Nashville’s newest charter school finally opens doors to students

The motto at LEAD Academy is doing “Whatever it Takes” to climb the mountain to college.

Now school leaders are beginning their ascent to help every one of their fifth- and sixth-grade students graduate and attend college.

Although the academy’s two buses were running late, the newest charter school in Nashville officially opened its doors to approximately 100 students yesterday morning.

An excited and nervous school leader Jeremy Kane greeted every student as they entered St. Vincent de Paul’s Catholic School where the charter school will be sharing some space.

After a long struggle to get approval to operate by the Metro School District, along with a few setbacks while looking for space for the school, Kane said it was all worth it.

“There really seemed to be a fresh start; there seemed to be an idea that [the students] were at something different, something special,” Kane said. “I think we’re going to get a lot …out of that feeling.”

It was more than a year ago that Kane began the approval process, which is required by state law, and after one rejection by the Metro School Board, it was approved last October to begin recruiting students, teachers and staff.

School parent Heather Johnson, a home health care nurse and mother of three, said she was only a little nervous about her daughter, Arienna Soard, attending LEAD. She said her daughter’s former teacher recommended she attend the charter school after realizing she would benefit from advanced classes.

“[Arienna] wanted to go,” Johnson said. “Her teacher talked to her about it and recommended her going there and she loved her teacher.”

The family lives in west Nashville and Johnson’s daughter had been attending Cockrill Elementary School prior to getting accepted at LEAD.

According to state law, a student can only enter a charter school if that student was previously enrolled in a charter, previously enrolled in a school that did not make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in terms of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation or not performing well on standardized tests.

Cockrill has been on the NCLB list for the last two years for not making AYP.

Kane said he hopes to start testing all of his students by the end of this week and begin working on an individualized plan for each.

For more information about LEAD Academy, visit leadacademy.org.