(upbeat music playing) - In the future, moving forward, do you ever see a place, an environment where Police officers, School Resource Officers, won't be needed in our Metro Public Nashville Schools?

- I hope there is a day where that exists.

And you know, a lot of times we talk about, like we take national data and trends and we try to automatically apply it to every school district and every individual school.

- Right.

- You know, I would challenge one to also think about maybe why some things haven't happened.

- Right.

- Right?

And part of this planning that we do with MNPD is proactive measures as well.

I mean, they're helping us build our entire plan.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Right now in response to all the things that are happening around us.

My hope and dream is that we continue to build positive culture and climates, that we can set conditions, that we can close the- right?

- Right.

- Equity gap.

- Right.

- And getting students what they need earlier, making sure those resources are out in our communities as well.

Because a lot of the challenges we see in our schools really stem... - [Jerome Moore] Right.

- ...from what's happening in the community.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- And until we kind of address community needs and changes, we're going to continue to kind of be in our continuous improvement model around how our schools can be responsive.

Particularly around safety, mental health, and social-emotional learning.

(upbeat music plays) - Welcome to another episode of "A Slice of the Community".

I'm your host, Jerome Moore, and today we have the Director of MNPS, Metro Nashville Public Schools, Dr. Adrian Battle with us.

How are you doing, Dr. Battle?

- I'm doing great.

Great to be here.

- It's great to have you here.

Let me go ahead and give you your flowers now.

You've overcome, you've maneuvered, you have just really just done amazing things over the last couple years since you became the Director.

From interim to officially being Director.

So, I want to go ahead and give you your flowers and congratulate you right now for just an amazing job in keeping MNPS afloat and keeping morale high.

- Well, thank you.

I appreciate that.

First of all, I appreciate the invitation to be here.

Looking forward to our conversation today.

And you know, it's been such a humbling, just honored opportunity to serve the district that prepared me as a young student.

But I must say, you know, I'm serving as the Director of Schools, or Superintendent as I'm often referred to.

- But it takes the whole team.

- Right.

- It takes the community.

And I'm just blessed to have such great people that I work with and awesome students that I get an opportunity to serve.

- And so I want to start like right at the fundamental level because you're just not a director, right?

You're a whole individual that have other things going on in life.

So I want to talk about the people that champion you.

The people that gives you that motivation to keep going or inspires you to take on new challenges.

That family support, that peer support.

Who are those people?

What does that look like?

- Oh my gosh.

Thank you so much for even entering into this space because I definitely wouldn't be who I am today without my support system.

Means the world to me.

You know, I'm reflecting back on my journey and, you know, becoming Director of Schools.

A lot of people didn't know that I had just given birth to my first son.

- Wow.

- I think coming in as Interim, I was expecting my now youngest son.

They're both now respectively, five and three.

- Okay.

- But I'm a mother!

I am a professional educator.

I'm a sister.

I mean, I have two brothers who support me to the end and back.

My mother.

Of course.

I give her all the kudos and thanks because she has just pushed me and supported me along in my life.

My husband, who is also a professional educator, who supports me greatly.

And because I'm a Native Nashvillian, (Jerome chuckles) I have to give a kudos to my entire family... - Right.

- Who, for the most part, lives here in Nashville, serves as support system to me, to my family, are truly advocates, have supported me from day one when I aspired to be an educator, my friends who I grew up with, just this community.

I mean, Nashville has been very supportive of me, even before being a director.

- Right.

- But quite frankly, being a female superintendent, you know... and we can talk a whole lot about the steps- - Yeah, let's get into it.

- and what that looks like, but it requires a support system.

- Right.

- Undoubtedly, we have the chops to get the job done.

- Right.

- But as a mother, sister, daughter, wife, it requires a support system.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- And again, I would not be in this position where I am today - Right.

- without their full support.

- Right.

And I want to talk about that a little bit.

Being the first woman in this position and then being a black woman at that adds a different type of layer - Mm hmm.

- underneath that.

What does that mean to you personally?

Especially for those who might be looking outside in and - Yeah.

- have inspiration of being an educator or a director, or just knowing that it's possible, that it can be done as a woman, and as a black woman.

- Yeah.

I mean, let me be clear.

And I share this with our students all the time.

You can be whatever you choose to be whatever you aspire to be.

And it's important.

I mean the significance of being the first product of Metro Nashville Public Schools serving in this capacity, being the first woman ever to serve metro Nashville Public schools.

