MNPS Announces New Principal and Executive Assignments for Upcoming School Year

When the 2023/2024 school year opens for Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) there will be 23 new principals employed by the district. A slightly higher number than in previous years, due to several veteran principals choosing to either retire or accept a position with a surrounding district. In some instances, MNPS has chosen not to renew a seated principal’s contract. 

On Friday, the district revealed upcoming assignments for the new school leaders. They also named three new executive leadership placements, including one for the district’s long-term chief spokesman.

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MNPS High School Student Pepper Sprays Teacher for Confiscating Phone, Both Say They Were Assaulted

A video depicting a female student pepper-spraying a male teacher at Antioch High School (AHS) went viral over the weekend. The minute-and-a-half video, surfacing on Friday, shows the confrontation between the two after the educator confiscated a cell phone from the student for using it during an exam in the classroom.  The student was asked repeatedly to put the phone away, The New York Post reported.     

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MNPS Leaders Present Proposed Upcoming School Year Budget to School Board

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) leaders presented their proposed budget for the 2023/2024 school year to the school board.

Included in the presentation were numbers for a baseline budget that allows MNPS to maintain this year’s services, along with requests for additional money to fund new programs. The baseline budget called for an extra $55 million to account for inflation and raised the needed funding to just over $1.1 billion.

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Metro Nashville Public Schools Says It Won’t Implement Critical Race Theory

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) informed The Tennessee Star that it doesn’t plan to implement critical race theory.

MNPS spokesperson Sean Braisted responded to inquiries from The Star about remarks from the district’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion executive officer, Ashford Hughes. We asked whether Hughes would implement any of the banned tenets in MNPS’s forthcoming “Equity Roadmap,” and if MNPS planned to implement critical race theory. This was Braisted’s response.

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Metro Nashville Public Schools Will Continue Requiring Masks, After Nashville Officials Ended the Mask Mandate Last Week

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) announced last week that they will continue enforcing their mask mandate indefinitely. The announcement came out Friday – the same day that Metro Nashville health officials ended the mask mandate.

The Tennessee Star reported on a recent court ruling that schools lacked the legal authority to impose a mask mandate contrary to state and their local government policy decisions. The Star inquired with MNPS about the relationship between this ruling and their decision to continue the mask mandate. MNPS spokesperson Sean Braisted told The Star that the case referenced doesn’t prevent a school district from enacting or enforcing mask requirements. The Star asked if this ruling would jeopardize MNPS’s qualified immunity if parents challenged the mask mandate in court. Braisted responded that MNPS wouldn’t comment on hypothetical legal challenges.

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Taxpayers Spend $1.2 Million on Nashville Connector

Metro Nashville officials want fewer automobiles clogging up the roads every morning and every evening, and they especially want fewer people driving to work solo. They will spend at least $1.2 million in taxpayer money to try to make that happen. Members of the Metro Planning Department this month launched what they call the Nashville Connector. They say the program will inform city residents about other transportation options — including carpooling, among other things. “Our initial focus is large employers in downtown Nashville,” said Nashville Connector spokesman Sean Braisted in an email to The Tennessee Star. Braisted did not say how many, if any, employers have already contacted Nashville Connector. He did say the project is in its launch phase and will have a commuter challenge Oct. 22-28. According to a press release, the challenge encourages people who work downtown to try at least one new type of commute option at least once that week. A $1.2 million Tennessee Department of Transportation grant funds the program, with the Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority providing an additional $293,560, according to the resolution calling for this Transportation Demand Management program. One alternative means of getting to work, according to a News Channel 5…

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National Review Writer David French Criticizes Nashville Mayor Megan Barry for Rebuking Evangelical Statement on Traditional Marriage

  National Review senior writer David French has sharply criticized Nashville Mayor Megan Barry for her comments denigrating the Nashville Statement, a declaration by Christian evangelical leaders supporting traditional marriage and calling homosexuality and transgenderism sinful. In a tweet Tuesday, Barry said the statement is “poorly named and does not represent the inclusive values of the city & people of Nashville.” The statement was approved Friday at a meeting of evangelical leaders in Nashville who named the declaration for the city in keeping with a historical Christian practice of naming doctrinal statements for the places where they were written. French, who lives in Columbia, Tennessee, 45 miles south of Nashville, was one of more than 150 conservative evangelicals who signed the Nashville Statement. French wrote in a column Wednesday that it is unreasonable for Barry to claim that orthodox Christian beliefs are “incompatible with the ‘inclusive values’ of a city that’s located in the heart of the Bible Belt.” “The Southern Baptist Convention has a headquarter building right in downtown Nashville,” French said. “You can’t drive five minutes in Nashville without seeing a church that’s teaching exactly the values and beliefs contained in the Nashville Statement. Is Barry’s position that they should change their ways, shut up, or…

