School Board Challenger Addresses Safety at Nashville PROPEL Forum
MNPS District 4 Candidate Jennifer Bell. (Photo Courtesy Jennifer Bell)
Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) District 4 challenger Jennifer Bell took questions without her opponent at a town hall on Tuesday night, laying out her position on key issues, including school safety and lingering fears of state intervention.
Bell is hoping to unseat incumbent Dr. Berthena Nabaa-McKinney in the May 5 Davidson County Democratic Primary. District 4 includes the Donelson and Hermitage communities of Davidson County.
Improving School Safety
Bell answered questions from the audience at the second school board forum hosted by Nashville PROPEL this month.
Among the questions she fielded came from a parent of a McGavock High School student, who felt the district’s response to the threat of a shooting there in January 2025 was not serious enough.
“When we talk about our training, are (we) providing ongoing training?” Bell said. “Is our lockdown procedure something that we're taking seriously, or is it just something that is a check mark in our to-do list? That cannot happen. (I’ve said) it once (and) I'll say it again, I strongly believe in continuing to do our intruder trainings. Those should be an annual thing. I would like to see that put into policy.”
Another forum attendee told Bell he does not like seeing data used as a weapon for the state to take over school districts, alluding to potential intervention in Memphis-Shelby County Schools. That speaker would rather see data used to direct the allocation of funds, and he asked Bell how she could ease his concern about the district’s future.
“I believe in our schools,” Bell said. “I believe that our schools still have growth opportunities, and as a school board member, my job is to always look for growth opportunities. If I believe that we've hit the best that we can be and become stagnant, I'm not doing my job. So, you'll always hear me talk about growth.”
Incumbent Highlights Student Growth
Dr. Nabaa-McKinney attended the forum briefly and apologized to the audience for having to catch a flight for a work trip.
She highlighted some of the accomplishments District 4 has made during her time on the board, including accruing an 85.7 percent graduation rate, the highest on record for the district.
“We are noted as a Level-5 (TVAAS) school district, which means that is the highest level of growth that the Tennessee Department of Education will assign a district, and we have done that for four consecutive years,” Nabaa-McKinney said. “It has never happened in the history of Metro Nashville Public Schools.”
Nabaa-McKinney did not reference the important role public charter schools have played in helping the district achieve its Level-5 TVAAS (Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System) status, nor did she explain why she has repeatedly opposed charters while in office.
She has voted against every proposed public charter school over the last three years, and a Tennessee Firefly investigation found Nabaa-McKinney provided misleading information to parents in her district to oppose the proposed Invictus Nashville Charter School.
Challenger Highlights Experience
Bell has served multiple roles with MNPS, including serving as a teacher at Glencliff High School, an academy principal at McGavock High School, and as the director of the MNPS Academies of Nashville and Career and Technical Education.
On Tuesday night, she emphasized that while her campaign is new, she is not new to education, with more than 20 years of experience in the field.
“We are passionate educators, and we know education well and inside and out, and our goal is to use that in a very intentional and meaningful way,” Bell said. “We know what works. We know what doesn't work. We're not afraid to ask hard questions when it comes to kids and making sure that our community is well taken care of.”
Nashville PROPEL hosted a forum for the other contested school board primary, District 6, on Saturday.
