We will begin our 2023 summer school on Monday, June 5. Priority enrollment letters are currently being sent home for select students. Transportation as well as breakfast and lunch are being provided again this year. Additional details can be found here or by contacting your child’s school.

We are applying for a Stronger Connections Grant through the Tennessee Department of Education. The purpose of this grant is to enhance initiatives that will promote safer, more inclusive, and positive school environments for all students, educators and school staff. We are asking our stakeholders to take a quick survey as we determine how to spend the money if we are awarded this grant. A link to the survey can be found here.

Bedding plants, hanging plants, ferns and more are blooming all over Cheatham County in FFA chapter greenhouses. Don't forget to stop by your local FFA chapter's greenhouse over the next few weeks to spruce up your landscaping and support agricultural education in your community. The Cheatham County Central High School greenhouse is open weekdays from 7:15-7:45 a.m. and 2:45-4 p.m. and Saturdays (through April 29) from 8 a.m. to noon. The Harpeth High School greenhouse is open weekdays (through April 28) from 3-4:30 p.m. The Sycamore High School greenhouse will operate from April 29-May 23. Please contact each high school for additional information (CCCHS – 615-792-5641; HHS – 615-952-2811; and SHS – 615-746-5013).

A Reduce the Risk parent workshop will be held on Monday, May 1 at Faith Community Church on Ed Harris Road in Ashland City. There will be food trucks at this event. Families that register by Friday, April 28 will be given food vouchers to use at the food trucks. This is being sponsored by TN Voices (up to the first 75 to register). Childcare will be available. There will be vendors on hand to offer information about community resources. Check out the flyer for additional information. The doors will open at 4:30 p.m. and the programming will begin at 5 p.m.

Our annual Civics Bee will be held on Thursday, May 4 at Cheatham Middle School. One team from each middle school and one team from each high school will participate. Longtime Sycamore Middle School U.S. history teacher Billie McBride is coordinating the event. Students who will participate in the bee are studying facts they have learned from the U.S. Citizenship Test, and government and U.S. history standards from the class courses. We hosted our first Civics Bee in 2022 and the winning teams were from Cheatham Middle School and Cheatham County Central High School.

The Cheatham County Area 29 Special Olympics will be held on Friday, May 5. The games will be held at the Harpeth High School-Harpeth Middle School football field. Opening ceremonies begin at 9:15 a.m. with the parade of athletes around the football field. The games are scheduled to end at 1 p.m. Volunteers are needed for the games. If you'd like to volunteer, please contact Jennifer Copeland at 615-426-4548 or email jennifer.copeland@ccstn.org.

Both Harpeth High School and Cheatham County Central High School are hosting car shows in May. The HHS show is Saturday, May 6 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, contact Nicole Wycoff at nicole.wycoff@ccstn.org. The CCCHS show is Saturday, May 13 from 8 a.m. to noon. For more information, contact Austin Monchilov at austin.monchilov@ccstn.org.

A human trafficking prevention training will be held on Tuesday, May 9 from 5:30-7 p.m. at Charlotte Road Baptist Church in Nashville. The training is sponsored by the Cheatham County Community Enhancement Coalition, Charlotte Road Baptist Church and Freedom 4/24. The training is available for both English and Spanish speakers. Dinner will be served. Everyone in the community is invited to attend.

We are hosting an End of School Family and Student Lunch on Thursday, May 11 at our elementary and middle schools. We started this luncheon last year and it was a huge success. The cost for an adult to eat is $5. If you plan to eat with your child, you are invited to pay in advance via RevTrak by clicking here. We hope you can join us this year!

We are hosting our annual STEAM competition on Thursday, May 11 at Ashland City Elementary STEM Academy. Each of our schools will have a team of students competing in a number of judged activities. CTE/STEAM Coordinator Chris Cooper is organizing the event.

We will host our annual student career fair on Friday, May 12 from 8:30 a.m. to noon at Cheatham County Central High School. Seniors from CCCHS, Harpeth High School and Sycamore High School that plan on entering the workforce or pursuing post-secondary education after graduation are being invited to attend. Dozens of Middle Tennessee businesses will be participating in the career fair. CCCHS academic specialist Ryan Philipp is organizing the event. School officials will be meeting with high school seniors next week to share details on the companies that will be attending the career fair as well as talking about proper attire, resume preparation and suggestions on how they should spend their time talking to these companies. For more information about this event, email ryan.philipp@ccstn.org.

We are partnering with the UT-TSU Cheatham County Extension Office to host three Movement Meet Ups this spring. The third and final one will be held on Saturday, May 13 from 9 a.m. to noon at Riverbluff Park in Ashland City. There will be fun and creative movement activities for our families. The Cheatham County Literacy Council will also host a Book Walk during this event. Vendors are invited to participate in the Movement Meet Ups and can register here. For additional information, contact Aneta Eichler at adodd2@utk.edu or Claudette Fizer at claudette.fizer@ccstn.org.

