by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“Just a little over a year ago we realized we were losing students to homeschool programs,” said Rachel Shields, Secondary Supervisor who oversees the Virtual Academy. “We wanted to meet them in the middle and provide an opportunity for them to keep them in the district and not lose them to other programs.” At the Jan. 12 Franklin County School Board meeting, Shields provided an overview of the virtual school program. The board also heard an update about concerns prompted by the state’s new Education Freedom Scholarships, which provide tuition supplements for students attending private school far exceeding the per-student allocation to public schools.

Shields capped enrollment in the Virtual Academy at 30, with a goal of 15 students the first year. She phoned over 100 parents urging them to enroll their children in addition to sending letters and hosting orientation nights. The Academy provides instruction for grades 6-8.

Allison Dietz, Sewanee Elementary School Principal, serves in the dual role of principal at the Academy. “We started in August with 10 students,” Shields said. “I was very excited to have 10. Seven of those were students we regained to the district.”

“Starting an online program seemed easy,” Shields said, “But you’re starting a new school, It has its own set of challenges when you don’t have the students sitting in the classroom to do morale things with and parents dropping their kids off making them easy to contact.” Shields acknowledged, “Two of the seven went back to their homeschool program, but the others we kept in the district [although attending] brick-and-mortar schools. We’ll continue the next school year with middle grades and hope to increase the enrolment. Our goal is to transition into the high school grade level.”

“What I appreciate,” said Director of Schools Cary Holman, “is the parents quickly realized students were held to a very high standard and how serious we are about education. If virtual school is what it takes for them to realize how serious we are about education, that’s what we’ll keep doing.”

With district funding directly linked to student enrollment, other new challenges follow from the state’s Education Freedom Scholarship program. Board member Sarah Marhevsky stressed the inequity in private school receiving the full-amount of the state’s $7,295 per pupil allocation while public schools only receive a percentage of that amount. “For our county it’s roughly 70 percent,” Marhevsky said. “We’re getting $5,106 per student, and the county has to kick in the remaining $2,188.”

For the 2025-2026 school year, the state capped scholarship awards at $20,000 with $10,000 designated for low-income students. Citing the eligibility table, with a family of four earning $173,160 qualifying as low-income, Marhevsky observed, “Interesting choices there.” The program cost the state $144 million the first year. The original proposal called for increasing the number of scholarship vouchers to 25,000 for the 2026-2027 school year, but Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton has proposed doubling the number of vouchers issued to 40,000.

Touching on another concern, Marhevsky said the Tennessee School Board Association is urging the General Assembly to allocate full funding for special education preschool students. “We passed a resolution on this. It [special education preschool] is mostly supported by the district, but it’s also required by law,” Marhevsky insisted

The board recently completed a self-evaluation, weighing performance against nine standards. With the highest possible score of 4, the board’s overall composite score was 3.25. “There was some good constructive criticism,” said Board Chair CleiJo Walker. The evaluation can be viewed on the meeting agenda for the January meeting at Franklin County Schools TN - Meeting Information.

The board will meet on Feb. 16 next month, rather than the regular meeting date of the second Monday.