Non-profit Mississippi News: Mississippi’s ninth charter school was approved by the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board on Monday. Leflore Legacy Academy will be opening in 2020-21 as a middle school. The school will be open to students in grades 6-8 by 2023. It opened with only sixth grade in its first year. Charter schools are public schools that don’t charge tuition and are subject to the same academic standards and accountability standards as traditional public school systems. Charter schools are allowed more flexibility by law for administrators and teachers when it comes to student instruction. Charter schools are not funded by local school districts and do not operate under traditional public school boards. The September meeting marked the completion of the rigorous screening process that the authorizer board uses annually to vet potential operators. In May, eight operators submitted applications. The authorizer board announced in June that five of them would be moving on to the next stage of the application process. Four operators reached the final stage of this application process: * MS Delta Academies Leflore Legacy Academy grades 6-8 in Greenwood Public Schools District * Randy J. Naylor Memorial Fund: Memorial Preparatory Academy grades K-6 in Vicksburg Warren District School District * SR1 SR1 College Preparatory & STEM Academy grades K-5 Canton Public Schools District * SR1: SR1 College Preparatory & STEM Academy grades K-5 in Vicksburg Warren District School District * SR1: SR1 College Preparatory Academy grades K-5 in Greenwood Charter School grades K-5 in Greenwood Public Schools District. Each applicant’s school plan. Only Mississippi Delta Academies met each of the criteria, according to the evaluation committee. Tamala Boyd Shaw was the school’s founder. However, her application required more details. Boyd Shaw said Monday that she was both humbled by the approval and thrilled to have it this year. I learned from “… that being delayed doesn’t necessarily mean you are denied. She said that sometimes you need to go back to the drawing boards and look at the feedback and figure out how to move towards achieving the goal. Boyd Shaw’s charter school is the second to open in the Mississippi Delta and the ninth to be approved by an authorizer board since 2013. Six charter schools in Mississippi are now open this year, five in Jackson and one Clarksdale. Two other charters were approved last summer to open in the future. Lisa Karmacharya, executive director of the authorizer boards, acknowledged that opening a charter school is a complex and difficult process in Mississippi. It takes nine months to complete it Karmacharya stated that it is difficult to plan for schools to open and has many unknowns. It’s a difficult process. I hope that as we move through the sector and grow it, we’ll get more qualified candidates and will continue to build our presence in the state._x000D