New leaders are introduced at Chattanooga Prep
The Chattanooga Preparatory School board said Monday it has hired a new leadership team while "acknowledging past mistakes."
The new school officials are due to be introduced at the charter school on Tuesday morning.
A former Chattanooga Prep teacher is facing soliciting a minor charges. Several school officials resigned in the wake of that arrest and other hiring issues.
The board said, "Our commitment from day one has been to offer a high-quality curriculum coupled with leadership development to ensure the post-graduate professional success of our students in an ever-changing world. We acknowledge and deeply regret that the past few weeks have been challenging for the Prep Public Schools community, especially our scholars.
"We, the Governing Board, are committed to urgently addressing the issues that have come up over the past few weeks. As has been widely reported, Prep Public Schools made errors in hiring and oversight and failed to act with the highest level of professional judgment on numerous occasions. We apologize and take responsibility for this failure.
"While an apology will not take away the hurt caused to our community and our families, we recognize these challenges and commit to resolving them with urgency in partnership with our families, staff, and Hamilton County Schools. At Prep Public Schools, we teach scholars to take responsibility for mistakes and then take action to fix them. The governing board will take this situation as an opportunity to model this practice for our scholars.
"Along the way, we will remain committed to transparently outlining the steps we are taking to address challenges and move forward stronger. Prep Public Schools – under the leadership of the Governing Board – has taken the following actions:
- Hired a new leadership team, from outside Prep Public Schools, that will lead the organization into the future. These individuals are both deeply experienced school leaders who understand the importance of restoring trust and excellence at Prep Public Schools. We look forward to introducing them to Chattanooga Prep and Knoxville Prep in the coming days.
- Hired an independent firm, Miller & Martin, to conduct a comprehensive audit of our hiring practices, including establishing a multi-layered approach to ensure student and staff safety and academic success.
- Committed to providing additional leadership support and working closely with the team at Knox Prep to ensure the students and families are positioned for success now and in the future.
- Committed to working with Hamilton County Schools and the Tennessee Department of Education to ensure all 50 seniors at Chattanooga Prep graduate on time with full credits earned
- Engaged in conducting Board Governance training to ensure effective leadership for Prep Public Schools.
"These actions are just the first steps toward rebuilding trust with our scholars, parents, staff, Hamilton County Schools, and the broader communities of Chattanooga and Knoxville. We know it will take time, but we will bring Prep Public Schools back to the standard of excellence on which it was founded. Parents trust Prep Public Schools to develop their boys into responsible, intelligent, and courageous young men. From standardized test scores to college admission rates, we have proven our unique ability to meet or exceed parents’ high expectations.
"We will continue to strive towards excellence for our scholars in this new era at Prep Public Schools so that our scholars, and our school, can succeed."