Obion County Board of Education
September 4, 2012

Background Information:

Public Chapter 1021, effective July 1, 2012, and Public Chapter 1097, fully effective January 1, 2013, is legislation addressing charter schools. Charter school legislation has drawn a great deal of attention in recent years, and the latest legislative session was no different. The aforementioned public chapters made extensive changes to the law. The law extended the time in which the Board has to make decisions about charter school applications, but a failure to act means that the application is deemed accepted. Another major change is that the LEA can now charge up to five hundred dollars ($500) as an application fee. To this end, TSBA has recommended an amendment to Board Policy #1.704 – Charter Schools. Since our current policy has not been updated since 2003, it is my opinion that the Board should adopt TSBA’s proposed policy to replace our current policy in totality. We have never had an application to begin a charter school; however, the policy is nonetheless necessary.

Staff Recommendation:

I recommend approval of the above-noted amendment to Board Policy #1.704 – Charter Schools, on first reading.