The Knox County School Board for many years talked a good game about at risk students. Attempting an evening school at all the area high schools for those students expelled, the problem is that the Board hasn’t walked the walk with regards to at risk kids.
So the good news is that the Florence Crittenton Agency who have been advocates for helping at risk young ladies now have a Charter school. The school will be the Knoxville Academy for Young Women and will open this August. The school will offer an education, psychological and social services for adolescent and teenage girls in grades 6-12.
This should have been welcome news to the school board, unfortunately it was approved because the application sat on someone’s desk at the Schools Central Office. In December Assitant Superintendent Donna Wright took the blame for the application not being brought to the board in a timely manner.
All applications must be reviewed and acted on by the local school board within 30 days of submitting the application. If the board does not take action within 30 days, then it has approved the Charter by its inaction.
The Board should consider that the Superintendent has employed someone that clearly doesn’t understand the law and potentially has exposed the taxpayers for hundreds of thousands maybe even millions of taxpayer dollars.
The good news is that this is the Florence Crittenton Agency and I have every bit of confidence that they will do it right.
The question begging to be asked is. Was the inaction because there were coaches and principals that needed to be placed on administrative leave for some reason?
