KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — According to a letter, the Knox Co. law director's office is asking education leaders to reconvene in a special meeting to formally vote on a charter school's application — Knoxville Preparatory School. The application failed on April 6 in a tied 4-4 vote.
According to state law, board members also need to say, in writing, reasons the application was not approved. Resolutions to list those reasons also failed during their previous meeting in tied 4-4 votes.
During the meeting, board members spoke about specific concerns they had with the application. Jennifer Owen, a board member, said the application referenced an opinion article from a Knoxville publication with no source available for the data listed. Another part of the application also linked to a "broken URL," she said.
She also said that the data she sought out pointed to the school serving around 21% of students who were economically disadvantaged in its class, instead of more than 70% like the application said.
"The numbers don't exactly line up," she said during the meeting. "The state and federal numbers do line up. The numbers that don't line up are the ones in the application."
Katherine Bike, a board member, said she had a list of reasons why she wanted to deny the application. Some of those reasons included "false information," a "lack of transparency," a "lack of a SPED plan" and a lack of a commitment to accept transgender students.
"The tie vote that resulted that evening on both the approval of the proposed school and the reasoning for the denial of the application has created a situation that is unclear and will almost certainly be challenged by one party or another," education leaders said in a letter.
The letter said that without a clear denial with reasons, or approval, Knoxville Preparatory School could be left wondering if they would be approved by default or if they would need to respond to the denial without clear reasons about why their initial application failed.
"Likewise, opponents of the proposed school are left to wonder if the denial without reasons is 'good' and whether they will need to file an action to block an approval by default," the letter says.
It says that the law director's office was also speaking with a consultant that has helped KCS through the process, who said she has "not seen a situation like this in her significant experience."
The letter also says state leaders, including the Tennessee Department of Education and the Charter Commission, recommend that KCS "correct the situation."
"I do not always agree with state officials, but I do agree with them in this matter. Finally, I have also talked to a few school attorneys who also agree with my recommendation," the letter says.
The letter ends by recommending KCSO reconvene in a special-called meeting to vote on a resolution to approve or deny the application. It says the law director's office would draft two resolutions for either scenario, and the one denying the application will state some specific reasons for it. Education leaders will be able to change the resolutions at the meeting, but passing either will need a majority vote.
It says that the meeting needs to be held by May 1, and recommends having it on April 27 since there is already a specially-called meeting on that date.