Tiffany Rhodes revels in making sure the students and families she serves at Robert Churchwell Museum Magnet Elementary School have the necessary wraparound supports and resources to help them navigate the learning process with success. Family engagement and attendance are key focus areas at Churchwell, where Rhodes is the Community Achieves site manager.
“My inspiration and passion for getting up every morning is to build meaningful, ongoing relationships with our Churchwell students and families and for them to know that I am a resource and support for them,” Rhodes said. “I believe that if you want to have a successful, fulfilling career, it is fundamental to enjoy the work that you do and know that you are changing lives.”
Rhodes works hard to secure basic needs such as school uniforms, food bags, coats, hygiene kits, backpacks, school supplies, etc. for the students and families who need them. She also works with the Churchwell Attendance & Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) team to brainstorm interventions and other considerations to help address attendance issues.
She said she wants “to make sure that students are coming to school every day, and if not, then connecting with families to see how we can address any barriers they may be facing, working with community partners to provide mentoring and enriching activity opportunities to help our students be successful and building those one-to-one relationships.” 
Rhodes has developed what is called “Churchwell Family Attendance Store,” which stocks a series of items families can receive when their students come to school ready to learn on time, every day. Families earn $3 “Churchwell Bucks” for each day their child attends school for the month prior and can shop once a month at the attendance store for food items, shoes, cleaning supplies, household items, home decor and toiletries.
The school also has partnered with Nashville Diaper Connection, which provides diapers from sizes newborn to six.
Pillars of Support
Rhodes is also quite intentional in meeting with Churchwell’s administration team to discuss potential additional resources that community partners can provide to support the school within the framework of Community Achieves by addressing its four pillars of support: family engagement, college and career readiness, health and wellness, and adult development and social services.
She said an example of a wraparound support for college and career readiness is the Churchwell house system, which aligns each grade with a Nashville college or university:
- Pre-K is known as the House of Lipscomb University
- Kindergarten: The House of Trevecca Nazarene University
- 1st grade: The House of Tennessee State University
- 2nd grade: The House of Fisk University
- 3rd grade: The House of Belmont University
- 4th grade: The House of Vanderbilt University
- 5th grade: The House of Meharry Medical College
“When talking with our students, we learned most of them have never experienced some of the colleges and universities in our community,” Rhodes added. “Our goal for our students is that through these partnerships our students will attend Churchwell from Pre-K to 5th grade, and when they graduate in 5th grade then they will have a wide array of experiences with these higher education institutions, and hopefully it will lead them to the college path.”
Rhodes, a proud MNPS 1993 graduate of Whites Creek High School, earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Tennessee State University and earned a technical certificate in nonprofit management from TSU as well. Her journey of serving in Metro Schools started in 2015 as a Pre-K family involvement specialist. She moved to Churchwell in 2019 to broaden her outreach.
Outside of her busy schedule in MNPS, there is nothing as fulfilling for Rhodes as being with her family.
“I relish being a mother of a current 8th grade young man, spending time with my family, and enjoying traveling and seeing new places,” she said.
Get Involved
Metro Schools welcomes partners and volunteers. Learn more about Community Achieves, volunteering, parent organizations, tutoring students and many other opportunities for individuals, businesses and organizations by reading our district Get Involved information.