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Hamilton County board divided over proposed Chattanooga Prep enrollment increase; Empowerment Academy application recommended for denial
Summary
The charter-review committee recommended increasing Chattanooga Preparatory School's enrollment from 500 to 575, citing demand and capacity; several board members pushed for more academic-score evidence and zone-source data before expansion, while the review team recommended denying Empowerment Academy's amended application for persistent academic, operational and financial concerns.
The Hamilton County Board of Education heard competing views about charter-school expansion at the work session as staff reported a committee recommendation to approve an emergency amendment for Chattanooga Preparatory School to increase enrollment from 500 to 575 students, while the charter review team also recommended denial of an amended application from Empowerment Academy of East Tennessee.
Staff told the board the committee’s recommendation for Chattanooga Preparatory is driven by actual enrollment demand and supported by evidence of organizational and financial capacity, plans for additional staffing, an expanded UTC dual-enrollment partnership and positive student outcomes cited in the application. Staff also flagged areas for monitoring — most notably the school’s enrollment-management process — and said the school provided benchmark assessment data showing an upward trend despite some recent declines in state scores.
Several board members said the committee’s materials did not include enough state-score detail; one board member, identified in the transcript as Miss Thomas, strongly opposed increasing enrollment at a school she described as carrying a 'D' designation and argued that expansion without clear, sustained academic improvement would divert funding and harm zone schools. "Putting children in something that we know is failing does not make sense to me to increase it," she said.
Other board members countered that the school has a 100% graduation rate and high college- and career-readiness figures reported by the school, and they described recent leadership changes and progress observed during site visits. Several members asked staff to provide comparative data — including TBOS/TVOS breakdowns and the zone origins of charter-enrolled students — so the board can assess the local impact before a final vote.
Later in the meeting, staff presented the review team’s findings on Empowerment Academy of East Tennessee’s amended application and recommended denial. The review team said the amended application failed to address prior concerns across academic, operational and financial areas, citing unclear academic goals, insufficient supports for special populations, problems with board capacity and facility readiness, and reliance on unsecured funding. The team concluded it lacked confidence in the applicant’s ability to open and sustain the proposed school and recommended denial.
No formal final board vote on the Chattanooga Preparatory amendment was recorded in the work session transcript. Staff said additional data and monitoring information are available and offered to provide the board with enrollment-source breakdowns pulled from PowerSchool upon request.
