Is East Nashville Orange or Blue?

According to East Nashville United, it doesn’t matter.

The color question refers to a recent MNPS School Board meeting to discuss Dr. Register’s proposed plan to create an “all choice” zone in East Nashville. At that meeting, supporters of the group East Nashville Believes joined East Nashville United members — those who “believe” wore blue shirts while those who were “united” wore orange.

Of course, East Nashville United has been attending meetings and talking about this issue for some time now. They’ve asked the Board to slow down and receive more community input.

In the face of what appears to be a competing group, East Nashville United has attempted to reach out, asking for a comprehensive dialogue about the future of schools in East Nashville.

Here’s the latest from East Nashville United:

We want a discussion about all of our East Nashville schools and how we can make sure that they are serving the needs of our children. We aren’t going to accept a top-down plan that throws our schools—all our schools—into a state of panic and chaos. We want a plan that reflects the diverse needs of our East Nashville communities.

How then do we get there? From the very beginning, East Nashville United (and only East Nashville United) has pushed for a community-driven task force to make recommendations to MNPS. We advocated for a position from East Nashville Charter Schools on the task force. We repeat: East Nashville United pushed for a community-driven task force and for a East Nashville Charter School representative on the task force. This is a fact, and cannot be disputed.

On Tuesday, Dr. Register announced that he would be forming such a task force. This was a first step in ensuring that MNPS devises an effective, thoughtful plan for our schools—and not a collection of slogans disguised as policy. We have more work to do in ensuring that our task force has the time and resources necessary to do its job, but we’re making progress. Over the next few weeks, you can expect to see us at neighborhood meetings, football games, and walking your streets talking about schools.

We renew again our invitation to the charter school community to join us—and build on what we have already accomplished.

We have done this privately with very little success. We will continue to do so in spite of the roadblocks.  We want a genuine conversation about education policy for all schools in East Nashville, and hope that the charter school folks on this side of the river will participate. We know they love their schools; we hope they’ll spread the love for the rest of the schools in East Nashville as well.

Read the full statement from East Nashville United.

For more on education politics and policy in Tennesse, follow @TNEdReport