I mean, in my time in preparing as a professional educator, I didn't see those two things, right?

And in some ways, it can limit you in what you envision for yourself.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Because you've not seen it happen.

And so, I hope my journey and my commitment to opening doors and to inspiring other African-American females on their respective journey.

I hope it's education 'cause that's the thing I do every day, but whatever it may be.

That they too can achieve their dreams.

- I wanted to talk about that transition a little bit.

Some would say before your transition into this director role, it was a little low point, melancholy kind of feeling around MNPS, about like who was going to be that next director.

A lot of challenges, a lot going on.

What ultimately said "Yes!

I want to see this, I want to take on this challenge" or maybe "I see opportunity".

- Mm hmm.

Mm hmm.

Yeah, so- - This is 2019, right?

- 2019.

- 2019.

- April of 2019.

And you know, transparently, I, you know, I've been serving in the district for quite some time.

Fortunately or unfortunately, I've seen several Directors of Schools kind of come and go.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- I've been able to observe all the politics around it.

And naturally when you're about our kids and giving them what, you don't really want to enter into the politics of education, right?

- Right.

- I mean, you're about the work and getting it done and getting outcomes.

And so it wasn't kind of a pursuit for me as far as being the Director of Schools, but we're in a place where quite frankly, it was just praying to do God's will and not my own.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Not to go too spiritual on you, but then there's this space of, if not you, then who?

- People will see your position as being a very powerful position.

You know, Director, Superintendent of all Metro Nashville Public Schools.

What is your definition of power?

And how do you use this quote unquote "power" to make sure you're doing all those things?

Being a good leader, empowering people, giving people opportunities, creating chances, being a representative for those who may want to be future educators.

- Yeah.

I mean, I actually don't see it that way.

For me, it's not about being in control, having authority, or having power.

It's about my opportunity to empower others.

- You see power as an opportunity to empower others.

- That's right.

That's right.

- That's a gem.

- Because here's the thing.

I'm one leader.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- I see all of our staff, including our students, as leaders.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- And it's my responsibility to use my platform, my position to empower everyone to perform at their greatest.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- And so it's not about me.

It's about how can I set a compelling vision?

How can I inspire and promote action?

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- To get us where we need to be.

So, it's actually my opportunity then to just empower others.

- [Jerome Moore] Yeah.

- But not to control.

- Right.

- Right?

If you will, how others respond.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Or capping the talents and the opportunities for our students.

- I always like asking leaders that power question because everybody views power differently.

Some people view it as a negative thing, like trying to control people, - Mm hmm.

- but from what you're breaking down, which I love to see, is when a leader is using power.

So they say, "no, I see this as an opportunity to actually give people power."

- [Dr. Adrienne Battle] That's right.

- [Jerome Moore] Not controlling with whatever power that I have.

Another power came into play.

The power of mother nature.

(both laugh) - Right?

(chuckles) - The one we can't control.

(chuckles) - The one we can't control.

We had a tornado here in Nashville follow up by pandemic Covid-19 pandemic.

I want to dive into that a little bit.

- Okay.

All right.

- You know, you're freshly new, officially at this point, maybe a couple weeks before, unanimously voted by the school board to be our Superintendent, our Director.

A week or two go by.

Tornado.

Pandemic.

What was your first initial thoughts when all this went, before you can even make a decision or call anybody?

What was, what was you thinking?

What was Dr. Battle thinking?

- Yeah, I mean, (laughs) I think that initial reaction was, "Okay!

I mean, I've not, like, there's no playbook.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Like, I've not experienced, in any role I've been in, like navigating a devastating tornado followed by a pandemic.

- Right.

- I mean, and the pandemic was really - Yeah.

- like an outlier for us.

- Right.

- And so I thought, "Okay, you know, like this is- You know, there's no testimony without a test.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- So let's really dig deep around who we are.

- [Jerome Moore] Mm hmm.

- And a lot of times, you know, while it was a challenging time, my challenges really probably weren't around what people perceived.

- Okay.

- But I typically got the "Oh", you know, like things are hard.

- Right.

- And things were hard and things were complex.

There were certain things that were easy.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- About navigating the tornado in the pandemic.

And that was just simply, I know what's best and good for kids.

- [Jerome Moore] Mm hmm.

- I know what's best in good for our staff.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- And I have learned from, and received so much feedback from our parents and our community.

- Right.

- And like, keeping the right thing at the front forefront of decision making.

