Mississippi Today
State board considers revoking charter of new school with just 15 students
The Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board is considering revoking the charter of a Canton school that opened its doors in August due to low enrollment.
SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy was approved in 2020 with plans to serve 150 students in its first year between kindergarten and first grade. But the school reported an enrollment of 12 students to the Mississippi Department of Education earlier this fall and told Mississippi Today this week that number has risen to 15. School leaders also said the school currently has six full-time teachers and 11 employees overall.
The organization that operates the school, SR1 (Scientific Research), was founded by Tamu Green in 2005 and collaborates with public and private partners to decrease disparities in Mississippi, specifically among minorities. The group applied to open a school in 2017, 2018 and 2019 but was denied.
Charter schools are free public schools that do not report to a school board like traditional public schools. Instead, they are overseen by a local governing board and held accountable by the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board. They have more flexibility for teachers and administrators when it comes to student instruction.
Traditional public schools and charters both receive funding based on the number of students they serve, but the method of calculating enrollment can vary between the schools. Traditional public schools are funded based on enrollment in the previous school year, while new or expanding charter schools get state dollars based on their projected enrollment since the number of grades they serve is changing.
For SR1, the projected 150 students resulted in a public funding allocation of $940,000 for the 2023-24 school year. If charter schools do not enroll the anticipated number of students, the excess funding they received is subtracted from their allocation for the next year.
The authorizer board voted in October to begin the revocation review process, which allows the board to review a school’s paperwork and daily functioning, working with schools on goals to address issues. This is the highest level of intervention in Mississippi’s charter school system, as it can lead to a charter being revoked if goals are not met.
At the meeting Monday, board members discussed some elements of the plan submitted by the school and decided to reevaluate the status of the charter at the March board meeting. Board members also set a goal that the school has 100 students by the March meeting, either currently enrolled or committed for the 2024-25 school year.
While school leaders say they are actively working to recruit more students, authorizer board members said in discussion Monday they were concerned about the school’s continued ability to operate when funded at the appropriate level next year.
Leaders for the school said in a statement that they do not expect financial issues in the 2024-25 school year because they have saved much of the extra money they received this year, allowing them to continue operating smoothly when the education department adjusts their funding.
The statement also addressed recruiting new students and said the school is advertising using social media, direct mailers and print media. It added that the school’s initial recruitment efforts were hampered by “uncertainties surrounding its opening,” but now have more staff devoted to recruitment.
The school is currently building a new campus to focus on incorporating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) into the classroom experience, according to an article shared by school leadership. In the interim, the school is currently operating at the St. Paul AME Zion Church, according to the address listed on the authorizer board’s website.
Editor’s note: SR1 has previously advertised on Mississippi Today’s website. Advertisers do not influence Mississippi Today’s editorial decisions.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
An ad supporting Jenifer Branning finds imaginary liberals on the Mississippi Supreme Court
The Improve Mississippi PAC claims in advertising that the state Supreme Court “is in danger of being dominated by liberal justices” unless Jenifer Branning is elected in Tuesday’s runoff.
Improve Mississippi made the almost laughable claim in both radio commercials and mailers that were sent to homes in the court’s central district, where a runoff election will be held on Tuesday.
Improve Mississippi is an independent, third party political action committee created to aid state Sen. Jenifer Branning of Neshoba County in her efforts to defeat longtime Central District Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens of Copiah County.
The PAC should receive an award or at least be considered for an honor for best fiction writing.
At least seven current members of the nine-member Supreme Court would be shocked to know anyone considered them liberal.
It is telling that the ads do not offer any examples of “liberal” Supreme Court opinions issued by the current majority. It is even more telling that there have been no ads by Improve Mississippi or any other group citing the liberal dissenting opinions written or joined by Kitchens.
Granted, it is fair and likely accurate to point out that Branning is more conservative than Kitchens. After all, Branning is considered one of the more conservative members of a supermajority Republican Mississippi Senate.
