Knox County School Board members voted to hold off implementing a proposed change to school harassment language some fear would remove protections for LGBTQ+ students and faculty.That change would have replaced “actual or perceived gender” and “sexual orientation” in district harassment policy with “sex.”Knox County Deputy Law Director Gary Dupler told board members the recommended language change was for legal purposes only and not with the intention of making a sociopolitical statement, but opponents urged board members at last week’s meeting to keep the language as it is.

The snow that’s blanketed Tennessee this week is forcing Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) to push back the final phase of its superintendent search.The district had planned to host community engagement and school board interviews with three finalists this week but those meetings will now take place on February 1 and 2.The district is considering Atlanta Public Schools Chief Academic Officer Yolanda C. Brown, Portland Public Schools Deputy Superintendent of Instruction and School Communities Cheryl Proctor, and Detroit Public Schools Chief of Leadership and High Schools Marie N. Feagins for the position.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Interim Superintendent Tutonial “Toni” Williams gathered with district leaders Thursday morning to commit to putting forward long-term, proactive, and sustainable solutions to address the root cause of violence impacting youth.Community violence is an ongoing issue in the Memphis community that affects both youth and adults. According to MSCS, 22 students died from violence during the 2023-2024 school year.

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.

The majority of Nashville’s public charter schools received a better report card from the state than their traditional school counterparts in the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) district.A Tennessee Firefly analysis of the recently released School Letter Grades found 62 percent of MNPS public charter schools scored a higher grade than similar traditional public schools averaged.

A long-awaited solution may finally address school overcrowding in the Farragut area of Knox County.At Monday night’s school board work session, Knox County School (KCS) leaders recommended building a new K-5 elementary school to address the overcrowding in Farragut area schools. The proposed school is expected to cost $47 million and will house 1,200 students.District leaders also recommended spending $3 million to renovate Farragut Primary and Intermediate schools and expand both into K-5 elementary schools.

Interim Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Superintendent Tutonial “Toni” Williams says improving teacher retention could play a positive role in elevating low-graded schools on the state’s recently released School Letter Grades. The A through F grading system is designed to provide families with a transparent and concise picture for how well public schools are performing.Williams says the district will be taking a more holistic approach to retain teachers in the future, including preserving tutoring and small group instruction initiatives, adding more coaching for teachers, paying for education assistants to enter the profession, and giving veteran teachers longevity bonuses.

The lengthy search for a new leader of the state’s largest school district is down to three finalists.Tuesday night members of the Memphis-Shelby County School Board named three out of state educational leaders to move onto the next phase of the superintendent search process.

One of the biggest challenges the next superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) will inherit is the aging infrastructure of the district’s schools.The average age of school buildings in the district is 64 years old. That’s 24 years older than the recommended life span of school buildings nationwide and district is currently considering options to fund $500 million school upgrades and address the district’s deferred maintenance costs.With an eye towards this challenge, school board members asked each of the five semi-finalists for the superintendent position about their experience with facilities and operations Friday.Their answers could play an important role in the board’s decision tonight to narrow those five down to three finalists. Here’s how all five responded.

ParagraphLife has been busy for Muna Olaniyi ever since the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission unanimously approved her dream of opening a career based public charter school to serve families in Orange Mound and South Memphis.Empower Memphis Career and College Prep remains on track to open in the fall 2024, but Olaniyi says there are still a lot of important decisions to make before then.

Search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates (HYA) announced the five finalists it’s picked to lead Memphis-Shelby County Schools Friday morning.The firm picked two previous finalists, one previous candidate, and two newcomers from a pool of 22 applicants for the long-vacant post.

Darrell Grady says his child was at risk of retention in the second grade. That experience, combined with his own time as a former Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) student who got caught up in the criminal justice system, convinced him to pull his child out of MNPS.Grady told members of the Metro Nashville School Board that even though he’s lost faith in the school system, he hopes the updated GoSchoolBox, Inc. tutoring vendor contract will actively engage with parents when children like his needs help.

Dozens of faith-based leaders gathered around Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Interim Superintendent Tutonial “Toni” Williams Wednesday to denounce a Satanic club that’s planning to rent space at a local elementary school.Non-theistic religious non-profit organization The Satanic Temple (TST) plans to begin hosting the After School Satan Club at Chimneyrock Elementary School on Jan 10.

Interim Memphis-Shelby County School Superintendent Tutonial “Toni” Williams says her administration is evaluating multiple strategies to move the district forward once federal COVID relief funding dries up.The federal government plans to halt providing schools districts with Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds (ESSER) funds next September.Memphis-Shelby County Schools has received a total of $776 million in ESSER funds. This money has helped support infrastructure needs along with providing advanced placement and vocational courses.

Jackson-Madison County School System (JMCSS) leaders celebrated the district’s surge in graduation rates outpacing the state’s improvement.From 2021, the district’s graduation rates grew from 85.7 percent to 90.5 percent. This 4.8 percent gain surpasses Tennessee’s gain of 1.9 percent by nearly three percentage points during the same period of time.That growth places JMCSS’s graduation rate just .1 percent lower than the state average.

Three members of the Knox County Board of Education continued to work against efforts to establish a public charter school with a history of successfully serving economically disadvantaged and students of color Thursday night.Board members John Butler, Katherine Bike, and Jennifer Owen were among those who unsuccessfully opposed the all-boys Knoxville Preparatory School’s approval last April. The school model replicates PREP Public Schools’ existing Chattanooga Preparatory School in Hamilton County that’s a Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) Level 5 school, the highest of the state’s academic growth measure.

Members of the Sumner County School Board voted to keep the book “Hey, Kiddo” on library shelves Tuesday after its own author sent a video message to support it."Hey, Kiddo” is the graphic memoir detailing author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s life growing up in a family grappling with addiction.An Ellis Middle School parent filed a request to have the book taken off the library shelves after their sixth-grade child checked out the book. The parent filed the challenge claiming “Hey, Kiddo” contained inappropriate language and depictions of mature content.

Multiple members of the Knox County Board of Education who unsuccessfully opposed Knoxville Preparatory School’s approval in April, are continuing to make it more challenging for the public charter school to open.Knox Prep faced no obstacles working out the details of its charter agreement with district staff, but board members John Butler and Katherine Bike temporarily blocked the contract at last month’s meeting by abstaining on what should have been a routine vote for approval. The board will make another vote on the contract this Thursday and Tuesday’s work session provided Knox Prep’s opponents with another opportunity to continue to challenge it.

Tennessee’s first Montessori public charter school is expanding its personalized learning approach to more students in the Frayser community of Memphis.Monday the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission granted the Libertas School of Memphis’s application to add grades six through eight to its existing Pre-K-5 campus, along with 148 more seats.“We are thrilled that the TN Public Charter School Commission has unanimously approved our charter amendment to serve middle school grades beginning in 2024,” said Libertas school leaders in a letter to parents following approval. “I thank our Board of Trustees for their guidance as we have carefully developed this vision over the last several years, and applaud our teachers and staff for crafting the plan.”The school is one of 16 public charter schools state commissioners oversea, and Libertas leaders say the expansion fills a void traditional public schools in Frayser aren’t filling.

Jauana Luiz Cruz says the transition of moving to Nashville from Mexico was a huge challenge for her elementary school age son.Speaking through an interpreter at Tuesday's Metro School Board meeting, Cruz says language barriers were especially a problem and her son hated school so much she worried the family might have to make an emotionally difficult decision of moving him back to Mexico.

That changed after a coworker connected the family with Rocketship Nashville Northeast Elementary School.