NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Metro Nashville’s school board will join others in standing up for public school teachers. Board members will vote on a resolution during a special-called meeting Monday to let teachers know they’re supported.

“I think the resolution is a way to show philosophically where we stand as a board, as a body, and that we are in support of our teachers, and we believe they are highly educated, very well trained, among the best in the nation,” said MNPS board member Emily Masters. “That’s really just to say, we see you, we hear you, and we want you to know how much we respect you and support you.”

The resolution states that “a key component to the success of the Metropolitan Nashville public schools is the hard-working and dedicated teaching faculty in our schools, and teachers in both our district and our state complete rigorous training and testing in order to become certified.”

It will also denounce comments made by a Michigan college president who’s helping Governor Bill Lee bring charter schools to the state. Ever since the remarks by Hillsdale College President, Larry Arnn, education leaders across the state have been vocal in their dissent.

Masters explained that the past year has had rewards but it’s also been stressful for educators.

“Principals too have just been in such incredibly stressful situations, I think parents have really been on edge. Everything that’s going on in the world is so frustrating and stressful and I think in some circumstances, it’s created that perfect storm where we have teachers saying I can’t do this anymore,” Masters said. “I have a friend who two more years and he would have been eligible for retirement, and he left even though he really loves teaching and loves kids, but it’s just very difficult.”

She said it’s important that their school board not only bring forth resolutions like Mondays but that they also vote on tangible actions such as raises for teachers and support staff.

“We have to keep putting our money where our mouths are but we also have to keep focusing on putting the right supports in schools, and creating circumstances where teachers aren’t having to also do bus duty, aren’t having to stay late to make sure that kids can be picked up, aren’t having to do all of these other things in addition to providing the high-quality education,” said Masters. “We have to have the right supports in schools so that they can focus on their jobs and not have the stress of everything else on top of it.”

The special-called meeting Monday is scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. and also includes an amended charter school application for Tennessee Nature Academy. Leaders for the proposed charter school said students in the Antioch area would learn the core curriculum and participate in electives based on the outdoors.

Several people spoke in favor of the school during a previous school board meeting.

“We are very serious about the academic success of our future students. We submitted a 316-page application with 193 footnotes to show that,” said Tennessee Nature Academy’s Roy Renfro during the July 12th school board meeting. “We’re also serious about having fun. We were outside playing with about a dozen kids and some goats before the school board meeting.”

The MNPS Charter Review Team will present its findings during Monday’s special called meeting of the school board. The team found the amended application’s academic program design and operational plan partially meet standards. But the amended application does not meet the standards in its financial plan.

Masters explained that a lot goes into their decisions on charter schools.

“The level of research I do is I look into things like, is this charter school interested in being a part of our Metro schools community? Are they interested in providing outreach programs that are accessible to the whole community?” she said. “Do they plan to opt into MNPS benefits for their employees? I’m very interested in ensuring that all of our employees receive that equal treatment.”

If the MNPS board denies the application the school can appeal to the state charter commission.

“We make our decisions based on what we see as the needs here at the local level. The state absolutely has the right to overturn that. We created a policy in this past school year that when the state chooses to overturn our initial decision, we will no longer review those applications, again, they will go under state control,” said Masters. “If the state wants to be in the business of running schools, best of luck to them. I wish them the best.”

She said she still considers those students her constituents.

“I have a state-run school in my district, those are very much still my constituents and my students. It’s a little frustrating to me when I hear from parents about things going on within the school and I don’t really have any power or any control over that,” said Masters. “But even if it were an MNPS-run charter, I don’t have any power or control over what goes on in that school because they really do operate and exist as separate entities. Metro National School Board is not the board of KIPP Academy, for example, they have their own board. I think it honestly is probably fairer to families, for them to understand very clearly that that is not run by the MNPS Board of Education. And I think that line is more clearly drawn if we let the state-run those schools.”