March 14, 2024

Super Tuesday election results in Davidson County

BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO

With polls now closed in Davidson County, Super Tuesday election results are in.

Both parties’ presidential primaries went as expected in the state, with former President Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination and President Joe Biden officially taking home the Democratic nomination. Nikki Haley, Trump’s only challenger, still garnered a portion of the Republican vote in Davidson County. Biden faced a challenge in Michigan’s Democratic primary due to “uncommitted” protest votes from residents frustrated with his handling of the war in Gaza, but “uncommitted” votes were not as significant of a factor in Tennessee. There were small percent of “uncommitted” votes in Davidson and Williamson.

Nashville voters also saw several local elections on their ballots.

With 66 percent of the vote, Stephanie Williams won the Democratic primary for the Davidson County Circuit Court Division IV judge seat, which is responsible

for divorces and adoptions. With no Republicans in the race, Williams effectively wins the August general election.

“I am grateful for the trust placed in me by the people of Nashville,” Williams told The News sister publication the Nashville Post. “As Nashville’s Fourth Circuit Judge, my decisions will be guided by the steadfast judicial wisdom that I have gained on my journey to the bench. Together, we will continue the work of ensuring that our judicial process honors families while building through community.”

Williams, along with fellow candidates Tusca Alexis, Audrey Anderson and Stan Kweller, all previously applied for the job in 2022 following the death of former Judge Philip Smith. Kweller was appointed to the position in January 2023 by Gov. Bill Lee, filling the vacancy until this election. He will remain in the seat until the general election.

“Against the odds, we came in second of four highly capable candidates,” Anderson said. “We finished ahead of the appointed

Canadian family identified in fatal Nashville plane crash

BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

Metro Nashville Police have identified the Canadian family of five who were killed in Monday night’s West Nashville plane crash.

Those five victims have been identified as 43-year-old pilot Victor Dotsenko; his wife, Rimma Dotsenko, 39; and their three children: David, 12; Adam, 10; and Emma, 7; all of King Township, Ontario, Canada.

“On behalf of King Township, I extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the Dotsenko family from our community who tragically lost their lives in the small place crash in Nashville, Tennessee,” King Township Mayor Steve Pellegrini said in a news release. “This is a heartbreaking and devastating loss for our tight-knit community.”

incumbent, and we ran a tight campaign financially. Lastly, I’d like to congratulate the other three candidates on successful campaigns and wish Judge-Elect Williams well. There are never enough women in positions of leadership. I consider it a great privilege to have been in this race, and I look forward to continuing serving clients as a family law attorney.”

Davidson County Property Assessor Vivian Wilhoite has won her bid for reelection. She faced former assessor’s office employee Tomesia Day.

“I want to thank all the citizens of Nashville and Davidson County for their votes,” Day said. “I stood up to make a difference and gave voters a choice. Although the numbers were not in our favor, it is my hope that more awareness has been brought to this office. Congratulations to Assessor Wilhoite on her win and to all the candidates who stepped up to run for office. As we move forward, know that silence is not an option. Your

The children attended the UMCA Rich Tree Academy private school in Vaughan, a community approximately 17 miles from King.

“These beautiful children lit up our hallways every day. They all had such a positive energy and attitude towards their friends and teachers,” the school said in part in a statement, calling the crash a “heartbreaking tragedy.”

The Piper PA-28-32-300-T turbocharged aircraft departed Ontario on March 4, stopping in Erie, Pa. and Mount Sterling, Ky., before heading to its next scheduled destination, Nashville’s John C. Tune Airport. The aircraft crashed roughly three miles from the airport around 7:45 p.m. after reporting engine failure.

No one on the ground was injured and no road vehicles or infrastructure on the ground were damaged.

The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to release a preliminary accident report within 10 days.

Stephanie Williams

PHOTO COURTESY OF THOMPSON BURTON

Vivian Wilhoite

PHOTO BY ERIC ENGLAND

Greg Mabey PHOTO SUBMITTED

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voice matters to our great democracy.”

Since no Republican ran for the seat, Wilhoite will essentially be the general winner

Odd-numbered Metro Nashville Public Schools board districts were also up for election Tuesday. Only District 1 saw multiple candidates, with three Democrats and one Republican seeking the job. Robert Taylor ended the night at the front the pack, with just 104 more votes than second-place finisher Latonya Winfrey. The Democratic primary frontrunner will now face Demytris Savage-Short in the election in August.

Berry Hill residents reelected Greg Mabey in a nonpartisan race for city commissioner. He secured a slight lead over John Harvey, who had not previously held a position in Berry Hill.

Legislature guts IVF, contraception protections

BY HANNAH HERNER

In the final meeting for the House population health subcommittee last week, bills that would protect contraceptive access and in vitro fertilization were mowed down by the Republican majority.

Rep. Harold Love (D-Nashville) brought a bill (HB2227/SB1918) that would clarify that abortion does not include the use of contraception or the disposal of embryos leftover from IVF treatment. The bill failed.

In February, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, after three couples who saw their embryos destroyed in a fertility clinic accident brought a wrongful death case against the clinic. Some Alabama clinics paused services while considering the ruling, fearing criminal charges. Concurrently, Alabama lawmakers are working to pass legislation to protect IVF providers from future charges.

Rep. Bryan Terry (R-Murfreesboro) argued the proposed bill would allow for “selective abortion” in IVF and where both IVF and contraception are legal in the state of Tennessee. Love clarified that the bill applies only to embryos that are outside the body, and have therefore not yielded a pregnancy.

Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) made an attempt at enshrining contraception access in Tennessee law with (HB1943/ SB1804), the Tennessee Contraceptive Freedom Act. That bill also failed.

While her Republican colleagues said the bill would be obsolete because there is no law prohibiting access to contraception, Johnson cited a 2022 ProPublica investigation that revealed pro-life groups raised the idea of regulating access to

Tennessee tumbles in national health rankings for child vaccinations Bills focused on ‘vaccine freedom’ are a continuing theme at the state legislature

BY HANNAH HERNER

Dr. Randy Wykoff, dean of the college of public health at East Tennessee State University, has presented on public health issues in the Tennessee General Assembly every year for 12 years. During that time, he has followed Tennessee’s having dropped from the top 10 to the bottom 10 in America’s Health Rankings for child immunizations.

In the 2013 ranking, produced by the United Health Foundation, Tennessee was tenth in the nation, with 73.1 percent of children aged 19 to 35 months immunized. The 2023 report measured 67.8 percent vaccinated by the age of 24 months, ranking 41st in the nation.

Bills focused on parental freedom in vaccinating their children have been a trend in recent legislative sessions.

recent memory, according to the latest Kindergarten Immunization Compliance Assessment Report from the Tennessee Department of Health. Most religions do not prohibit vaccinations, but invoking religious freedom provides a smoother path than otherwise to exemption.

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy certainly bled into the kindergarten vaccine conversation, but it wasn’t the first hit, Wykoff said. The 1998 study that found vaccines caused autism has since been debunked, but the public sentiment around them lingered. In recent years, the vaccine conversation has morphed, Wykoff said, into one about personal choice, rather than public health.

contraception in the state.

During the Tuesday subcommittee meeting, Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) and Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) also made a case for their Fundamental Right to Reproductive Health Care Act (HB1626/ SB1590), a symbolic bill that would repeal 19 laws and fully legalize abortion in Tennessee, which was the law of the land before Roe v. Wade was overturned. It failed.

Earlier in the session, Sen. Richard Briggs (R-Knoxville) teased a bill allowing exceptions mainly for fatal fetal anomalies or conditions that affect fertility, but that bill was tabled until next year. Briggs confirmed to the Post that Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald) is set to sponsor the bill, and expressed doubt that the bill, under caption bill SB2195/HB2462 with co-sponsor Rep. Esther Helton-Hayes (R-East Ridge), would be delayed until the next legislative session.

Hensley did not immediately respond to the request for comment.

Vanderbilt University Medical Centers, which was working on the bill with the legislators said in a statement: “We support the bill that was filed and look forward to pursuing it again next year.”

In a small win for the Democrats and reproductive freedom, (SB1919/HB2356) that would allow women and girls enrolled in TennCare to get a 12-month refill of birth control passed the Senate on Monday, sponsored by Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis), but is awaiting action in the House.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

In the 2023 legislative session, a law that was passed requiring doctors to acquire “informed consent” from parents to administer vaccines complicated access for children who are not under the care of their biological parents. Another new law required parental permission for teens ages 14 to 18 to receive vaccines, overturning the 1987 Mature Minor Doctrine. It followed the firing of top state vaccine official Michelle Fiscus, who expressed support for teen vaccinations.

This year, a bill would end current vaccine rules requiring whooping cough and flu shots for foster parents caring for babies under 18 months old or kids with significant medical needs. Another bill was brought forward based on concern that vaccinations could be put in vegetables without customer knowledge.

Speaking to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, Wykoff told the Post he wanted to convey that Tennessee could be doing better on the matter of childhood vaccination. However, he said he understands why vaccination rates have dropped in recent years.

“Most young Americans today, who have kids, have never seen a case of polio or measles and certainly not diphtheria, whooping cough,” he said. “They haven’t seen those diseases, and also see that when a baby gets a shot, they cry. It’s understandable that people are hesitant to get vaccinated because they don’t have a real understanding of the severity of some of these diseases.”

In the 2022-23 school year, more Tennessee families sent their children to kindergarten unvaccinated with a religious exemption than had been the case in

“An offshoot of that discussion in this issue is that these are issues of personal choice and personal liberty, as opposed to issues that affect all of society,” Wykoff said.

Dr. Buddy Creech, pediatrician and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, said over the past few years he has seen a change in demographics regarding vaccine skepticism. Years ago, Creech said, vaccine rejection was concentrated in a few pockets in California and the Pacific Northwest, in Democratic strongholds, or reserved for the Amish and other closed communities with restrictive dietary laws or restrictive engagement with society. In recent years, the skepticism has been concentrated in the Southeast and Midwest, traditionally more Republican areas.

Creech said it is important to emphasize that this distrust is a fringe position among parents, providers and politicians.

“I am happy to live in the nuance of COVID vaccines,” he said. “But what I want to do is decouple that from [vaccine] confidence in measles, mumps, pneumococcal, flu.”

Whooping cough (also known as pertussis) remains a top 10 cause of death worldwide for infants and young children, Creech pointed out. As recently as 20 years ago, Creech, who has served as a physician for 25 years, has seen infants die from the disease. Pregnant mothers are vaccinated to protect the child in its first few months of life, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the first dose at two months old.

“Pertussis is a disease that we don’t want to sleep on, because it can come back with a vengeance very quickly,” Creech said.

