A group hoping to bring a charter school to Columbus is not submitting an application to the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board this year.
The deadline for charter school hopefuls to submit a letter of intent to the state board was Tuesday. Organizers behind Inspire Charter School did not submit a letter.
“We’re going to sit this round out,” Darren Leach, executive director of Inspire Charter School, told The Dispatch. “We want to make sure we have the right team together to do it well.”
Inspire Charter School has applied to the state Charter School Authorizer Board twice. Both times, the applications were rejected.
Charter schools are publicly funded and do not charge tuition. They are run by private groups that agree to meet certain state standards in exchange for less regulation.
Leach said the Columbus group had been planning on applying this year, but have since decided that to succeed they need to take their time.
“By sitting out this time, we can put 12 months into the application,” Leach said.
In December, Inspire Charter School was rejected for the second time by the authorizer board. The proposed school was denied a charter based on three categories: the educational design and capacity, the operations plan and a financial plan, according to authorizer board chairman Tommie Cardin.
An evaluation board made up of four educational professionals — two from out of state with “extensive charter school experience” and two professors from Mississippi universities — presented their recommendation to the authorizer board, Cardin said. The evaluators felt Inspire Charter School “partially met” the operational and financial standards but did not meet the educational standard.
Leach said the group has adjusted their application to fill the gaps presented to them by the board. In the past, he said, they have rushed the application. By taking their time, the group believes it can be approved by the board down the road.
Charter schools are new to Mississippi. The authorizer board was created in 2014. Only two schools in the state have achieved their charter. Both schools are in the Jackson area and are slated to open in August 2015.
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