The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission will hear Dr. Kevin Dyson’s appeal on Thursday; the former Tennessee Titans wide receiver and Tennessee educator’s application to launch a tuition-free charter school was denied by the Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) Board of Education in April.
In its spring decision, the Metro Nashville board determined that Dyson’s proposed school, the Music City Academy, only partially met its academic and program design standards.
In apparent response to the academic questions, Dyson’s appeal clarifies that the athletic focus of the Music City Academy “is not to produce collegiate athletes,” but rather “to graduate students who are academically prepared, career ready, and equipped to lead in whatever profession they choose.”
Dyson also identified Tennessee State University as the academy’s partner for athletic facilities, though he wrote that negotiations remain ongoing while the school’s final location is determined.
It also clarified that Dyson will serve as the Founding CEO and executive director of Music City Academy, while the school’s Chief Academic Officer will report directly to him, acknowledging that the academy had yet to retain a general manager.
Dyson’s appeal also reveals that more than 250 families have been surveyed, with more than 200 expressing interest in enrolling at the academy if Nashville allows it to launch.
Citing purported community interest in the school, Dyson wrote, “Families are not offering abstract support for school choice. They are asking, in documented and significant numbers, for the specific school Music City Academy is designed to be.”
He additionally disputed the district’s accounting of potential fiscal impact on MNPS.
According to Dyson, the district’s “fiscal case assumes the per-pupil funds following students to Music City Academy are money the district loses outright,” while the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office released a 2013 opinion which determined that funding, under the Public Charter Schools Act, “follows the student it was appropriated for, and the Act doesn’t require a district to backfill spending beyond what it’s already spending.”
This would shrink the fiscal impact on MNPS from the district’s projected $1.7 million at opening, and $6.7 million at full enrollment, to about $400,000 at opening and $500,000 at capacity, according to Dyson.
Dyson previously shared his analysis of the current state of public schools and vision for the Music City Academy during a January appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“Public education is the same as it was in the early 1900s as it is in 2025, where essentially kids come to the school, they receive information, we test them, and then we move on. There are different ways that we all learn, and, for lack of a better way to say this, there’s more than one way to skin a cat,” said the 20-year veteran of secondary education.
He said of his plans for the academy, “We’ll start our day with an advisory or a homeroom period, but what’s going to be different is the intentionality within those homerooms and how we source and do our curriculums in those rooms. That’s the first line of intervention. That’s the mentor, that’s the accountability piece.”
Dyson added, “I want teachers to be really intentional in using movement, being culturally relevant, incorporating movement, not just having kids sitting, using all the tools necessary to touch all the centuries of a student so they can grasp the concepts and learn the knowledge.”
According to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission, public comment will be accepted until October 1.
– – –
Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
