Some Knox Co parents aren’t sending students back to public schools
Parents have said they were attracted to how private schools have responded to COVID.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -Knox County private schools have seen a jump in enrollment in the last three years.
The enrollment director with Sacred Heart Cathedral School told WVLT News it has had an eight percent increase since 2019 and added an extra class to just about each grade in 2021. She believed the COVID-19 response from public schools exacerbated the school’s growth.
Knox County parent, Karen Jenkins, kept questioning whether her kids would go back to public school with COVID still front of mind.
“I had hesitations as to whether or not they would go in-person. Their system is just so large and 60,000 kids is just a lot to accommodate for,” Jenkins said. “They were just dying for structure.”
Last year, she and a dozen other parents pull their kids out of public schools and enrolled them into Sacred Heart.
“We didn’t miss a day of instruction. We switched over to virtual overnight and I think that interest a lot of people,” Libby Orr, enrollment director, said.
Parents have said they were attracted to how private schools have responded to COVID. Contact tracing and masks protocols are top of list.
“They did take a survey asking if we would prefer our students to come back with masks,” Jenkins said.
Because some private schools are smaller in population, principals and directors are choosing to call parents within hours of a positive case or exposure. That differs from the Knox County Schools district that is leaving contact tracing up to the health department, which could take days to report.
This year, First Lutheran Church and School reported a 10% increase; Episcopal School of Knoxville reported a 10% increase; Tate’s School, Rivers Edge Christian Academy also reported an enrollment increase.
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