Although a state agency found that Freedom Preparatory Academy’s new school in Birmingham needed renovations, state officials told the Alabama Public Charter School Commission that all problems would be resolved and the school could open as planned on Sept. 3.
The public charter school was set to open on the former Our Lady of Fatima School campus in Titusville Township. Planned renovations are not yet complete, so the kindergarteners, the first group of students, will begin their classes in temporary, portable buildings.
“Opening a new school in a historic building has proven to be a significant challenge,” Freedom Prep CEO Roblin Webb wrote in an email to AL.com on Friday. “We are committed to serving the Titusville community and have therefore decided to move to portable systems,” she added.
The Alabama Division of Construction Management, which inspects public school buildings, said in an Aug. 7 letter that there are numerous problems with the facilities that need to be addressed, including missing exit signs on all doors and ensuring that all fire alarms are properly wired and programmed. The agency also wants the two portable buildings to be approved by the Alabama Manufactured Housing Commission.
Logan Searcy, executive director of the state charter commission, told officials at a meeting Monday that school administrators are working hard to resolve any issues.
“There’s been quite a bit of work done in the past week,” Searcy said. “They’ve received conditional approval to open, there are a few things that still need to be done… As long as they get them completed by Sept. 3, they’ll be back on track to open for kindergarten students on Sept. 3.”
Webb told AL.com the school’s current goal is to start with 75 kindergarten students.
In a review of the school’s facilities, auditors wrote that the school did not have approval to move into the school and would have to respond to all objections and resubmit a full set of plans and specifications.
Freedom Prep is a college preparatory charter network that currently operates five schools in Memphis and leads the system in most schools in terms of achievement scores. The network is also known for its school-wide emphasis on African traditions and cultural practices.
Tyler Barnett of New Schools for Alabama, an organization that helps charter schools get started and running, said that because of the way Alabama funds schools, securing and preparing a facility to open can be difficult. “Until schools open, there are no significant state funds,” he said, “and (charter schools) have no local tax base to fall back on.”
If any last-minute problems with the facility arise, there will be no funds available to fix them, he said.
Freedom Preparatory Academy, a Memphis-based charter network, was approved by the Alabama Public Charter School Commission in May 2022 after the Birmingham City School System rejected its application five months earlier.
In its initial application to the Birmingham Board of Education, Freedom Prep planned to open the school in 2021 with 345 students in kindergarten through second grade. However, the company has since received approval from the Alabama Public Charter School Commission to open with fewer students and only one grade, kindergarten.
The network received conditional approval to open a campus in Montgomery in 2025.
Freedom Prep will join two other state-approved charter schools in Birmingham: Legacy Prep in West Birmingham and i3 Academy in East Birmingham. There are three other charter schools in the nearby cities of Homewood and Bessemer.
The commission has set a meeting date of Aug. 30, the Friday before school starts the day after Labor Day, out of an “abundance of caution,” attorney Lane Knight said, in case all of the issues are not resolved. Searcy said she is working closely with Freedom Prep officials and will keep the commission updated.
