Chattanooga Prep - Impact Report: 2020-2021

IMPACT REPORT 2

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Chief Executive Officer

BRAD SCOTT As we share our Impact Report for the 2020-2021 school year, I would like to personally thank you for your support and generosity during a very challenging school year. The last year has been the most unusual in Chattanooga Preparatory School history. From a global pandemic to navigating virtual learning to bringing students and staff back to campus, the period since March 2020 has been one for the record books.

COVID-19 has exposed glaring challenges and inequities that students everywhere face. In the community that our school serves, many families have relied on access to our free meal bundles to feed their children. To keep children connected during virtual learning, particularly in our highest poverty areas, our operations team distributed devices and ensure wi-fi connectivity.

Through it all, our Team & Family have gone above and beyond to provide our Prepsters and their families with the tools and resources needed to thrive and succeed.

After an unprecedented year that has greatly impacted each of us and changed how we live, work, and learn, I am immensely thankful for the extraordinary work of our organization and the remarkable ways we have collectively overcome every challenge to ensure our Prepsters continued to learn and grow.

While the pandemic was a challenge for schools across the United States, I am confident that Chattanooga Prep is ready to welcome all scholars back to campus safely for full five days a week in-person learning in August. We wholeheartedly believe that our health and safety protocols have been key in mitigating the spread of COVID-19 in our school and communities. We will continue to offer COVID-19 testing through our community health partners to staff, encourage immunization of all employees, and encourage families to help boost personal safety measures off campus.

Each day, we continue to educate, inspire, and empower young men in Hamilton County. I want to thank our teachers, campus leaders and staff, board members, community supporters, and our families, for their resilience, creativity, collaboration and commitment to excellence. I am proud of the work we have accomplished together and am grateful for every member of our Team & Family.

Our team looks forward to beginning a new academic school year, with the same passion and focus to ensure Chattanooga Preparatory School remains the best place for Prepsters to learn and a great place for our staff to work.

BRAD SCOTT 2

CEO

OUR FOUNDERS Message

As we embark upon our fourth year at Chattanooga Preparatory School, we are coming into the school year with a lot of positive momentum even through the pandemic. Our team at Chattanooga Preparatory has led our school safely and heroically through the past tumultuous year. Our teachers and staff quickly innovated their teaching practices and were determined to not have a learning loss by adapting to virtual education. It was absolutely fascinating watching the boys continue to learn from home and climb to new

MISSION Chattanooga Prep engages young men in a rigorous, yet supportive, learning environment that nurtures resilience, promotes academic excellence, inspires leadership, and prepares critical thinkers.

heights. The world changed in 2020, and our young men are learning to learn and lead in a new way.

The leadership team just returned from a summer stepback retreat, and our CEO, Brad Scott brilliantly led the meeting. It was a great way to look back at the past year and refocus for this fall. The theme was “Infinite vs. Finite Thinking.” Mr. Scott wanted us to think about how we can build a sustainable school that will help lead future boys for generations to come. We did vision boards and imagined what the future news headlines would be in 5-10 years. Some of our favorite potential headlines were “Colleges and Universities Can’t Get Enough of CPS”, “Disney World of Schools”, “Ten Chattanooga Prep Alumni Return to Donate $10 million dollars”, “Chatt Prep Graduates Defer College Admissions for a Year to Launch Tech Startups”, “Chatt Prep- First Graduating Class Receives 100% Paid Tuition to Top Universities”, “Chatt Prep has the Most National Merit Scholars in the City”. It was great to dream big with our devoted team.

VISION To inspire and empower young men to achieve academically and participate in a collaborative learning community that will establish a trajectory for lifelong learning and success.

Thanks to all of our supporters that make this school a reality. Our team couldn’t do this important work without your support. We are so very thankful for you helping us to build an amazing school that is changing a lot of young people’s trajectories in life. We are so pumped to start our first high school class!

