Metro Nashville Public Schools Partner with Vanderbilt University to Address ‘Educational Inequities’

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College are partnering to address ‘educational inequities’ in the Nashville area.

According to the two groups, the project will have the goal of “producing actionable, innovative and scalable research to address racial and social inequities in pre-K-12 schools.”

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Tennessee Lt. Gov. McNally Warns Davidson and Shelby Counties on Mask Opt-Outs: General Assembly ‘Will Not Allow Lawful Orders to be Defied’

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s executive order granting public school students the right to opt out of COVID-19 mask mandates has prompted Nashville and Memphis school administrators to announce they will not comply with Lee’s latest directive. That, in turn, prompted a response on Tuesday from Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge). On Facebook, McNally said Metro Nashville Public Schools’ (MNPS) and Shelby County Schools’ (SCS) officials’ apparent defiance against Lee left him “appalled and alarmed.”

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Metro Nashville Public Schools Drops Mask Requirement for Fall Semester

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) announced Tuesday that they won’t require students or faculty to wear masks for the upcoming school year.

MNPS said that these updated COVID protocols were “commonsense.” In the announcement, MNPS Director of Schools Adrienne Battle asserted that masks for the unvaccinated were strongly encouraged – especially for those with underlying health conditions or students under 12 years old. Otherwise, Battle said that MNPS will monitor case data in the event they need to adjust masking requirements.

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John Cooper’s Staff Defends Spending COVID-19 Relief Money on Laptops for Public School Students

A spokesman for Nashville Mayor John Cooper said Tuesday that the federal CARES Act gives city officials plenty of room to spend COVID-19 relief money on laptops for public school students in Davidson County.

“The U.S. Treasury Department’s guidance on the CARES Act funds specifically provides for ‘expenses to facilitate distance learning, including technological improvements, in connection with school closings to enable compliance with COVID-19 precautions,’” said Cooper spokesman Chris Song, in an email to The Tennessee Star Tuesday.

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