MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Thursday, August 6, 2009 11:26 am

Some parents of gifted students are upset about proposed requirements for admittance to Central when it becomes a magnet school in 2010.

“A fair admissions policy will adhere to the merit-based approach with the best scores getting in first and on down until the seats are filled,” Discovery School at Reeves-Rodgers parent Trip Meredith said.

“We are excited the school board has the foresight to instigate this new school and want it to kick-off the best way possible, with equal admissions,” he continued. “It’s good for the school and it’s good for the students.”

Meredith and other Discovery School parents are concerned their gifted students may not make the cut into Central’s new magnet classes when it opens next year because of a provision that grandfathers in McFadden School of Excellence students and their siblings.

The Discovery School is Murfreesboro City Schools' kindergarten-sixth grade magnet school, which grants admission through testing only and doesn’t allow sibling preference.

The requirements are only a proposal now, the Rutherford County Board of Education will discuss and possibly vote on the matter at its next board meeting Thursday, Aug. 13.

“The Board has heard from parents on both sides of the issues and everyone has valid concerns. It will be up to the Board to decide next week what the final admissions policy for the school,” RCS spokesman James Evans said.

Evans explained the clause was put in because McFadden students were promised a kindergarten through eighth-grade education and the school will no longer offer the middle school grades after Central opens as a sixth-grade through12th-grade magnet school next fall.

“Some McFadden parents and some on the board feel that those parents were promised a K-8 magnet program but those students are now losing three years because of the change,” Evans said.

But concerned parent Collier Andress Smith doesn’t see it that way.

“Since all public school students in Rutherford County become county school students at grade seven, all students are ‘promised’ an education and therefore should have equal access to apply for the magnet school,” she argued.

Evans said McFadden students and siblings would not be admitted automatically under the proposal. They still need to meet the same criteria as other students to qualify for admission and get first shot at open seats for the next five years.

All applicants, including McFadden students and siblings, must have a minimum of 3.0 GPA and score at least in the 80th percentile in all areas of the TCAP.

Thurman Francis Magnet students aren’t given the same treatment because the school is staying a K-8 arts magnet. And the board is considering a shuttle for students in La Vergne and Smyrna who want to attend Central Magnet School, Evans said.

“Also, I want to be clear that the proposal does not give preference to anyone for the high school grades,” he said.

Smith would like to see a policy based solely on scores with no exceptions. She said the McFadden preference could give those students an unfair advantage over city schools and other county schools students.

Rutherford County Director of Schools Harry Gill Jr. told the county’s Budget and Finance Committee at its April meeting McFadden had 50 students per grade level in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

The opening of Central as a magnet will allow for the expansion to 125 seats per grade level, “which would create ample seats for both city and county students,” he said.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.