PURPOSE TED & KELLY ALLING

The purpose of Chattanooga Prep is to change the lives of young men who potentially face multiple challenges through the attainment of academic success.

FOUNDERS

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# OUR SCHOOL Chattanooga Preparatory School is an all-boys public charter school located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We believe that our students have gifts and talents that have been underserved and the families and young men of Chattanooga deserve greater opportunity and choice. In August 2020, Chattanooga Prep launched its third school year with 217 young men in grades 6 through 8, and we will continue to add a grade each year until we reach full enrollment of 500 students in grades 6-12.

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#

215

TOTAL STUDENTS

18 : 1

STUDENT TO TEACHER RATIO

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AP STUDENTS

The 2020-2021 academic year brought about many changes for our students, one of which was the introduction of an Advance Placement (AP) course. While many schools offer AP courses to their high school students as a means of providing opportunity to earn college credits early, we decided to make an AP class available to our 8th grade students.

STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS AFRICAN AMERICAN/BLACK

61%

HISPANIC/LATINO

33%

CAUCASIAN/WHITE

5%

MULTIRACIAL

1%

80%

98%

LOW INCOME FAMILIES

ATTENDANCE RATE

OUR TEAM Do More. Achieve More.

As we continue to add a grade level each year, our team of faculty and staff members grows. And while quantity is important, we are much more thankful for the quality of each individual that decides to embark on the journey of educating our students. Their individual attributes add to the greatness of our collective team. We look forward to continuously working on creating the best support system for our students.

EMPLOYEE GENDER

66%

FEMALE

34% MALE

BRYAN MANN

MEGAN LEONARD

TN Charter School Teacher of the Year

Chatt Prep Teacher of the Year

40%

EMPLOYEE AGE

EMPLOYEE DEMOGRAPHICS

5.7

AFRICAN AMERICAN/BLACK

24% 14% 7%

HISPANIC/LATINO

12%

CAUCASIAN/WHITE

36% 5% 57%

2%

MULTIRACIAL 18-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55-64

65+

2%

2020 -2021 FACULTY & STAFF

FACULTY

Ethan Albright | Social Studies Julien Amorelli | Social Studies Felix Beasley | Science Christoffer Collins | Physical Education Nicole Dyer | Spanish Mindy Haworth | Guided Reading Michael Howard | Creative Arts Megan Leonard | Science Virginia Mackey | English Language Arts Bryan Mann | Math Laura Moon | English Language Arts Sarah Moon | STEAM Brandie Morgan | Exceptional Education Cassidy Mullis | Math Cynthia Neal | Exceptional Education Haile Nottage | Guided Math Micah O’Hara | Social Studies Abigail Ortega | ESOL Carissa Parker | English Language Arts Oliver Parks | Math Lauren Pruitt | Physical Education Madison Stewart | Science Micah Wilkins | Guided Reading Emma Wright | ESOL

STAFF

E. Joe Banks | Dean of Students Montrell Besley | Dir. of Community Engagement C. Brianne Birdsong | Development Intern Kelsey Cannon | Finance Manager Michelle Hassler | Dean of Instruction Diamond Kelley | Principal Ingrid Martinez | Administrative Assistant Micah Reed | COO Colten Romans | IT Director Brad Scott | CEO Kate Thompson | Volunteer/Events Coordinator Angel McGee Ulmer | Human Resources Specialist Elizabeth Williams | Director of Development

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Principal

DIAMOND KELLEY This has been an amazing year. You may be asking yourself… amazing how so? During the 2020 - 2021 school year we learned the true definition of resilience. The Sentinel faculty, staff, parents, and students sustained school closures, switching between remote learning to hybrid learning, the inability to “hang out with friends,” additional responsibilities in the home, multiple quarantines, adapting to new technology and so much more.