The decisions weren't the hard part.

- Right.

- I mean, the hard part was navigating the politics - [Jerome Moore] Right.

- of it all.

Because there's so many opinions about education in general.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- And then, you know, unfortunately, something that was unknown to most of us.

- [Jerome Moore] I think the pandemic and a tornado, but more specifically, the pandemic, I think opened up the Pandora's Box, right?

Around something I know is really important not only to you and the whole team at MNPS but I think to everybody, which is equity.

- Mm hmm.

- Right?

Social and emotional learning, all of these things.

When did you realize, or what did the pandemic do?

Right?

And kind of exacerbate and say, Hey, who, whoa, whoa.

Like we have kids that don't have internet access to learn remotely.

We have kids that don't have laptops.

Now, if you do have a learning disorder, how do we, like, how did you all tackle all these things?

Or go back and say, okay, now we had to create this equity roadmap because this pandemic showed us, you know, we had some things we need to work on.

How did you tackle that?

What was that process like?

- [Dr. Adrienne Battle] Yeah.

- When did that hit you?

'Cause historically, we know there's always been inequities in education, especially for black and brown folks that look like me and you just historically in this country and now you have a pandemic that says, okay, "Let me show this to you even more."

- [Dr. Adrienne Battle] Yeah.

- So some people who may not even been aware was now aware, or some people who tried to ignore it could no longer ignore it.

- That's so true.

I mean, first of all, thank you for highlighting the fact that a lot of these issues, I mean, there's historical context.

One, why they existed.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Right.

And in our inability to address them quick enough.

So pre-pandemic.

- Right, exactly.

- They were there.

And so in a lot of ways, we knew exactly what those inequities were.

- Mm hmm.

- Like we knew them.

- Right.

- We have been a district that's been woefully underfunded, like many districts across the country.

And so, while the pandemic was hard, there was some good that came out of the pandemic.

- Let's talk about it.

- Yeah.

Let's talk about it.

- So now we have so much conversation.

- Right.

- About the inequities, right?

- We're virtual, we're at home, right?

We could not open the physical doors of our schools.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Our students don't have the technology that they need.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- We'd been dreaming and talking about and planning for one-to-one technology for over a decade.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Had not been able to execute on that because of funding sources.

The investments were not there.

Well, now, all of a sudden, we need the technology in the hands of our students.

And I'm thankful.

We have great partnership with Metro Council, with the Mayor.

They responded.

We were able to achieve, in just a couple of weeks, - [Jerome Moore] Right.

- something that had taken, I mean, years to even get to the forefront.

When you're talking about food insecurity.

- Mm hmm.

- When you're talking about housing insecurity.

- When you're talking about the mental health needs of our students and their social, emotional learning competencies.

Now all of a sudden.

- Right.

- You know, we're seeing it at home.

- Right.

- Right?

And parents- I thank them because I know the struggle - [Jerome Moore] Right.

- and the impact it had on families.

But now we're able to see, you know?

We have a front row seat.

- Yeah.

- To what's happening and how complex it is when we're talking about educating our young people.

- Mm hmm.

- So I think that's some good that came out of this.

Let's talk about the value of our educators.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- And our bus drivers and our nutrition services work.

Yes, they responded.

But now we see that there is a great demand.

And quite frankly, it started with the tornado and it increased and accelerated throughout the pandemic.

We now have this response as our school's being the hub of our community.

- [Jerome Moore] Yeah.

Right?

And so we're the hub of the community and we have a responsibility to respond to all the community needs.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Then we should invest in that same community with or without a pandemic.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- How can community be a part of that closing the gap?

Because again, it's like, this is just not about students.

It's about also guardians and parents.

- [Dr. Adrienne Battle] Right.

- That are sending their kids to these schools that, you know, that we want to be great.

That we want to all of them to be award winning schools, right?

- Mm hmm.

- How can community be a part of that?

And is there any kind of rhetoric that hurts that?

- Yeah.

- That comes out of the community.

Misnomers, myths, or whatnot, that you can touch on?

- Listen, I will be the first to tell you that in this thing called education, teachers, superintendents, principals, counselors, nurses- Name the role.

We cannot do it alone.

It takes strong parent engagement, family engagement.

It takes community partnerships, it takes community leaders, it takes everyone.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Really marching to the same.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Tune.

Like, we need to be clear about what we want to be true.

- [Jerome Moore] Right?

