💚 Your guide to Nashville’s greenways

🚶Music City’s Extensive Greenway System

Nashville has more than 100 miles of greenways that not only provide vital green spaces, but also link neighborhoods and play a pivotal role in the city’s transportation network. Vice Mayor Angie Henderson is on the City Cast Nashville podcast discussing why these greenways are so important. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

👮 Officers Receive No Repercussions for Sexual Harassment

A former MNPD officer’s successful sexual harassment lawsuit implicated 13 officers. However, the department has only punished two of the officers by taking away 1-2 vacation days. Seven of the officers still work at MNPD, while some are now officers in other Middle Tennessee precincts. [Nashville Banner]

🏛️ Belle Meade Replacing Black History Tour

Under new directorship, the Belle Meade Historic Site & Winery has decided to replace the award-winning Journey to Jubilee tour, which tells the stories of the Black people enslaved at the former plantation. The tour was curated by Belle Meade’s first manager of African American studies, Brigette Jones. [NewsChannel 5]

🧸 Coalition Forms to Address Childcare Crisis

Twenty-nine community partners across Nashville have launched the Nashville Early Education Coalition to address our childcare crisis. Almost half of children under five in Nashville lack quality childcare access, and 60% of parents have said their work has been disrupted due to lack of childcare. The coalition hopes to support and empower early childhood educators and programs. [The Tennessean]

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) has 160 schools. While children are always accepted into their zoned schools, more than half of MNPS schools have an application and lottery process, allowing students outside of the school zone to attend. I went through the application process for my daughter’s kindergarten year, and it was more complicated than I thought. Here’s everything you need to know about applying to MNPS optional schools.

School Options Application Details

• Start the process now. Choosing the right school will require research, school tours, and possibly registering to receive a student ID number. It took me several months!
• Apply between Jan. 22 and Feb. 9 for priority seating. Applications are accepted outside this period, but won’t be prioritized.
• You must create a SchoolMint account to submit your application.
• You can choose up to seven schools listed as optional schools. Rank them by your favorite (1) to least favorite (7), though only list schools you want your child to attend. I only listed four on my daughter’s application.
• Your child needs a student ID number. If they don’t yet have one because they’re new to the district or a rising kindergartener, you must apply for one BEFORE turning in your school options application by registering your child. It can take a long time to receive the student ID number after registering. I had to call and email multiple times to receive it before the school options application deadline 😅 I called an enrollment center.
• Some middle and high schools have additional admission requirements.
• MNPS chooses which students get into schools through a random lottery. We received our lottery results in March.
• If your child doesn’t make it into one of the lottery schools, they are placed on a waitlist. When caregivers decline a placement, the child will move up on the waitlist. Many times, if you end up #15 or above on the waitlist, you’ll make it into the school, but sometimes you won’t find out until the first week of school!
• We received email and mail notifications about the school options lottery results, and you’ll also have access to a SchoolMint account to check.