The new Facilities Steering Committee for Memphis-Shelby County Schools will be evaluating a potentially major change for district buildings to raise money for improvements.The committee held its first meeting last week and is expected to make a recommendation to school board members in the coming weeks to address the district’s deferred maintenance costs, which are approximately $500 million.One proposed move under consideration is to designate 23 district facilities for reuse.  MSCS did not identify which academic spaces that would include, but leaders estimate the district could create more than $149 million in savings.

Rutherford County Director of Schools James Sullivan wants to change the narrative around mental health in the district to provide additional resources to students who need them.Sullivan invited the nonprofit Volunteer Behavioral Health Care System to talk with the board about potentially expanding its Project BASIC (Better Attitudes and Skills in Children) program into Rutherford County Schools.

Springs Empower Academy students now have a picture of what their future school will look like.School leaders unveiled renderings Monday for the new K-8 public charter school that will open in fall of 2024 and serve up to 480 students in Smyrna. Rutherford County School Board members approved the K-8 public charter school last year and Springs Empower Academy is now in the process of purchasing land on Enon Springs road to build the school.

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission provided a mixed bag for supporters of two public charter schools vying to transfer into the Memphis-Shelby County School (MSCS) district.Commissioners unanimously upheld the transfer appeal from Cornerstone Prep Lester Friday but denied Fairley High School. The decision means Cornerstone Prep will continue to operate as a public charter school as it transitions to MSCS while Fairley faces an unknown future with Green Dot Public Schools no longer serving as its operator.Cornerstone Prep and Fairley are in the final year of a ten-year contract with the state-run Achievement School District (ASD), an intervention that serves the lowest achieving schools. Both schools applied to transfer into the district in hopes of continuing the turnaround work as public charter schools.

Students at Memphis’s Peabody Elementary School will continue to attend classes elsewhere for the remainder of the school year.Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) announced Friday that it plans to keep Peabody closed until the fall to continue mold remediation and other improvements.  Peabody students have been attending classes at nearby Middle College High School since last month when repairs began.

Dr. Brenda Jones made Nashville education history Friday by not just becoming the first Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) graduate to open a public charter school, but also the first former district teacher to do so.Members of the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission voted unanimously to approve Jones’ appeal to open Invictus Nashville Charter School.  The vote overturns a July decision by the MNPS Board of Education to deny Invictus.

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission unanimously cleared the way Friday for Memphis educator Muna Olaniyi’s dream of disrupting the cycle of poverty in Orange Mound and South Memphis through education.Olaniyi’s Empower Memphis Career and College Prep will serve K-8 students in the communities with a career technical education (CTE) model that’s designed to provide students with academic and technical skills through hands-on training and experience. The school will also provide a “two-generation’ approach that serves the needs of students and their families struggling with poverty.

Members of the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission unanimously overturned a decision by the Jackson-Madison County School Board Thursday and questioned how “serious” district leaders were taking the process.Those comments came during Thursday’s successful appeal by American Classical Education to open the first public charter school in Madison County. School board members initially rejected ACE’s application to open American Classical Academy – Jackson-Madison (ACAJM) in July citing 74 deficiencies.The district didn’t send anyone to attend Thursday’s appeal hearing in Nashville and Commissioner Alan Levine criticized that decision, saying it makes it look as though the district isn’t taking the process seriously.

Jackson-Madison County Schools made the unusual move Wednesday to publicly attack a recommendation by the Executive Director of the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission to approve what would be the county’s first public charter school.This week Tess Stovall recommended approving an appeal by American Classical Education (ACE), finding its academic, financial, and operations plans for American Classical Academy Jackson - Madison all meet state requirements. Stovall recommended denying ACE’s other appeal for a sister school in Maury County.

The Knox County Schools (KCS) Department of School Culture is aiming to make stronger connections with students who access the district’s mental health resources.The department is receiving the Stronger Connections Grant (SCG) to put together structures within district schools that further support mental health and expand on the current mental health services students are receiving.

The Metro Nashville School Board indefinitely deferred a proposed major change to the district’s magnet school policy Tuesday to allow for more discussion on how to make two highly sought after high schools more representative of the district’s diversity.Board member Emily Masters proposed eliminating the priority students who attend one of the four feeder middle school magnets receive for a direct pathway into Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School or Hume-Fogg Academic High School.The change would ensure all qualified students are subject to the same lottery selection process at these two schools.

