🏳️‍🌈 Is a smaller Pride fest a good thing?

🏫 MNPS Budget Sparks Frustration

The Metro Nashville Public Schools board voted to approve its new operating budget Tuesday night after a long, sometimes tense meeting. Although the $1.437 million budget increased by 4% for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, the district will need to spend $550,000 to pay for a performance audit as required by the Metro Council’s substitute budget. To cover that cost, the board voted to withdraw funding from a proposed new pre-K early learning center. [Nashville Banner]

• The new budget also includes cost-of-living adjustments, additional before and after-school care, and a two-day extended calendar for support staff.
• MNPS budget committee chair Berthena Nabaa-McKinney expressed frustration at the performance audit, telling the Banner it demonstrates “a lack of trust” from Metro Council. “It blindsided all of us as a board,” she said. “To this day we still don’t have a clear explanation of what the goals or objectives are.”
• Councilmember Sheri Weiner (D22) co-sponsored the budget amendment that created the performance audit. In a recent newsletter, she explained, “This is not about criticizing our schools. It is about accountability and stewardship of taxpayer dollars. Given the size of Metro's investment in MNPS, I believe a comprehensive audit is both reasonable and responsible.” [Nashville Newsletters]
• Metro Council’s substitute budget cut $1.5 million from MNPS to cover other programs and services that weren’t originally in the mayor’s budget. On Bluesky, Councilmember At-Large Quin Evans Segall blamed Mayor O’Connell’s grocery tax cut for the demise of the pre-K center. [Bluesky]
• Meanwhile, Nashville is experiencing a childcare crisis, and many families who apply to MNPS pre-k programs are placed on waitlists. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]
• How the substitute budget process works [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

❄️ Report Outlines NES Winter Storm Failures

According to a newly released independent review, Nashville Electric Service’s failure to secure outside crews ahead of Winter Storm Fern may have extended power outages by as many as five days. The report, commissioned by the NES Board, also found that the utility lacked emergency planning procedures, and failed to adequately communicate with customers. [🔐 The Tennessean]

• In response to the report, Mayor O’Connell issued a statement saying, “This is how accountability works: Identify the gaps, commit to solutions, execute with transparency, and report progress.” He also nominated attorney Jaz Boon to succeed chair Anne Davis on the NES board. Davis, who served for five years, is married to former Nashville mayor Karl Dean. [Nashville.gov]

🏳️‍🌈 A Scaled-Back Nashville Pride

With many corporate sponsors dropping their support of Nashville Pride in the wake of DEI and drag bans, the festival was forced to cut back to just one day this year. Some community members say this provides an opportunity. “I am hoping for maybe a Pride that does feel more local, feels more intimate, and feels more community-based,” says Nashville Queer History founder Sarah Calise. [WPLN]

• We spoke to Calise about Nashville’s trans and queer trailblazers earlier this year. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]
• We’ll be marching in the Pride Parade on Saturday morning. Wave if you see us! [Nashville Pride]

🤠 Is the Grand Ole Opry House for Sale?

Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc. is exploring the sale of its 70% stake in Opry Entertainment Group, which owns the Grand Ole Opry House and Ryman Auditorium, and recently took over management of Ascend Amphitheater. Ryman’s hotel properties, like Gaylord Opryland, would not be part of the sale. [🔐 Bloomberg]

🐆 Celebrating the Nashville Zoo

With all the hubbub around the proposed data center next to the Nashville Zoo, we’re revisiting our conversation with the zoo’s director of marketing, Jim Bartoo, about local endangered species and how conservation programs work to support animal populations around the world. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]

• Listen to Councilmember Rollin Horton explain his data center regulation bill. [🎧 City Cast Nashville]