Tag: MNPS

Metro Nashville Public Schools Paying ‘Educational Consultant’ Who Lacks 4-Year College Degree $80,000 in 2017-2018 Academic Year for Vague ‘Pilot Project’

Tennessee Star Staff
Bruce Taylor

Metro Nashville Public Schools is paying an “educational consultant” who does not have a four year college degree $80,000 in a 12 month contract to provide the school system with a “pilot project” that has vague deliverables. Bruce D. Taylor, who apparently had a similar consulting contract with the Prince George’s, Maryland school system when current MNPS Director Dr. Shawn Joseph was an administrator there, does not have a four year college degree in any subject from an accredited American university, according to both his Linked In profile and his own website. Taylor is the “educational consultant” who received a $25,000 contract with MNPS in 2016, shortly after Dr. Joseph was named MNPS Director, and an additional $80,000 contract for an additional 12 months that began on July 1, 2017 and continues until June 30, 2018. “When Dr. Shawn Joseph began as Metro’s director of schools almost two years ago, he skillfully convinced school board members to treat him more as a partner than an employee,” NewsChannel 5 reported in April: So when critics questioned his spending on a luxury vehicle and a driver, School Board Chair Anna Shepherd had his back. “I think that Dr. Joseph needs to do…

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Metro Nashville Public Schools Budget Debacle: System ‘Unexpectedly’ Discovers $7.5 Million Shortfall

Tennessee Star Staff

The Metro Nashville Public Schools admitted the school system has a $7.5 million budgeting shortfall in a blockbuster announcement released on Friday. “Teachers braced for impact after Metro Nashville Public Schools Director Dr. Shawn Joseph made the stunning admission that the district was set to lose $7.5 million in state funding, due to a unpredicted drop in student enrollment numbers,” NewsChannel 5 reported. A grim fiscal outlook for next fiscal years, means some principals may be forced to cut as many as 17 positions at schools where enrollment decreases are the highest. For the first time in 15 years, Metro Nashville Public School’s enrollment numbers have dropped. District officials thought they would add more than 1,500 students in 2017 instead the district lost 500 students. Because of the drop in enrollment, the district is expected to lose $7.5 million in state funding, which had already been built into the budget. MNPS School Director Dr. Shawn Joseph offered no explanation for the administrative budgeting fiasco that failed to anticipate the enrollment decline in a letter sent to teachers on Friday. Instead, he simply acknowledged that a budget shortfall existed for the 2018-2019 fiscal year. “Budgeting for the many needs in our…

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JC Bowman Commentary: The Role of a School Board

JC Bowman
Tennessee Star

Local school boards reflect the needs and aspirations of the communities as well as the interests and concerns of professional and nonprofessional employees. We believe non-partisan control is what is best for our communities. This is best ensured when educational policy is made by representatives vested in the community they live, and whose undivided attention and interests are devoted strictly to education of the children in that district. What we stress in a nutshell: Public education is a federal concern, a state responsibility, and a local operation.

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