As a member of the Senate, for example, she voted against removing the Confederate battle emblem from the Mississippi state flag, opposed Medicaid expansion and an equal pay bill for women.
And if she is elected to the state Supreme Court in Tuesday’s runoff election, she might be one of the panel’s more conservative members. But she will be surrounded by a Supreme Court bench full of conservatives.
A look at the history of the members of the Supreme Court might be helpful.
Chief Justice Michael Randolph originally was appointed to the court by Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who is credited with leading the effort to make the Republican Party dominant in Mississippi. Before Randolph was appointed by Barbour, he served a stint on the National Coal Council — appointed to the post by President Ronald Reagan who is considered an icon in the conservative movement.
Justices James Maxwell, Dawn Beam, David Ishee and Kenneth Griffis were appointed by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant.
Only three members of the current court were not initially appointed to the Supreme Court by conservative Republican governors: Kitchens, Josiah Coleman and Robert Chamberlin. All three got their initial posts on the court by winning elections for full eight-year terms.
But Chamberlin, once a Republican state senator from Southaven, was appointed as a circuit court judge by Barbour before winning his Supreme Court post. And Coleman was endorsed in his election effort by both the Republican Party and by current Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who also contributed to his campaign.
Only Kitchens earned a spot on the court without either being appointed by a Republican governor or being endorsed by the state Republican Party.
The ninth member of the court is Leslie King, who, like Kitchens, is viewed as not as conservative as the other seven justices. King, former chief judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals, was originally appointed to the Supreme Court by Barbour, who to his credit made the appointment at least in part to ensure that a Black Mississippian remained on the nine-member court.
It should be noted that Beam was defeated on Nov. 5 by David Sullivan, a Gulf Coast municipal judge who has a local reputation for leaning conservative. Even if Sullivan is less conservative when he takes his new post in January, there still be six justices on the Supreme Court with strong conservative bonafides, not counting what happens in the Branning-Kitchens runoff.
Granted, Kitchens is next in line to serve as chief justice should Randolph, who has been on the court since 2004, step down. The longest tenured justice serves as the chief justice.
But to think that Kitchens as chief justice would be able to exert enough influence to force the other longtime conservative members of the court to start voting as liberals is even more fiction.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1968
Nov. 24, 1968
Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver fled the U.S. to avoid imprisonment on a parole violation. He wrote in “Soul on Ice”: “If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America.”
The Arkansas native began to be incarcerated when he was still in junior high and soon read about Malcolm X. He began writing his own essays, drawing the praise of Norman Mailer and others. That work helped him win parole in 1966. His “Soul on Ice” memoir, written from Folsom state prison, described his journey from selling marijuana to following Malcolm X. The book he wrote became a seminal work in Black literature, and he became a national figure.
Cleaver soon joined the Black Panther Party, serving as the minister of information. After a Panther shootout with police that left him injured, one Panther dead and two officers wounded, he jumped bail and fled the U.S. In 1977, after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, he returned to the U.S. pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of assault and served 1,200 hours of community service.
From that point forward, “Mr. Cleaver metamorphosed into variously a born-again Christian, a follower of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a Mormon, a crack cocaine addict, a designer of men’s trousers featuring a codpiece and even, finally, a Republican,” The New York Times wrote in his 1998 obituary. His wife said he was suffering from mental illness and never recovered.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1867
Nov. 23, 1867
The Louisiana Constitutional Convention, composed of 49 White delegates and 49 Black delegates, met in New Orleans. The new constitution became the first in the state’s history to include a bill of rights.
The document gave property rights to married women, funded public education without segregated schools, provided full citizenship for Black Americans, and eliminated the Black Codes of 1865 and property qualifications for officeholders.
The voters ratified the constitution months later. Despite the document, prejudice and corruption continued to reign in Louisiana, and when Reconstruction ended, the constitution was replaced with one that helped restore the rule of white supremacy.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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