2 schools run by Herenton to close
Two schools run by Willie Herenton, the former Memphis mayor and Memphis City Schools superintendent, will close at the end of the academic year, Shelby County Schools officials confirmed Thursday.
The DuBois High School of Leadership and Public Policy and the DuBois High School of Arts and Technology, both run by the DuBois Consortium of Charter Schools, will close.
Herenton, who recently announced he will run again for mayor in 2019, is the superintendent of the consortium, which operates six schools in Memphis.
“Shelby County Schools and the DuBois Consortium will work together to ensure that families are informed of their options so they can make the best decision regarding education for their children,” the district said in a statement.
The move preempts likely closure by the state after next school year. The schools ranked in the bottom 5 percent academically in Tennessee last year. If a charter school is in the bottom 5 percent when the state runs its Priority List in
the fall, state law says it must close at the end of that school year.
“We didn’t want to operate high schools that are failing schools,” Herenton said by phone Thursday.
Herenton said the schools had trouble with enrollment as well as teacher recruitment. He said the schools had teacher vacancies in critical subjects.
The leadership school had just 93 students last year, according to the state. About 45 percent were considered economically disadvantaged. At the arts school, nearly 70 percent of the 229 students had that designation.
“In order to achieve better quality, economy of scale and better education, we are going to focus just on kindergarten through eighth” grades, Herenton said.
Herenton said high schools are expensive to operate, given the array of classes that should be offered, like Advanced Placement options, and he couldn’t do that with low enrollment.
“Then you are shortchanging the kids,” he said.
Herenton started the charter network five years ago, phasing in grades at the high schools. He said both schools have students in all four grades.
One of the high schools operates in a new building the consortium built, but a middle school that shares the campus will still occupy that space, he said.
Herenton said he is confident those schools will improve enough to stay open.
Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer.pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet.