
Other charter schools are mapping out their own theme-driven curriculum as well. Ivy Academy, another Hamilton County charter school looking to start-up in the coming weeks, plans to follow CGLA's lead. Serving grades 9-12, Ivy Academy "will become Tennessee's first all-green public charter school by incorporating environmentally themed education in all of its curricula," according to tncharterschools.org.
But charters are not without some controversy. School board members and administrators have raised concerns with the financial strain the new innovative schools will put on the school system. While charter schools are partly funded by alternative sources such as grants and sweat equity, they still receive 100% of state and local funding based on enrollment. In other words, funds follow the students.
Hamilton County Schools CFO Tommy Kranz told the Times Free Press in March that the 180 students enrolled in both Ivy Academy and CGLA will "reduce money to the district's traditional schools by about $1.3 million." His point is that too few charter students leave traditional schools to justify corresponding staff reductions.
So while charter schools provide an exciting and innovative approach to public education, the question is whether or not Hamilton County can afford any more of them. Or in light of the district's roughly $300 million budget and projected $28.5 million budget deficit, is $1.3 million just much ado about nothing?
Aaron Collier
Jeanine Handley on Aug. 11, 2009
Speaking of Hamilton County, how did the news let Steve Ball escape unscathed when he was having an affair with the principal at Hixson High School?
Bob on Aug. 14, 2009
One correction to this blog. While charter schools are suppose to receive "100%" of the funding, as clearly stated in law...they do not! On average they receive roughly 70% of the funding per pupil that the district receives. Best example is that of Memphis. The State report card points out that they spend $10,300 per pupil while the charter schools receive roughly $7,100. The difference is obviously $3,200 per pupil that stays at the district while the child goes to a charter school. Imagine if every student in Memphis went to a charter school. The district would have Zero children to educate but would have over $336 million in their budget! ($3,200 multiplied by 105,000 students.) In Hamilton County the difference is about $2,500 per pupil. Neither Ivy or CGLA are getting 100% of the funds.
AaronCollier on Aug. 19, 2009
The difference is semantic. Per pupil spending is a school system's entire budget (federal, state and local) divided by the number of students in the district. The term, "per pupil funding," does not account for operational costs, construction costs and everything else associated with a school system's expenditures.
As I understand it (http://tinyurl.com/mhq8k6), charter schools do not receive funding for items that sometimes include construction or building maintenance, and they are asked to raise that money through fund raisers, grants and sweat equity.