Chalkbeat

Most Memphis schools will reopen Tuesday after weekend storm

2026-08-25T00:41:29+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Most Memphis-Shelby County students will return to classes Tuesday, but 18 campuses will remain closed as the district recovers from a weekend storm that caused widespread power outages.

MSCS officials closed schools Monday, with 40 buildings still without power at the end of the weekend, according to a statement on the district’s website. Conditions could change overnight, the statement said, and families will be updated in real time by the district or the school itself.

These are the schools that will remain closed Tuesday:

A. B. Hill Elementary School
A. Maceo Walker Middle School
Alcy Elementary School
Balmoral Elementary School
Colonial Middle School
Fox Meadows Elementary School
Germanshire Elementary School
Hollis F. Price
Ida B. Wells Academy
Kirby High School
Norris Achievement Academy
Oakhaven Elementary School
Oakhaven High School
Oakhaven Middle School
Sherwood Elementary School
Sherwood Middle School
Willow Oaks Elementary School
Wooddale High School

The district has already used one of its limited weather cancellation days for the school year, less than a month after classes began. In February, MSCS had to apply for an emergency waiver after closing school for 10 days in a row due to a winter storm.

It’s unclear how Tuesday’s cancellations will affect the yearly weather days for the 18 affected schools.

All after-school activities in the district remain canceled for Tuesday.

Local utilities company Memphis Light, Gas, and Water wrote in an emailed statement that Saturday’s storm brought winds above 70 mph to the region, cutting power to nearly 140,000 households. The company said full service might not be restored until Thursday.

MSCS leaders said restoring power is only the first step toward reopening schools.

“Our teams must also ensure HVAC and other critical building systems are operating properly, traffic routes are accessible, and schools are safe and ready for students and staff to return,” the district said in its statement.

A January winter storm shut down city and county streets for nearly two weeks, keeping Memphis students out of classrooms as the region slowly recovered. Without the emergency waiver granted by the state Education Department, MSCS would have been forced to extend the school year or shorten scheduled breaks to make up for lost time.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

This Memphis charter school cut chronic absenteeism to only 3 students. Here’s how.

2026-07-14T11:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

The year after COVID-19 hit, Memphis principal Kamie Cowan knew she needed to get students back in their seats.

More than half of the students at Compass Berclair, a local K-8 charter school, were chronically absent in 2022, meaning they missed at least 18 days of school, or more than 10% of the school year.

Last year, only three of the school’s 230 students met that mark. Cowan said that dramatic drop started in the 2022-23 school year, when she put together an attendance team that met every other week to review attendance data and problem solve.

“We just started paying attention, I guess, which sounds simple,” she told Chalkbeat. “But that consistent time of paying attention, that’s where this shift started to happen.”

Cowan said she believes any school can reduce chronic absenteeism with similar strategies. The key, she said, is relying on talented school staff and setting realistic goals.

“It can be very daunting,” she said. “So making that team is really important, and then picking goals that are really clear and bite-sized to start, so you get some quick wins.”

Memphis-Shelby County Schools leaders ramped up chronic absenteeism interventions this past year, aiming to reduce chronic absenteeism rates for the first time since 2017.

High chronic absenteeism is one of six criteria state Republicans included in the law creating an appointed board to seize control of key MSCS decisions, including charter authorizations and contract approvals.

The oversight board, which a federal judge temporarily blocked from operating last month, is meant to address district management and what Republicans say are years of academic underperformance. Students who are chronically absent are less likely to read on grade level by third grade and more likely to drop out of high school.

An MSCS spokesperson told Chalkbeat that official absenteeism numbers for the district are currently under state embargo. In February, district leaders said 27% of MSCS students were at high risk for chronic absenteeism. That’s down from 31.5% in June 2025 and just above the district’s year-end target of 26.5%.

They also said that close to 40% of MSCS high schoolers, or 12,000 total, were at risk of being chronically absent. That represented a 1 percentage point drop for Memphis-Shelby County high schoolers compared to last year. But it’s significantly higher than the state’s average high school chronic absenteeism rate of just over 23%.

This past year, MSCS expanded its spending on efforts to combat chronic absenteeism. The district invested $4.4 million to place 78 attendance liaisons in schools across the region. It also launched a door-knocking initiative that yielded mixed results.

Compass Berclair students monitor their own attendance data

Cowan, the Compass Berclair principal, credits most of her school’s success in reducing chronic absenteeism to the attendance team she formed, which includes herself, the school secretary, counselor, and dean of academics.

“All those roles are super significant,” Cowan said. “But if the principal is not on board and really supporting and navigating it, it can only go so far.”

