Brenda Jones hopes to be the first Nashville public school graduate to open a public charter school

Brenda Jones and the Nashville Skyline (Photo by Invictus Nashville Charter School)

Brenda Jones has a personal reason behind her mission to establish a new public charter school in Nashville.In a city that’s increasingly full of transplants, Jones is a proud Nashville native. She grew up living in East Nashville’s public housing at James Cayce Homes and attended public schools nearby, but her experience going into high school was a lesson in how the education system can be improved.

“There were a lot of things going on in the neighborhoods and in the school at the time that was not going to be conducive to me making it out of high school, which was a trend for my family unfortunately,” said Jones.

Jones utilized a special transfer with Metro Nashville Public Schools to leave her East Nashville zoned school and attend Hillsboro High School in Green Hills. The option of school choice was life-changing, and it created a desire to provide other children with options for a better education.

After earning her degree, Jones spent 8 years as a public charter school teacher and then moved into school administration and instructional leadership coaching.  She says the experience has been eye opening not only for what public charter schools are doing right but also where they can improve.“I like the concept of charters,” said Jones. “This idea that there’s more than one way to educate our students and that we should be providing options for families to choose from so that they are doing what’s best for them and we’re not dictating what’s best for them, but I wanted to make sure we did it the right way.”

The Invictus Model

The right way, according to Jones, is the education model she’s built into her proposed Invictus Nashville Charter School.The K-8 public charter school would provide a Montessori curriculum to elementary students. The Montessori educational method is designed to provide rigorous, self-motivated growth for children in all areas of their development including cognitive, emotional, social, and physical.  The curriculum would change in middle-school to a project-based learning model (with Montessori undertones) where students learn by actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects.

“Our mission is for all the kids, all of your babies, to find their unique path to personal and professional freedom. And that’s whatever it looks like for them. We understand at Invictus that everybody has a different journey to success, and we shouldn’t be the holders of defining what that looks like. We should be supporting what that looks like.”

As a part of that support, Invictus students would have daily group meetings and weekly one-on-one discussions with a teacher mentor to set long- and short-term goals and discuss academic and emotional experiences.

Students would also take part in a quarterly Community Expedition Week that would include community service and time devoted to exposure to careers and interests that students may not have access to otherwise.

“Are you interested in auto engineering.  Can we connect you with someone there that will do a project,” said Jones. “All kinds of different arts and music and any of their interests is really peaked at this time and we want them to explore it.  Because how does a student know what to do if they’ve never been exposed to what is possible?”

Establishing in Donelson-Hermitage

Jones is proposing establishing Invictus Nashville Public School in the Donelson-Hermitage section of eastern Davidson County.

The area is considered among the more affordable in Davidson County, making it ideal for families, but there’s currently just one public charter school.Jones believes there’s a real need for school choice in the area and she envisions a future where Invictus might grow to include a high school. McGavock High is the only public high school in that part of the county.If approved by Metro Nashville Public Schools, Invictus would be the first public charter school to be established by a graduate of the district and that distinction isn’t lost on its founder.

Jones sees her proposed school as a place that works with the district to provide a better future for students just like she was.

“I definitely am proud to be an MNPS grad and I’m not in a situation where I have a stance us versus them, it’s we. This is my home.  I want to partner with them. I want to be innovative. I want to find ways to continue to drive home that students and families should be the center of everything that we do,” said Jones. “Students need a lot more than they did, even when I was growing up, and I want to be a part of that movement.”