Springs Empower Academy announced a partnership with the Smyrna Boys & Girls Club to provide a temporary location while the K-5 public charter school’s permanent facility is under construction.The school is currently in the process of building a new school on Enon Springs Road, but construction and financing delays are preventing that facility from being ready in time for students to start in the 2024/2025 school year.

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) superintendent search is finally drawing to a close, with school board members now planning to select a new leader for the state’s largest school district on February 9.The decision follows a lengthy interview session last week with all three out-of-state finalists.School board members are 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 long vacant position.

Victavia Walls says she made the wrong choice in middle school to temporarily leave LEAD Brick Church for her traditionally zoned Metro Nashville school. She's among the nearly half a dozen parents and students who shared their experiences to support LEAD Brick Church's effort to remain open as a public charter school.

A decade ago, it would have been hard to picture Janet Bravo working at a public charter school, much less leading the startup of one.Bravo says back then she had an unflattering vision of public charter schools in her mind, but made the decision to join IDEA public schools in 2014, serving as an academic counselor in one of the network’s underperforming schools in Texas.

Natoria Carpenter says she chose to drive her daughter thirty miles each day to the opposite side of Memphis just to attend Vision Preparatory Charter School.Carpenter was among the crowd of current and former parents who attended Tuesday night’s Memphis-Shelby County School Board meeting to provide support for the public charter school’s request for a new ten-year charter with the district.

The Memphis-Shelby County School Board unanimously voted Tuesday to establish a special council to help guide decisions about public charter schools.The new Charter Partnership Council will provide feedback and make recommendations to the board to ensure continued accountability and access to high-quality public charter schools for the Memphis community.

When the top three candidates for superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools make their final cases to community and board members later this week, they will not only be explaining their leadership and academic successes, but also proving how well they can get to know a new community.The school board’s current attempt at a national search for superintendent has produced three out-of-state finalists, positioning the district to have its first leader from outside Memphis in more than a decade. While new-to-town leaders have helmed Memphis public schools in the past, internal candidates have been favored in the last decade.

The House K-12 Subcommittee advanced legislation that aims to help public charter schools access vacant and underutilized buildings.If passed the bill 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.

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission unanimously approved Nashville Collegiate Prep’s request to continue providing students its community classroom model into high school.The K-8 public charter school organizes each grade into a pod of 4 to 5 classes. Throughout the day students switch teachers within the pod based on their specific needs and strengths, providing teachers an opportunity to more directly focus lessons on the areas students might need help in.

Earlier this month when schools across Memphis shut down for winter weather, Promise Academy Spring Hill Interim Executive Director Patrick Washington says he received a memorable early morning phone call from a former student named James.Washington says James talked to him about the challenges he was facing in high school and though they hadn’t spoken in years, Washington offered to help.It’s the type of interaction Washington says students receive at Promise Academy Spring Hill and he shared that story to members of the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission to drive home the importance of keeping the school open.

Sara Vaneel says she chose to enroll her son in Rocketship Nashville Northeast Elementary School when he was entering kindergarten because she wanted him to have a different educational experience than she received.Vaneel says instead of staying with one teacher each day, her son has benefitted from the public charter school’s class rotation schedule, and he loves his coding and robotics classes.Vaneel’s son and his more than 500 classmates have all been at risk of losing what they enjoy about Rocketship since November when members of the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Board of Education voted against renewing the school’s charter. That decision threatened to close the school, but Rocketship appealed to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission.Friday, commissioners unanimously voted to overturn the board’s decision and grant Rocketship another ten-year charter. It’s the latest in a series of decisions by commissioners to overturn MNPS board votes against public charter schools

Even under a best-case scenario, hundreds of Metro-Nashville Public School (MNPS) students will have to repeat the fourth-grade next year under a new state law.That’s according to district Executive Director of the Department of Research, Assessment, and Evaluation Christine Stenson, who updated members of the MNPS Board of Education Tuesday night on the potential impact Tennessee’s new Third-Grade Retention Law will have on district fourth-graders.

A key prediction that’s guiding Tennessee’s workforce development is the belief that the number of jobs requiring some form of credential or degree will grow at a higher rate than those requiring only a high school diploma.This could be especially true in Nashville and improving the pathways for students to earn those degrees and credentials is at the heart of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce’s four recommendations to improve K-12 education.

Rutherford County School leaders say reset rooms are helping prevent behavior problems in elementary schools.Reset rooms are designated safe areas where students can go to regulate their emotions and behavior. The rooms also allow students to have quiet time which is another strategy for de-escalation.District Special Education District Coordinator Annie Ralston told school board members at Monday’s work session that over the fall semester, there were 1,432 instances of students using the reset rooms to take a break. Only 349 of those instances, or roughly 25 percent, escalated to involving an administrator.

Memphis-Shelby County School (MSCS) leaders say proactive efforts to winterize schools and increase facility staff is paying dividends during this week’s cold winter weather.For the first time since the merger of Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools, the district has a plant manager stationed at each school to provide expertise and additional resources to facilities teams.District leaders say that change played a valuable role supporting the aging buildings that are less energy efficient and require more money and personnel to maintain.

The Rutherford County School Board is considering upping the ante for how much the district pays its special education teachers and faculty.During budget preparation in last week’s meeting, board members discussed the pay hike to maintain competition with other school districts.Board member Frances Rosales also suggested giving an incentive to education assistants (EA) for students learning English as a second language.

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.