In spite of a state agency finding that Freedom Preparatory Academy’s new Birmingham school needs renovations, state officials told the Alabama Public Charter School Commission the school will have all issues resolved and will open as planned on Sept. 3.

The public charter school planned to open in the former Our Lady of Fatima school campus in the Titusville community. Planned renovations have not been completed, so kindergarteners, the first group of students, will begin classes in temporary portable buildings.

“Opening a new school in a historic building has turned out to be quite a challenge,” Freedom Prep CEO Roblin Webb wrote in an email to AL.com Friday. “We are dedicated to serving the Titusville community, so we have decided to move to portables,” she added.

The Alabama Division of Construction Management, which inspects public school buildings, said in a letter dated Aug. 7 that there were numerous issues with the facilities that needed to be resolved, including a lack of exit signs at all doors, needing assurance that all fire alarms are wired and programmed properly. The agency also wants the two portable buildings to be approved by the Alabama Manufactured Housing Commission.

Logan Searcy, executive director of the state charter commission, told officials in a meeting Monday that school officials are hard at work to resolve all of the issues.

“Quite a few were done this past week,” Searcy said. “They have received a conditional approval to open with a few remaining items that they needed to complete… As long as they are completed by Sept. 3, they are back on track to be open for kindergartners on Sept. 3.”

Webb told AL.com the school’s current goal is to start with 75 kindergarten students.

In a review of the school’s facilities, reviewers wrote that the school was not approved for occupancy and must respond to each of its concerns and resubmit a complete set of plans and specifications.

Freedom Prep is a college preparatory charter network that currently runs five schools in Memphis, where it leads most schools in the system in achievement scores. The network is also known for its schoolwide emphasis on African tradition and cultural practices.

Tyler Barnett, with New Schools for Alabama, which helps charter schools get up and running, said securing and readying a facility for opening can be difficult because of the way Alabama funds schools. “There is not any state money to speak of until the schools open,” he said, “and [charter schools] have no local tax base to pull from.”

When last-minute problems with facilities come up, he said, there is no pool of money to access to fix those problems.

Freedom Preparatory Academy, a charter network out of Memphis, was approved by the Alabama Public Charter School Commission in May 2022, after the Birmingham City School System rejected its application five months earlier.

In its initial application to the Birmingham Board of Education, Freedom Prep planned to open in 2021 with 345 students in kindergarten through second grade, but have since gained approval from the Alabama Public Charter School Commission to open with fewer students and only one grade, kindergarten.

The network gained conditional approval to open a Montgomery campus in 2025.

Freedom Prep will join two other state-authorized charters in Birmingham: Legacy Prep in West Birmingham and i3 Academy in East Birmingham. Three more charter schools operate in nearby cities of Homewood and Bessemer.

The commission set an Aug. 30 meeting date, the Friday before school opens the day after Labor Day out of “an abundance of caution,” attorney Lane Knight said, in case all issues are not resolved. Searcy said she is working closely with Freedom Prep officials and will keep commissioners updated.