School’s in a bind after SCS deal bust
Would’ve been in former Lincoln Elem.
A charter school scheduled to open in South Memphis this fall is scrambling to find a space for its 115 students after school leaders say Shelby County Schools reneged on a deal to let them use Lincoln Elementary.
“The rug got pulled out from under us,” school leader Mike McKenna said.
The SCS board last summer gave Memphis Delta Preparatory approval to open this fall. McKenna said the charter had an early eye on Lincoln, which has been vacant since SCS closed it last year. SCS approved a short-term rental agreement for the charter to take over the utilities and maintenance for the building over the winter.
So far, McKenna said, Delta Prep has invested about $18,000 into the building, and even put its sign out with SCS approval.
“We’ve spent countless hours maintaining and also having our students there,” he said. The school has 115 students already enrolled but is slated to open classrooms for 300 students in kindergarten through fourth grade this fall, eventually phasing into a full elementary and middle school with about 540 students.
The charter negotiated a lease agreement with SCS for use of the school, McKenna said, and the charter’s board approved it. A copy of the lease provided to The Commercial Appeal shows the charter would have paid SCS nearly $140,000 over 15 months.
The SCS board was scheduled to approve it at last month’s meeting, McKenna said, but it was pulled from the agenda and the charter leaders were told the building was no longer an option.
In a statement, SCS said it “approved a short-term rental request for Memphis Delta Prep to utilize the former Lincoln Elementary School facility for a limited time.” The statement said the building is “not available for long-term lease,” although the district did not say when that was established or why. The district also said it has “provided multiple other school buildings as options for the 2016-17 school year.”
Delta Prep board member Robbye Good said the alternatives were not in the same neighborhood where the students live, with one option more than 9 miles away.
McKenna said SCS told them the charter school would pull students away from A.B. Hill Elementary, an Innovation Zone school, and that the district wants to be more strategic about school locations to avoid further issues with under-enrollment.
“We actually totally understand that and that’s a really important thing moving forward,” said McKenna, a former Soulsville Charter School teacher. “But for this, this is about them going back on a deal that we’d already established.”
The charter plans to hold a rally at Lincoln for its parents and students today. On Tuesday, McKenna was visiting a nearby church, exploring the school’s options for classroom space if it can’t open in Lincoln. A vacant lot with portable classrooms has also been considered.
“We’re now three months away from opening up and are kind of scrambling to figure out what the next steps are,” he said.
But no matter which building it uses, McKenna said, the school will still open in a neighborhood that may draw students away from A.B. Hill. He said the school’s charter agreement with SCS commits it to South Memphis.
“That’s where we’re going to be, that’s where our students are from,” he said.
Good said the charter understands SCS is dealing with a budget shortfall and doesn’t want declining enrollment, but noted the lease agreement would have provided revenue back to SCS.
Teachers are due to start work in June, Good said, and the charter will move forward with its opening one way or another.
“We have made a promise to these families and want to be able to deliver with that regardless of what happens with Lincoln,” she said.