We made it! I am so proud of our Sentinels’ ability to recover quickly from these difficult times. The 2020-2021 Impact Report will remind not only us, but others that CPS will DO MORE, to ACHIEVE MORE. Our mission will drive us to continue to focus on our long term strategic goals: Academic reward status each year (based on TNReady scores), 100% college acceptance (beginning with our inaugural graduating class in 2025), AP scholars in each graduating class, and Chattanooga Preparatory School ranked as one of the best high schools in Tennessee.

During this time of reflection, we want you to draw strength in knowing that we are ALL IN. Our faculty, staff, and administration are committed, more than ever, to ensuring that our Prepsters are successful. We will continue to STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE in an environment cultivated by JOY. With your help, all Prepsters will get to and through college. Thank you for aiding us in our efforts. We know that we are BETTER TOGETHER. And together we are building the MEN of TOMORROW.

DIAMOND KELLEY PRINCIPAL

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TO HIGH SCHOOL WE GO Inaugural Year

Chattanooga Prep is excited to add high school this next school year with our founding ninth grade Prepsters. As the Class of 2025 advances, so will the grades until we reach our full capacity at twelfth grade. The purpose of our entire organization is to change the lives of young men who potentially face multiple challenges through the attainment of academic success.

Our mission to engage young men in a rigorous, yet supportive, learning environment that nurtures resilience, promotes academic excellence, inspires leadership, and prepares critical thinkers will continue.

The vision of inspiring and empowering young men to achieve academically and participate in a collaborative learning community that will establish a trajectory for lifetime learning and success will be achieved through the following four aims:

AIM

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AIM

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ADVANCED PLACEMENT

POST-SECONDARY PLAN

Provide 16 advanced placement courses that lead to

Design individualized post-secondary plans that fit the

earning college credits.

needs and goals of each student.

AIM

02 Connect

AIM

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WORK STUDY students

with

high-quality

work-study

opportunities to provide real world experience.

COLLEGE & COMMUNITY

Ensure 100% of students are accepted into college and have completed community service hours.

SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING | STEAM | ATHLETICS | LEADERSHIP | INTERNSHIPS | CLUBS & TUTORS | COLLEGE READINESS | COMMUNITY SERVICE | ADVANCED PLACEMENT | BROTHERHOOD

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YEAR IN REVIEW Academic Adjustments

help counteract this, Chattanooga Prep set up afterschool tutoring (online and in-person) to help students catch

While a great deal of learning took place online during the 20202021 academic year, we still realized a high level of student attendance and participation. The relationships between the students and teachers did not pause just because there was a pause of inperson learning.

up on missed content, have additional practice, and ask questions. Our students had support along the way to help them through this difficult time.

All of these challenges and opportunities led up to the TNReady state test which was suspended last year.

The 2020-2021 school year brought

the students additional opportunities

make connections to our past and think

the

to practice their skills. All 7th and

about how to create a better future.

school. Every student was engaged in

8th

Even

reading, writing, math, science, history,

Spanish. They enjoyed learning another

engaging science experiments more

and even some unique class choices.

language and sharing food from other

difficult, the students were still able to

Our 8th-grade students were given

cultures. In ELA class the students

experiment outside and in the hallways.

the opportunity to take AP Spanish

continued to engage with challenging

In our math department, several 8th

Language and Culture and took the

and diverse texts.

graders took Algebra I in order to get

exam in May. The 8th-grade students

Poe, Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, and

also took Creative Arts as a supplement

Animal Farm challenged our students to

to their ELA course. Mr. Howard used

think critically. Our world gave history

The pandemic school closures were

theater, music, and performance to

teachers many opportunities to bring

difficult on students and created some

emphasize the ELA standards and gave

current events into the classroom to

missed opportunities for learning.

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first

year

for

our

full

middle

graders

took

Introduction

to

Short stories from

though

the

pandemic

made

ahead of their high school coursework.

To

1 MILLION WORDS Literacy and reading have become cornerstones of a Chattanooga Prep education. Celebrating academic successes fuel our students’ desire to learn and improve.

