Bredesen School Set to Open This Summer

By Angie Herrington, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.

Feb. 7–Twenty-four high school juniors are expected to begin classes this August at a new residential math and science school in Knoxville.

The Tennessee Governor’s Academy will be housed on the campus of the Tennessee School for the Deaf, officials said.

Lydia Lenker, spokeswoman for Gov. Phil Bredesen, on Tuesday said funding for the school will be included in the governor’s budget proposal that he will present to the General Assembly later this month.

“The governor will have more to say about it then,” she said.

Gov. Bredesen has given the University of Tennessee the job of developing the school.

Katherine High, UT’s associate vice president for academic affairs and student success, said the university is about to begin a major recruiting initiative and media campaign to encourage students to apply.

A Web site is being developed that will detail the application process, she said.

UT officials said information sessions will be held throughout the state for parents and students.

Dr. High said the school’s students will reflect the diversity of the state.

“We want to represent the state in terms of race, socioeconomics…” she said last week during a UT board of trustees academic affairs and student life committee meeting held at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

“We want kids from high schools who offer (Advanced Placement) classes and those from schools that don’t,” Dr. High said.

The school’s professors will come from UT, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Oak Ridge Associated Universities, according to a handout distributed last month at a joint meeting of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and State Board of Education. Recommendations from principals, counselors and teachers will be required to apply.

According to the handout, all applicants and their parents or guardians will be invited to the campus in July for a tour and to take math and writing placement tests. An admissions committee then will make its final selections of the 24 students who will attend.

Students will live on campus in refurbished cottages and have access to laboratories, libraries, theaters, gymnasiums and other facilities at UT Knoxville’s campus. Counseling, tutoring and health services also will be available.

UT officials said the school’s courses will include physics, biology and calculus. Students also will learn to speak Chinese and perform martial arts.

Students will have opportunities to go home every three weeks for extended weekends, officials said.

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