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Developer Files Ethics Complaint Against Metro Nashville Officials Regarding Fort Negley Development Plans

  A Nashville developer has filed an ethics complaint against Metro officials for allegedly ignoring his request for more information about the process used to choose a developer for Fort Negley Park. In May, Mayor Megan Barry chose the Cloud Hill Partnership as the developer for the historic site, which includes Greer Stadium, although there is still no formal agreement. Bert Mathews, whose real estate firm created the Cloud Hill team, held a fundraiser for Barry when she was running for mayor. Devinder Singh Sandhu, who lost out to Cloud Hill in the bidding process, previously wrote a letter to city procurement officials protesting the process, saying it “was not equitable to all submitters and information required to make a proper presentation was not complete” and that there was a “lack of transparency.” In his ethics complaint Monday, Sandhu noted that he has “requested answers to questions, documents, requests for meetings and clarification.” The Procurement Appeals Board was set to consider Sandhu’s case Wednesday, but he sent the board a letter late Tuesday saying he had decided to dismiss his appeal. “We are forced to take this action because you, the Metro Procurement Office and Metro Finance Department established the August 30, 2017 hearing date…

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Opposition Grows Against Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s Plans To Redevelop Fort Negley Park

  Opposition is growing against Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s plans to open Fort Negley Park to private development. Part of Fort Negley Park was home to Greer Stadium from the late 1970s until 2015, when the Nashville Sounds minor league baseball team moved to a new stadium just north of downtown. Barry has accepted a proposal from a development team called Cloud Hill Partnership, but Metro has not yet formally entered into an agreement. Plans for the Metro-owned property call for including affordable housing for workers, shops and restaurants, green space and creative spaces for artists. Under the proposed deal, Metro would retain ownership, with the development team investing private funds and sharing revenue. Critics include African-American groups, Councilman John Cooper, a national nonprofit devoted to protecting cultural landscapes and many native Nashvillians. “They shouldn’t even be considering this,” Nashville native Doug Jones told The Tennessee Star Friday. “That is sacred ground out there.” Jones, a local attorney, is a past president of the Battle of Nashville Preservation Society. He told The Star that Ft. Negley Park is a site of national importance and that “this is not just some local thing that the mayor can do in a back room…

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Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s Press Secretary Politicizes Response to Christian Activist With Unprofessional ‘Peace Be Unto You’ Salutation in Email

Tennessee Star

  Sean Braisted, Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s press secretary, politicized his response to Christian activist Jay Chamness when he signed an email explaining why Chamness had been denied access to a Muslim event at which the mayor spoke by signing it with the unprofessional religiously themed salutation “Peace Be Unto You.” Below is the full text of Braisted’s response to Jay Chamness: Mr. Chamness, I understand you have contacted a number of members of the Mayor’s Office staff regarding your efforts to attend an event at the Islamic Center of Tennessee on Saturday, May 6. This event was a privately held event that was open to members of the public at the discretion of the sponsors of the event. There were Christians at the event, including the Mayor, so it would seem that if you were denied entry, it was likely not based on your religious beliefs, rather your actions and apparent opposition to the community sponsoring the event. Mayor Megan Barry, along with a majority of Nashvillians, believes that Nashville is stronger because we are an inclusive city that respects people of all faiths, cultures, and ethnicities. While she respects your constitutional right to protest, that right does not…

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Nashville City Officials Stand By Decision To Turn Away Christian Activist At Muslim Event Where Mayor Barry Spoke

Tennessee Star

  A Nashville area man says he was turned away at a public event at a mosque on Saturday because he is a Christian, but city officials say they had a right to deny him entry because it was private property and he was there to protest. Jay Chamness tried to attend a luncheon Saturday at the Islamic Center of Tennessee in Antioch, where Nashville Mayor Megan Barry spoke. He told The Tennessee Star that he arrived wearing a Jesus t-shirt and sporting a Christian flag atop his truck. He also had a sign that on one side said “Veterans Before Refugees” and on the other side said “Truth Sounds Like Hate To Those Who Hate The Truth.” Chamness, a 51-year-old Southern Baptist, told The Star that he is politically involved and upset by Barry’s “disdain for white Christian males in Nashville.” (Note: There is at least one other person with the same name in the Nashville area, a well-known attorney. This Jay Chamness is not the attorney.) At Saturday’s event, he was first approached by several Muslim men who asked him to leave. Chamness left but returned later closer to the time when Barry was set to speak. He was then asked…

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