001turn it over to our director of schools, Dr. Adrien Battle. All right. Thank you so much, um, Governor Chair, um, Arrod. All right. So, um, board members, this afternoon, um, we are planning to provide you with an update and recommendations on our latest work in the Metro Schools Reimagine Initiative. So, we began this work more than five years ago with the goal of aligning cluster pathways to create cohesive academic programming from elementary through high school supported by strong student structures and district-wide supports. Alongside this, we've implemented uniform strategies across the district to establish a clear baseline of expectations and supports that families can count on when enrolling in Nashville public schools. So within each cluster, we build guaranteed, personalized, and applied learning experiences across each tier, elementary, middle, and high school. Each cluster has its
002own unique strengths and qualities, giving students the opportunity to build on their experiences from preK all the way through graduation, preparing them for success in college, career, and life. Tonight, our focus is on the Maplewood cluster and the decisions related to lining pathways at our only remaining split pathway school, which is Ida B. Wells Elementary. Just a few weeks ago, we proudly announced that Maplewood High School is joining our Nashville State Early College portfolio with a healthc care focus, giving students the chance to graduate with both a high school diploma and an associates degree in a health related field. This builds on the strong foundation already established in the Maplewood cluster where Jerry Baxter Middle School and Maplewood High School are providing high quality programming with an emphasis on AVIT STEM STEM and demonstrated academic
003growth. In fact, we'll be celebrating Jerry Baxter later today during our board meeting for being a level five school this year. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Ryan Latimer, our executive director of boundary planning, who will walk you through the details of the proposal the board will consider at your next meeting. Ryan. >> Uh, thank you, Dr. Battle. Good afternoon, board members. Um, so I I wanted to start by revisiting a slide that we shared about this time last year that that highlights the district's zoning philosophy. We have four bedrocks that have grounded our assignment plans over the years. A three- tiered system, consistent feeder patterns, logical geographic clusters, and the option for school choice. Uh right now, IdaB Wells Elementary School is the only uh elementary school in Nashville with
004a split feeder pattern. Uh some of the students go on to Jerry Baxter and Maplewood High School, while some of the others go on to Stratford uh Middle and Stratford High School. Um, so to give students consistency, we are recommending that starting in the 26 27 school year, all ID Well students will be zoned to Jerry Baxter Middle School and then continue in the Maplewood High School cluster. Um, to uh this map shows the current zoning pattern. Uh, that large hatched area represents the Idabb Well school zone. Uh the lighter peach area is the portion that feeds into Jerry Baxter and the darker peach area is the portion that feeds into Stratford. Uh the darker peach area is bounded by Ellington Parkway to the south and the west, Cleveland Street along the north, and Gallatin
005Road to the east. Uh for reference, Idabb Wells is the school if it pops up on there enough for you to see kind of right in the middle of that hatched boundary. Um Merurl is to the north of it, also on Cleveland Street. And then more towards the uh eastern side, you've got Ross ELC, East Middle, East High School, and Meg's Middle School. Um this map shows uh what the unified uh IDW Well zone would look like for the start of the 2627 school year. Again, with all rising sixth graders going on to Jerry Baxter and then onto Mabel Wood. So uh in the summary, this recommendation would unify the split feeder zoning pattern. It would reszone around 60 students into uh Jerry Baxter and Maplewood from Stratford. And we would recommend extending grandfathering to
006all of these students. Um but transportation would be the parents responsibility. Um as this is uh a small number of students we plan to be as uh have as personal a touch with them as possible as we go through the process. I did want to point out that uh through the we go and stride program students wishing to remain at Stratford uh can take the Shelby four route bus for free and uh continue to have transportation there. And then just uh some next steps. We've got a community meeting next week uh at 5:30 on September 16th and uh we're asking families to attend and ask questions and then we will be back before you on the 23rd uh seeking approval of the plan and then questions and Dr. B. >> Thank you so much. Um
007Ryan, um Sarat, I'll turn it back over to you to entertain any questions. Thank you so much. What questions or discussion do we have? We'll start with Vice Chair Bob McKenna. >> I just need a clarification. Are we only starting with sixth grade rising sixth grade students or is that all students from the Jerry Baxter cluster? >> It's it's all students. Um the only grandfathering in would be students that are already transitioning to Straford Lore. Is that correct, team? >> Yes. Yes. And that includes a total of 60 or is that more students? >> It it's a total of 60. It's really going to only impact the middle school and high school students. The I to be well students are uh we're not changing their physical zone any >> thank you. >> Anyone else? >>