Another concern in the

Robert Taylor PHOTO SUBMMITTED

kindergarten vaccine bundle is measles. It’s difficult to treat, and can lead to blindness, Creech said. Florida saw a measles outbreak this year.

If children have medical reasons not to get a vaccine, they can find safety in herd immunity, Wykoff said, but it’s a slippery slope.

“In people’s minds, they say, well, the risk of my child getting polio is less than the risk of them having a side effect,” Wykoff said. “And in certain scenarios, that might be true. But if everyone acted that way, or even a majority of people acted that way, then all of a sudden it’s no longer true.”

Creech points out that there is some irony in the observation that the United States has child vaccines that are, for the most part, free

and accessible.

“Vaccine hesitancy has not been an issue in the developing world where they see these diseases all the time, and they lose children all the time, due to these infections,” Creech said. “We have the luxury of ensuring absolute vaccine safety in this country. The rest of the world, they would long to have some of these vaccines that that they simply don’t have access to and they know the devastating effects of these infections.”

He added, “It is the height of hubris to have this level of access to life-saving care for our children and not take advantage of it.”

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

Proposal to remove racing, add affordable housing at fairgrounds certified Metro’s

Charter Revision Commission will move petition to signature phase if no appeal

BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO

The Metro Charter Revision Commission voted Monday to certify a petition to remove auto racing and add affordable housing to the Fairgrounds Nashville amendment.

In a previous meeting, the commission did not certify the petition due to incorrect formatting. However, Metro Legal assessed that there was no issue with the substance of the amendment. The commission agreed to meet again under the assumption that it would be resubmitted properly.

By officially approving the petition, the commission gave the petitioners approval to accept signatures to get the charter revision onto the ballot for a vote. There is a 30-day waiting period to allow an appeal for the commission’s decision.

If there is no appeal, the petitioners have 90 days to collect signatures from 10 percent of registered voters so as to have the issue on the November ballot.

Kenny Byrd, a former fair board commissioner, and Heidi Basgall, a founder of Neighbors Opposing Track Expansion, filed the charter revision petition.

The commission’s role is to decide only if a petition complies with the Metro Charter’s requirements for revision. Metro Legal reiterated at Monday’s meeting this petition does so. However, some citizens attended the meeting to share their opposition to the proposal.

One of the opponents claimed Byrd was acting as an agent of Fairgrounds Preservation Partners for the petition. However, Byrd previously told the Nashville Banner that even though he has been involved with the effort, the proposal is not formally affiliated with that plan to redevelop the speedway site. FPP has pitched replacing the racetrack with a park, live-work space for artists and musicians, and a new straight-line track for electric vehicle racing.

That proposal was an alternative to former Mayor John Cooper’s plan to renovate the fairgrounds and bring NASCAR to the racetrack, an effort that stalled as he left office. Mayor Freddie O’Connell has not prioritized the proposal for his administration.

Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway

PHOTO BY JUDE FERRARA

Nashville U.S. Navy sailor charged with espionage Former CPA student allegedly gave classified information to a foreign government

BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

Bryce Pedicini

BRYCE PEDICINI_FACEBOOK

A Nashvillian U.S. Navy sailor has been charged with espionage after he allegedly gave classified information to a foreign government.

U.S.N. Chief Petty Officer fire controlman Bryce Pedicini, who was stationed in Japan and assigned to the U.S.S. Higgins destroyer, was arrested in May 2023 by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), but the details of the arrest weren’t made public until February 2024.

Pedicini was charged with the following violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: Article 103a (espionage/attempted espionage), Article 134 (communicating defense information), Article 92 (failure to obey a lawful general order), and Article 80 (attempted violation of a lawful general order), violations which allegedly occurred between November 2022 and May 2023.

Those charges were referred to a general court martial in February, and Pedicini is

expected to stand trial in April.

Pedicini was profiled in a 2018 Navy Office of Community Outreach blog post where he said, “I like being deployed here because it makes me feel like I am directly contributing.”

That 2018 blog post stated that Pedicini is a 2007 graduate of Christ Presbyterian Academy. However, a CPA spokesperson told The News that, while Pedicini did attend the school for several years, he did not graduate.

In charging documents first published by U.S. Naval Institute News, Pedicini is specifically accused of transmitting documents and photographs “relating to the national defense, to a citizen and employee of a foreign government,” as well as allegedly “wrongfully taking a personally owned electronic device into an open storage room (secure room).”

Pedicini also allegedly “wrongfully possessed classified material” and failed to report having been solicited by a foreign

contact. The Navy has not confirmed which foreign government(s) Pedicini is accused of aiding.

His arrest comes among a string of recent espionage investigations throughout the U.S. military, including Fort Cambell soldier Korbein Schultz. Shultz was arrested on March 7 after allegedly leaking classified planning and weapons information to an unidentified conspirator “related to the United States potential plans in the event that Taiwan came under military attack.”

On March 4, 22-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty to willfully retaining and disseminating national defense information after he posted classified information online.

In August 2023 two U.S. Navy sailors stationed in California were arrested for allegedly providing sensitive military information to China.

Draft transit plan maps show countywide bus expansion

BY ELI MOTYCKA

Concept maps presented by Briggs show four new dedicated bus rapid transit lines on Dickerson Pike, Nolensville Pike, Gallatin Avenue and Murfreesboro Pike. The Gallatin artery would run through Madison to the edge of Davidson County. Planned transit on Murfreesboro Pike includes extensions to the airport and down Bell Road — Briggs refers to the branch as a “Magic Corridor” in his presentation, emphasizing its suitability Dedicated rapid transit lanes and new WeGo routes are at the center of Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s new transit plan, according to maps presented by his top transportation aides at a meeting with advisers on Wednesday. Discussion at Wednesday’s Technical Advisory Committee meeting shied away from light rail after attendees evaluated estimated per-mile costs of different mass transit modes.

After brief remarks from O’Connell, WeGo CEO Steve Bland and new Metro transportation planning director Michael Briggs steered discussion. Two major pressure points bear down on the plan: financial hurdles from the state and federal government, and the quickly approaching November ballot, targeted by O’Connell for a referendum vote. In his opening remarks, the mayor alluded to the confusion over the project’s unknown budget, which dominated the body’s Feb. 22 meeting.

“We’re going to start today’s discussion without final cost analysis and without a final picture of the overall envelope,”

O’Connell told the room. “The need is just remarkably clear.”

He referenced recently released data from Imagine Nashville, a community survey that sampled around 10,000 people. The survey showed transportation as a top city concern, led by respondents in Madison and Goodlettsville. Strong existing popular support for transit investment could help O’Connell succeed on a tight timeline.

North Nashville and Charlotte Pike show extensions labeled “transit priority corridor” and “rapid bus,” though planners have not explained the exact specifications of these improvements. Maps also show new routes through Antioch, Donelson and Old Hickory, and down Highway 100, and express service via major interstates across the county.

Estimates shared at the meeting put BRT per-mile cost near $50 million. Bus rapid transit includes a fully dedicated right-ofway for buses and construction of associated infrastructure like sidewalks, crossings and new signals. Light rail could cost between $200 million and $500 million per mile.

Tennessee’s IMPROVE Act and President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal give Nashville the chance to put substantial matching money toward transit expansion. Funding requirements are pushing the city to flesh out project financials by March 29 and seek approval from the state comptroller by May 31. Any plan will likely borrow against a sales tax surcharge. Last year’s deal to finance a new stadium for the Tennessee

Titans appears to have foreclosed the possibility of another hotel-motel tax bump.

“You cannot compete for and bring down federal dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act without a local match,” said Amanda Vandegrift of InfraStrategies, a transit financing consultant hired by the city. “You really only have a few more years to compete for, and bring, hundreds of millions of dollars in federal support to Nashville.”

In closing, Briggs revised the month’s

meeting timeline. Along with WeGo CEO Bland, Briggs has emerged as the mayor’s transit referendum point person.

“We are a small team, and we’re pulling this together as quickly as possible,” Briggs told the room. “We’ll have a joint meeting by the end of the month between both the Technical and Community Advisory committees and merge the conversations together.”

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Scene.

A bus at the WeGo Central depot PHOTO BY ERIC ENGLAND

PHOTO FROM

Dems propose alternative to governor’s franchise tax legislation

Nashville’s Sen. Jeff Yarbro, Rep. John Ray Clemmons call

for Lee Company tax documents documents

BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO

Democrats have asked for transparency from Gov. Bill Lee and proposed counter legislation to his administration’s proposed franchise tax bill.

The Senate Finance Ways and Means Subcommittee passed the governor’s version of the bill sponsored by Sen. Jack Johnson (R-Franklin) on Tuesday. The bill, which aims to address a potential legal issue, now moves to the full Finance Committee.

“Last fall we were approached by a handful of companies who said, ‘We don’t think you’re actually compliant,’” Johnson said addressing constituents last month.

Currently the franchise tax law is written so that a company pays taxes on either its net worth or the amount of property it owns in Tennessee, whichever is greater. The legislation would repeal the property tax portion of the franchise tax, which is estimated to bring in about $400 million annually.

Department of Revenue Commissioner David Gerregano said in a previous subcommittee meeting that taxing net worth alone is consistent with how the tax is administered in several other states. In addition, he believes Tennessee is the only state that still has the property tax measure.

Sen. Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville) proposed during the subcommittee meeting an amendment that would change the way the bill addressed the potential legal issue of double taxation. That amendment failed to be added to the administration’s version.

“The court has suggested that the right way to solve this precise issue is to use tax credits so that no one will pay taxes twice on the same base,” Yarbro said. He told the News his proposed legislation, which has yet to be heard in the subcommittee, addresses the same issue.

Johnson previously said that the revenue department did a “deep dive” with the state attorney general to determine the best way to revise the tax, which is what the administration proposed. However, Democrats said they have also spoken with the attorney general about their proposed version.

Rep. John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) is carrying the Democrats’ version of the legislation in the House and said that it also addressed the legal concerns of the AG’s office. Clemmons added a second take-away from the conversation with the attorney general.

“He did not own the governor’s proposal at all and, in fact, went out of his way to distance himself from the actual legislative proposal being offered by the Lee administration,”

Clemmons said.

Clemmons, Yarbro and other Democratic members of the General Assembly gathered for a press conference about their legislation and also called on the governor to be transparent about how he or his family could be impacted by a change to the franchise tax.

On March 7, Clemmons and Sen. London Lamar (D-Memphis) delivered a letter to Lee requesting that the governor “release publicly the last four annual Franchise and Excise Tax Returns with the Tennessee Department of Revenue by the Lee Company” as well as those of any other businesses in the state in which Lee or his wife, First Lady Maria Lee, have a controlling interest.

