Controversial plans to build a new charter school building in one of Nashville’s most at-risk neighborhoods drew many questions from Metro council members Monday evening.
A special session was called after plans by The Metropolitan Development and Housing Authority revealed a new $22 million building for Explore! Elementary School in East Nashville.
“So they are doing education and housing it looks like to me,” District 32 Councilman Jacobia Dowell said.
“There's no ‘E’ in MDHA. Our school board is in charge of education. We're here to support them,” MDHA Executive Director Jim Harbison said.
The school is planned to be built only steps away from the existing Kirkpatrick Elementary School. That’s in the process of being converted into a privately run charter school run by KIPP Nashville.
“The site was chosen without any input from the school board,” District 35 Councilman Dave Rosenberg said. “They picked someone to operate the school, they decided it was going to be a charter. They decided it was going to be adjacent to another school. There is not the need right now. The schools are pretty empty. It's odd all around.”
Explore! was approved back in 2013. Explore! opened last year and has been operating out of temporary space only a few blocks away.
The Metro School Board Chair said when approved, no location was set for a permeant building.
“After we make the decision we really don't have control over the applicant nor where they put their school or where they put their moneys or anything like that,” Anna Shepherd said.
The charter school is operated by the politically connected Martha O’Bryan Center.
The President and CEO of a major Nashville nonprofit organization was accused of encouraging her employees of supporting certain candidates running for the Metro Nashville School Board.
It comes down to money. Six years ago, the Martha O'Bryan Center got into the charter school business and is now collecting millions of dollars from the Metro School Board to run two of these schools all while trying to open more.
The new charter school is part of a more than $600 million redevelopment of the James Cayce homes. It’s called Envision Cayce, which is set to transform the public housing community into a mixed-income neighborhood, with the new charter as a key component.
“Our focus is the residents,” said MDHA Executive Director Jim Harbison. “I think moving forward this is great opportunity and our residents deserve this kind of opportunity.”
