Nashville’s students of color face an achievement gap. These board members just voted down every plan to address it.
MNPS Board of Education members voted down five proposed public charter schools.
MNPS continues to overstate the cost of public charter schools. Can any proposed this year get a fair vote?
The Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Board of Education hasn’t approved a new public charter school since members voted in Aventura Community School in 2021 on a 5-3 vote.
Board of Education turns down expansion of Nashville charter network that's outperforming comparable schools
Last year LEAD Public Schools turned to one of Metro-Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) most successful principals to head up the public charter school operator’s goal of expanding to become a true K-12 network.LEAD hired then Warner Arts Magnet Elementary Principal Dr. Ricki Gibbs as its new head of elementary schools. Gibbs gained attention in the district for transforming Warner from a low performing school to a Reward School in 2022 and earned the title of MNPS Elementary Principal of the Year in 2020.
LEAD Public Schools proposes creating K-12 school pipelines with two new elementary schools
LEAD Public Schools has been providing families in Nashville with a school choice option since founder Jeremy Kane started LEAD Academy in 2007 for fifth and sixth-graders.Today LEAD has grown to run six public charter schools in Nashville, including four in the Metro-Nashville Public School district serving families in South Nashville and Antioch. What the charter operator believes it’s lacking though, are elementary schools to feed students into those existing middle and high schools.
House advances plan to help make vacant property available to public charter schools
Members of the House Education Administration Committee advanced proposed legislation Wednesday to help public charter schools access school buildings that are sitting unused by local districts.The legislation would require local school districts that have public charter schools in them to provide a list of vacant and underutilized buildings on an annual basis. Under the bill, school districts would additionally be required to make those properties available to public charter schools at a fair market value and give charters a first right of refusal for either purchase or lease.
LEAD Public Schools names prominent Metro Nashville Public Schools principal to key leadership role
Two years ago, Dr. Ricki Gibbs featured prominently in WPLN’s Peabody award winning series the Promise, in an episode that contrasted two East Nashville public elementary schools that couldn’t be more different, despite their close proximity.
Academic gains propel LEAD Neely’s Bend out of the state’s Achievement School District
LEAD Public Schools announced LEAD Neely’s Bend will be the first public charter school in Nashville to exit the state-run Achievement School District (ASD) and move under the authority of the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.The ASD is a school system in Tennessee created to provide academic intervention for the state’s lowest performing schools. LEAD Neely’s Bend qualified to move out of the ASD through improved academic performance during the 2021-22 school year.
Tennessee could see nearly two dozen new public charter schools proposed next year
School districts across the state received 23 letters of intent this month for applications to open new public charter schools next year. That’s the first step potential charter operators must take before submitting their formal application by February 1, 2023.The letters of intent include proposed schools in four counties that do not currently have public charter schools and they’re coming from both existing charter operators in Tennessee and those who were rejected this year.