“Our request is grounded in the belief that Tennesseans deserve to understand whether their governor stands to financially benefit from tax policies included in the Administration’s budget recommendation,” the letter reads in part.

Lee’s press secretary told the News in response to the letter: “It is widely known that, prior to taking office in January 2019, the Governor stepped down from his position at Lee Company and chose to place his holdings in a blind trust to eliminate any potential conflicts of interest. As such, Tennessee law is clear that he is prohibited from accessing Lee Company tax records, and he has no awareness of the company’s operations or business decisions.”

Yarbro questioned the transparency of the response.

“We’re talking about a family business that’s been in the governor’s family for decades and has probably paid on the same tax measure that entire time, I think there’s obviously more information the governor could give than the stiff-arm that he has given the media.”

The administration’s version of the legislation would establish a fund for reimbursements for any taxpayers who overpaid based on property over the last three years.

An amendment was added in the subcommittee that specifies taxes eligible for a refund must be reported by May 1, 2024, through Feb. 3, 2025. The department of revenue would set aside $1.5 billion for those refunds. That number is based on the department’s estimate of all who filed in the eligible tax years.

State Board of Education urges lawmakers to change third-grade retention law

District-level frustrations remain as students prepare for another stressful

BY KELSEY BEYELER

year of testing

While state-level considerations about Tennessee’s controversial third- and fourthgrade retention law continue, so do districtlevel frustrations as parents and educators prepare students for another stressful year of testing.

A 2021 law requires that third-graders who don’t pass the English language arts portion of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program receive learning interventions and demonstrate growth in order to advance to the fourth grade. Certain students — such as those with disabilities, English learners or those who have already been retained — are exempt from the law. Families can also appeal retention decisions

to the Tennessee Department of Education. While 1.2 percent of third-graders statewide (898 in total) were retained last year, thousands of students who advanced on the condition they’d receive tutoring in fourth grade are again facing retention if they don’t show enough improvement. The state Board of Education formally defined that measure at a Feb. 16 meeting. Affected students can be promoted to fifth grade if they score “met expectations” or “exceeded expectations” on the ELA portion of the TCAP. Otherwise, their ability to move on will be determined by whether they meet an “adequate growth target,” which is calculated through a complicated individualized

formula that factors in aspects like state test scores and their probability of becoming proficient in ELA.

State of Play: Expect a Continued Push for Lee’s Universal School Voucher Program

“Failing a fourth-grader is not the answer,” said former fourth-grade teacher and current state Board of Education representative Krissi McInturff during the February meeting. While McInturff — who represents Tennessee’s 1st Congressional District on the board — voiced support for the intention of the law, she also listed negative effects associated with retaining students, including academic struggles, stress, increased dropout rates among students who have been retained and emotional impact.

Drue Allison is the parent of an MNPS fourth-grade student who, despite having straight A’s and later qualifying for the district’s Gifted and Talented Education program, didn’t score high enough on last year’s TCAP to automatically move to fourth grade. Allison enrolled him in tutoring and administered practice tests at home, but her son didn’t pass the initial TCAP test or the makeup test. Because he scored high enough on a benchmark test, however, Allison successfully applied for an exemption for her son.

Allison says the experience “has absolutely affected his self-esteem — that is really hard to recover from.”

On March 4, the state board convened for a special-called meeting to approve an appeals pathway for third-graders. The board-approved pathway allows students who score in the 40th percentile and higher on a universal reading screener to appeal

a retention decision if they also enter an academic remediation plan, if the student’s principal and teacher provide a unanimous promotion recommendation, and if the student receives tutoring in fourth grade.

Members also approved a resolution brought forward by Ryan Holt, who represents Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District on the board. The resolution urges the governor and General Assembly to reconsider the retention law by “maintaining the excellent supports for struggling readers,” but suggesting that kindergarteners through third-graders be considered for retention under the law rather than third- through fourth-graders.

In 2023, the state passed legislation that widens the criteria gap for students to advance to fourth grade if they pass the TCAP or score within the 50th percentile of the last benchmark test before the TCAP, while also receiving tutoring in fourth grade. The law also allows school staff to assist families in appealing retention decisions.

Legislation to adjust the retention law is currently being considered, including one bill that would require schools to hold parent-teacher conferences about retention decisions rather than leaving them fully in the hands of the state. Another item baked into the House’s massive voucher amendment would allow additional offramps for fourth-graders facing retention if they receive learning interventions.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Scene.

February homes sales increase 3 percent year-over-year

The Nashville area saw 2,247 home closings in February — a 3 percent increase compared to the figure of the same month in 2023, when 2,186 closings were recorded.

This follows a January that had 1,886 home closings, representing a 5 percent increase compared to the mark of January 2023, when 1,802 closings were recorded.

According to a Greater Nashville Realtors release, the area had 2,566 sales pending at the end of February, compared to 2,705 pending sales for the corresponding month of last year.

The median price for a residential singlefamily home in January was $478,870; for a condominium, it was $339,990. The figures

compare with February 2023’s median residential and condominium prices of $450,000 and $331,900, respectively.

For a recent comparison, the median price for a residential single-family home and condo in January was $460,000 and $349,360, respectively.

Inventory at the end of February was 8,967, according to the release. The figure indicates a 7 percent increase from the 8,367 active listings reported for February 2023.

Area residences continue to require more time to be sold than was the case in 2023.

For example, the average number of days on the market for a single-family home in February was 59. January saw an average

number of 57 days on the market, while December and November recorded average number of days on the market of 50 and 43, respectively.

“Key performance indicators continue to show strong positive market movement in 2024,” Kevin Wilson, Greater Nashville Realtors president, said in the release. “February data once again shows an increase in the number of sales and median home and condo prices, despite a week of missed activity in January due to severe weather.”

“Continued increases in inventory combined with strong sales data point to consumer confidence in the Greater Nashville real estate market,” Wilson added.

Dropping interest rates on a 30-year fixed mortgage could spur home sales, according to online sources.

For example, many residential real estatefocused companies are predicting the average rate should be below 6.4 percent by year’s end. The average rate was about 7.2 percent in February.

The GNR data was collected from Cheatham, Davidson, Dickson, Maury, Robertson, Rutherford, Sumner, Williamson and Wilson counties.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

Davidson County Board of Education

PHOTO BY ERIC ENGLAND

Zoning reform bills put on hold until next year

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT, NASHVILLE BANNER

This story is a partnership between the Nashville Banner and The News. For more information, visit NashvilleBanner.com.

Two of the more substantial pieces of a planned zoning reform push are being put off until next year as the lead Metro Council sponsor considers input from city departments and the community.

First-term At-Large Metro Councilmember Quin Evans Segall said Wednesday she is withdrawing bills 2024185 and 2024-186 until completion of a Metro study of the infrastructure needs of different housing types, estimated to be delivered in March of next year. The bills would legalize three and four-unit residential complexes in much of the urban services district and duplexes in much of the general services district. Other pieces of legislation included in the push, dubbed Nashville’s Essential Structures for Togetherness (NEST), will continue to be considered, with District 20 Metro Councilmember Rollin Horton set to serve as lead sponsor for some of the bills.

Evans Segall announced the withdrawal as the Metro Council was set to consider a resolution filed by District 3 Metro Councilmember Jennifer Gamble and supported initially by several of the most

vocal NEST skeptics on the council. That nonbinding resolution requests Metro departments complete the ongoing infrastructure study by Aug. 1, 2025.

“I think it makes sense to withdraw those until we get closer to [the study’s delivery], because I think people deserve to have an open and honest conversation about timing,” Evans Segall told the Nashville Banner. “And as long as that report is a little up in the air, we can’t have that clarity. … We just thought the study would be back sooner than it was.”

Gamble told the Banner her resolution was not a response to the NEST bills, but she offers criticisms of the community engagement process undertaken by Evans Segall and others to date. Gamble said “people were insisting on doing this process backwards” by seeking community input after bills were filed.

“Council is the last step,” Gamble said. “By the time I bring a zoning bill to council, I have had so many community meetings, so many adjustments or revisions to the plan based on that input, so that once it gets to the council, I’m expecting it to be supported and approved because it’s got community support, it’s got Planning Commission and planning staff reviewing analysis. In this case, the sponsor of those zoning proposals didn’t do that. They didn’t go through the normal process

or, in my opinion, the most effective process for presenting a zoning deal. They presented legislation first without having any plan or any data or any community engagement.”

On Wednesday, Gamble pushed consideration of the infrastructure analysis resolution until the next Metro Council meeting in order for the public to weigh in and give Metro departments a chance “to look at if they can get us the info sooner than the Aug. 1 deadline.”

‘Missing Middle’ Housing Targeted in Nashville Zoning Reform Push

Evans Segall has held a series of community meetings around the county about the proposal, and she says the plan was always for these two bills to take several months of work with council and community input. She also notes that Gamble should know “all too well” that bills can be amended throughout the legislative process as the latter is advocating for an amendment to a subdivision bill being considered on third reading this week. At-Large Metro Councilmember Burkley Allen called the amendment “just a clarification of the language” at a Wednesday committee meeting.

One meeting, held over the weekend at Belmont University, turned particularly testy, with an at-capacity crowd jeering,

booing and laughing throughout Evans Segall’s presentation. District 18 Metro Councilmember Tom Cash, who does not support (or formally oppose) the bills but helped host the meeting, had to tell the crowd to “take a deep breath.”

“I think there was unfortunately a lot of misinformation in [councilmembers’] newsletters and on Nextdoor about what [the bills] did,” Evans Segall said about the Belmont meeting. “When you show up with a preconceived notion of what something is, it is hard to listen and have an open and honest dialogue.”

Evans Segall offers support for Gamble’s resolution in her Wednesday statement. She also points to results from the Imagine Nashville survey that found Nashvillians overwhelmingly concerned about local housing costs and supporting a variety of housing.

“This is not a conversation that’s going away anytime soon,” Evans Segall told the Banner.

Added Gamble: “We need more housing; I think that’s that’s one thing we all can agree on. … When we’re looking at that, we need to consider where we can put those types of housing choices in the community that can accommodate and absorb it.”

Biden seeks decency, Trump seeks revenge — and other takeaways from the State of the Union address

BY BILL FREEMAN

President Joe Biden addressed the nation recently in his fourth State of the Union speech, and he didn’t mince words when speaking of his predecessor and the challenges facing our country if Trump were to be reelected to office. “Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault at home as they are today,” declared Biden from the floor of the United States House of Representatives.

