More than 50 community leaders participated in the final Academy VIP Tour of the school year at Glencliff High School on March 14. Increasingly, Metro’s academies are garnering national—and international—recognition. Earlier this month, 60 school district leaders from around the country spent two days in our city learning about Nashville’s academy model, and a team from Nashville has been asked to make a presentation at an international conference in the UK this June. The purpose of the Academy VIP Tours is to make sure our own community leaders in Nashville are familiar with what the Academies of Nashville are, how they work, and the results to date.
The touring group visited Glencliff’s four academies: the Ford Academy of Business, the Academy of Environmental & Urban Planning, the Academy of Medical Science & Research, and the Academy of Hospitality & Marketing. Student ambassadors led four different touring groups around the school, explaining the various offerings. In an added twist to this tour, students from Hillwood High School’s Academy of Art, Design & Communication were on hand to videotape the tours, which you can watch below.
We’d like to thank the following elected officials for participating in the Glencliff tour:
Metro Council member Buddy Baker
Metro Council member Chris Harmon
Criminal Court Clerk Howard Gentry
School Board member Ed Kindall
School Board member Gracie Porter
We were also pleased to be joined by two candidates for the state legislature, Harold Love, Jr., and Jason Powell. Also touring were CEO Champions Peggy Cooning (Trevecca Nazarene University), Bill Lee (Lee Company), and Ron Samuels (Avenue Bank), as well as Chamber board member Kent Adams (Caterpillar Financial Services). Members of the PENCIL Foundation board of directors were in attendance, as was Cheryl Carrier of the Ford Motor Company Fund.
We’d like to thank the 30 members of the Metro Council and the nine members of our state legislative delegation who attended a VIP Tour this school year. In addition, special recognition goes to all nine members of the Metropolitan Board of Education, each of whom attended at least one of the tours at Antioch, Glencliff, Hillsboro, McGavock, Stratford, or Whites Creek. We’re excited about plans for Academy VIP Tours at Cane Ridge, Hillwood, Hunters Lane, Maplewood, Overton and Pearl-Cohn during the 2012-2013 school year. To view photos from the tour,
click here. 
Teacher Deborah Crosby explains what students are working on in the Ford Academy of Business.