SCS board rescues program that offers adults high school diploma

The Shelby County Schools board threw a lifeline Tuesday night to a program that serves as a lifeline for adults lacking a high school diploma.

The board voted unanimously to turn the Goodwill Excel Center of the Midsouth — which offers adults a chance to earn a full high school diploma instead of an equivalent degree — into a contract school, saving it from closure as a charter school.

The school district also reduced the school’s rent of the former Norris Road Elementary building to reflect only the portion of the building in use by the Excel Center.

Why the school was going to be closed

State law requires charter schools that fall into the bottom 5 percent in the state on test scores — a list the Excel Center found itself on last month — have their charters revoked. That would mean closure, unless the school became private. The school board found another option, however, with the concept of a contract school.

Contract schools operate in partner with the school district, a model that existed with SCS and University of Memphis in the creation of Campus School decades before the concept of charter schools.

86 students on track to graduate

The Excel Center has awarded nearly 400 diplomas to adults since 2015 and has another 86 on track to graduate in December.

Six other charter schools also fell into the bottom 5 percent in the state, a designation known as the Priority List. Those schools, including three owned and operated by former city schools superintendent and mayor Willie Herenton, still face closure.

The board delayed a vote on those schools Tuesday night in order to hold a committee meeting to explore whether the law has any wiggle room to keep some of the schools open that have shown recent growth. Schools still facing closure include: ❚ DuBois Elementary School of Arts Technology

❚ DuBois Middle School of Leadership Public Policy

❚ DuBois Middle School of Arts Technology

❚ City University School Girls Preparatory

❚ Granville T. Woods Academy of Innovation ❚ Memphis Delta Prep Parents from Granville pleaded with the school board Tuesday night during public comment not to shut down their school.

Dinisha Timmons, a Granville parent and employee, said the school is a family, often for students who don’t have a stable family life at home. Closing the school would hurt those children, she said.

“They have clung to the staff there,” she said. “You have kids that have problems at home — they love coming to the school.”

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