School Superintendent Floats Extreme Measures For Charter-Heavy East Nashville

In recent weeks, Metro Schools also unveiled plans to let any student choose where to attend high school, with new transportation provided by MTA buses. Credit: MNPS via Instagram

Metro Schools superintendent Jesse Register is proposing to create what he’s calling a special “choice zone” in East Nashville, which will also include closing one or more zoned schools. He floated the idea to the board of education Tuesday night.

“I think the East Nashville corridor itself deserves special treatment because there are so many charter schools and so many choice schools, so close together, and there’s so much extra capacity in that district. We need to use that.”

Register is proposing that every parent in the schools that feed into Stratford and Maplewood high schools choose where to attend, and he hopes to do so in collaboration with Nashville’s charter schools.

Register’s plan met resistance immediately from some of the district’s chief charter critics.

Board member Amy Frogge says she worries kids with disengaged parents would be at a disadvantage.

“I don’t want us to create a frenzied rush to compete for spots at different schools for the parents that make the choice and then leave some children in the less desirable schools.”

District officials expect to move swiftly, perhaps finalizing plans by the end of this calendar year.

Also Tuesday night, the board elected Sharon Gentry as its new chairperson – on a vote of 6 to 3. And the central office revealed that the state’s Achievement School District is in the midst of picking a struggling school to take over.