The kindergarten registration window is now open for the Class of 2036. Children must be 5 years old on or before Aug. 15, 2023, in order to be eligible to start kindergarten. The kindergarten registration packets (in both English and Spanish) are available on our website by clicking here. For additional information, please contact the zoned school that your child is scheduled to attend. The district encourages families to register their children early to ensure adequate time for scheduling and staffing.

We are still accepting applications for our Pre-K program for the 2023-2024 school year. Application packets are available at the Cheatham County Board of Education, 102 Elizabeth Street in Ashland City. The program is open to students who turn 4 on or before Aug. 15, 2023, and whose family is income eligible based on the U.S. Health and Human Services Poverty Guidelines. If you'd like to apply for our Pre-K program and need more information (including a step-by-step tutorial of the registration process), please click here.

We are currently accepting applications for open and out-of-county enrollment for students who wish to attend our schools in the 2023-2024 school year. The deadline for applications is May 15. Open enrollment is for families who live in Cheatham County and would like for their child to attend a school other than the one they are zoned for. Out-of-county enrollment is for families who live outside of Cheatham County and would like to request that their child attend one of our schools. Families must provide their own transportation for open and out-of-county enrollment. The open enrollment and out-of-county enrollment applications are available by clicking here. We have also posted the number of available seats per school and that information can be found on the same page on our website. For questions, please email Shannon Martin at shannon.martin@ccstn.org or call 615-746-1409.

The 2022-2023 school year is quickly coming to an end. The last full day of school for students is Wednesday, May 24. Report cards can be picked up on Friday, May 26.

The graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2023 at Riverside Academy, Harpeth High School, Sycamore High School and Cheatham County Central High School have been announced.

Please mark your calendars as we celebrate this milestone with our seniors.

• Riverside Academy, Wednesday, May 24, 10 a.m., Board Annex Room

• Harpeth High School, Thursday, May 25, 7 p.m., Harpeth High School football field

• Cheatham County Central High School, Friday, May 26, 10 a.m., Austin Peay State University, Dunn Center

• Sycamore High School, Friday, May 26, 1 p.m., Austin Peay State University, Dunn Center

Also, the CCCHS Senior Walk is set for Wednesday, May 17 and the HHS and SHS Senior Walks will take place Friday, May 19.

Our mobile book/STEAM bus will hit the road again this summer! As you might recall, we received a grant from the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation to launch the bus. In our first year, more than 300 children visited the bus and 900 free books were distributed. We are currently finalizing our summer schedule, and we have some exciting plans in the work. The bus will run June 6-8, June 13-15, June 20-22 and June 27-29 from 9 a.m. to noon (one day a week in each cluster; Tuesday in the north, Wednesday in the south and Thursday in the central). We will share the complete schedule with our families in the coming weeks.

The 2023 Camp Invention will be held June 12-16 at Sycamore High School and is open to students entering grades K-6. For more information, click here. Additional questions can be emailed to camp organizer Abby Hager at abby.hager@ccstn.org.

Will your child be new to the Cheatham County School District this year or are your transferring your child from one school to another within the district this year? If so, new student registration for the 2023-2024 school year is scheduled to begin July 31. Please follow each school’s social media pages as specific information will be shared on them or call the school for additional information. If your child is already enrolled in the district and staying at the same school or moving to a feeder school (such as elementary school to middle school or middle school to high school), you do not need to enroll them for the new school year.

The 2023-2024 school calendar is now available. The school year will begin on Monday, Aug. 7 for students in grades 1-9 with a 10:45 a.m. dismissal. The first full day for students in grades 1-12 is Tuesday, Aug. 8. The first full day for Pre-K and kindergarten students is Monday, Aug. 14. The complete calendar can be found here.

On behalf of Governor Lee’s multi-agency school safety initiative, the Tennessee Department of Education is hosting the state’s first-ever virtual school safety summit. Throughout the month of May, the summit will feature pre-recorded school safety training videos and content that can be accessed anytime. This event is open to anyone who works within a public or non-public Tennessee school, mental health organization, law enforcement agency, or organization that supports public safety. In partnership with Safe and Sound Schools, an established leader in school safety trainings, this summit will host a variety of locally and nationally recognized speakers who will share their lessons learned from some of the most trying times in keeping students safe. One of the keynote speakers is Sycamore Middle School counselor Molly Hudgens, whose actions averted a school shooting in September 2016. Hudgens became a Congressional Medal of Honor Citizens Honor recipient for a Single Act of Heroism from the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation in March 2017.

Cal Blacker, our transportation and maintenance supervisor, was invited to participate in the recent Clean Energy for Schools Symposium at George Washington University in Washington D.C. Blacker was chosen to attend in a large part for being instrumental in overseeing a $1.7M LED project for all schools with expected savings of $2 million over six years. The symposium was organized by Generation 180, an organization working to inspire and equip people to take action on energy solutions. The workshops included sessions describing methods for schools and communities to fund and use more renewable energy to lower maintenance and transportation costs. Speakers included representatives from the Departments of Energy and Transportation and highlighted by an address from Cindy Martin, Deputy Secretary of Education.