Metro Nashville school board renews 4 charter schools
Four Nashville charter schools faced charter agreement renewals at Metro Nashville Public Schools' board of education meeting Tuesday.
Intrepid College Prep, Purpose Preparatory Academy Charter School, KIPP Nashville College Prep Middle School, and Nashville Classical Charter School all received approvals, giving them the go-ahead to operate in the district for at least the next decade.
But every school failed to receive a unanimous vote of approval after some board members shared concerns surrounding each school's goals and outcomes over the past 10 years.
KIPP charter schools:State approves two KIPP charter schools over Nashville board's objections
Approvals despite some pushback
Board member Abigail Tylor voted against three renewals and abstained from voting on Nashville Classical.
On her abstention, she said she had a "giant concern" that the school is turning into a "state-funded private school" as the enrollment of students it claims it wants to serve is continuing to decline. She abstained though due to the belief the school was meeting its families' needs.
Each of her decisions came from beliefs that the schools haven't been meeting their original goals in terms of enrollment demographics and academics.
"If they're really going to be a school that goes above and beyond and is giving the community more than what they could get at their zone school, then they need to meet their own standards," Tylor said before voting against Purpose Preparatory Academy's renewal.
Board chair Rachael Anne Elrod also voted against renewing each school. For Intrepid, she shared her concern over approving the school's contract when it "doesn't seem to meet a special need that (MNPS) can't fit in other schools," adding that growing enrollment at charter schools could put the planning and building of future MNPS public schools in jeopardy.
"They are seemingly not seats that are absolutely needed in that area as we have grown in that area and have some other schools being built," she said.
The area Elrod referred to is the fast-growing Antioch/Cane Ridge area in southeast Nashville, where three charter schools are slated to open in the next two years.
Board member Cheryl Mayes, who represents that district, voted in favor of Intrepid's renewal after citing some of the experiences she had at a recent school visit and the belief that the area will continue to grow and need more school seats.
"I think it's extremely imperative, especially when we're talking about children, to make sure that we have eyes on what is actually happening," Mayes said. "I was at the school last week. I know exactly what the need is in our community.... What I saw in this particular school is academic excellence.
Each school's renewal application was rated on academic success, operational stability, financial health and future planning. All received ratings of "meets or exceeds standard" in every category — the highest possible rating — from MNPS review team members, according to a presentation from the district's director of charter schools Shereka Roby-Grant.
In cases of denials, charter schools have the option to appeal the board's decision with Tennessee's Public Charter School Commission.
Board shares feedback on future renewals
Board members also shared some feedback for future renewal processes.
Board member Berthena Nabaa-McKinney shared the hope that each school's improvement plan be part of a school's renewal evaluation in the future.
"Reviewing that after we've already approved the 10-year charter is kind of redundant because we can't take it back at that point," she said.
Roby-Grant said that while charters, like public schools, are required to make a school improvement plan according to their latest needs, the improvement plans are required to be edited following renewal reviews instead of the opposite.
Tylor advocated for being able to compare outcomes to past goals in charter renewal reviews.
To watch this month's school board meetings visit the MetroNashville YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUFHBe07tYY. And to review MNPS's charter school review committee's report view the MNPS board's agenda at https://www.mnps.org/board-of-education/minutes_agenda.
Anika Exum is a reporter for the Tennessean covering youth and education. Reach her at 615-347-7313, aexum@tennessean.com, or on Twitter @aniexum.
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This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Metro Nashville school board renews 4 charter schools