- About at least our young people here in Nashville.

But it takes that public private partnership.

Like our doors are open.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- We want the partnerships.

Even if it means reading to a student.

Even if it means serving as a tutor in our Accelerating Scholars program.

Even if it means being a guest speaker.

Even if it means if you're out and about midday and you see a young person who should be in school, ask them where they should be.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Right?

Because it shows that our community cares about them and we're invested in their educational opportunities.

I mean, on the other side, as you've mentioned, it can be unhelpful particularly when you hear conversations about what one assumes to be true... - [Jerome Moore] Right.

- in our schools.

Particularly when, you know, you follow up and you've not even been in one of our schools in 20 years.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Like, come in - Right.

- and see and be a part of the solution.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

It is so unhelpful to just create narratives.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- To have a platform.

- [Jerome Moore] Exactly.

- For whatever reason.

If we are truly about getting this thing right, then we should be advocating, rallying, around what we are going to do - Right.

- to help move the needle for our kids.

- I want to get on these, like, even deeper, like, community conversation, right?

- [Dr. Adrienne Battle] Mm hmm.

- As you know, this is a hot topic.

School Resource Offices, SROs.

And then which is kind of built in around, I think, social-emotional learning, equity.

We know that black and brown students at the moment are suspended three times as more than their white counterparts.

Some may say that the interaction with police for those students may cause more suspension or just confusion about the presence of SROs, right?

And just to be clear, I understand, correct me if I'm wrong, that there's a MOU between MNPD and MNPS.

- That's correct.

- [Jerome Moore] SROs do not come outta your budget.

(both laughing) - No.

They do not.

- You know, do not come outta- It's an MNPD budget.

- That's right.

- I just wanna make that clear.

Make sure that's out there.

Just to get around the confusion.

- [Dr. Adrienne Battle] Yeah.

- That people may have.

- [Dr. Adrienne Battle] Mm hmm.

- What is the role of School Resource Officers in Metro Nashville Public Schools?

- [Dr. Adrienne Battle] There's lots of misconceptions.

Particularly around how SROs serve in Metro Nashville Public Schools.

I can't speak for any other district or any state for that matter.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- But in Metro Nashville Public Schools, our SRO officers are not there to be disciplinarians.

- [Jerome Moore] Okay.

- They're not there to enforce the discipline policies of our schools.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- They're there for, as a safety measure, right?

And unfortunately, we've had some tragic events happening in our schools with our young people.

It just breaks me when I think about - [Jerome Moore] Right.

- that.

They are there for when the law is being broken.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- And to also help plan with our school administrators.

Right?

So, there is this misconception.

Our educators are trained in their content, they're trained in leadership, they're trained in counseling, whatever their respective role.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- MNPD has been a great partner and I'm very appreciative to Chief Drake and his responsiveness to the needs of our school district to come alongside us and help us create safety plans for our buildings, help pressure tests those safety plans, and in the event of an emergency, actually be there to respond.

- Another national thing in our state, you know, it was a slippery slope in our state on this with our lawmakers.

But our gay community, right?

When it comes to bullying, harassment, gender identities.

How is MNPS responding to that?

Especially around the social and emotional learning side of things, and making sure those students who identify with their community are still treated the same, creating that equity environment.

- Our mantra in Metro Nashville Public Schools is "Every Student Known".

We want to know you, we value you, we're gonna support you.

We see you.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Okay?

And our Student Services Department has led an initiative around MNPS for all.

Our School Board is leading the way on our resolutions and our policies that are inclusive of every student that we serve.

I am proud of the student population that we serve in Metro Nashville Public Schools.

We are very diverse.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- And I mean, when you say diverse or diversity, you gotta embrace every bit of that.

- Right.

- And that's what we try to live by - Right.

- every day in Metro Nashville Public schools.

And so, I think, you know, what we lead by in our mantras and in our initiatives exhibit our desire to bring all students in and to have them be known and their voices to be heard.

- Right.

- And for us to support them accordingly.

You mentioned our equity roadmap, you mentioned our social-emotional learning work.

Like, we're about all students - [Jerome Moore] Right.

- getting what they need.

- A big thing, I think is, would be good for you to talk about is just, you know, funding.

(Dr. Adrienne Battle laughs) You know.

Everybody needs more money.

(both laugh) Especially for education.

But, you know, we have been able to increase pay for our teachers, staff, and things like that here in MNPS, which is, you know, we needed that money, we needed those funds.

