Another charter school is coming to West Nashville, after the new state commission voted in favor Tuesday

Nashville Classical Charter School won approval to open a second campus this week.

The school was among the first to be reviewed by the new Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. Before, appeals were evaluated by the State Board of Education.

Nashville Classical’s K-8 flagship school is located in East Nashville. Over the years, it’s become one of the most popular and top-performing schools in the city.

“By opening NCII along Charlotte Pike, we will serve a diverse, growing community and give families from across the city an opportunity to attend an excellent public school that has no geographic priority zones, tests, or other requirements to attend,” wrote Charlie Friedman, Nashville Classical’s founder and head of school, in a press release.

Nashville Classical II plans to open in August 2022 with 81 students in kindergarten. They hope to enroll 700 students in grades K-8 by 2026-27 school year, offering the city’s first K-8 school outside of East Nashville.

According to its application, Nashville Classical plans to further expand and propose a third campus by 2023, though the location has not been determined.

The charter school had asked the state to reconsider its application because the local school board had denied its request twice. Nashville school board members have expressed skepticism that there’s a demand for a charter school in the Hillwood cluster.

School board member Abigail Tylor, who represents the district where Nashville Classical II will be located, raised those concerns to the state commission on Tuesday.

“If they want to help families who are unhappy with the performance of their zoned schools, district 9 should not be that location,” Tylor said.“And if they want to alleviate overcrowding, they should not target schools that are not over capacity.”

But among the reasons that the commission voted in favor of Nashville Classical II was that local district’s own review team deemed the school fit to open back in July.

Charter school commission member Eddie Smith said they’re simply upholding the district’s own assessment.

“We’re not just overriding Metro Nashville schools, we are agreeing with Metro Nashville School employees who looked at the original application that came to the same conclusions,” Smith said at Tuesday’s commission meeting.