While Biden spoke frankly about the misdirection, mistakes and misogyny that defined the Trump administration, he did not focus the entirety of his message on criticism. He spoke confidently of the successes and improvements that have been made during his administration. “Folks, I inherited an economy that was on the brink,” he said. “Now our economy is literally the envy of the world.”

He didn’t make such a statement without hard facts to back it up: “Fifteen million new jobs in just three years. A record. A record. Unemployment at 50-year lows. A record 16 million Americans are starting small

businesses, and each one is a literal act of hope, with historic job growth and smallbusiness growth for Black and Hispanics and Asian Americans. Eight-hundred-thousand new manufacturing jobs in America and counting. Where is it written we can’t be the manufacturing capital of the world? We are and we will.” The president went on to describe other successes, including manufacturing, infrastructure, health insurance, wage equality, reproductive health, clean energy, private-sector investments and agricultural support — just a few of the many successes to date of the Biden administration.

President Biden’s speech was frank and honest. He demonstrated his capability and prowess through the speech itself and by hallmarking successes from his administration.

The American people listened, and the rest of the world did too.

The Democratic National Committee had this to say: “During his State of the Union address, President Biden spoke directly to the American people about his work driving the greatest comeback in the

world and the inflection point we’re now at. Millions of people across our country saw that the choice they have this November is between an America where everyone gets a fair shot and our freedoms and democracy are protected or Donald Trump’s self-serving, hate-fueled America with less freedoms and more division.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

It appears from the results of Super Tuesday that the economy will be key for President Biden’s administration to continue into his second term. Encouraging Americans to vote is critical when a race is so hotly contested and demographically divided. Minority votes will be critical. A recent CBS News poll indicates that Black and Hispanic votes, while reduced slightly from their support of Biden in 2020, still support him staunchly over Trump: “A large majority of Black voters says they will vote for Mr. Biden this year. But his current support trails what he got in 2020. The president still has an edge with Hispanic voters now, but his margin over Trump is smaller than it was in 2020.” Getting the truth about the economy to several key voting groups — including minority votes, white voters with college degrees, women and suburban voters — will be critical to ensuring that Biden solidifies his second term.

What I found most interesting in this CBS News poll was not so much what the analysis showed about Biden, but what it showed about Trump’s support. We all know that getting voters to the polls has historically been more important to Democratic candidates than Republicans. This poll shows, however, that Trump’s most staunchly held voting groups haven’t gained an inch over the past four years. His most ardent supporters — white evangelicals, white people with no college degree, men, and voters over 65 — have hardly moved the needle since the 2020 exit polls were taken. For instance, 76 percent of white evangelicals said they voted for Trump in 2020. In CBS News’ 2024 poll, just 77 percent of white evangelicals said they will vote for Trump. In white voters without a college degree, Trump has slightly lost ground — with 67 percent saying they voted for Trump in 2020 and 66 percent saying today that they intend to vote for Trump. Quite telling.

Despite our differences in political ideology, it is my hope that all of America can join together in recognizing that we can do better than returning to an administration intending to seek revenge and retribution. As President Biden said so

well in his State of the Union address: “Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back. To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future and what can and should be done. … So, let’s build the future together. Let’s remember who we are. We are the United States of America. And there is nothing — nothing — beyond our capacity when we act together.”

Bill Freeman

Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and The News.

President Joe Biden PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WHITE HOUSE

TICKED OFF!

MOVIE THEATERS

WHY, does Nashville not have a CLEAN Movie Theater? And keep new movies at least a week. I have tried to see a movie that has not been highly advertised and is part of our nation’s history. “Killers of the Flower Moon”. Nashville has lots of theaters but seems to limit showing to only a few movies?

SPEECH

Reading the Tennessean article “Tenn. members of Congress flock to Biden address” I got to the comment by U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais. The man has his opinion of the speech but what caught my eye was the sentence.

“This speech was not that of a President of the United States, but that of a man no longer completely in control of his own thoughts and emotions and being controlled on the strings of his far-left puppeteers”

WHAT!!!! Has this clown been living in a cave for the last 7 years? 98% of the Republican party cant even have their own opinion without fear of irritating Donald J.Trump. So Rep. DesJarlais that was your opinion and here is mine. I am an old man and have voted for people in both parties and no matter which party is in control and no matter what they do it pisses off the other party. And if you look back in history you will see that both parties have come up with the same bills or ideas but who ever

is in charge doesn’t think much of them if the other party brings them up but give it some time and the other party in now in the drivers seat and maybe that bill or idea isn’t so bad after all but we will just change the spin a little and now that bill or idea sounds pretty good.

OSCAR

It is 9:30 PM Sunday and I am so disappointed that Alabama Senator Katie Britt didn’t win or even get recognized for her performance giving the GOP rebuttal to the State of the Union speech given by President Biden. But the Academy of Awards only gives Oscars to real actresses, not someone giving a campaign speech. Sen. Britt gave a stellar performance with-in 10 minutes of President Biden’s finishing his speech without even having time to really digest what the POTUS had said. Now that I think of it she really didn’t need to rehearse her rebuttal speech because 99% of it was just bovine excrement. She seems like a pretty smart cookie but me thinks most of her speech was all put up before the rebuttal program started. Sorry you didn’t win Senator Britt, maybe when Pres. Biden gives his next STOTU speech in 2025 or 2026 you can try again.

The comments in the Ticked Off column do not reflect the views of FW Publishing.

Sheryl Crow to host album release party at Franklin Theatre

Grammy-winning Nashville resident to celebrate new album ‘Evolution’

STAFF REPORTS

Last week, The Franklin Theatre announced that legendary artist Sheryl Crow will be hosting an album release party at the historic venue on March 23.

The nine-time Grammy award winner will be celebrating the release of her 11th studio album, Evolution, with a special concert event.

Tickets will go on sale on Friday at 11 a.m.

The concert will be filmed and broadcast on PBS later in the year, marking the first in a series of special events at The Franklin Theatre.

Crow, a longtime Nashville resident, worked with producers Mike Elizondo and John Shanks for her first album since 2019’s Threads. The 2023 Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame inductee elicited the help of Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello for the album’s released title track. Evolution will be released on March 29.

Sheryl

Five free and cheap family things to do in Middle Tennesse

BY AMANDA HAGGARD

The theme of this week’s list of free and cheap things is the Easter Bunny walks a dog into a bar. And no, this is not some kind of joke. We’ve got the St. Patrick’s Day Festival at Geodis Park, where there’s family friendly fun but also the promise of some interesting beverages for the adults. (Don’t forget the bus goes to Geodis.) Meanwhile, Rivergate Mall invites families to a Bunny Cares sensory event, offering a free, sensory-friendly morning with the Easter Bunny and festive activities. The Spring Vendor Market at Red Caboose Park offers more than 30 local businesses, food

trucks and a visit from the Easter Bunny.

For our furry friends, the Hoppin Hounds Easter Egg Hunt calls dogs and their humans to the Williamson County Animal Shelter. And then in Murfreesboro, Downtown After 5 launches on March 15, inviting folks to stroll through historic downtown, eat some bites, have a drink and explore unique offerings from local businesses.

As part of our series on free cheap things to do with the family, here is our weekly roundup of places to spend time together over the next week:

SPRING VENDOR MARKET

More than 30 local small businesses will be in Bellevue at the Red Caboose Park on March 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to celebrate the spring season. Food trucks will be on deck as well as the Easter Bunny and a face painter. Kids can get their pictures taken with the Easter Bunny with a local professional photographer. Proverbs Animal Rescue is slated for an appearance with some adoptable pups. Donations are suggested for ticket sales and all proceeds will be given to Proverbs Animal Rescue.

HOPPIN HOUNDS EASTER EGG HUNT

Your four-legged pals have a place to go this Easter. On March 16 from 2-4 p.m., doggos and their human companions are invited to this pup-only event. There will be two size groups — all dogs must remain on leash with their handler and proceeds of the hunt go to the Williamson County Animal Shelter. Register ahead of time for the best chance of participating. There will also be a photo opp with the Easter Bunny and dog and human food trucks as well as vendors with pet items for purchase.

ST. PATRICK’S DAY FESTIVAL AT GEODIS PARK

The Grand Finale of the Music City Irish Fest will be the St. Paddy’s Festival at GEODIS Park on March 17. Adults cost $20, but all kids under 12 are free. The day begins with a traditional Irish breakfast at 11 a.m. with live music and beverage tastings. Beginning at noon, there will be Irish musicians, dancers and entertainment from the Gaelic Athletic Football Club, specialty Irish food selections, drinks, vendors and more.

BUNNY CARES SENSORY EVENT AT RIVERGATE MALL

On March 17 at 9:30 a.m., family members needing a sensory-friendly environment are invited to the Rivergate Mall for a free morning with the Easter Bunny. The event includes a bounce house and Easter-themed activities.

DOWNTOWN AFTER 5

In Murfreesboro, Downtown After 5 kicks off on March 15. The event, which includes walking through historic downtown Murfreesboro, includes special offerings from local businesses downtown. The night will be full of food, drinks and unique clothing and items for purchase.

Voucher legislation advances amid tense conversations

Maryville City Schools director: ‘We’re being asked to ingest a poison pill’

BY KELSEY BEYELER

Two very different versions of the Education Freedom Scholarship Act passed two key legislative committees in the state House and Senate last week. The EFSA — a pet project of Gov. Bill Lee — seeks to provide universal vouchers to students across Tennessee, allowing them to attend private schools using public dollars.

A tense, hours-long conversation in the House Education Administration Committee resulted in the passage of that chamber’s massive version of the EFSA, which folds in a range of policies extending beyond vouchers and would set sweeping changes to the public schools system. Such changes include allocating more money to schools through the state’s education funding formula and increasing the state’s share of teacher insurance costs. It would decrease the amount of state testing, decrease the number of evaluations for well-performing teachers and decrease the amount of interventions schools would be obligated to provide to students who are behind academically.

Acknowledging the controversial retention law that could hold back thousands of thirdand fourth-graders, the bill would also allow fourth-graders who don’t pass a state test’s reading portion to be promoted if they attend

summer school and receive tutoring in fifth grade. It would also extend the time between teachers’ professional licensure renewals, give schools more flexibility on how they meet the required amount of classroom instruction time and allow districts more agency in how they address chronically absent students. Baked into the legislation is a provision that would dissolve the state’s largely unsuccessful Achievement School District and a severability clause that would ensure parts of the bill remain in place in case one section is overturned in court.

Maryville City Schools director Michael Winstead testified before the committee, as did Nashville public school parent Maryam Abolfazli, far-right political gadfly Robby Starbuck and Walter Blanks Jr., a spokesperson for conservative pro-voucher group American Federation for Children.

