SCS approves 9 new charters, shifts Jubilee schools

Shelby County Schools will have nine more charter schools next year after a 5-3 vote by the school board Tuesday night.

The board approved applications for a total of nine new schools, including the six Compass Community Schools looking to replace the soon-to-close Jubilee Catholic Schools Network.

The approvals came despite some board members’ concerns that they were opening schools in neighborhoods that are already “saturated” with educational options, in a district that’s worked to shrink its footprint over the last five years.

In Orange Mound in particular, three new schools will open as a result of Tuesday’s vote.

If all the current charter schools stay open for next year, the new schools will bring the total number of SCS charters up to 63.

Hundreds turned out to the meeting, many sporting green shirts in support of the Compass schools network. Many were parents of students in the Jubilee schools who hoped to keep their children out of the schools they’ve known for years.

The crowd erupted in cheers when the vote tally was read aloud. The dissenting votes came from board members Stephanie Love, Miska Clay-Bibbs and Mike Kernell. Board member Chris Caldwell was absent.

Also approved for the 2019-20 school year were an expansion of Freedom Prep charter school network and two schools that will be their network’s first in Memphis, Aster College Prep and Memphis Merit Academy.

The board voted to deny five schools on the recommendation of the administration.

Those five schools were Aspire Coleman Middle School, Cornerstone Prep Middle School, Green Dot Charter K-8, Blueprint Avodah and the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering Elementary.

Those that were denied can appeal to the State Board of Education.

The Catholic Diocese of Memphis announced in January that the 2018-19 year would be the last for the Jubilee network, which predominantly serves low-income families in neighborhoods like Berclair, Frayser and Binghampton.

Omar Paez, a Hickory Hill resident, was in the crowd with his wife and two young children Tuesday night advocating for the Compass schools to open.

His children, ages 5 and 8, currently attend Resurrection Catholic School, which will become a charter school next year under Compass.

When he first heard the Jubliee schools would close, he said, it was “heartbreaking” because of how much his children love their small school and their teachers.

Now, he said, they can all breathe a sigh of relief that both staff and students who want to stay at that school can do so under the new charter. “I’m feeling very hopeful,” he said. Christian Brothers University President John Smarrelli serves as chairman of the board for New Day Schools Inc., the group behind the Compass schools network.

“Really it’s a great victory for education here in Memphis,” Smarrelli said following the vote.

Board members intensely debated whether they should consider the neighborhood impact of opening another school in an area that could already have five or six within a two-mile radius.

Orange Mound was a particular concern for Clay-Bibbs.

“We’re talking about three schools, plus the schools that are already there, all asking for the same students,” she said.

Superintendent Dorsey Hopson, noting Memphis has “way too many schools,” said he would be happy to consider other factors, like fiscal and neighborhood impact, when recommending a charter school for approval or denial. But absent a policy allowing him to do so, his staff made recommendations based on whether schools passed a state rubric.

“There’s a host of other issues I think the board can certainly look at,” he said. “But absent those policies, we just went to the rubric.”

Smarrelli, a proponent of school choice, said he doesn’t see a saturation of schools in one area as an issue.

“Let the parents choose the better of the schools they want to send their sons and daughters to,” he said.

Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer. pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @JenPignolet.