schools Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

30 Aug, 2017

Memphis, Nashville school boards resist giving student names to charter schools

By Deborah Fisher|2017-08-30T17:52:17-05:00August 30, 2017|Categories: schools|Tags: Candice McQueen, charter schools, Metro Nashville school board, Shelby County School Board, student information|0 Comments

Chalkbeat reports today that the school boards of Memphis and Nashville are resisting an order from state Education Commissioner Candice McQueen to give charter school operators a list of student names, ages and addresses. The school boards think that the charter schools will use the lists to recruit students, which they think is not consistent with a new law governing charter schools. But the new law appears to require the school districts to turn over the lists at no cost to the charter schools. From Chalkbeat's story "Tennessee’s two largest districts defy state order to share student info with charters": Candice McQueen, Tennessee Education Commissioner At issue is [...]

5 May, 2016

AG: Search firm records are open in school director search, Open Meetings Act may apply

By Deborah Fisher|2017-01-06T15:25:27-06:00May 5, 2016|Categories: Attorney General Opinions, schools|Tags: AG opinion, Cleveland, Herbert Slatery, State Sen. Mike Bell, Tennessee School Boards Association|0 Comments

The Attorney General in a new opinion says that records in a school director search are open for public inspection, even if the records were obtained by a third party hired by a school board to conduct the search. The entity might also be subject to the Open Meetings Act, depending on factors such as the circumstances of its involvement with the government body, its authority and its structure, the AG said. State Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville State Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, said he requested the opinion because some constituents were concerned about the transparency of the search to fill the Cleveland City School's director position. The school board hired the [...]

30 Apr, 2015

Nashville school board to consider more transparency for charter schools

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-18T07:50:48-05:00April 30, 2015|Categories: schools|Tags: Annenberg Institute for School Reform, charter schools, Metro Nashville school board, Nashville|0 Comments

Nashville's school board is scheduled to discuss tonight potential adoption of public accountability standards for charter schools that would require, among other things, more transparency about how they operate and how public money is spent. Charter schools in Tennessee are already required to abide by the state's Open Meetings Act (T.C.A. 49-13-138) and Public Records Act (T.C.A. 49-13-140), as well as abide by whatever governance requirements laid out by the school district that granted the charters. But instances of fraud and malfeasance by charter school operators across the country have prompted school advocates and lawmakers in some states to propose additional accountability measures that provide more transparency for charter schools. Nashville's [...]

11 Aug, 2014

Nashville school board moves to increase charter school transparency

By Deborah Fisher|2015-08-18T07:51:31-05:00August 11, 2014|Categories: schools|Tags: charter schools, Nashville, The Tennessean|0 Comments

Reporter Joey Garrison's story this weekend in The Tennessean is a good one about increasing charter school transparency. While some might think it's as much politics as anything behind the motivation to require charter schools in Nashville to publish financial documents on the Metro Public Schools website, it's a proactive measure that all local governments can take, even before there is a controversy. Good to see that the school board decided to require the same of all Metro Nashville schools, not just charter schools. Our open government laws (open meetings and open records) apply to charter schools the same way they do to all other public schools. I don't see many [...]

20 Jun, 2014

Cleveland newspaper wins release of superintendent evaluations after Open Records dispute

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T18:49:44-05:00June 20, 2014|Categories: schools|Tags: Bradley County, Cleveland Daily Banner, evaluation forms, Office o, open records, school records|0 Comments

The Bradley County Board of Education released individual evaluation forms of its superintendent to the Cleveland Daily Banner late yesterday but continued to contend the public documents were exempt from the Tennessee Public Records Act. After the board initially refused to disclose the superintendent evaluations, the newspaper contacted Office of Open Records Counsel Elisha Hodge who wrote that it was her opinion that the documents should be released and she was "unaware of any provision within the law that makes these particular records confidential." "In Tennessee, in order for the public to be denied access to a records that exists, the record has to be confidential pursuant to a provision within the [...]