MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Hawkins Mill Elementary School will remain part of the Shelby County school system for the 2016-2017 school year.
The Achievement School District announced Monday that Achievement Schools, which is slightly different than an ASD charter operator because it is fully state-run, will not seek to take over the school.
“I didn’t want them to. I love the school as it is,” said Hawkins Mill parent Bergandy Momon.
The Achievement Schools is the organization that initially expressed interest in Hawkins Mill.
The Achievement Schools explained to WREG that while the mission of Hawkins Mill aligns with Achievement Schools, the district wants to allocate its resources to improve its current schools before expanding. In this case, the timing was off.
Five other schools, however, are under consideration and will move forward in the process because they are in the bottom 5 percent of public schools in Tennessee.
Aspire Public Schools, Green Dot Public Schools and Scholar Academies are all being considered to run the schools.
In December, Neighborhood Advisory Councils will make recommendations about the interested providers in December.
Those councils are made up of parents, teachers, former Achievement Advisory Council members, students and others from the community. 39 people were selected for the councils after an application process. They will begin sifting through operators’ applications this week.
“One of the things that we want to make sure is that every single child has access to a high quality educational option,” said ASD Director of Strategic Partnerships Anjelica Hardin.
You may read the operator’s applications here.
Aspire Schools is interested in operating Sheffield Elementary School.
Green Dot is pursuing Kirby Middle School and Hillcrest High School.
Scholar Academies is interested in Caldwell-Guthrie Elementary School and Raleigh-Egypt Middle School.
“One of the big new parts of this process is there could be a match or there couldn’t be one at all,” Hardin said.
SCS said, “The Achievement School District has informed us Hawkins Mill Middle School will not be part of its 2016-17 conversion process. We will be communicating this development to all parents and staff, and we will continue to support all of the teachers and students at Hawkins Mill this school year.”
Hardin said that ASD is mailing home postcards to parents. She said it instructs the affected schools’ neighborhoods how to continue to share input in the process.
