Freedom Preparatory Academy Charter School will use a recently awarded $1 million innovation grant to partner with Westwood Elementary School in Whitehaven beginning next school year in an effort to lift the school out of its current academic place in the bottom 5th percentile of the state.
"We will use the money to build out the infrastructure of our organization to improve that school," says Freedom Prep Executive Director and Founder Roblin Webb.
The most recent additions came this month with the hiring of a Director of Network Operations, Irina Cortez, and a Director of Talent, Tavie Clay, and Webb is looking now for a director of finance and a director of special populations.
The grant is a portion of a $33.6 million Investing in Innovation grant, including $28 million from the U.S. Department of Education and $5.6 million in private matching funds, from the
Recovery School District and New Schools for New Orleans. The money is being used to turn around persistently low-performing schools in New Orleans, Memphis and Nashville through the development of new public charter schools in partnership with the
Achievement School District.
Freedom Prep has already been operating the Legacy Memphis City School charter school (grades 6-9) in the Westwood Whitehaven neighborhood since 2009, and the school has achieved the number one growth score for English and math combined for all public schools in the state of Tennessee.
"What we are doing is now opening an elementary school starting with kindergarten and first-grade students so we can get to them even earlier in the development process," Webb explains.
Freedom Prep's overall goal is to open multiple schools, including four elementary schools and two 6-12 schools, in the Westwood Whitehaven neighborhood.
"We want to really transform public education in that neighborhood and provide a choice to families for a strong college prep education," Webb says.
By Michael Waddell
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