MLK Magnet parents, students, staff frustrated over Nashville schools plan to remove grades 7-8

Dozens of parents, students and teachers frustrated by a lack of communication over plans to phase out grades 7-8 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet voiced their concerns at a school board meeting Tuesday.

Around 30 people donning blue shirts and holding signs joined the Metro Nashville Public Schools board meeting. Several of them spoke during the public comment section of the meeting.

The academic magnet school, which currently offers grades 7-12, is one of the top-performing public middle and high schools in the state, according to U.S. News & World Report rankings. The plan will complete by the 2027-28 school year, folding the middle school seats into the nearby Head Magnet Middle School campus. The changes were announced by MNPS during a Dec. 12 school board meeting — something faculty, parents and students say came on very short notice with no input from them.

What to know: Nashville schools to phase out grades 7-8 at Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet School

Sarah Laos, who works as a school counselor at MLK, said staff members were informed about the plan one hour before the Dec. 12 meeting. Parents were informed in an email from the district on Dec. 13.

More than two months later, members of the MLK community say they've gotten no answers on why the decision was made without their input, what data and research backs it up, and what it means for the school's staff, students and unique programming. Questions submitted in the virtual meeting chat and via a form later sent out by the principal at MLK have also gone unanswered, according to Laos and others.

"It's like talking to a wall," Laos said.

MNPS spokesperson Sean Braisted said the questions gathered through the form are being reviewed by MLK leaders and sent along to the relevant district departments to get answers. While there are no meetings about the decision to shift MLK to a 9-12 model planned, Braisted said discussions over this idea are not new.

"The engagement around this topic dates back more than two decades," he said.

Sue Broder, a parent of two students who graduated from MLK in 2006 and 2011, remembers the district trying to remove grades 7-8 in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2013. She opposed it each time, along with many others.

"I would speculate that it was public opposition to the proposals that prevented the change from going forward," she said.

At the Tuesday meeting, parent Carlos Cordova pointed to that history as he urged the board to reconsider the plan.

"This time it’s different because community feedback has not been welcomed and opposition to the plan has been ignored," Cordova said.

The ongoing frustration over a lack of communication led MLK parents, staff and students to coordinate their visit to the Tuesday board meeting. Ahead of the meeting, The Tennessean spoke with more than a dozen people, including faculty, parents, a student and an MNPS spokesperson.

Here are the core issues those conversations, along with the latest board meeting, revealed.

Lack of communication, representation

Parents, students and faculty said they haven't had a way to engage in conversation with district leaders on the decision, save for a Dec. 18 community meeting about a separate matter that drew a large crowd that pressed the issue.

Additionally, District 5, which includes MLK, does not currently have a board member after Christiane Buggs stepped down recently to take a role at a local nonprofit. A school board election is set for Aug. 1, but Braisted said the Metro Council is set to consider a special appointment to the District 5 seat on March 19.

From November: Nashville school board member Christiane Buggs to head nonprofit PENCIL

Faculty, parents, community members and students said they reached out to board members and district leaders. Some received no reply, while a few were promised their questions would be looked into, without any follow up since.

Lauren Herring has a child in eighth grade at MLK and a sixth grader who plans to attend there next year. She is among those who have not gotten replies or answers from board members and district leaders. She also attended the Dec. 18 community meeting, led by District 3 board member Emily Masters.

"It became very apparent that the board members were not informed of Dr. Battle's plan to restructure," Herring said of the meeting. "They couldn't answer any questions."

Concern over losing staff, funding, academic programs

Herring and others worry that the change will lead to a loss of funding due to lagging demand for high school seats at MLK. That could lead to a cut in staff positions and threaten the school’s unique programming, including its world languages program. All that could impact the education her two children get, along with other students, Herring said.

During the Dec. 12 board meeting, Battle assured the board that current seventh and eighth grade teachers at MLK will be given preference on where they want to go as the phase-out unfolds. Battle said she and other district leaders have made plans carefully and are mindful of mitigating the impact the change will have on students, staff and parents.

"We’re going to take care of our people," she said.

Senior Trey Madison, who is the president of the Student Government Association at MLK, worries the loss of middle school seats will not only affect the school's academic rigor but also its positive, inclusive culture. Having the same teachers, advisors and peers from seventh grade through high school is a big part of that, he said.

He especially appreciates the school's culture after enduring bullying before he came to MLK in seventh grade. Madison shared the concerns that others expressed over enrollment numbers, funding, the loss of programs and the lack of input from the community. He has also tried, to no avail, to get information from district leaders.

"It's undeniably a bad decision," he said.

A loss of academic magnet seats — and why parents say those matter

District leaders say the move will increase academic magnet high school seats by making more room at MLK. It will also open more middle school magnet seats at Head Magnet Middle School, since it will no longer have fifth graders.

Braisted said MLK can accommodate up to 1,350 students, with the median enrollment sitting just shy of 1,200 for the last 17 years. The school currently has 1,206 students enrolled. By removing grades 7-8, roughly 150 more high school academic magnet seats will be available at MLK.

Despite the promise of more middle school magnet seats, Laos and others said they were concerned that those will not come with academic requirements. Head, along with Rose Park Middle, are "pathway" schools to MLK. That means students who attend those schools who meet MLK's academic requirements are guaranteed a spot there.

Ruth Butler, whose seventh grader currently attends MLK, wonders if the change is based on misguided principles.

"The academic magnet schools are perceived by many, including many district leaders, as a place entitled parents try to get their kids because these schools have fewer behavior or social issues," Butler said. "I think this is a really simplistic and biased point of view. There are students who really do need this type of academic environment to thrive."

Cordova echoed that during his comments to the board Tuesday.

"I recognize that academic magnets are not the best fit for every child, but please let parents make that decision based on the knowledge of their own children," he said. "Equity shouldn’t be about removing what other people have. It should be about giving people more opportunities for access."

District leaders have said they plan to offer chances for stakeholders to discuss how to develop programming at Head to ensure it is challenging and academically rigorous. No dates have been set yet for those conversations.

While several parents and faculty members pointed to the fact that MLK has not had a waitlist for high school seats for years, Braisted said it did have one at the end of the lottery selection process last year. He expects that demand to increase as the district builds upon its recent growth in academic outcomes.

Students currently enrolled in fifth grade and higher at Rose Park and Head will not be affected by the change, according to MNPS. Students across the district are also welcome to apply at MLK, as they have been all along. They must still meet academic requirements and will be given seats in a lottery-style selection process.

"We are committed to the continued success of MLK," Braisted said.

Reach children's reporter Rachel Wegner at RAwegner@tennessean.com or follow her on Twitter, Threads and Bluesky @RachelAnnWegner.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: MLK Magnet in Nashville: Parents upset by plan to remove grades 7-8