To make the test preparation season more

pushed students to try their best in the last

exciting, students were placed into teams

couple of weeks leading up to the exam.

and played a school-wide game of The Amazing Race.

Each team competed in

Chattanooga

Prep

concluded

the

year

academic challenges to score points and

with a BIG celebration of our top readers.

advance in the competition. The game

Students who read over a million words

were invited to our Royal Reader event. At

Even

though

much

of

this

year

was

the event, students were given a special

challenging and created obstacles, our

shirt and jacket. They also took a limo ride

students were still able to have a successful

to Dave & Buster’s where they enjoyed lunch

academic year. The faculty and staff worked

and played games. As one student said, “It

hard to remove barriers to online learning,

pays to work hard!”

kept a focus on the standards, and worked to create moments of joy.

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VIRTUAL & IN-PERSON CLUBS Student Engagement

The pandemic restrictions and requirements did not allow for in-person clubs during

Chess Club

the first semester. We quickly realized that our students needed the enrichment more than ever and launched our virtual clubs. It was a new experience for all, including the club instructors, but everyone adjusted their programs and worked together to

A staple of our afterschool

make it a successful program for our students.

program is Chess Club. Our students played in person

To support student academic success, we also launched a virtual tutoring program.

and virtually during the 20-

We had close to 20 consistent tutors which included college students, graduate

21 school year.

students, retired engineers and nursing students.

Student Clubs AP Spanish

Students worked together

Art & Design

to build and race a solar-

Chess

powered electric car.

Cooking Electric Car Fitness Guitar Leadership Media Own Your History Piano Prep Society Rocketry Club

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Electric Car Club

Media Club Students

in

media

club

design, create, and curate newsletters and podcasts that

are

shared

with

families and other friends of the school.

Own Your History In partnership with McCallie Middle School, this multi-week program provided an opportunity for our students to dialogue, share, and learn more about themselves, their community and country. Together they found ways to bridge differences, gain personal awareness and develop leadership skills.

Rocketry Club Rocketry instructor, Andrew Voss, a former Space X engineer, navigated the online experience and taught all the fundamentals of rocketry online. During the second semester, our students were ready for the in-person experiences of building and launching rockets.

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Year of Firsts 2020-2021 Additions Much like everyone else, our school, students, faculty, and parents experienced a great deal of ‘firsts’.

These helped to ensure that our students continued to learn at a high level in a safe environment.

Hosted bilingual Zoom meetings to address questions from parents concerning the school year Hosted 3 first days of school for hybrid and virtual learners Assigned all students a Google Chromebook Ensured all student households had high-speed internet access through EPB

Reconfigured classrooms and installed desk shields to promote social distancing Created a Wednesday remote schedule to allow for building sanitizing Students, staff, teachers, and visitors completed daily temperature checks Virtual mentor introductions Virtual campus tour video

Enacted mask policy for all

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Virtual social justice townhall

ATHLETICS Growing Our Programs

BASKETBALL

Our goal is to create a competitive athletic program that focuses on building high-

CROSS COUNTRY

character student-athletes. We want to create a culture in which our athletes are

FOOTBALL

prepared to not only compete on the field and in the classroom, but also in the real

SOCCER TRACK & FIELD

world.

During our short athletic history, we have competed at the highest middle school levels and are proud to have accomplished such feats as earning the opportunity to play in the Tennessee Middle School Athletic Association (TMSAA) basketball tournament and winning second place in the Hamilton County Athletic Conference (HCAC) Track & Field Tournament.

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SUPPORTING OUR STUDENTS Building Community

When the families of our students win, we all win. Rather than simply serving as just an educational partner, we look to become an extension of our Chattanooga Prep families. We do our best to try and help remove barriers that may hinder a student from learning or focusing on the attainment of their own life goals. From holiday meals and parent appreciation events to counseling services and mentoring opportunities, we strive to accommodate the entire student.

