The U.S. Department of Education has named six Tennessee schools as National Blue Ribbon Schools this year including Miller Perry Elementary School in Kingsport, Glenwood Elementary School in Oak Ridge, Early College High School in Nashville, Merrol Hyde Magnet School in Hendersonville, Spanish Immersion at Barksdale in Clarksville, and Jordan Elementary School in Brentwood.

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 leaders are expected to make a decision on whether to ban seven books Thursday in order to comply with state laws instructing school libraries to remove books with sexual or obscene material.

Williamson County parents and students continued urging district leaders to increase compensation for fine arts teachers at Monday's school board meeting.

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.

Harpeth Middle School seventh-grader Elijah Riggs won the Tristar Reads contest by logging an average of eight hours each day reading.

Williamson County Schools says misinformation on social media may be unnecessarily alarming parents.

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.

Sumner County Schools Director Scott Langford told board officials and community members that the district has made significant strides in expanding of advanced placement (AP) programming.

Multiple Williamson County Schools students and community members continued to urge the Williamson County Board of Education to support raises for arts teachers at Monday’s meeting.

According to current guidelines available on the board’s website, students and staff should only use AI programs that are approved by district leadership for instruction or completing student work approved AI programs may be utilized in student instruction or in completing student work.

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) has made significant progress in recent efforts to address teacher vacancies in the district, according to a back-to-school update given by Director Adrienne Battle at Tuesday’s regular board meeting.

Last month school board members in Nashville and Rutherford County voted down six proposed new public charter schools.Next month supporters from all of them will make their case to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission for why the decision was the wrong one.

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.

Tom Stinnett