Business involvement likely stands to grow with Register in place

One of Jesse Register’s first orders of business likely will be getting to know the business community in Nashville. Matthew Williams/The City Paper

The active engagement in public education by Nashville’s business community draws both pride and ire from those involved in Metro schools.

Supporters point to strong private sector support as an example of this city’s philanthropic, “can-do” spirit, and proof of Nashville’s collective dedication to causes of public good. Private dollars have undoubtedly made big improvements take place at schools.

Detractors, meanwhile, regularly point to the large private contributions made in school board races and to various initiatives introduced by former Director of Schools Pedro Garcia as signs that the opinions of business leaders – many of whom are private school parents – make too big a difference at Metro Nashville Public Schools.

For better or worse, the engagement of private sector Nashville in public education is here to stay, and only expected to grow.

The work of The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and its volunteers are playing a big part in establishment of Career Academies and Smaller Learning Communities, and Mayor Karl Dean announced a few months ago that many of his education initiatives would be bankrolled through private dollars.

Getting to know the business community is likely one of the first orders of business for Jesse Register, who is on deck to take the role of Nashville’s next director of schools once a contract is negotiated.

Register may have his work cut out for him, given the degree to which some in the business community have said they felt on the sidelines of the director search. At the same time, Register’s career suggests there will be more room for the business community’s influence on public education to grow.

Business buy-in part of the landscape

The weightiness of business community influence in public education hasn’t grown overnight, but increased steadily in the 15 years since the Nashville Chamber first issued its now annual Report Card on public schools. For the last three years, education has been an official “top priority” of the Chamber.

“The public schools need to be successful so that Davidson County gets its share of the economic development in the region,” said Marc Hill, chief education officer for the Chamber. “I don’t know anyone that believes that the successful growth of the suburban communities would have happened without strong growth in the central city… It’s anchored by a strong Nashville, and it really benefits everyone.”

The Chamber’s work with public schools is broad. Recent efforts have been concentrated toward development of Career Academies and Smaller Learning Communities, aspects of the Metro high school redesign dependent upon relationships with local companies. An annual and influential Report Card is still released each year, and annual education advocacy efforts are made each year at the state government level.

Some of the most high-profile education activities of the Chamber take place around school board elections, as thousands of dollars are contributed annually by a Chamber PAC fund — as well as by individual donors who are active Chamber members and volunteers. SuccessPAC has a strong track record, and the PAC at some point has endorsed almost all members of the current board in time.

The Chamber links improvement of Nashville’s public school system with economic development, lower crime rates, a higher quality of life and development of a skilled workforce, Hill said.

“We really do believe that the future of our public schools will drive the long-term prosperity of our community,” Hill said. “We really are in this for the long haul.”

A more controversial case of business involvement at Metro schools stems around perceptions of the Chamber’s influence with former director Pedro Garcia, who led MNPS for six years before his resignation last January. There are feelings among some in Nashville that business influence kept Garcia in office after the general public wanted him out, in part through involvement in school board elections, and that Garcia’s departure came about only when members of the business community were ready for him to leave.

George Thompson, chair of the school board at the time of Garcia’s hire and a member of the board until he stepped down this summer, said he believes business community involvement at Metro schools grew significantly while Garcia was director. He believes Garcia paid so much attention to the concerns of business leaders that other stakeholders – including labor unions of district employees – were neglected.

In Thompson’s opinion, business influence at MNPS is more controlling than it is supportive.

“You can’t run a democracy like you can run a business,” Thompson said. “A democracy is all-inclusive. It’s supposed to be. You have to take in all ZIP codes and area codes.”

Private funds play growing role

Mayor Karl Dean is currently bankrolling several education initiatives from the Mayor’s Office with private — rather than government — funds. While Nashville’s business community has long contributed financially to public education, recent developments from Dean may further increase public school improvements financed through local private coffers.

Though a fund established at the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee Dean has established the Education First fund, which already contains at least $2 million plus sufficient funds for two staff leadership positions.

“Any city would do well to have the level of interest in education that Nashville has from its business community and from the community in general,” Dean said in a written statement issued to The City Paper. “The Chamber of Commerce has sought a very active role in education, which speaks well to our business community, the city and our future potential. And we have a host of nonprofits, churches and other community groups in Nashville interested in improving our schools, mainly because they all recognize how vital education is to the overall success of our city.”

Business large and small find ways to contribute annually to public schools, according to Pam Garrett, executive director of the Nashville Alliance for Public Education. While Garrett believes business community involvement stands to be cultivated further through the hiring of a new director, interest has been sustained for an entire year with no director in place.

“To me, what it has proved is that interest is solid and stable, genuine and committed, no matter what. … Support is not built around a particular personality or set of circumstances,” Garrett said.

Register’s history bodes well

While there have been no negative business community public comments made about prospective director Register, reactions from this group to the board’s decision could be described as lukewarm. This could have less to do with Register personally than with the board’s process, which some believed should have included more input from the Chamber and other stakeholders.

Ron Samuels, chairman of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and president and CEO of Avenue Bank, has said members of the business community are waiting and watching, and are eager to learn more about Register and hear his plans.

Tom Cigarran, chairman of Healthways Inc. and a long-time participant in public schools initiatives, believes it’s important that support for Register be generated.

“I think he’s good enough to get the job done. That’s what we have to focus on,” Cigarran said. “If he’s successful, the school system is successful. If that’s the person that’s been picked, then let’s move forward.”

Board chair David Fox said members of the business community are currently dealing with “perceptions.” Once these are adjusted, Fox said, he believes Register will successfully build relationships and garner “buy-in.”

“I think there was a misperception that whatever the board of education was going to do was just going to mark time, and that we couldn’t pull in somebody who could … provide bold leadership and a real reform agenda,” Fox said. “They’re going to find that we have recruited to Nashville one of the leading, bolder educational leaders in the country. …I think that will get buy-in from people eager to see some reform.”

Fox cites Register’s work in Chattanooga as reason to be confident. The Benwood Initiative, a successful school reform initiative, drew together many private sector players. The plan combined the shifting of the system’s best teachers to a group of under-performing elementary schools in Chattanooga. The teachers received a higher pay grade for teaching at the troubled schools.

Daniel Challener, president of the Public Education Foundation (PEF) of Chattanooga, reinforces this characterization. The PEF participated heavily in the Benwood Initiative, and worked as the changes began as an intermediary between Hamilton County Schools and the Benwood Foundation.

Challener said Register has experience organizing and collaborating with business leaders and the rest of the community. The Benwood Initiative galvanized the philanthropic and nonprofit communities in Chattanooga, and business community support was rallied by then-Mayor Bob Corker for a differentiated pay plan for Benwood schoolteachers.

“Because of his leadership style, [it was not] only the school system working in isolation,” Challener said. “You now have a superintendent who is willing and desirous to work with all those partners, and is good and experienced at it.”