Martin Luther King Academic Magnet faculty make the case to keep seventh and eighth-grade students

Faculty from Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet School pleaded with the Metro Nashville School Board Tuesday night to oppose a proposal to remove two middle school grades as part of the MNPS ReimaginED equity roadmap.That proposal would remove seventh and eighth-grade students from the school. One faculty member requested the district instead expand MLK to include sixth-grade.MLK school counselor Sarah Laos told school board told board members the building still has room to enroll more students and she worries phasing out the two grades means losing part of the faculty.“Thus far, I have been in support of the MLK ReimaginED plan,” said Laos. “And as it pertains to MLK, I’ve been hopeful that the district would decide to expand access to academic middle school seats by adding a sixth-grade class at MLK in the 25/26 school year,”Currently, students can attend regular middle school for two years before applying to attend MLK from seventh-grade onward. Under the new model, MLK would turn into a traditional 9-12 high school with Head Magnet Middle School taking on grades 6-8 for middle school.Fifth-grade would become an elementary school grade under the new model as well, joining the schools in the Pearl-Cohn, Maplewood, and Whites Creek clusters that have already begun the switch.MLK World Language Department chair Michael Bartus told board members that removing the middle school would negatively impact academic opportunities.“The middle school is an integral part of our school and the language programs with students beginning their studies in seventh-grade,” said Bartus. “Were the middle school to be dissolved, there is no question in my mind that this would negatively impact the language courses available to our students as there are currently no plans to expand language studies at Head Magnet.”MNPS ReimaginED is a signature initiative with a goal to reimagine how the district can best improve academic outcomes for all students, include new support systems, strengthen academic pathways, and foster culture.Over the past few months, the district has been working to map out and implement these changes with regular updates occurring at the board meetings.