The book ban debate continued to rage at Thursday’s Rutherford County Schools Board of Education meeting, when school board members ultimately voted to remove several more books from school library shelves.

Rep. Mike Sparks, R-Smyrna, has proposed reducing the minimum age for school bus drivers from 25 to 21 to help school districts find more qualified bus drivers to cover routes.

From school threats to book bans and higher-ed funding debacles, 2024 marked a year of controversy and contention among education policymakers.

The Rutherford County Schools Board of Education approved new zoning rules for high schools in the county at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

Several local residents spoke to Rutherford County Schools (RCS) Board of Education members Thursday to continue voicing opposition to recent book bans within the Middle Tennessee school district, after district librarians received an email instructing them to pull 150 “sexually explicit” books from school library shelves.

The ongoing debate about book bans in Rutherford County Schools dominated much of the discussion at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, after district librarians said they recently received an email instructing them to pull 150 sexually explicit books from school library shelves.

A handful of local residents spoke to the Rutherford County Board of Education Thursday to express their support and opposition to a recent decision by the board to ban six books from school libraries.

Over 400 titles have been pulled from Wilson County Schools library shelves since July 1, in response to a state law that restricts access to books with sexual or obscene material.

Sumner County Schools is the latest district taking extra measures to warn parents about the growing problem of school threats in Tennessee.

The district recently sent parents a letter signed by Superintendent Scott Langford, Juvenile Court Judge David Howard, Sheriff Eric Craddock, and District Attorney General Lawrence Whitley that outlines the punishment for making threats of mass violence at schools and school-related activities.

The Middle Tennessee school district continued discussions about how to align district policies with state laws that instruct schools to ban books with sexual or obscene material at Tuesday’s policy committee meeting. Read more about the debate among school board members.

The school district passed a resolution Tuesday asking the Rutherford County District Attorney’s Office to continue criminally prosecuting students and others who make threats of mass violence against schools. Learn more about the board's resolution.

The Rutherford County Schools Board of Education voted to remove six literary classics from school libraries at Thursday’s regular school board meeting including “Beloved,” A Pulitzer-Prize winning novel from Toni Morrison about the horrors of slavery, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” a coming-of-age novel by Stephen Chbosky, and “Wicked” by Gregory Maguire, a novel which retells the “Wizard of Oz.” In addition, the board also banned “Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi, “Queen of Shadows” by Sara J. Maas, and “Tower of Dawn, also by Sara J. Maas.

Rutherford County Schools Director Dr. Jimmy Sullivan posted a video message on social media to parents Tuesday afternoon in response to the arrests of two students he says made false reports about school threats.

Following the Rutherford County Schools Board of Education’s recent decision to deny Novus SMART Academy’s application to become the fourth charter school in the district, supporters and educators from the charter school have taken their appeal to the state.

The monthly payments Tennessee sends school districts are determined based on enrollment last school year. Representative Charlie Baum Districts hopes to reduce the “lag.”

Rutherford County Schools (RCS) leaders highlighted recent efforts to fill special education and English as a second language (ESL) teaching positions at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting.

Rutherford County Schools Board of Education officials noted the need for more school nurses in the district at Tuesday’s work session meeting.

The Rutherford County Schools Board of Education is expected to decide if it will ban seven books next month to comply with a new state law instructing school libraries to remove books with sexual or otherwise inappropriate content.

Rutherford Collegiate Prep opened its doors for the first time to students last Wednesday while American Classical Academy Rutherford and Springs Empower Academy are both opening today.

The Rutherford County school board unanimously voted to approve revisions to district policy regarding the removal of books with sexual or inappropriate themes from school libraries to align with a new state law that went into effect this year.