History

 

The Nashville Global Academy (NGA) is the actualization of several persons’ dreams.  For more than twenty-five years, Dr. Edwina Harris Hamby dreamed of establishing a PreK-12 school.  She shared her dream with Bettye Shipp during the years that they worked together at Meharry Medical College, The City University of New York and Fisk University.  When she was at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee, Inc., she met Royce Fentress and discovered that he, too, had a similar dream.  They spent many hours talking about today’s children and youth, and how curriculum, support services and other related elements needed to be structured to meet the children’s needs and to ensure their success in the 21st Century’s global society. 

In the Spring of 2008, serendipity intervened.  Mr. Fentress attended a meeting with officials from the Tennessee State Education Department and told them of his experiences and the lessons learned from his almost twenty years of working with children at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee, Inc.  One official approached him after the meeting and asked if he’d ever thought of a charter school.  In his usual unassuming manner, Mr. Fentress replied that he wasn’t an educator, but he knew some and would think about the prospect.  He then related the conversation to two staffers, Marcus Lillard and Lou Riley, who followed up by contacting the charter school office at the State Education Department.  Simultaneously, Mr. Fentress contacted Dr. Hamby to spearhead the initiative including writing the application for submission to Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS).  Mr. Lillard contacted a colleague from the doctoral program at Tennessee State University, Keno Worthy, to see if he would be interested in working with what Dr. Hamby named the “Founding Committee” and he, too, agreed.

Dr. Hamby contacted members of the Greater Nashville community to involve them in the initiative.  Thus, the Founding Board of Directors was established.  The following persons comprised its membership:  Dr. Edith Winters Kimbrough, Chair; Professor Persephone Felder-Fentress, Vice Chair; Atty. Allegra Walker Montgomery, Secretary and General Counsel; Ms. Ingrid Collier, Treasurer; Mr. David Campbell; Dr. Tina Thompson Smith; and Dr. Edwina Harris Hamby (ex officio).  Later, Dr. Thomas C. Williams and Mr. Thomas F. O’Connell joined the Board of Directors.

From June through September of 2008, the Founding Committee, which consisted of Dr. Hamby, Ms. Shipp, Mr. Worthy, Mr. Fentress, Mr. Lillard, Mr. Campbell and Mr. Riley, met almost every day in person or via telephone conferencing to brainstorm, plan and to develop the Nashville Global Academy.  NGA Board members reviewed the document and provided helpful feedback.  Finally, on October 1, 2008, the twenty-two required copies of the completed application were hand delivered by Mr. Riley to the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools while Dr. Hamby delivered the required copies to the Tennessee State Education Department.  On November 5, 2008, Dr. Hamby and Mr. Riley, accompanied by board member Mr. Campbell, met with the MNPS Committee on Charter Schools.  After that meeting, the MNPS Committee recommended to the MNPS Board that the application be denied due to several areas that they determined were not adequately addressed.

After receiving the MNPS letter of denial and their recommendations, Dr. Hamby convened a meeting of the Founding Committee.  The Founding Committee decided to appeal and to submit an amended application by the December 1, 2008 deadline.  Dr. Hamby recruited Mr. Vincent Dixie and Mr. Tracy Ivey to join the Founding Committee and provide much needed expertise in accounting and information technology.  Each area that was discussed during the Charter Committee presentation and the specific recommendations from the MNPS Board were addressed in the amended application, which Dr. Hamby hand delivered to MNPS on December 1, 2008.  On the next day, copies of the amended application were delivered to Dr. Hilgendorf at the Tennessee State Education Department.  Finally, at the December 9, 2008 meeting of the MNPS Board, the Nashville Global Academy was approved to serve grades K-8 and to open for the 2009-2010 school year.  Hence, a collaborative partnership between several dynamic visionaries ushered in a new era in Nashville’s public charter schools with the establishment of the City’s fifth charter school.