Tag Archives: Memphis Schools

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BLOCKED: Judge Temporarily Halts State Takeover of Memphis Schools

A federal judge says the state can’t (yet) take over Memphis schools and must wait while a lawsuit against the takeover proceeds.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Memphis school takeover board’s authority, after school officials said it could delay the start of the school year or even force building closures as the district prepares to welcome students back to class in less than five weeks.

Memphis-Shelby County school board members and local officials asked a federal judge Tuesday to temporarily halt the oversight board or, at minimum, block its power to disrupt contract payments and fire top district officials ahead of the 2026-27 school year, which begins Aug. 3.

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Will the State Close Some Memphis Schools?

As a new state board begins “managing” Memphis schools, some are wondering if that management plan will mean school closures.

Chalkbeat reports:

The state takeover of Memphis schools could lead to more school closures as seen in other seized local districts Tennessee lawmakers are using as a blueprint.

A state-appointed board of managers is set to take control of key decisions for Memphis-Shelby County Schools in the coming weeks. Its members include a former MSCS superintendent who introduced a plan to close almost 30 schools during his tenure that never came to fruition.

School closures have also been an early move for state-selected leadership in Houston and Fort Worth, the sites of two recent state takeovers that Tennessee proponents have often said they want to use as models for MSCS.

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Another State Takeover of Memphis Schools

Tennessee’s top policymakers don’t trust Memphis. Especially when it comes to running schools. They showed it with the Achievement School District. And, they are showing it now with a new oversight board – appointed by politicians in Nashville like Gov. Bill Lee and House Speaker Cameron Sexton.

Here’s the thing: The ideas of these old, white men failed when it was called the ASD and they will fail again.

And the ASD just kept failing. Subsequent education chiefs tried a variety of ASD heads and an array of ever-vaguening goal statements, and yet by 2024, they were still nowhere. Under four different state education commissioners, helmed by five different leaders,and aimed at shifting sets of goals and strategies, the Achievement School District never accomplished the kind of dramatic school turnarounds that its supporters aspired to.

State takeovers mostly fail. They use the wrong metric for failure, the wrong diagnosis, the wrong pool of “expertise,” the wrong motivation, and the wrong timetable, and Tennessee’s ASD, with its dogged over-a-decade unsuccessful flailing, provides one of the most thorough debunking of takeovers.

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State Moves Forward with Takeover of Memphis Schools

Chalkbeat reports:

Tennessee Republicans have passed an unprecedented intervention of the Memphis-Shelby County school system that gives political appointees sweeping authority over the locally elected school board and the state’s largest school district.

The appointed oversight board will have four years to address what Republicans argue is untenable academic underperformance and administrative instability in the district, which serves more than 100,000 students.

The new law gives the oversight board, which could be appointed at any time and must convene for the first time before July, broad latitude to set performance metrics for the district. It could also control everything from firing and hiring a superintendent to textbooks and classroom curriculum. The new body would have final say over the district’s $1.7 billion budget and major decisions like school closures and zoning.

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Will Bill Lee and Legislative Republicans Take Over Memphis Schools?

Here’s what Chalkbeat says could happen in the state’s ongoing quest to let Republicans NOT from Memphis subvert the will of the people of Memphis.

Memphis Republicans Mark White and Brent Taylor, who are sponsoring the legislation, have both said in recent months that they want to align with White’s original bill.

White’s plan would install a board of managers, handpicked by elected state Republicans, that would have significant authority over the Memphis-Shelby County school district. Appointment powers would be given to the governor, lieutenant governor and House speaker, all Republicans who are not from Memphis.

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$1.6 Billion in Repairs

That’s what’s needed in Memphis-Shelby County Schools, according to a story from Chalkbeat:

MSCS leaders are expected to present initial plans on Dec. 16 for what could be a decade-long process of school closures and renovations. This comes after an independent study found this spring that Memphis schools need over $1.6 billion in maintenance repairs over the next 10 years.

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Stepping Up to Fill the SNAP Gap

When the government shuts down, students step up.

Chalkbeat reports:

Every Wednesday, a group of fourth graders at Winchester Elementary put on black aprons and start packing up cardboard boxes with canned vegetables and mac and cheese.

The young volunteers spend their free periods prepping weekend meal boxes for around 30 Whitehaven families who line up outside the Memphis school building each Friday afternoon. It’s a routine that’s been in place since Winchester opened its food pantry in March.

Denise Wilson, a fourth grade math teacher who runs the pantry, said families typically show up once a month for help. She expects the number of families seeking food to increase in the coming weeks because of delayed and missing SNAP benefits, which are affecting one in 10 Tennesseans as the federal government shutdown drags on.

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Unfinished Business

Feagins attempts Memphis comeback by way of courts

Marie Feagins wants a judge to order the Memphis-Shelby County School Board to reinstall her as Director of Schools.

Chalkbeat reports:

Former Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins is now suing a board member for personal defamation in an ongoing lawsuit over her January firing after less than 10 months on the job.

Feagins testified on Tuesday in Shelby County Circuit Court, where Judge Robert Childers considered Feagins’ request for a preliminary injunction, which would overturn the board vote to terminate her contract and reinstate her as district leader as the lawsuit plays out.

“I came here to do a job, and we have unfinished business,” Feagins said on the stand. “I didn’t come to sue the school district.”

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Memphis Power Grab

While lawmakers did not approve a state takeover of Memphis schools this year, some haven’t stopped dreaming of how and when they might take over the state’s largest district.

Chalkbeat:

Rep. Mark White and Sen. Brent Taylor told WKNO/Channel 10’s “Behind the Headlines” Friday that their legislation to establish a state-appointed “board of managers” overseeing the district will be fast-tracked to pass this spring.

That’s because the lawmakers’ two versions of the legislation – which include some key differences – each passed one chamber by April, then stalled. Now, Taylor and White said they’re waiting for results from the $6 million independent audit of the district, which started this month, to best inform how they’ll combine the bills come January.

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State Takeover of Memphis Schools: Not Yet

But district faces continued pressure, scrutiny from meddling lawmakers

Most of Tennessee’s legislators are not from Memphis/Shelby County, but that hasn’t stopped a cadre of them from attempting to tell the elected leaders of Memphis how to run their schools.

As the General Assembly ended its business this year, legislation that would have allowed the state to takeover Memphis-Shelby County Schools stalled:

Memphis-Shelby County Schools narrowly avoided legislation that would have expanded state control over its elected school board and budget. But lawmakers intend to bring that bill back — and other efforts to audit the district and potentially change the timing of its school board elections have advanced.

Though versions of state intervention bills passed in the House and Senate, the chambers could not reconcile them before the Tennessee General Assembly adjourned on Tuesday. Each bill called for a state-appointed oversight board whose members would be paid by the school district, but the two versions differed on what powers it gave that board, and the thresholds that would trigger state intervention.

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