Metro Nashville Public Schools abruptly cancels agreement to let Valor Collegiate students compete on Overton High School teams

Players on the Overton High School football team (Photo by Overton High School)

Next school year, potentially hundreds of high school athletes in South Nashville will be competing for a different team.

For the last five years, students at Valor Collegiate Academy have been able to participate in school-based athletics on Overton High School teams as part of an agreement between the schools. Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) recently made the decision to dissolve that agreement for the 2025-26 school year for every sport other than football.

District spokesperson Sean Braisted told the Tennessee Firefly that the change will allow Valor to establish its own teams and create more opportunities for Overton students to participate in school-based athletics. 

“Overton High School is the third largest in the district, with 1,900 students enrolled, and Valor has nearly 900 high school students enrolled. The cooperative agreement meant students who wanted to compete in some sports could not due to the size of the combined student populations,” said Braisted.

Valor is a public charter school that’s operated by a non-profit organization under a charter with Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS). Acquiring adequate sports facilities is a challenge for many public charter schools in Tennessee, and school leaders have described Valor’s partnership with Overton as a beneficial one for both schools.

New Partnership Formed Between South Nashville Charter Schools

The district will continue to allow Valor participants on Overton’s football team for the 2025 season, though ninth and tenth-graders will be encouraged to join a new cooperative team with Nashville Collegiate Prep. Both charter schools have agreed to build joint athletic programs next year.

Valor and Nashville Collegiate are just under 3 miles apart, which is roughly a mile closer than Valor was to Overton High School.

Valor CEO Todd Dickson (Photo by Todd Dickson)

Valor CEO Todd Dickson expressed optimism to the Tennessee Firefly that this new agreement will be beneficial to his students, though he did say the MNPS’ decision was unexpected.

“We’ve had a good relationship with MNPS for many years and were surprised and disappointed the agreement was abruptly dissolved without a collaborative discussion,” said Valor CEO Todd Dickson. “We’ve secured a new partnership, and we feel confident that our students will have access to an 'as good or better' sports program in the future.”

Latest Chapter in Nashville’s Charter Controversy

The dissolution of Valor’s agreement with Overton High is the latest in a series of MNPS decisions some charter supporters view as biased against them.

The district hasn’t approved a new public charter school since 2021, and the MNPS school board rejected all three applications last month in a decision some feel was made early to avoid impacts from a new state law.

The district is additionally facing an ongoing lawsuit related to a rezoning plan that would’ve diverted students away from LEAD Cameron Middle School. That plan is temporarily on hold for the upcoming school year following a decision in February by a Davidson County Chancellor who ruled it was in the “best interest of students” to stay at LEAD Cameron.

Charter supporters have also complained about the district’s move in recent years to exclude them from MNPS’s annual celebration event.

Despite these disagreements, Nashville Charter Collaborative CEO Subira Gordon framed a hopeful tone in a statement to the Tennessee Firefly that district leaders will find ways to work more collaboratively with their charter schools in the future.

“Charter schools are always eager to partner with district-led schools and see these partnerships as an integral part of our collaborative spirit. The MNPS school board has made great strides in relationship building across the sector, however there is a lot more that needs to be done to ensure that every child in Nashville has access to great public schools,” said Gordon. “We look forward to seeing district leadership and school board members at athletic events at both charter and district-led schools and urge leaders to reverse course on ending opportunities for kids."