“Vouchers are a bitter pill — maybe some would say a poison pill — and you can coat that with a lot of good things and make it go down a little easier, but in the end we’re being asked to ingest a poison pill,” Winstead told the committee. “I think vouchers are the great destabilizer, and will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back in some of our rural districts when it comes to finances down the road.”

Several times throughout the committee meeting, members addressed concerns about parliamentary rules. At one point, Rep. Sam McKenzie (D-Knoxville) accused committee Chair Mark White (R-Memphis) of breaking House rules. “Breaking of these rules got people kicked off this body,” said McKenzie in reference to last year’s expulsion of House Reps. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis). Ultimately, after more than four hours of discussion, the debate was cut short.

All of the committee’s Democrats voted against the bill, as did Reps. Monty Fritts (R-Kingston), Chris Hurt (R-Halls), Bryan Richey (R-Maryville) and Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill). The bill nevertheless passed and is headed to the House Government Operations Committee.

While the House version of the bill would not provide vouchers to home-schoolers, the Senate version would. The House’s version would cost just under $398 million in its first year and exceed $425 million by fiscal year 2026-27 and onward. The Senate’s version would cost more than $95 million in its first year and could exceed $333 million in fiscal year 2026-27 and onwards.

“The House and the Senate is [sic] never

BUSINESS BRIEFS

Owners of Green Hills businesses buy adjacent commercial building

BY WILLIAM WILLIAMS

A Green Hills commercial building that sold for $2.81 million in December 2023 has once again changed ownership hands — this time for about $5.02 million — with the buyers a couple who also own an adjacent property that accommodates The Food Company and GreenHouse Nashville.

Long known by locals as the one-time home of The Lamp Store, the just-sold 11,325-square-foot building offers an address of 2213 Bandywood Drive.

According to a Davidson County Register of Deeds document, the new owners are Jackie Daniel and Hardin Daniel, who own, as noted, contiguous property at 2211 Bandywood Drive. The Daniels also own The Food Company and GreenHouse bar businesses, which operate from the two structures on that property. Opened in 1998, GreenHouse Nashville operates from a former greenhouse and is recognized for its large bar and many plant

The Daniels could not be reached for comment regarding their plans for 2213

Bandywood.

The seller was an LLC affiliated with Nashville commercial real estate company Magnolia Investment Partners. The seller in the late 2023 transaction was a trust affiliated with Nashville’s Shuster family, which owned the since-closed The Lamp Store. For context, the Shusters in 1988 paid $750,000 for the two-story building, which opened in 1973, and the 0.41 acres on which it sits, Metro records show.

The just-sold property also includes a small building positioned at the back of the site. At one time, furniture store Home Inspired and women’s clothing boutique Mignon’s operated from the main building.

The deal follows Magnolia’s having named in December 2023 local commercial real estate industry veteran Brian Reames as partner.

No brokers were involved in the transaction, according to a source.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

going to agree on this 39-page master-growth of government,” said Warner on Wednesday. “This is gonna go to a conference committee at the end of session, and to a backroom deal that we will get one hour, more than likely, on the House floor to discuss.”

Meanwhile, the Senate Education Committee discussed its own very different version of the bill, brought forward by committee Chair Jon Lunberg (R-Bristol). The bill is very similar to what was initially introduced by Lunberg and discussed last week, with slight adjustment related to funding procedures. Major aspects of the Senate bill include testing requirements for private school students who use vouchers and the ability for families to use state dollars to attend schools in other districts.

Some members of the Senate, including Sen. Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald), noted the differences in the House and Senate bills and expressed a desire to reconcile differences in committee rather than later in the process. The bill passed and is headed to the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee. This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Scene.

West Meade commercial building listed for $4.29M

BY STAFF REPORTS

A modernist commercial building located near the Highway 100 and 70 split and long used, in part, for medical offices has been listed for sale for $4,295,000.

Located in West Meade at 5819 Old Harding Pike on 0.68 acres, the two-story structure offers almost 12,000 square feet and opened in 1974. It is considered a Class C building, according to marketing materials.

A partnership that includes Dr. David

is a pediatrician who once practiced at the building. Old Harding Pediatric Associates is the main tenant in the structure.

The partnership has enlisted Stephen Prather, a first vice president with Nashville’s Charles Hawkins Co., to handle the marketing and sale of the property.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

Thombs owns the property. Thombs

5819 Old Harding Pike PHOTO BY GOOGLE EARTH

Rosenwald Restoration

Lee-Buckner School stands as representation of segregated education, historically Black communities

BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO

PART ONE

On the first day of Black History Month, The Lee-Buckner School – the last remaining Rosenwald School in Williamson County, built to educate Black children during segregation – moved off the land where it was built in Spring Hill and to its new home for preservation in Franklin.

When Lee-Buckner came into view from the front lawn of the Heritage Foundation’s Franklin Grove and Gardens, tears began to fall from the faces of those who had been waiting for that very moment.

It took two careful hours of slowly moving the structure on the back of a semitruck to get to that point. Franklin-based firm Oversight facilitated the move along with American Constructors, 906 Studio and Toothman Structure Movers. Toothman has moved several historic structures in Tennessee including local ones like the Union Army Hospital in Franklin and the original Cracker Barrel in Lebanon.

But, this move was a representation of more than just a structure. With restoration, the school will become a place of education once again.

At midnight, former students hugged one another, rejoicing as the very four walls of the Lee-Buckner School where they learned how to read and write now inched their way down Lewisburg Pike.

“It’s one of the happiest times in my life to see some of our history come to Franklin

for people to see how we Black kids went to school,” Georgia Harris said. “It’s history and a lot of people want to hide the history. You can’t do one history like the other. We’re all connected.”

Harris went to most of the meetings the Heritage Foundation had with the city to get approval to place the school at Franklin Grove. She said there were many complaints along the way, but by 1 a.m. on Feb. 2, she could hardly find the words to express her joy that it had been completed.

Heritage Foundation CEO Bari Beasley said in 2018 she did not even know about the Lee-Buckner School. At the time, she was thinking about expanding educational programming and imagined having a schoolhouse as the perfect hub to do that. When Beasley approached the county historian about the idea, that’s when she learned the school needed to be saved.

“We met with the person who owns the schoolhouse property. She informed us that the land was going to be sold and developed,” Beasley said. “Ideally, as a preservationist you would want it to stay on the land where it is, but because it was going to have to either be demolished or moved we were able to work with her and acquire the building.”

That building is now nearly 100 years old and was built on land from Monroe and Francis Lee – a Black family. William was born into slavery but went on to become a landowner who gave back to help educate

children in his community, an area in Spring Hill known as Duplex.

Lee-Buckner was built as part of an initiative between the CEO of Sears, Roebuck and Company, Julius Rosenwald, and Tuskegee Institute leader Booker T. Washington. More than 300 of those schools were built in Tennessee, but now less than 17 percent remain. When Rosenwald Schools were built, they required buy-in from the communities, which is why the Lees’ land donation was so important.

“We used to talk a lot about strictly the built environment – we’re saving the places that matter. But really, Lee-Buckner has taught me personally that it’s not just about saving the places, but also the associated stories,” Beasley said.

PART TWO

Part of Lee-Buckner’s history lives on today with the students who, from 1927 to 1965, were educated at the school.

Those former students, many who still live in Duplex, are collaborating with the Heritage Foundation to help tell that history. With preservation efforts like this, the school will teach people today about the history of education for Black Americans from Freedman’s Bureau schools after the Civil War to Rosenwald Schools and desegregation. The former students have done drawings of the interior to help identify specifics such as how their desks and the teacher’s would have sat. Ernest Buford described a time when

they got “new” furniture.

“It wasn’t new furniture – it was some different furniture. And boy, we were so proud of that, because we didn’t have to sit in these old raggedy chairs,” Buford said. “All of them had marks on them from when someone had a knife and carved a name and so forth. We never got new furniture, all the furniture we ever got was from somewhere else.”

Georgia Harris said when she was in school two kids usually shared a desk together. She sat with her cousin, Betty. After she finished school and came back to visit, she said there were single desks, used of course, but that was a big step up for them.

There was a piano for music in the school, too. In discussion with the students, Beasley said one day a woman began to sing a song she remembered learning in school – a moving moment that left no eye dry.

“When it’s restored, we hope it’ll look exactly like they remember it, and that’s a big goal,” Beasley said.

The students remember their school days fondly. Harris said she wanted people to know they were happy.

Buford said, “Everybody looked out for each other, and we all shared with each other. And if one had, all had.”

He and fellow student Roy Brown talked about how the boys would go in early and make fires to heat the building.

“It was very cold in that building,” Brown said with a little chuckle as he brought a memory back to life. “I do remember that simply because it was even colder when we’d been out playing ball and broke a couple of windows out with the ball.”

The school was built with windows placed intentionally to allow the light to fill the room.

“On a really nice sunny day, it would have relied solely on the natural light coming in into the school, being positioned to face north and south like this particular progressive design was,” historian Rachel Finch, a preservation consultant for the Heritage Foundation, said. “Where it was placed was so important so students would be able to have the light coming through. It’s really unique in the sense that white schools were mimicking the designs.”

Still there would be times the students talked about using kerosene lanterns or lamps, which was not uncommon in rural areas where there was little electricity.

The young boys also did janitorial duties like scouring the floors and remarked with laughter how the building could’ve gone up in flames with how much oil they would pour on the wooden floorboards. After recently visiting the school and going inside, the students said those same floors were still surprisingly mostly intact. The

The Lee-Buckner School is prepared for transport from Spring Hill to Franklin. PHOTO BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

original lumber had been donated as part of the community’s contribution that was required of Rosenwald schools.

A likely part of the reason the building is still standing today is due to the fact that it remained in use as a kind of nightclub and community center for sometime and then, eventually, as a private residence.

“It just really became part of the community’s responsibility to determine use,” Finch said. “Many of them were just taken down or kind of left to the elements. Left to time, left to determine its fate. I think the beauty of these Rosenwald schools is that they have their own form of resiliency. The schools are just as resilient as the communities that the school served.”

Multiple generations were taught in that one building, and it was an extremely closeknit community – as they put it, many of them are kin.

“I think about our great grandparents who didn’t go to school; they didn’t have an education, but they still survived,” one of the students, Mary Adkinson, said.

She remembered that generation signing their names with ‘x,’ but it was different once the school was built.

“Our mom and dads went there. They learned to read and write, and we came through and we learned,” Adkinson said. “And they taught us, my parents helped us learn everything that we didn’t understand. My mom tried to teach us.”