Counseling Services Richmont Graduate University has partnered with Chattanooga Preparatory School to assist in their holistic approach of educating and training boys by providing specific social and emotional support through counseling and coaching. The program is free to students and guardians, only needing guardian consent for the student to participate in regular counseling sessions. Blake Feagans, a licensed professional counselor and mental health service provider in Tennessee, coordinates the program and works directly

Holiday Gift Delivery

with students, guardians, and staff of the school alongside his graduate level interns. The counselors work with students on a wide array of issues, including but not limited to: anxiety, depression, ADHD, OCD, trauma, grief, academic/learning concerns, and other behavioral/social issues.

The 2020-21 school year provided its own obstacles due to COVID-19, but below are some of the highlights of the program from this past school year: • Counselors provided virtual sessions for students that were “distance learners” or to supplement meetings when students were engaged in remote learning • Counselors worked with a consistent caseload of students throughout the year as well as provided “as needed” meetings for any student in need • Counselors led a community presentation for the school on the importance of mental/emotional health during this season • At the administration’s request, counselors attended disciplinary meetings to provide extra support and solutions for students • Counselors worked closely with staff to identify students in need as well as provide extra support for teachers during the difficult season

Holiday Food Pickup

MENTOR

COMMITTED

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

As you can imagine, creating our regular opportunities for one on one mentoring interactions was difficult during a pandemic. Despite the inconvenience of masks, virtual learning, limited in-person connections, etc. our mentors still found a way to ensure their mentees had what they needed to remain successful, even if was just a simple conversation. The transformative bonds created between both parties have been consistent and unwavering.

“

GENESIS + LESLIE

“I would not be here if it wasn’t for the consistent love and encouragement that I received from my parents, family, and friends. I grew up believing if I put my mind to it, and stayed spiritually in tune, I could do anything.

Having that type of creative confidence in my humble opinion, for anyone (especially young growing minds), is incredibly important. So when I got the chance to offer my time and support to Chattanooga Prep in that effort, I jumped at the opportunity.”

Artist Genesis the Greykid, shown with his mentee Leslie, is both a mentor and donor.

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FUND OUR FUTURE OUR SCHOOL

As we launch our high school programs, we are in need Chattanooga Preparatory is an all-boys public of financial support from School our community to continue our charter school located in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

We mission to engage young men in a rigorous, yet supportive, believe thatenvironment our studentsthat havenurtures gifts and talents that have learning resilience, promotes been underserved and the families and young men of academic excellence, inspires leadership, and prepares Chattanooga deserve andassure choice. critical thinkers.

If yougreater feel led opportunity to give, we can you Inthat August 2019, Chattanooga Prep launched its second every dollar will go towards ensuring each of our school 142 young men in education. grades 6 and 7, and we youngyear menwith receives an excellent will continue to add a grade each year until we reach full enrollment of 500 students in grades 6-12.

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BOARD MEMBERS 2020-2021 BOARD ROSTER TED ALLING | Chair

DAVID BHATTACHARYA, MD

DAVID RICE, MD

KELLY ALLING | Vice Chair

WARD DAVENPORT

ARMANDO RODRIGUEZ

DAVID CAINES | Treasurer

SHEWANEE HOWARD-BAPTISTE, PhD

AARON WEBB, JD

EDNA VARNER, EdD | Secretary

NATALIE JACKSON, MEd

SUE ANNE WELLS, PhD

ASHLEY ATKINS

SUSAN MACLELLAN

WONJEN BAGLEY, LMSW

JOE MARTIN, EdD

MOISE BAPTISTE, PhD

DANIEL PACK, PhD

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CONTACT US PHYSICAL ADDRESS

1849 Union Avenue Chattanooga, TN 37404

MAILING ADDRESS

PO Box 3809 Chattanooga, TN 37404

TELEPHONE

423.602.7737

EMAIL

info@chattanoogaprep.com

WEBSITE

chattanoogaprep.com

SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram | @chattanoogaprep Facebook | @chattprep Twitter | @prepchattanooga

IMPACT REPORT 2

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