008Member Zakyong. >> Thank you chair. This is more super long-term thinking, but I'm playing around with the cluster map now, and I'm noticing that all of the East Bank is in the ID Well zone. And I guess this is more of a comment than a question that as we're watching the what will be exponential growth on the East Bank, um I'm curious, you know, what do we think? And I don't know that we know the answer what that growth will look like for say Adab Wells or are we going to be back probably in six to eight years having to move these around as well as that develops. >> Yeah, I'll um allow Ryan to answer that um specifically um as he does a really good job of just kind of following developments um in
009the area, birth rates, um projections, enrollment, all the things to um help advise around um the zoning. Um, one thing that the board has probably recognized is that this is an ongo we we assess this on an ongoing um, basis. Um, so at the very least annually we are um, digging into all of our zoning, giving the enrollment, given our capacity at our schools um, to make informed um, recommendations. But as you mentioned, we try to make sure there's kind of a long-term strategy so we're not impacting the same zones um, frequently. Sometimes we actually delay um a reszoning because we know it's coming um in the next um year or two as well. But Ryan, anything you else you would like to offer given um its location to the East Bank? >> No, I
010think we just will keep an eye on it and see kind of what that development ends up looking like. You know, as of yet, we haven't seen a lot of students come out of kind of higher density multi-level kind of developments. Um they're more typically what we're seeing pop up around Nashville at the time. So, I think it just kind of depends on how that develops, what the price point is for it, and kind of how f how familyfriendly the design is. Um, but as Dr. Battle alluded to, we do keep a good handle on that. Um, we tie into the larger city's GIS system, try to keep up with the what the planning department's proposing and things like that. And then we purchase some private data that kind of helps keep up with it
011at a little bit higher level as well. So, Anyone else? Do you hear me? Robert Tyler. >> Yes. Um this is just opportunity to um to just kind of be clear about um our communication strategy. And so uh can you just talk a little bit about how we're communicating this to families that are going to be impacted? >> Um yes. um because this has been pretty routine for us, we've got a pretty good um system of communication. So, I'll turn the mic over to our chief of communication, Sean Brace. >> Yeah. So, after this meeting tonight, we're going to be sending out the first notification to families uh letting them know about the community meeting next week. Um, we've sent a flyer to the school principal so that they can provide it to their families,
012particularly those uh at Stratford, you know, individually impacted. And then we'll send out follow-up communication reminders before the community meeting on Tuesday. And then um as if the board adopts these changes, then we'll be sending out letters specifically to those students at Stratford to let them know their options and so how they can continue on at Stratford if they so choose or they can they can choose to attend uh Jerry Baxter or um Maplewood. If if I can also add um because we're talking about a small uh portion um for reasonzoning, we're going to to the greatest extent possible um try to work with each family um around um any decision outside of this that they would be interested in. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. Reszoning historically is um a pain point for all school
013systems. So I appreciate us having a well thoughtout plan and of course the map as well to kind of understand what the impact is with it being such a small number of only 20 from the lower campus and 36 from the upper campus. My assumption is that the answer is going to be no. I have to still ask are there any um investments that we need to make to accommodate these students because I would think that these are spread across many classrooms that there's not portables or anything like that that we need to purchase but just in case there any type of investments that we need to do of any kind. there are none known um at this time and again this is um a split pattern we've been studying for quite some time um
014just to make sure we could see how things have played out over the last few years looking at capacity looking at programming and access um for students including the we go line that's available um so currently there are no known um capital investments needed for this resonant perfect >> adequate capacity at both schools thank you >> perfect okay well then I have Nothing else. Dr. Battle, do you have anything that you need to add to the end of this conversation? >> Um, no, I do not. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Ryan. All right. With there being no further business, this meeting is adjourned. This has been a service of the Metro Nashville Network. If you would like to see this presentation again or for more information on this and other programs, visit nashville.gov.
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