Metro Nashville School Board seeks community input to improve diversity at two magnet high schools

The Metro Nashville School Board indefinitely deferred a proposed major change to the district’s magnet school policy Tuesday to allow for more discussion on how to make two highly sought after high schools more representative of the district’s diversity.Board member Emily Masters proposed eliminating the priority students who attend one of the four feeder middle school magnets receive for a direct pathway into Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School or Hume-Fogg Academic High School.The change would ensure all qualified students are subject to the same lottery selection process at these two schools.“This has been an ongoing discussion among MNPS leaders and families for many, many years. This is my attempt to provide us with a starting point to start getting at these issues,” said Masters. “This did not come out of nowhere. This is my honest attempt to start thinking about how we can have an affect on the lack of diversity in our academic magnet high schools from a policy level.”Master’s proposal would start the change with the fifth-grade class of the 2024-25 academic school year.Board Member Christiane Buggs expressed concern that the proposed change would be stripping away diversity in the MLK pathways. That’s something she says shouldn’t be lost.“So, what I’m getting at when I look at the pathways to Hume-Fogg and then look at the pathways to MLK, please know that I understand we have other magnet schools, but I’m looking at those two because those seem to be the ones we have the most conversations around in this city. There seems to be a lot more diversity in MLK’s pathways and so I want to ensure that we’re thoughtful about maybe how to replicate that diversity as opposed to stripping that away,” said Buggs.Chair Rachael Anne Elrod and board member Erin O’Hara Block told board members that a major point of concern for parents is a lack of community engagement and feedback on the topic. Parents have also expressed concern over the loss of seats for younger siblings of students who are the same pathways, and grandfathering.Block also requested more data surrounding magnet schools and their numbers.“I support the idea. I’m not sure if it’s the thing that’s gonna get us to the goal which is opportunity and access are equal for all kids,” said Block.The discussion ended with Masters asking for her proposal to be deferred and taken off the agenda to give board members an opportunity to have reach out to their respective communities about the proposed change.The proposal is finding support from other leaders including former Metro Councilman Dave Rosenburg who weighed in on the proposal on X (formerly known as Twitter). Rosenburg says there would be benefits to MNPS middle and high schools along with families.“For many, the decision to seek magnet seats in 5th/6th grade is not based on middle school - often there’s excitement for the zoned middle school - but it’s their only shot at a magnet high. The automatic pathway forces a premature decision that results in a) a family getting into the magnets, robbing the remaining community of the family’s contributions to their local middle or b) a family not getting in and then choosing to abandon our public schools entirely,” wrote Rosenberg. “Middle school and high school are distinct experiences, and they should be treated as such.”MNPS currently has eight magnet elementary schools, eight magnet middle schools, and five magnet high schools in the district. These schools are designed to be visionary, innovative schools that attract students interested in unique themes such as: sciences, the arts, languages, International Baccalaureate and more.Students can apply to attend a magnet school in the district through the School Options process.