And, it wasn’t just the parents.

“What little we did have, we used it and we shared it with each other. The older children would help teach the young children,” Maudy Adkinson Johnson, Mary’s sister, added.

The education the students received, thanks to the school being built in the community, would extend far beyond the walls of the school itself.

“If it wasn’t for that beginning, there wouldn’t have been no future,” Buford said. “That school laid the foundation for all of us, because if it hadn’t been for that … myself, I didn’t go to college, but, all four of my children did graduate from college. And if it hadn’t been for Lee-Buckner school at the beginning, that never would have happened.”

However, the beginning is not 1925 when Monroe and Francis Lee donated the land where the school opened in 1927. Monroe’s father was Anderson Lee. Born a slave in Virginia, Anderson one day would become a founder of the Rural Hill Church in Duplex, which served as a place of education for Black children around 1868. The original church no longer exists, but it was likely very close to where Lee-Buckner was built in Duplex.

PART THREE

The Duplex community sits within Spring Hill right on the edge of Williamson and Maury County. The name of the area has several origin stories, including one about an award-winning horse, but it was known as Duplex even before the Civil War. Within a stone’s throw from where

the Rural Hill Church and Lee-Buckner buildings sat is the Spratt Cemetery. It was close enough that some of the men who went to the Lee-Buckner School remembered playing behind it as children and walking over into the cemetery.

Some of the earliest graves are from the late 1860s and early 1870s. Monroe and Francis Lee are buried there, but many of the oldest graves are in a wooded area, and headstones like the Lees have sunken into the ground.

Finch said the historians have not been able to track down original land deeds and don’t know why it was named the Spratt Cemetery, but they do know of a Spratt family from the area. While tracking down that kind of information can be difficult today, she said they have found a deed that shows Black men purchased the land for the historic Toussaint L’Ouverture Cemetery in Franklin. Sometimes, these cemeteries don’t have any records or documents.

“Because African Americans are the keepers of their history, predominantly, when an elder dies, the story dies with them,” Finch said. “That’s why the oral traditions are so important to African American communities. Many have written their histories down, but I think really only within the past two decades has the idea of collective history really come into practice within the public history world.”

Finch said in previous decades, histories of the whole collective in communities has been worked on, but its been more recent community-driven discussions that have led to talks about better preservation of cemeteries in areas like Duplex.

“I think that there now has to be a conversation on recognizing these cemeteries as historic places,” Finch said.

She added that not every cemetery may qualify to be on the National Register of Historic Places but that doesn’t mean they can’t be taken care of.

“People who are here have a story. Every single person buried in the cemetery has a story to tell, and how we tell that story is akin to how we remember our history.”

Finch pointed out the stone of Joe Jones, who was born into slavery in 1855 and died in 1940. A rudimentary stone that sat next to his is believed to be his daughter, Etta Jones, who was born in 1886 and died in 1927. There is a reference to her living in the church, leading some to believe her father may have been the pastor. She was thought to have potentially taught at Lee-Buckner before her death and even at the church before that. Her headstone reads, “A friend to youth and to truth.”

One of the first women known to teach at the school, Janie Overton, who died in 1963, is also buried in the Spratt Cemetery. Her parents were born into slavery, but in 1877 she was born free and later married into the Overton family in Duplex.

“A lot of the teachers are buried here, in this cemetery,” Finch said, adding that they have just scratched the surface of uncovering the history involved.

“I think that’s an even greater story that we have yet to really explore. But yet, one that we know is very rich.”

Standing in the Spratt Cemetery, it’s hard not to hear the hum of cars on the interstate nearby. The stretch of I-65 between Columbia and Franklin was completed in the mid-1960s. The rural farm land of Williamson County was forever changed with the major interstate now running through it.

“Any encroachment, even though it was progress, disrupts the community,” Finch said. “It shifts the way in which they all interact with one another.”

Today, there’s a bridge that goes over I-65 connecting Spring Hill using Duplex Road. Running parallel to the interstate on one side of that bridge is Lee Road and on the other is Buckner Road. Finch said they haven’t determined yet exactly how the name of LeeBuckner came about. There’s the connection with the Lee family who donated the land but not one to a Buckner family they’ve uncovered. But, it’s possible the location of the school sitting between those two roads could have been how the name came about.

“I think urban renewal did hurt communities, but it didn’t stop the resiliency of the communities,” Finch said. “Was there loss of homes or churches or schools? Yes.”

While Lee-Buckner wasn’t one of the schools that was lost, there were others.

“The Hard Scuffle community in Brentwood was an excellent example of the power of urban renewal, pretty much eradicating one community, except for the cemetery that still stands today,” Finch said. “They did lose the Rosenwald school as a result of that.”

Finch said that she, along with other Williamson County historians, have been working to piece together the narratives of the displaced communities but have faced challenges as many descendants have moved away from the area.

“While we know a lot about the history

of Williamson County, the history of the African American experience of Williamson County is something that has really yet to be fully explored, delved into and digested,” Finch said. “Really digging into each small community, in my opinion, has not really been fully explored and vetted. And, I think that there’s a tremendous opportunity now to be able to do that.”

She said there is something to be learned from the roads less traveled now around where these transportation corridors were built, where communities like Duplex still exist. As America begins to grapple with rediscovering displaced communities, old buildings like the Rosenwald Schools help tell those stories.

“The descendants of people who have been here since the Civil War, continuing to live and raise their families or see their grandchildren and great-grandchildren and in certain cases, their great-great-grandchildren, continue to thrive,” Finch said. “They really didn’t see the progress of the interstate system, for example, slowing down their progress to continue to achieve and inspire their next generation to be successful.”

Even though the physical building of Lee-Buckner has been moved, there have been ongoing conversations about putting up a historical marker to commemorate the property it was originally built on in Duplex.

Finch also suggested that, through the use of technology, there will be other ways the Heritage Foundation can keep the connection between Duplex and the school.

“I think that there are going to be more opportunities to partner with the alumni and really learn more about the history of Duplex as a community – as it pertains to the school and how we move forward, telling the history of the school at Franklin Grove,” Finch said.

PART FOUR

Moving the Lee-Buckner school from Spring Hill to Franklin gives

Members of the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County and former Lee-Buckner students toast in celebration following the successful move of the historic school.

PHOTO BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

Rosenwald restoration

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

the Heritage Foundation a space to paint an even bigger picture of education through the years in Williamson County.

“With Franklin Grove being such a historic property that goes back several centuries, I think that it’s an opportunity to tell its African American history as well,” Finch said.

Franklin’s first Freedmen Bureau school, which taught newly freed slaves how to read and write, was in one of the homes on the property after the Civil War. The McNutt family was forced from their home in 1863 during Franklin’s federal occupation after the war. While they were gone, the house was rented out around 1866 to a Black teacher. The New York-based American Missionary Association that worked with the Freedmen’s Bureau documented its first teacher, Rev. Edwin H. Freeman, in Franklin at that same time. The McNutts returned home and the school moved out.

“To tie the Freedmen Bureau school history and connect the dots and string the pearls to the Lee Buckner Rosenwald school to then the Civil Rights Movement and the legacies of African American education that spans well over 100 years to modern day – it’s simply going to be a significant step forward for our county in how we recognize our history, tell our history, and reckon with our history in a very meaningful and

inspirational way,” Finch said.

Franklin Grove played an important role in education in Williamson County, not only for the time it housed the Freedmen school.

Around 1832, the Hines family opened the Female Seminary of Franklin Grove, which is the namesake of the property today. The seminary closed in 1847 when a larger school for women opened.

In 1866 when the McNutt family returned to the residence, they started a boys school, which closed in 1873. After the house changed ownership several times over the next century, it was eventually bought by Eloise Pitt O’More for her O’More School of Design, which was located in the Winstead House on the neighboring property at the time. This joined the two properties into one as they are today.

With histories of both houses dating back to the Civil War, there are some records of the enslaved people who once worked there. Finch noted after slaves became free there were decades of movement from rural to urban areas with politics playing a part at times.

“In Franklin when you see the historic Natchez district, what is Hard Bargain, the First and Second Avenue South and North neighborhoods surrounded by industry and Lilly Mills, and then even along Columbia Pike today, just south of Ninth Avenue to

Folk Street going east, that was Belltown –those were African American communities,” Finch said. “But the lines are pretty drawn for where Black neighborhoods were located and white neighborhoods were located.”

While Black people were allowed to work in homes in white areas, they weren’t allowed to have property there. That rule wasn’t spoken in hushed tones and known quietly, it was actually written down and clearly stated.

“Interestingly enough [Franklin Grove] at one time was redlined,” Beasley said. “It was written in the deeds; if you were African American, you could not live or rent in this particular area.”

Known as racial real estate clauses, many deeds did have language excluding Black people from buying property. Sometime between the 1930s and 1950s there were duplexes located on the property, which did in fact include those clauses.

“Now, today, we see that as an opportunity to teach segregated history, segregation, meaning through not only education, but also housing,” Finch said. “The power of place is within the ground and moving the school there and putting it where former duplexes once stood that would never have welcomed African Americans to live there, as property owners or renters, to me is a significant story to tell.”

Lee-Buckner serves as a reminder that segregation is not some distant part of Williamson County history. The Heritage Foundation and former students held a panel

on the school at the Franklin Theatre, which was built in 1937 and segregated, forcing Black people to sit in the balcony. One of the alumni of the school shared a memory with Beasley who recounted it.

“She said, ‘You know, I had not been in the Franklin Theater since it was segregated. I sat in the balcony, and I watched Gone With the Wind. And I had never been back until I was invited to the stage to be the speaker.’ That was really a profound moment. I think it really is an indicator of still a lot of work to be done, but a lot of good, and I was really taken by her statement,” Beasley said.

Beasley, Finch and the whole Heritage Foundation, along with the students of Lee-Buckner, will now get to move history forward by using the property to teach people about the Black history in Williamson County.

“There’s plenty of trials for African Americans following the civil war, but there are also significant triumphs that they made on their own, despite how laws and communities may have attempted to thwart progress,” Finch said.

Beasley said, “How incredible is it that now, in 2024, this schoolhouse that was a beacon of light during a time of segregation will be moved to this historic neighborhood and interpreted, restored and told for generations to come.”

The Ultimate Chef Throwdown!

Our

Glasshaüs is a different kind of coffee shop

BY KELSEY BEYELER

Like molten glass, Glasshaüs takes more than one shape. It’s challenging to quickly sum up the new Berry Hill business. At its core, Glasshaüs is a glass-art gallery and studio. Its 10,000 square feet provide ample space to host all kinds of events — food events, casual drinks, glass-blowing demonstrations resulting in a piece of art you can take home. Casual visitors can stroll in to peruse the gallery and enjoy Glasshaüs’ gorgeous coffee shop, restaurant and bar.

