NATCHEZ — Two educational groups are trying for a second time to open a charter school in Natchez.

This time, however, the groups must go through a more rigorous application process to ensure applicants have all their ducks in a row.

Charter schools are public schools run by private groups that agree to meet certain standards in exchange for less regulation.

The Phoenix Project Community Development Foundation and Academy of Arts and Sciences Mississippi applied earlier this year to open schools in Natchez. The state’s charter school authorizer board eventually turned down the Phoenix group in the final stages of the application process, while the AASM group didn’t make it far in the process.

The board only approved one charter school, in Jackson, to open during the first application process.

The Phoenix and AASM groups turned in letters of intent last month seeking to be a part of the next round of charter school applications.

The groups must have complete applications submitted to the state board by Monday.

The applications groups will submit this time around require more information and planning be done on the front end, said Erika Berry, executive director of the Mississippi Charter Schools Association.

During the last application process, groups were allowed to submit application documents over several weeks or months.

That ultimately meant some groups spent a great deal of time for nothing, Berry said.

“What happened last time was that lots of people were putting in a lot of work over time to ultimately be told they weren’t eligible to open a charter schools,” Berry said. “These groups were putting in all this work and it just wasn’t worth it in the end.”

The application process this time will require groups have details such as a concrete hiring procedures, financial plans and a location already determined.

Those things are necessary to identify early on, Berry said, to ensure the groups have considered every facet of opening and operating a charter school.

“Only the best schools will be allowed to open because research shows that a school that starts strong stays strong, but when it starts bad it’s impossible to turn around,” Berry said. “We need to apply that strenuous process to everything we do in our schools to ensure we’re getting the best education for our children.”

The same details that are required in the initial application process will include some of what the state board said the Phoenix group didn’t have identified in its first application.

The group wanted to open the Phoenix Early College Charter School in Natchez, serving grades 9 through 12.

State board members denied the two Natchez groups’ applications citing a lack of a firm commitment by Copiah-Lincoln Community College and Alcorn State University, which the group said would assist in providing college credits to its students. The Natchez campuses of those schools, the group’s application stated, would also have housed the new school.

Board members also said it was unclear who would be managing the school, the Phoenix group or Charter Pros, a consulting group hired by the Phoenix group.

Several operational errors also existed in the group’s budget proposal.

Iretha Beyah, a Natchez native who was a part of creating the Phoenix group, said she was unaware of the significant change to the application process until recently.

Beyah said the changes might mean the group won’t advance as far in the application process as they did last time.

“They want you to put everything out there in the beginning, and for a small startup like us, we don’t have the ability to do that,” Beyah said. “We’re the little guy in all of this compared to some of the bigger groups, so we just have to keep working at it until we get there.”

The group, Beyah said, is still seeking to find a location for the school they’d like to open, with the campuses of Alcorn and Co-Lin now being “off the table.”

“We do have some communications out there with people that are interested in allowing us to locate at their site, but we don’t want to put anything out there until we’re certain,” Beyah said. “Doing more of the community meetings is something else we’re going to do be doing now, because we need to have more philanthropy from our community.

“We need funding, and we’re hoping there are community members out there that really want to see these types of schools come to the area and want to help.”

While the more rigorous application process means the Phoenix group will likely not be opening a school in the 2015-16 school year, Beyah said she understands why the measures are necessary.

“You can’t come to the table with all of these things thinking you’ll get the resources, such as funding, later down the road,” Beyah said. “You can’t put the cart before the horse, and if this was a Utopian situation we would have all those things already in place, but we have to continue working and come up with this stuff first.”

The Academy of Arts and Sciences Mississippi also reapplied to open a school in Natchez and would offer an International Baccalaureate program to students in grades kindergarten through 12th.

International Baccalaureate is an educational foundation that offers programs for children ages 3 to 19.

The group’s letter of intent states the program and other course offering, “will give students, and in particular students in low socioeconomic neighborhoods, the best chance to gain acceptance and to excel in higher education institutions.”

Long-time educator and AASM regional director Lonnie Yancsurak said the group’s application would be the same as the last, but was unavailable to comment on specific details of the application.

AASM is also applying to open charter schools in Jackson and Moss Point.

Following the deadline to submit applications Monday, the board will review the applications throughout September.

In November, the board will conduct interviews with the groups applying and host public hearings in the communities where the groups are attempting to open schools.

The board will make final decisions on in December on which, if any, groups will be allowed to open charter schools in the state.