More than 30 parents in Donelson and Hermitage wrote the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission to urge members to overturn a decision by the Metro Nashville Public School Board.Last July board members denied Invictus Nashville Charter School’s application open a Montessori based K-8 public charter for students in the Donelson and Hermitage communities. Invictus supporters appealed to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission whose members have the option of overturning local district denials.

The ongoing search for a new leader of the state’s largest school district is once again seeing another key date moved back.At Tuesday night’s Memphis-Shelby County School Board meeting, Vice Chair Joyce Dorse-Coleman told board members the search process now aims to have five to eight candidates to interview by early December. Originally, the goal was to start board interviews in November.Dorse-Coleman says the process is targeting having a new superintendent ready to start by July 1, 2024.The district has been searching for a new superintendent since former superintendent Joris Ray resigned in July 2022.

Dozens of parents are lending their support to American Classical Education (ACE)’s appeal to open the first public charter school in Madison County.The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission received 80 written comments from the public related to ACE’s appeal and nearly 50 of them came from parents like Linda Lipford who are offering their support.

Althea Greene will remain chair of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board for a second year as the district continues its search for a permanent superintendent, despite criticism of how she handled the initial search.Greene received seven votes from the nine-member board. Board member Frank Johnson, who is recovering from a stroke, was not at Tuesday’s meeting. Newly appointed member Mauricio Calvo voted “present.”

Nashville Collegiate Prep’s (NCP) appeal to open a high school in southeast Davidson County is finding support from those who are still too young to drive. More than a dozen middle and elementary school students submitted handwritten letters to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission in support of the proposed public charter school.“NCP Middle School is already perfect so why not make it ‘perfecter?’” wrote student Aung Du. “Since the school would be bigger, there would be more sports fields. Also, there would be more than just P.E. There would be STEM, art, computer, Robotics, (chorus), etc. I hope you’ll accept to build the high school!”Organizations ReThink Forward Inc. and the Noble Education Initiative would partner to oversee the proposed high school that would serve as an extension of the existing Nashville Collegiate Prep elementary and middle school, but members of the Metro Nashville School Board unanimously voted the application down in July.

American Classical Education’s (ACE) appeal to open the first public charter school in Maury County faced a new criticism at Thursday’s public hearing with the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.Maury County resident Jackie Marshall accused the organization of essentially trying to start a religious school on taxpayer dollars through its connections to Michigan-based Hillsdale college.“Hillsdale College is about theology. Considering Hillsdale’s Middle Tennessee Board, which is made up of conservative evangelicals, it worries me that this charter school will become similar to the religious private schools that Maury County has so many of. Keep religion, politics, and a false curriculum out of Maury County Public Schools,” said Marshall.

American Classical Education (ACE) will have to overcome opposition from one of Tennessee’s historically black colleges and universities if it’s going to successfully open the first public charter school in Madison County.Lane College ‘s Chief of Staff/Vice President of Institutional Advancement Darlette Samuels was among those speaking against ACE’s appeal to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. 

A discussion on the condition of school buildings turned heated at Monday’s Memphis-Shelby County School Board work session.Board member Stephanie Love and Interim Superintendent Tutonial “Toni” Williams spared over the timeline of improvements for a school in Love’s district. Love questioned if Grandview Heights Middle School will be first on the list for repairs and told Williams she’s not convinced anything will be done.“The reason I asked is because I visited Grandview yesterday and it is a hot mess. Teachers are complaining, students are complaining, and the parents are complaining. And I said yesterday, if my daughter was in a school the way Grandview looks, I would take her out. I want to be sure: I don’t work for the board, I work for my community,” said Love. “The school is in so much shape that I wanted to know. I shouldn’t have a parent call me. I acted like I knew. You have got to do better.”

The Sumner County Board of Education voted to move $15.5 million out of reserves to fund the first wave of stadium renovations, rebuilds, and facility updates in the district.The need for renovations arose following the collapse of Beech High School’s bleachers last month. A portion of the visitors’ bleachers at Beech High School’s Shackle Island Stadium collapsed overnight following days of heavy wind and rain.