We have Wyatt Maxwell to thank for this new gem. A local with a keen business sense, lots of creativity and all the right connections, Maxwell studied at Centre College in Danville, Ky., before ultimately receiving a degree from Belmont University. Centre College happened to have a glass studio next to the clay studio that Maxwell frequented, which ignited his love for the craft. After working a few jobs post-college, he wanted to pivot to work he felt more passionate about. Enter Glasshaüs. Maxwell says the idea was born when he realized there weren’t other glass studios in Nashville, though he knew he’d need to find different ways to bring people in.

“A glass studio would not be an easy business to operate — just glass,” says Maxwell. “That’s limiting because people aren’t used to glass. … But if [it’s] able to be put on top of another business like an event space or a bar or a coffee shop or a restaurant, it can work really well.”

And so that’s what Maxwell did. When you walk into Glasshaüs, which opened in November, you’ll quickly notice the beautiful glass that’s incorporated into every detail of

the shop, from pieces decorating the dining room to those for sale in the gallery and even the vessels that coffee and cocktails are served in. All of it is for sale. People can also work with resident artisans to develop custom orders like barware or glass light installations (which they’ll also install).

“We want people to start stocking their houses with local, handmade glass,” says Maxwell.

You can also find pieces that aren’t made locally in the Maxwell Gallery, which is curated by Maxwell’s mother Juliana. The gallery features an eclectic mix of pieces that might challenge your idea of how glass can be used as an art form. Vibrant bowls throw colorful light onto the gallery’s surfaces,

host John Miller, whose works are already featured in the space. Miller is the artist behind the playful sets of giant keys currently hanging around the building, and the glass hamburger-and-fries sculptures. He’ll stop by to give a live presentation while creating a pint glass, alongside other St. Patrick’s Daythemed activities, including a performance from an Irish folk band. Past events have included pop-up dinners with live glassmaking, DJ sets and a Nashville Soccer Club game-day party done in collaboration with Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint. Folks can also sign up for one-on-one glass-making classes to create a range of different items throughout the year. Maxwell says they’re planning to add more advanced classes for those who are interested in learning the skill more seriously.

surrounded by beautiful, gravity-defying sculptures, gigantic goblets, uniquely shaped vases, realistic-looking antlers and so much more — all of which feature striking colors. The gallery is currently featuring works by Asher Holman, Paul Nelson, Robert Burch, Hayden Wilson, Grant Garmezy and Sam Spees — plus the particularly special work of Stephen Rolfe Powell. An acclaimed glass artist whose work has been shown across the word, Powell taught Maxwell at Centre College. Because of a connection with Powell’s family, the folks at Glasshaüs were able to bring in art that they likely wouldn’t be able to feature otherwise.

You can also expect to see artists creating in real time. On March 15, Glasshaüs will

But there’s more here than glass art. Glasshaüs’ creative takes on food and coffee include a limited but fresh lineup of breakfast and lunch-centric options, such as a requisite avocado toast that consists of locally made sourdough, a spicy, nutty salsa and pumpkin seeds. With beans roasted in-house, Glasshaüs features your typical coffee-shop items, plus seasonal options you can discuss with the barista. One special cold brew is made from coffee beans that were aged in a whiskey barrel before being roasted. And that’s not to mention the cocktails.

For those looking to add a new spot to their repertoire of local coffee shops, Glasshaüs is it. The laid-back open dining room is a perfect place to get some work done, take a meeting, gather with friends or sit alone and relax. A stroll through the gallery can spark conversation and inspiration, and you can count on a friendly staff to guide you through it all.

“We want to know your name, we want to know your order,” says Maxwell. “We want to meet you and actually have a real community.” This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Scene.

Glasshaüs PHOTO BY ANGELINA CASTILLO

Glasshaüs menu items PHOTO BY ANGELINA CASTILLO

Glasshaüs menu items

PHOTO BY ANGELINA CASTILLO

Skylar Bush’s Roasted Leg of Lamb

BY EDIBLE NASHVILLE

Ok, don’t panic. If you can roast a chicken, you can roast a leg of lamb. While daunting because of its size and weight, leg of lamb is very easy to cook. It also feeds

an army, with leftovers taboot - which are great sliced thin for sandwiches or tossed in a Greek-inspired salad (recipe at ediblenashville.com

INGREDIENTS

1 6-8-pound leg of lamb

3 tablespoons fresh rosemary, divided 1 tablespoon fresh thyme

15 cloves peeled garlic, divided 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard juice of one lemon 1 cup olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350F. With a pairing knife, score the top side (fattiest side) of the lamb with shallow cuts. Place 2 tablespoons rosemary, thyme, 8 garlic cloves, mustard, lemon, and olive oil in a blender and blend on high until garlic is no longer visable.

2. Rub garlic mixture all over lamb, pressing the yummy bits into the shallow cuts on the top side. Season generously with salt and pepper then rub with cumin. Use

salt to taste pepper to taste

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 sweet potatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch thick slices

2 large onions, quartered

remaining garlic cloves to push into the scores on the fat.

3. Place sweet potatoes and onion in roasting pan. Top with lamb, fat side up, and remaining rosemary. Cook uncovered for 1 1/2 hours or until internal temperature reaches 135F. Let rest 10 minutes to allow the leg to finish cooking. Slice and serve with skhug. (recipe at ediblenashville.com)

Follow Edible Nashville on instagram @ediblenashtn and their website ediblenashville.com. To subscribe to the magazine that comes out 6x/year, go to ediblenashville.com.

ACROSS

1 One who might call you out

7 ___ pepper

12 Prez featured in “Annie”

15 Enthusiastic fan

16 ___ Air, electric vehicle that was named Motor Trend’s 2022 Car of the Year

17 Grassy expanse

18 Refrain in a 1970 hit by the Kinks

20 Crop revered by the Abelam people of Papua New Guinea

21 Casual vodka order

22 Muscat native

23 Some reactions on Slack

24 “Yep, noticed that”

26 “Oh, you wanna fight!”

28 Refrain in a 1971 hit by David Bowie

34 ___-owned (merchandise designation)

35 One of over 140 in an Ironman triathlon

36 Serbian American inventor

37 Hindu god embodying vir tue

39 Ever lasting, poetically

42 Flatbread that can be ser ved with dal

43 What offers worldwide protection?

45 State boldly

46 “hahahaha”

47 Refrain in a 1965 hit by the Who

52 Corporate depar tment

53 Privy to

EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ NO. 0207

BY DANIEL MAUER

67 Fleece seeker

68 “War and Peace” character who determines through numerology that he is destined to assassinate Napoleon

69 East Asian currency

70 Things dragged uphill

71 Trade mag for marketers

DOWN

1 “www” addresses

2 Defense from some attackers

3 Shor t-sleeved shirt

4 Like a type that leans right?

5 Enjoy with gusto

6 Big Band ___

7 $1 bill, in slang

8 Dance with a festive skirt

54 Longtime TV singing series, to fans

56 Places for evil geniuses

59 Thing with a ping

63 Sandwich you really need two hands to eat

64 Refrain in a 2008 hit by Lady Gaga

66 What makes most moist?

9 Like Andy Warhol’s “Campbell’s Soup Cans” or “Marilyn Diptych”

10 Frasier’s ex-wife on “Frasier”

11 State west of Wyo.

12 Going it alone

13 The “D” in CODA

14 Head-butts, e.g.

19 Tackle at the knees, e.g.

23 One who’s finished

25 Zenith

27 Took a load off

28 Outrageous

29 Substance that makes blood red

30 Fair and honest

31 Actor ___ V illechaize of “Fantasy Island”

32 John from England

33 Whiz (through)

34 Big dance

38 Sweetheart

40 Surefire

41 Actor McGregor

44 Something a person with an ovomucoid allergy cannot eat

48 Female friend, informally

49 Go by

50 Hot, hot, hot

51 Shortly

54 “Oho!”

55 Novel with the desert planet Arrakis

57 Tech product officially discontinued in 2022

58 Car ter of jazz and Perlman of film

60 Take the leap

61 Land unit

62 Raise a big stink

64 Slumber duds

ANSWER TO PUZZLE

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/ crosswords ($39.95 a year).

Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.

PUZZLE

SOCIAL

Swan Ball Unveiling

BY JANET KURTZ

PHOTOS BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

As guests entered the beautiful home of Sara and Richard Bovender, the energy was palpable. This was the night of the Swan Ball Unveiling Party, when Swan Ball 2024 co-chairs Sally Nesbitt and Carolyn Taylor would reveal the Swan Award recipient and the entertainment for the 2024 event. Kentshire — the 2024 Swan Ball official jeweler — was on hand to help guests pass the time with a beautiful display of dazzling antique and estate jewelry. As guests visited with one another, servers passed beautiful trays filled with delicious hors d’oeuvres, like duck confit resting atop potato crisps. Finally the moment arrived for everyone to gather in the living room and hear the long-awaited news. Sally and Carolyn first addressed the room with gracious gratitude — both to those in the room and to others who could not be there for the event.

“Planning the 2024 Swan Ball has been a wonderful experience, in large part because we have surrounded ourselves with terrific people who also happen to be extremely talented,” enthused Sally and Carolyn. “ They are thrilled to be involved, and their enthusiasm will translate to an exciting evening that inspires us all.” Their thank yous included: the Swan Ball committee and the auction committee, as well as friends hosting related events. They were also sure to thank Jane MacLeod, president and CEO of Cheekwood, the Swan Ball Office team, and their husbands, who have supported them

throughout the year.

Sally and Carolyn then moved to announce the Swan Award recipient and the event’s entertainment. The Swan Award is given to individuals distinguished in their service to humanity. This year’s Swan Award recipient — Amy Grant — certainly fits the bill. Throughout her prolific career in music — including 6 Grammy awards and 26 Dove awards — Amy has remained centered on giving back to the community supporting organizations like the Nashville Rescue Mission, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, The Red Cross, Compassion International, Second Harvest Food Bank, MusiCares, The Nashville Symphony and establishing the Helping Hands Foundation. Though Amy could not make it to the Swan Ball Unveiling Party, she joined everyone through video from her show in Oregon.

Next, Sally and Carolyn invited Larry Trabue to the front of the room. He expertly raised the excitement in the room as he discussed his conversations with “X” and how he asked “X” to meet with the cochairs to solidify the arrangement. That “X” turned out to be Old Crow Medicine Show, one of the most potent and influential forces in American roots music. The band treated guests to a brief performance, which served as a preview for the 2024 Swan Ball. Excitement was in the air as guests left for the evening, eagerly anticipating this year’s Swan Ball.

