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MNPS Considers Magnet School Policy Changes
Tuesday’s Metro Nashville Public Schools board meeting revived a citywide conversation about access to magnet schools.
The board deferred voting on a new policy intended to open pathways to and enhance diversity in academic magnet schools, including Meigs Middle Magnet School, Early College High School, Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School and Hume-Fogg Academic High School. The current process for attending an academic magnet high school gives preference to students who attended certain schools and meet the necessary qualifications. The new policy would make it so that, if there’s a wait list for students to get into a magnet school, applications from qualifying students would be weighted equally in a blind selection process.
“No preference will be offered to any student based on which school they currently attend, nor shall any additional enrollment criteria or preference based on which school a student currently attends be allowable as a part of the eligibility or selection process,” reads the proposed language. It also establishes preferences for students coming from the MNPS district, meaning that qualifying students moving from other districts, private schools or even state-run charter schools would not receive the same priority.
The board deferred voting on the matter so members could gather more community input. Those who want to share their opinions and learn more can contact their school board representative. Earlier in the meeting, board members also postponed an evaluation of Director of Schools Adrienne Battle to Oct. 24.
Battle celebrated Donelson Middle School teacher Barbara Talley, who has been an MNPS teacher for 47 years and was recently featured on CBS Mornings for her work creating and stocking a food and clothing pantry for the school. Battle also noted a new partnership between MNPS and the National Education Equity Lab. The partnership allows Maplewood High School students to enroll in a dual-credit environmental science course with Howard University, and Antioch High School students to receive a dual-credit computer science course with Stanford University.
The board approved the last allocation of federal COVID-19 dollars, which expire in 2024. The money has and will continue to be used to provide academic support, mental health resources, facilities upgrades and more. The detailed report of the allocated funds can be found at the bottom of this post.
During board announcements, District 4 representative Berthena Nabaa-McKinney responded to recent news that state leaders are creating a committee to consider the impact of forgoing federal education funding. Federal education accounts for nearly $2 billion of the state’s education budget, and supports services that benefit English learners, low-income students and those with disabilities.
“At a time when we should be focusing in education on academic recovery and success of our students, and where funding should be a priority to achieve this success, we are working on ways to reduce it instead of continuing to grow the funding and support that we need for our schools and our districts — not only here but across our state,” said Nabaa-McKinney. “This continues to be an attack on education.”
