Parents and educators urge state commission to renew charter for LEAD Neely’s Bend Middle School

Students at LEAD Neely’s Bend working on a class assignment. (Photo from LEAD Public Schools Website)

Since opening its doors for the 2015-16 school year, LEAD Neely’s Bend Middle School has garnered support from parents in the Madison area who say the public charter school’s approach to education has been beneficial for their children’s academic growth.

Among those parents is Paulita Edmondson, a school counselor at Neely’s Bend, who joined several others in a public hearing last week in Nashville to urge the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission to renew the school’s charter for another 10-year term.

Paulita Edmondson, a school counselor at Neely’s Bend, urges the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission to renew the school’s charter at a hearing last week. (Screenshot) 

Edmondson said during the hearing that she chose Neely’s Bend as both a workplace and school for her children because of its responsiveness to the needs of educators and students. She said her niece, who also attends the school, has shown continuous improvement both in terms of academic performance and in her student life since being enrolled.

“She was extremely introverted when we moved here. By the end of her first year, she had joined the cheerleading team, she made friends, and her grades improved from all failing grades to all A’s. She told me it was the first time she ever made relationships with teachers. I believe that’s what made the difference,” she said, adding that other family members have demonstrated similar progress since enrolling at LEAD.

One fifth-grade student also said during the hearing that the school makes her feel “comfortable and accepted,” with the help of effective instructors dedicated to boosting students’ academic confidence.  

“The teachers here at LEAD Neely’s Bend help me understand what they are actually teaching,” she told commissioners.

According to documents from the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission, the school first launched under the state’s Achievement School District before transitioning under the commission’s authorization in the 2023-2024 school year. Charter schools are free public schools operated by an independent contract or “charter” with an authorizing agency like a school district or the state. When the ten-year charter term ends, authorizing agencies decide whether a charter school has earned a renewal.

LEAD Public Schools Director Dr. Ricki Gibbs said during the hearing that the charter school, which serves about 300 students in Madison’s Neely’s Bend community in Davidson County, has gained the support of families due to its commitment to continual improvement.

“From its inception, when we launched LEAD Neely’s Bend in 2015, we started as a turnaround school. It was [about] understanding that this community needed a fresh look at how we can give the students of this community a chance at a world-class education. Through the hard work and dedication of our LEAD Neely’s Bend staff as well as our network support, we've been able to exit priority status and we’re currently a school in good standing in the state of Tennessee based upon our academic outcomes,” he said.

“It's exciting because we have been able to garner the support of not only parents but also other community members who see the work that we do here at LEAD Neely’s Bend as a value add to the community.”

LEAD Neely’s Bend Principal Dominique Smith said she believes this support has been largely due to the school’s “willingness to put students first,” and for the way in which it utilizes parents’ feedback.

She said this approach has had positive results, adding that recent performance data from the state shows the school “outperforming” neighboring Madison Middle School “in English language arts, math, science and social studies” on state assessments.  

“We are a school that wants and accepts feedback and that was evident during our site visit where we spent a significant amount of time with the team asking them questions about how we could better improve and soliciting their feedback,” she said.

“Over the last charter term, we have made several adjustments to our overall school culture in response to data. We have changed staffing, incorporated more [socioemotional learning] time, built out a more robust counseling program and refined teacher practice to use data more consistently and effectively to drive student outcomes just to name a few,” she continued. “We have developed a strong coaching model not only for our teachers but for our mid-level leaders that we know leads to higher outcomes with students.”

With these points in mind, TPCSC Executive Director Tess Stovall said in her recommendation about the school’s renewal application that she believes the performance of the school is “on track for a ten-year renewal term.”

“The operator has demonstrated the ability to acknowledge and respond to challenges effectively, which gives me confidence in this operator to continue a trajectory of improving student outcomes, ensuring student growth, and closing the achievement gap,” she said of preliminary findings in her recommendation.

Stovall said the commission will make a final decision LEAD’s renewal application at another meeting in January 2025. She said the meeting will be held in Memphis and livestreamed online, adding that more details will soon be available on the commission’s website at www.tn.gov.