Parents who opposed Invictus Nashville Charter School provided "false information" by their district, school leader says

Dr. Brenda Jones (center) posing with Invictus Nashville supporters following the decision to overturn the school's denial (Photo by Invictus Nashville)

On the morning of September 18, the Dean of Instruction for Stanford Montessori Elementary School used her publicly funded time and email address to do something that had nothing to do with the education of her students.

Sarah Blanchard sent out emails to not only encourage some of her school’s parents to oppose a proposed Montessori school, she also gave them questionable talking points for how to speak out from School Board Member and Stanford Montessori parent Dr. Berthena Nabaa-McKinney.

Screenshot of Sarah Blanchard's email (Image by MNPS)

The school in question was Invictus Nashville Charter School.

Members of the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Board of Education denied Invictus Nashville’s application months earlier and its founder, former MNPS teacher and East Nashville native Dr. Brenda Jones, appealed to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission hoping to overturn that denial.

Blanchard sent five Stanford Montessori parents an email and talking points encouraging them to write the commission in opposition of Invictus Nashville’s appeal.

Screenshot of the talking points against Invictus Nashville (Image by MNPS)

Most of the parents Blanchard contacted sent an email within the hour including Carissa Cruz who appeared to follow the district’s talking points about training and existing schools in the area.

“The McGavock cluster has a variety of choices for parents to choose from regarding elementary and middle schools. The choices within that cluster have been improving over the years and need to remain fully funded to ensure continued progress,” wrote Cruz to the commission. “At this time the Invictus Charter school has a variety of concerns that MNPS should address before any decision is made regarding their approval. Classifying themselves as a Montessori school is a huge responsibility to take on, the principal and teachers need to be certified to teach the materials. This requires time and expense.”

A total of nine self-identified Stanford Montessori parents wrote emails in opposition to Invictus and a handful of others attended public hearings earlier in the process to speak against school.

Dr. Brenda Jones (left) standing with a supporter of Invictus (Photo by Invictus Nashville)

Their emails ultimately didn’t impact the final decision as commissioners voted unanimously to approve Invictus Nashville’s appeal, but the school’s founder has serious concerns that school staff would be involved in political advocacy in this way.

Dr. Brenda Jones says none of those Stanford Montessori parents ever reached out to her directly to learn more about her school before opposing it.

“It’s disheartening to know that parents were fed talking points to speak against the approval of Invictus because I believe that if they were provided an authentic opportunity to meet and learn more about our mission, they would have a different opinion on supporting us,” said Jones. “I’m a Nashville native, I’m from MNPS. I did the work to make sure that we can serve students with this model.”

Dr. Jones says the talking points board member Nabaa-McKinney provided gave those parents "false information," and she believes they came directly from the district review that recommended a denial of her application.

Members of the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission rejected those findings and Dr. Jones says she particularly takes issue with the district's claims that her school’s “curriculum is not cohesively aligned to state standards” when other Montessori schools, including Stanford Montessori have been approved.“

There is one Montessori curriculum, so if my school is not aligned how are those aligned? It doesn’t make sense to keep making this statement about us not being aligned to state standards when you guys are using the Montessori curriculum,” said Jones. “But this is what was provided to parents and of course, without doing their own research, why would they not believe the people that they trusted.”

Questionable Competition

A common theme of the written comments from Stanford Montessori parents is a concern that Invictus Nashville would somehow create competition for their school.

Under the state’s new Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA) law, school dollars follow the student, and the district didn’t present any evidence in the appeal process showing how Invictus Nashville could cause a noticeable direct impact on Stanford Montessori or its finances.

Stanford Montessori students are admitted through a lottery process and Invictus leaders have said they aren’t targeting those students to switch schools. Instead, Invictus plans to appeal to a more diverse group of students for enrollment than Stanford Montessori where most students are white.

Metro Schools continued to make the case of an alleged negative impact in a statement released to the Tennessee Firefly in support of district staff using taxpayer funded time to encourage parents to oppose Invictus.

“MNPS supported parents who wanted to advocate on behalf of their school and students who may be negatively impacted by the opening of this school in the vicinity of an existing Montessori school,” said MNPS in a statement.

In recent years MNPS has made multiple decisions that have drawn the ire of public charter school supporters including excluding the schools from the district’s annual celebration and voting down every charter application in the last three years.Commissioners have overturned five of those denials.

Dr. Jones says she hopes the politics that have played a role in those decisions can be set aside now that her school is approved.  She also hopes some of those parents who opposed her will give Invictus Nashville another look before it opens.

“If anyone wants to learn more about Invictus Nashville, partner with us, ask questions, dig, hold us accountable but come and talk to us. Figure out what we’re about and then make an informed decision,” said Dr. Jones.