Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) on Tuesday rejected requests to establish four new charter schools, including Music City Academy, which was proposed by former Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kevin Dyson.
In addition to Dyson’s Music City Academy, the four schools MNPS denied the opportunity to launch were the Gate School, Nashville School of Excellence, and Empowerment Academy.
Dyson’s proposal would have seen Nashville receive a new high school for grades nine through 12, which would ultimately enroll 480 students and emphasize athletic achievement, including athletic scholarships.
According to the materials produced for the Tuesday meeting by the MNPS Charter Review Committee, the plan only partially met the district’s standards for its educational program design and capacity, operations plan and capacity, and overall application rating.
Issues highlighted during the Tuesday meeting included the Music City Academy mission statement, which the committee determined “is not clear in demonstrating how the athletic and programmatic vision will adequately address how the school will adhere to the three primary objectives,” shared by Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) members.
The committee also found that Music City Academy inaccurately reported the number of championships won by MNPS schools and “lacks a fully developed plan” to offer college and career preparation, especially in Career and Technical Education.
MNPS Board Member Rachel Anne Elrod (District 2) introduced the successful motion to deny Dyson’s application, but before the committee voted, Member Zach Young (District 3) suggested the committee was “nitpicking about” minor issues with the school’s paperwork.
“It frustrates me because I know that the Charter Review Committee does really hard work, and I am not knocking their work, I want to lift up the work that they do, and I don’t think bickering over a number of championships is the number to do it,” said Young. “I think we can do better than that, and I will be voting to deny this application, because I think the Charter Review Committee has done their job and I trust their work, but I think we can do a better job of how we’re presenting this, y’all.”
According to the MNPS Charter Authorization Handbook, Music City Academy and the other denied schools now have 30 days to submit an amended application to the district.
For each amended application, the committee and board members will receive another 60 days to review the documents and conduct a second vote. If denied again, Dyson and the other schools have the option to appeal to the Tennessee Public Charter School Commission, which will make a final decision based on state standards.
Dyson appeared on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show to discuss the Music City Academy in January, when he shared his vision for the school with The Tennessee Star editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy.
“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,” said Dyson. “In the school itself, 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.”
The former NFL star told Leahy, “I want the [classrooms] to flip in a sense where the kids are the center of the learning and teaching and the teachers facilitate, be very engaged.”
Famous for scoring the “Music City Miracle” against the Buffalo Bills in 2000, Dyson began playing for the Tennessee Titans in 1998. He left the team in 2022.
Watch the full MNPS meeting:
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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].
The last thing these miscreants on the left want is for kids to actually learn and get an education.
Metro public schools, the state’s coming for you next and definitely needs to take over running of the schools because you’re totally corrupt and incompetent. Having the school that owns a hand only has a 5% reading rate at grade level. It’s just terrible. I’m paying the director. What they do is ludicrous,. No PhD should be hired to run a school system cuz they’re totally idiots when it comes to reality.