However, you know, some would say, we kind of underfunded from the state side.

- Mm hmm.

- Right?

Which creates more challenges, budgetary challenges for you.

- Yes.

- You know.

And for our city.

How do we fix that?

How do we maneuver around that?

How do we pivot those financial challenges?

- Yeah.

I mean, great question.

When you think about fundamentally the investments in school districts, like in theory, right?

The majority of investments in school districts should come from the state.

It should be about a 70 30 split between state and local.

And I mean, federal is usually a very small percentage.

One or two percentage points of the overall budget.

And in Nashville.

In Nashville, and I'm specifically saying Nashville because this is not true for most of the other districts in our state, it's flipped.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Right?

So our local government funds about 70% of our budget in the state.

- [Jerome Moore] 30% - Funds about 30%.

And you know, there's all kinds of reasons why we've shifted from BP into Tisa.

And we could talk about the fiscal capacity of Nashville.

Regardless.

The needs of students in Nashville.

- Right.

- Right, matter.

And so, you know, there is a need for advocacy and recognition, that from the state level, we have to meet the unique needs of our students here as well.

- Now, keeping to the public schools, is there budding financial competition or even resources between public schools and charter schools?

- I mean, generally speaking, you know, when I look at numbers and financials and I hear the arguments of the pros and the cons, - [Jerome Moore] Right.

- It comes back to the public, district-run schools having the resources, right?

As opposed to dividing out the resources, having the resources to provide the quality education we want for every student.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- Now, in my role, it is my responsibility to lead and move forward with the mission and vision for our district schools.

And that's where I spend the majority.

- Okay.

Of my time.

And I'm just, you know, just being transparent.

Like, that is my responsibility.

That is what my school board has hired me to do.

And so I don't often get too deep in the weeds around that but when you just look at financial models.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

That is where the argument comes around.

- Okay.

I wanna kind of end off on the future and when I talk about future, I want you to talk about a little bit about the successes of the current and also how do we continue that advancement of education in a kind of post-ish pandemic kind of, you know, environment.

- I am extremely, I'm extremely optimistic about the future of Metro Nashville Public Schools.

Not because of Dr. Adrienne Battle serving as Director of School.

Because I get to see and witness every day the quality of education.

I mean, you, just have a conversation with one of our students.

You're blown away.

- Right.

- Right?

By their knowledge and by their connections and their plans - [Jerome Moore] Right.

- for the future.

We are working really hard right now on creating a system, a seamless system, of pathways that are tailored to the needs of our students.

So we're launching an initiative from birth to kindergarten.

- [Jerome Moore] Oh wow.

- Right?

And we have another initiative on the other end called University MNPS, where we're trying to create seamless pathways from the time a student enters this world in Nashville, - [Jerome Moore] Right.

- to the time that they move into post-secondary and career opportunities into the workforce.

They can see themselves along the way.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- We've removed barriers to their access.

Thinking about the partnerships with Tennessee State University and Lipson in Belmont, and more to come, so that students are not discouraged along the way.

- [Jerome Moore] Right.

- We want our young people to focus on that learning, right?

- Right.

- Building their skills, their knowledge, their character.

- Right.

- So that they're the ones at the front of the line when the Oracles come in.

- Right.

And the Amazons expand.

Whomever.

- Right.

- Right?

We want our students to have a toolbox by which when they graduate, it's not that I just have this on, this is my only pathway, and they have to choose me.

- Right.

- We want our students to have control over that.

They will choose them.

And so the future is bright for Metro Nashville Public Schools.

- Anything that you want to avoid (Dr. Adrienne Battle laughs) in the future?

- Distractions.

- [Jerome Moore] Okay.

- Right?

Like, my board and I talk about this all the time.

My administrative team.

I talk to our Principals about this all the time.

Everyone.

Turned down the distractions.

- Thank you, Dr. Battle, for having this conversation with me.

I think people are going to appreciate this, going to appreciate your candor, your transparency.

And I appreciate you and the job that you've done thus far.

Up until 2026, we're gonna manifest it.

It's gonna be all greatness.

- (chuckles) Received.

- And again, thank you for your time.

- Thank you.

And continue the great work and continue representing for other women, black women, and just people all over the world that may want to be educators one day as well.

So thank you.

- Thank you.

- And thank you all for watching another episode of "A Slice of the Community."

Check y'all next time.

(upbeat music plays) (guitar notes play)