SOCIAL

Pat Patrick Tribute

BY BRENDA BATEY PHOTOS BY BRENDA BATEY

The Pat Patrick Tribute was held at Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA) to benefit the school’s Pat Patrick Music Fund, which was established in 2016 by Patrick’s classmates and friends to honor his memory and love for jazz music.

Tom Bailey and Gene Shanks were instrumental in establishing this fund to enrich MBA’s music program.

The mission of the fund is to honor Patrick by celebrating the jazz, rock ‘n roll and classic dance band music that he created and enjoyed for more than fifty years, along with his family, classmates at MBA and Vanderbilt University, and his many friends throughout Middle Tennessee and from coast to coast.

Thanks to the donors who have made this fund possible, MBA sends a group of students to New Orleans, Memphis or Clarksdale each spring to learn about the foundations and distinctions of jazz and to explore modern day versions of jazz at live venues.

Additionally, the fund affords MBA an opportunity to invite artists in residence to campus to teach students the fundamentals of jazz, as well as provides for live music each spring during MBA’s Alumni Days and Reunion Weekend.

The young men who are the current Pat Patrick Trip participants performed “Let the Good Times Roll.” The winners include: Cooper Coleman, Jackson Crawford, Slater Galloway, Sam Hall, Thomas Meier, and Jack Wallace.

Guest artists were the Establishment and Scott Kinney and four MBA groups performed: the Basie, Cardinal, Silver and Ellington Bands.

After the performance, everyone enjoyed a reception prepared by members of the MBA Mother’s Club, which offered delicious ham and cheese on rolls, turkey on croissants, rollers, vegetables and dip, crackers, fruit, brownies and all kinds of cookies.

Frank Blair and Cecil Coleman

Scott, Jody and Hailey Galloway

Courtney Travis and Jordan Frederick

Molly and Doug Bates, and Tom and Hunter Bailey

(Back row) Lauren Brown and Jon Sewell, and (front row)

Zollie and Keen Sewell-Brown

Curtis Coleman, Janie Goff, and Melanie and Lillian Coleman

Elizabeth Cato, Scott Kinney, and Julie Schneider

Headline Homes: January 2024

BY AMANDA HAGGARD

This month the first house — and the massive Belle Meade acreage it comes with — carries a purchase price that is greater than the typical collective value of an entire Headline Homes list. And it makes sense, because the seller is Healthcare Corporation of America founder Thomas Frist Jr., who shared the opulent abode with his late wife. The rest of the list isn’t too shabby, either, as the cheapest home comes in above $4 million and many homes sit on a sizable piece of land.

Below are January’s top 10 home sales in Nashville and the surrounding counties, ranked by sale price.

1. Chickering Road, Nashville 37215

Buyer: Christopher R. Redlich Jr. Revocable Living Trust

Sale price: $32 million

Sellers: Thomas F. Frist Jr. and Patricia Frist

Sellers’ agent: Steve Fridrich, Fridrich & Clark Realty

Buyer’s agent: Christy Reed, Fridrich & Clark Realty

HCA Founder Thomas Frist Jr. sold this home to Christopher Redlich Jr., founder and former chairman of Healing Healthcare for an absolutely impressive $32 million. Frist will buy a smaller home nearby, according to this story about the sale in Mansion Global.

The listing notes “one of the finest homes in the region,” a residence designed by New York architects Ferguson & Shamamian. The home, which offers almost 20,000 square feet, sits on an uncommonly large (even for Belle Meade) 50-acre lot. The property also comes with a nine-acre building site on a separate parcel of land on Chickering Road.

Ferguson & Shamamian book City & Country Residences notes the home “may have an impressive presence, and the body language appears to be formal. But the house that is scaled for entertaining and steeped in regional references offers a surprisingly comfortable, even relaxed, environmental reality inside.”

2. Bailey Road, Franklin 37064

Buyer: Schwing Family Opportunity Fund Vi LLC

Sale price: $10.5 million

Seller: Georgianne Levangie Trust

Seller’s and buyer’s agent: Jamie Parsons, Compass Tennessee LLC

The seller of this home is New York Times best-selling author and screenwriter Gigi Levangie. For a bit more than $10 million, the Schwing Family Opportunity Fund bought a four-bedroom, five- bathroom “luxury farm” on 40 acres. The farm is surrounded by Tennessee Land Trust properties with “views of rolling hills, two stocked ponds, acres of grazing pastures, and a vegetable garden,” along with luxury amenities such as a saltwater infinity edge pool, poolside cabana with stone fireplace and outdoor kitchen with fireplace. The

property also includes a 5,300-square-foot structure the listing calls an “entertainment barn,” which was designed by architect Eric Stengel.

3. Franklin Road, Brentwood 37027

Buyer: Reel Life Music City LLC

Sale price: $9,398,573

Seller: Tatanisha Leer

Seller’s agent: Lauren Pennington, The Designated Agency Inc.

Buyer’s agent: Erin Krueger, Compass Tennessee LLC

The main house of this estate-style property in Brentwood is 9,200 square feet, with an open floor plan — an “entertainer’s dream,” according to the listing. The floor plan includes a wet bar and wine room, a floating staircase, six bedrooms and six and a half bathrooms. The pool house sits beside a resort-style pool, putting green and sports court.

4. Lehigh Drive, Brentwood 37027

Buyer: Witherspoon 49 LLC

Sale price: $7,750,000

Seller: Kas Venture Investments LLC

Seller’s agent: Mary Kocina, Fridrich & Clark Realty

Buyer’s agent: Peyton Snodgrass, McEwen Group

This 10,000-square-foot newly built abode sits on almost five acres in Brentwood’s Witherspoon subdivision. From the hilltop view, the new owners will be able to see downtown “on a clear day!” Outside there’s an infinity pool and inside there are five bedrooms and six and a half bathrooms.

5. Old Natchez Trace, Franklin 37069

Buyer: Bat Shlomo LLC

Sale price: $7.7 million

Seller: Sanicola Family Rev Liv Trust

Seller’s agent: Kristee Dickson, PARKS

Buyer’s agent: Unknown

On historic Old Natchez Trace, this home also comes with about 15 acres comprising the Southern Trace Farm. The home was listed as the “quintessential southern” home for someone looking for a private equestrian estate. Each of the home’s five bedrooms are en suite, situated to capitalize on the home’s pastoral views. The residence offers a formal dining room, an informal breakfast room and, of course, “a light infused sunroom/lounge off of the great room.” As to the acreage, there is a 10-stall barn as well as a 6,000-square-foot indoor riding arena. Aside from the horses, there’s a pool, seasonal pond, garden and bocce ball court to enjoy the outdoors as well. The home was purchased by Bat Shlomo LLC, which owns this vineyard.

6. Cherry Blossom Trail, Nashville 37215

Buyers: Michael and Nadalie Cooper

Sale price: $5,704,518

Seller: Rbp LLC

Seller’s agent: Brent McPherson and David Dorris, PARKS

Buyers’ agent: William (Jake) Griffin, PARKS

This 2022 build was purchased by Nadalie Cooper and Michael Cooper. The floor plan is a spacious 7,300 square feet, which includes six bedrooms and six and a half bathrooms.

7. Lewisburg Pike, Franklin 37064

Buyers: Giuseppina and Joseph Kakaty

Sale price: $5 million

Seller: Old South Construction LLC

Seller’s agent: McClain Holloway Franks and Paxton Williams, Battle Ground Realty Buyers’ agent: Scott Knabe, Compass RE Investor Joseph Kakaty and his wife, Giuseppina, purchased this custom home in Franklin for $5 million. The home offers more than 10,000 square feet, with a barn that includes 5,400 square feet of space. Outside there’s a swimming pool and hot tub. The property has seven bedrooms and nine and a half bathrooms. You could literally poop in a different bathroom each day of the week.

8. Grand Oaks Drive, Brentwood 37027

Buyers: Joseph Scott and Alexa Anglin

Sale price: $4,495,906

Seller: Hidden Valley Homes LLC

Seller’s agent: McClain Holloway Franks and Paxton Williams, Battle Ground Realty

Buyers’ agent: Christine Quillin, PARKS

Influencer Alexa Anglin and husband, Scott, purchased this home in Brentwood for nearly $4.5 million. The home, which is part of a small development called Grand Oaks, includes five bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms within its 6,600 square feet.

9. Alton Road, Nashville 37205

Buyer: Jeffrey Curtis Mathis

Sale price: $4.05 million

Sellers: Gregory and Jennifer D’Alba

Seller’s agent: Scott Knabe and Adam Burke, Compass RE

Buyer’s agent: Jacey Cook, Compass RE

This home was sold by former President of CNN News Networks Greg D’Alba and wife, Jennifer. The listing says the D’Albas added a large gunite pool and spa with automatic smart cleaner, cover and smart lighting along with custom fencing and landscape lighting, stone entry and fireplaces, custom stone fireplaces with built-ins surrounding living room fireplace and, last but not least, surround sound in five rooms plus additional speakers indoors and out. The home, which is located in The Highlands of Belle Meade, has six bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms.

10. Governors Way, Brentwood 37027

Buyer: Michael and Aimee Jo Dunn

Sale price: $4 million

Seller: Keith Kechik

Seller’s agent: Angela Tarrance and Gary Ashton, The Ashton Real Estate Group of RE/MAX Advantage

Buyers’ agent: Josh Anderson, The Anderson Group Real Estate Services LLC

Michael and Aimee Jo Dunn bought this home overlooking the 18th tee box at Governors Club. The gated community home was previously owned by Keith Kechik and it features a two-story foyer and grand staircase as well as 12-foot ceilings. There’s a four-car garage, five bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms.

Alton Road PHOTO BY ERIC ENGLAND

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APRIL 6 • ONEC1TY 11AM - 4PM

FREE TO ATTEND!

It’s back! Shop from dozens of Music City-based food vendors selling items like hand blended teas, delicious pastas, hot sauces, jellies, jams and honeys. Try gourmet treats like milkshakes, stacked sandwiches and cheeses. No matter if you prefer savory or sweet, we'll have a vendor for every palette! Discover delicious foods and drinks, purchase thoughtful gifts and top-quality products from a lineup of artisans you won’t find anywhere else.

VENDOR APPLICATIONS OPEN

For more information and to apply as a vendor, visit

NASHVILLE FOOD FAIRE . COM

LIVE MUSIC

TOP QUALITY PRODUCTS