A Tennessee state representative is publicly pushing the idea that Metro Nashville Public Schools could be the state's next target for a takeover, following the model just applied to Memphis. Rep. Scott Cepicky, a Republican from Culleoka, says he met privately with MNPS Superintendent Dr. Adrienne Battle and her vice chairman to discuss student performance, and he wants House Speaker Cameron Sexton to order a forensic audit of the district as a first step.
Cepicky made the comments on SuperTalk 99.7 WTN, according to WKRN News 2, which reported his remarks. He said the private meeting with Battle focused mostly on the possibility of a state takeover of MNPS, and he singled out the McGavock, Antioch, and Pearl-Cohn school clusters as underperforming. Those three clusters are among the 12 geographic high school attendance areas that make up Metro Nashville Public Schools, according to the district's own cluster framework.
In response to the station's inquiries, MNPS said it had no details or information about the meeting between Cepicky and Battle. The district's response leaves open the question of what, specifically, was discussed or agreed to in that meeting, a gap Cepicky's own account does not resolve either.
Memphis Takeover Sets the Template
A new state-appointed board is to oversee Memphis-Shelby County Schools, as reported by Chalkbeat. Governor Bill Lee signed the legislation creating that nine-member oversight board in May.
Cepicky said Nashville is next after Memphis for a state takeover effort, explicitly tying the two districts together in his SuperTalk remarks. The Memphis intervention followed a completed independent forensic audit that Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower released in July, which identified $54.2 million in transactions showing evidence of potential fraud, waste, or abuse, plus another $65.1 million in district policy noncompliance, across fiscal years 2022 through 2024. That multi-volume audit was conducted by the accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen LLP under a mandate from the General Assembly.
A Forensic Audit as the First Step
Cepicky said he has asked Speaker Sexton to initiate a forensic audit of Nashville as the opening move toward evaluating a possible takeover, and he said the comptroller would be involved financially in the process.
This is not a new position for Cepicky. Back in March 2021, he introduced legislative amendments that would have authorized the state education commissioner to take control of underperforming local school districts and replace local superintendents and elected school boards, a proposal that stemmed from state-local friction over school operations during the pandemic, per Chalkbeat's reporting at the time. Cepicky currently chairs the House Education Instruction Subcommittee, a post Speaker Sexton reappointed him to in January 2025, and he has represented District 64 in Maury County since 2019.
Diplomas, Graduation Rates, and a Gang Violence Claim
Cepicky told SuperTalk listeners that school officials understand they are not performing at the necessary level right now, and he argued that Tennessee schools need to improve their rankings to help MNPS students graduate successfully. He said students are sometimes given diplomas despite lacking the knowledge they are supposed to demonstrate, and that inadequate preparation then locks graduates out of college, career tech programs, military service, and the ability to start their own businesses.
Cepicky also linked gang violence in Memphis to the educational problems he described, according to his own remarks on the radio program. He additionally referenced a large settlement MNPS paid related to a bathroom incident, though he did not provide further detail on that matter during his SuperTalk appearance.
A District Already Under Scrutiny
Cepicky's takeover talk lands amid a string of governance controversies that have already put MNPS under a spotlight. In July 2025, the Metro Nashville school board approved a $6.5 million legal settlement, the largest in district history, to resolve retaliation and wrongful termination lawsuits brought by five former administrators against Superintendent Battle, as reported by WZTV Fox 17 News.
Procurement practices have also drawn attention. Hoodline previously reported on dual-client lobbying concerns after MNPS paid lobbying firm The Ingram Group up to $20,000 per month while that firm simultaneously represented a technology vendor competing for a multimillion-dollar district network contract, a conflict that prompted bid protests and led MNPS to cancel the original contract award.
