Pupo-Walker is now poised to begin a new role as the Director of National Education Strategy at the Raikes Foundation.
“Gini brings a wealth of proximate and systems leadership to our work for educational equity,” said Dennis Quirin, Executive Director of the Raikes Foundation. “I am confident that under her leadership, the Foundation will continue to make durable, transformative progress toward a public education system that supports economic prosperity, the health of our communities, and our democracy.”
TC Weber takes a look at a payroll anomaly (or mixup or mistake or communication error) that meant the first summer paycheck for Nashville teachers was about 20% short.
Talk about ruining summer plans.
Last week, many of Nashville’s teachers and support staff who have extended their paychecks throughout the summer got a surprise. Paychecks were roughly 20% shorter than expected.
Metro Nashville Public Schools pays all certificated staff on a 22-week pay schedule, equivalent to the length of the school year. As a courtesy to teachers who wish to maintain a paycheck throughout the summer, they can sign up to be paid in 26 installments.
This is accomplished by MNPS deducting a portion of each paycheck, after taxes, and dividing it between four summer paychecks – two in June and two in July. For some reason, according to MNPS, this year has 27 paychecks, requiring 5 paychecks in the summer. Two in June, two in July, and one in August. That’s some fancy math turning 26 biweekly opportunities into 27.
As TC notes, all years have 52 weeks – which makes (or should make) for 26 checks.
He further notes that blaming the “mixup” on a communication error is not ok.
If teachers and staff didn’t get the message, the error is on the sender.
It’s particularly distressing in an era of teacher shortages and in a state with persistently low teacher compensation.
The program will offer 61 students from Antioch High School, McGavock High School, Pearl-Cohn High School, The Mayor’s Youth Council, and NCYC Ambassadors, the opportunity to experience local government in action. Students have been researching critical topics in their neighborhoods and will present them on April 2nd to members of the Metro Council.
Masters took to her campaign blog to post some thoughts about the survey – and took issue especially with the idea that there is significant support among Nashvillians for the state’s new school funding formula, TISA.
While Masters goes into some detail about survey methodology and survey questions, she also uses a paragraph to point out her belief that NPEF is not aligning itself with the goals of MNPS.
The thing I find most interesting about NPEF is that their NTEE (National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities) code is B11 (Single Organization Support: Educational Institutions and Related Activities), and the mission they state on their FY20 990 filing (the most recent one publicly available) with the IRS is “to ensure every child in Nashville has access to a great public education,” so clearly that “single organization” they’re supposed to be supporting is Metro Nashville Public Schools. And yet – they do things that contradict that, such as supporting legislation that clearly isn’t in the best interests of public school students in Nashville and conducting surveys about education without collaborating with the very organization they’re created to support.
You can read more from Masters about the poll, the press release, and the results here.
The Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) released the results of its annual poll and the numbers indicate that the public now has a more favorable view of MNPS. Still, more than half of those polled hold a negative view of Nashville’s schools.
Here’s more from a press release:
A recent poll conducted by Impact Research for the Nashville Public Education Foundation shows an improvement in Nashvillians’ perception of the city’s public schools. The results show an 11-point upswing in residents’ perceptions of local public schools, from a 62% negative rating in 2021 to roughly half (51%) this year. The data further suggests that Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) families are more encouraged by recent improvements, as 50% of public school parents approve of the job the district is doing educating students – up 16 points from last year.
Director of Schools Adrienne Battle hailed the results as a sign of the district’s focus on students.
“We are excited that MNPS families are seeing and experiencing the work being done across the district to accelerate the learning progress of our students and move the district forward to ensure every student is known,” said Dr. Adrienne Battle, Director of Schools. “I’m thankful for the support we’ve received from Mayor Cooper, the Metro Council, and our Board of Education through record investments in MNPS that have helped us achieve our level 5 TVAAS status and a record 48 Reward Schools in the last school year. We look forward to building on these foundations to create even greater support for public schools in Nashville.”
A note on TISA:
The poll also asked Nashvillians about a high-profile issue affecting public schools in the past year – the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (TISA), the state’s new school funding formula. While the overwhelming majority (69%) of Nashvillians have not heard about the state’s new school funding formula, those who are aware of TISA are generally split on their support. Within the population who say they are aware of TISA, 41% support it while 46% oppose the funding formula.
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That’s the impact of inflation on starting teacher pay in Metro Nashville.
Teachers in Nashville have seen significant pay bumps in recent years, but as inflation takes a toll, those increases effectively mean a starting teacher today makes less than a starting teacher did back in 2015.
But when you take into account inflation and run the 2015 and 2022 salaries through the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index Inflation Calculator, $42,082 has the same buying power as $52,242 now.
Therefore, a new teacher is making $4,121 less now compared to what they would’ve made in 2015.
That’s a number that hits particularly hard in one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities – where housing costs have been steadily on the rise.
As Mintzer notes:
There are more than 120 teacher positions still open as of a couple of weeks ago in Metro Nashville Public Schools, according to a spokesperson for the district.
The Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) is celebrating its 20th anniversary and calling for “equity metrics” for Metro Nashville Public Schools.
Here’s more from a press release:
The Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF), founded in 2002, will celebrate its 20th anniversary this coming school year. For two decades, NPEF has worked to improve public schools first through fundraising and more recently by supporting teachers and leaders, celebrating success, and advocating for change. The foundation will celebrate its anniversary at the 2022 Public Schools Hall of Fame on September 8 at the Music City Center and throughout the year.
“For 20 years, we’ve worked to help shape our city’s schools to better meet the needs of our students and families,” said Meg Harris, NPEF Board Chair. “We are so proud of all that we’ve been able to achieve, but there is still much more to be done to ensure that all children can thrive in Nashville’s schools.”
