The new contract approved Thursday includes a 17 percent raise in the first year and 2.5 percent in each of the following three years.

Rutherford County Schools has identified 12 buses it can purchase from nearby dealers for roughly $2 million. Board members will consider approving that purchase on Thursday.

Under the original plan, school bus service would have been eliminated for students in grades K-5 who live within a mile of their school and students in grades 6-12 who live within a mile and a half, forcing parents to find other ways to get their students to class.

Rutherford County Schools Director Dr. Jimmy Sullivan posted a video Wednesday afternoon to let parents know he’s now hopeful the potential school bus driver strike will be limited, if it happens at all.

Leaders of Rocketship Public Schools and Novus SMART Academy (K-8) have the option of submitting an amended application for approval this summer.

The board voted Thursday to pull more than a dozen titles from library shelves, despite receiving a report that the district’s libraries aren’t meeting state standards when it comes to the number of books available.

Rutherford County is one of the fastest growing areas in the state and school officials there are weighing how to handle an influx of students while trying to maintain a community feel.

School board members voted to remove “Assassination Classroom” volumes 1 through 8 and 11by Yusei Matsui, “Catch 22” by Joseph Heller, “Perfect Chemistry” by Simone Elkeles, “Water for Elephants” by Sarah Gruen, and “Yolk” by Mary H.K. Choi from school libraries.

Members of the Rutherford County School Board took an unusual path to deny Board Member Caleb Tidwell’s resolution opposing educator diversity goals during hiring, by first approving it and then voting it down.

The Rutherford County Schools (RCS) Board of Education passed a resolution Thursday urging state leaders to “expedite the closure of the nation’s borders” as the county’s English learner population continues to grow.

The book ban debate continued to rage at Thursday’s Rutherford County Schools Board of Education meeting, when school board members ultimately voted to remove several more books from school library shelves.

Rep. Mike Sparks, R-Smyrna, has proposed reducing the minimum age for school bus drivers from 25 to 21 to help school districts find more qualified bus drivers to cover routes.

From school threats to book bans and higher-ed funding debacles, 2024 marked a year of controversy and contention among education policymakers.

The Rutherford County Schools Board of Education approved new zoning rules for high schools in the county at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

Several local residents spoke to Rutherford County Schools (RCS) Board of Education members Thursday to continue voicing opposition to recent book bans within the Middle Tennessee school district, after district librarians received an email instructing them to pull 150 “sexually explicit” books from school library shelves.

The ongoing debate about book bans in Rutherford County Schools dominated much of the discussion at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, after district librarians said they recently received an email instructing them to pull 150 sexually explicit books from school library shelves.

A handful of local residents spoke to the Rutherford County Board of Education Thursday to express their support and opposition to a recent decision by the board to ban six books from school libraries.

Over 400 titles have been pulled from Wilson County Schools library shelves since July 1, in response to a state law that restricts access to books with sexual or obscene material.

Sumner County Schools is the latest district taking extra measures to warn parents about the growing problem of school threats in Tennessee.

The district recently sent parents a letter signed by Superintendent Scott Langford, Juvenile Court Judge David Howard, Sheriff Eric Craddock, and District Attorney General Lawrence Whitley that outlines the punishment for making threats of mass violence at schools and school-related activities.

The Middle Tennessee school district continued discussions about how to align district policies with state laws that instruct schools to ban books with sexual or obscene material at Tuesday’s policy committee meeting. Read more about the debate among school board members.