Evolving as an organization to meet the changing needs of a growing and diversifying community, NPEF has seen its mission expand to eliminate systemic barriers that prevent too many students from thriving in school. This evolution led to the release of the documentary By Design: The Shaping of Nashville’s Public Schools, which explores how schools were designed within a larger system of social structures that collectively inhibit students of color and their families from gaining access to resources that help them succeed.
Given the deep disparities in opportunities and outcomes for our students, the foundation is calling on the community to push for equity metrics that assess the experience of children and youth in Nashville. Equity metrics would provide a clear picture of how young people are doing in our city, whether progress has been made toward goals, and whether opportunities are in place to support future progress. This aggregation of data would help to contextualize student achievement and other education outcomes within the ecosystem of a child’s life to promote better public policy.
“We cannot continue to expect different outcomes if we do not change the way the system is designed,” said Katie Cour, President and CEO of the Nashville Public Education Foundation. “That means changing the way we support children and youth in all aspects of their lives – not just the quality of schools they attend, but also their access to transportation, housing, healthcare, and other core services. Equity metrics would allow us to get a more accurate picture of what our students are truly experiencing and are an important step in building the Nashville we all want.”
Equity metrics build on the foundation’s prior work around literacy, professional development, school funding, teacher pay, principal quality, and more. Among the foundation’s achievements in the last 20 years, NPEF has:
Opened the Martin Professional Development Center, a state-of-the-art facility dedicated solely to the quality of teaching and instruction in the classroom
Honored more than 350 teachers as Blue Ribbon Teacher award winners to recognize and reward the exceptional work of Nashville’s educators
Supported the district to develop its approach to recruiting, developing, and retaining great principals, establishing a framework and improving strategies
Catalyzed $30 million in investments for Nashville to invest in college strategies through its Bridge to Completion series
Released By Design: The Shaping of Nashville’s Public Schools, a documentary driving critical conversations about reimagining our public schools
Helped to close the digital divide during the COVID-19 pandemic by raising substantial funds for technology and access to broadband for Nashville’s students and families
Led the study on teacher pay in partnership with the Mayor’s office that resulted in the Mayor’s $49 million investment to increase teacher salaries and make Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) teachers the best paid in the state
Co-convened the Nashville Literacy Collaborative to sharpen the community’s focus on literacy, resulting in the Blueprint for Early Childhood Success; and
Celebrated over 100 community leaders, educators, and organizations making a difference for Nashville’s public schools through the Public Schools Hall of Fame
The Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) announced the addition of three new board members today. Here’s more from the press release:
The Nashville Public Education Foundation (NPEF) has appointed three new members to its Board of Directors, including Michelle Gaskin Brown, manager at Amazon; Kate Chinn, former vice president at AllianceBernstein; and Dr. L. Gregory Jones, president of Belmont University. Additionally, Meg Harris, the current board vice-chair and vice president of people at Ancestry, will take over as the foundation’s board chair on July 1, 2022. Harris succeeds Tony Heard, a partner at InfoWorks.
Readers may recall that NPEF first warned about the dangers of Bill Lee’s new school funding formula (TISA) and then ended up backing the plan that, by their own admission, would mean less funding for Nashville’s schools.
TISA is a timely and needed update to school funding. Here's why NPEF supports TISA while continuing to push for improvements: https://t.co/8PjU9nXqdk
It’s interesting that NPEF noted that the BEP created an “unattainable burden” for districts like Nashville and then supported a funding scheme that actually leaves Nashville worse off than before the BEP.
Former MNPS School Board member Will Pinkston talks about what partisan school board races could mean in Davidson County in a compelling Twitter thread:
As a former reporter, I’ve been patiently waiting to see if any vestiges of local media would explain to voters what partisan local school board elections could actually mean. Seeing no explanatory journalism, I’ll unpack it on this thread. 1/ cc @TheAndySpears@TNRepParkinson
Because the Davidson County Democratic and Republican parties decided to opt-in to the legislature’s plan for partisan school boards, they’re now responsible for policing candidates to ensure that they’re bonafide — in the same way they vet legislative races. This means … 2/
… ensuring that candidates subscribe to the county parties’ “platforms” — which mirror the national parties’ platforms. While the GOP didn’t adopt a platform in 2020, the education plank in their 2016 platform is a love letter to vouchers and their kissing cousin — charters. 3/
Meanwhile, the edu-plank in the Democrats’ platform includes language that won’t sit well with all the local charter zealots who masquerade as Democrats but who, under the party’s platform, would be easily disqualified from running as Democrats. For example … 4/
… the Democrats’ platform rightly calls for increased accountability for charters, which are not public schools but rather taxpayer-funded private schools. Specifically, they call for the same standards as “traditional public schools” in areas like admissions and discipline. 5/
Back in 2015, the Nashville School Board — in a move foreshadowing the Democrats’ platform — adopted charter accountability rules that have since been relaxed but now almost certainly will be revisited during partisan local school board elections. 6/
Setting aside the Democrats’ official platform, major constituencies go farther. For example, the National Education Association wants elected officials to fight efforts to strip local control — something Nashville School Board members gripe about but don’t do anything about. 7/
Meanwhile, the nation’s leading civil-rights organizations have demanded a moratorium on new charter schools, due to the now-undisputed failure of the charter movement and negative fiscal impact that unabated charter growth has on public schools. 8/
Bottom line: The 2022 Nashville School Board elections will be a fascinating case study in whether the Davidson County Democratic Party is going to toe the party line and vet candidates — or thumb its nose at the party platform and crawl into the charter bed with Republicans. 9/9