The secretary makes daily attendance calls to families of any student that’s absent. Each quarter, the team plans a field trip or out-of-uniform days to celebrate students or classes that improved their numbers. The school counselor meets with classes weekly to go through attendance data with the students.

“The students at our school can tell you how many days they’ve been absent and how close they are to being chronic,” Cowan said. “It’s really important for them to be aware of that.”

Cowan and her team sort students into tiers of risk level for chronic absenteeism to better tailor interventions. They host family meetings once a student reaches five absences.

The meetings help school leaders identify specific barriers to attendance, Cowan said, most often including transportation.

“Our demographic does not have a lot of grandparents and aunties and uncles that live in Memphis,” she added. “And it’s really hard to get kids to school, especially when you don’t have many people to lean on.”

One strategy that’s worked well for her school is arranging parent carpools, Cowen said.

Compass leaders also focus on creating a school culture that makes students want to show up and show up on time, she said. Every school day starts with a morning meeting where teachers play games or answer random questions with students.

Cowan also uses free online resources from Attendance Works, a national nonprofit that works with schools and districts to boost attendance, to design the school’s tier system and brainstorm solutions. Compass Berclair also received coaching from Attendance Works through funding from the local nonprofit Hyde Family Foundation, which also is a Chalkbeat funder.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee governor signs Memphis schools takeover into law

2026-05-22T15:58:09+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Gov. Bill Lee has signed legislation that will give political appointees sweeping authority over Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

The new law is an unprecedented effort to seize local control of Tennessee’s largest public school district through a nine-person oversight board appointed by the state’s top three Republicans, including the governor.

Lee announced his appointments shortly after signing the legislation, tapping five Shelby County residents, many of whom already sit on Tennessee governing boards.

The governor’s appointees include at least one member with intimate knowledge of the district’s inner workings: Dorsey Hopson, who served as Memphis superintendent from 2013 to early 2019.

The takeover effort now goes into effect just weeks after Memphis voters cast their ballots in the 2026 school board primary, an election for four contested board seats that now have significantly less power. And expected legal challenges to the takeover will also collide with another Republican supermajority effort to seize Tennessee’s last Democratic congressional district through a controversial redistricting measure that now significantly dilutes Memphians’ voting power.

The takeover oversight board has been tasked with conducting a comprehensive review of the district’s academic challenges. Republican supporters of the takeover have argued that progress is unacceptably stagnant after years of academic underperformance in the district that serves more than 100,000 students.

Last year, more than 75% of Memphis students failed to achieve proficiency in reading and math based on state standardized tests. However, Memphis schools earned the highest possible score in academic growth, or student improvement on state tests, for the fourth year in a row.

Opponents of the takeover have pointed to systemic socioeconomic issues in Shelby County as an inextricable factor in MSCS academic performance. Democrats have also argued the district has been harmed by the whiplash of state-imposed policies over the years, such as the failed Achievement School District, a previous state takeover of Memphis’ lowest performing schools.

The new oversight board will have nearly unlimited power to dive into district records, from teacher evaluations to curriculum reviews. It also will control the district’s largest financial decisions, the operating budget, and superintendent’s contract. Its power even extends to the Shelby County Commission, which will be blocked from approving the MSCS annual budget until the oversight board gives its approval.

The effective takeover of the district comes amid increasing tensions between Tennessee Republicans, a majority-white party with supermajority power in the state, and local leaders in Memphis, a longtime Democratic stronghold with a majority-Black population. Last year, Republicans imposed a state and federal law enforcement surge because of immigration and crime concerns, and GOP lawmakers in May rushed to split the county’s congressional district to better favor Republican candidates.

A Memphis school board member in April called the oversight law “racist” as Tennessee Republicans, all of whom are white, will seize control from the locally elected school board, the majority of whom are Black. Memphis parents have expressed concern about funding and support for a predominantly Black school district.

The school board is considering its legal options to challenge the takeover and a companion law that effectively blocks them from using district funds to pay for legal action.

Not all Memphians are opposed to an oversight board after years of academic underperformance and leadership instability, which some say came to head after the local school board suddenly fired former Superintendent Marie Feagins in January 2025. There have been four MSCS superintendents in the last five years.

The school board last month finalized a permanent contract for then-interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond, potentially saddling the district with a nearly half-million dollar payout if he is fired without cause, often a first step in district takeovers.

But the oversight board law may provide the new board a loophole to avoid a payout. The oversight board can fire MSCS’ superintendent and appoint a new one with up to a four-year contract if they find any example of him contributing to “deficiencies in the management, accounting, or internal controls” of the district.

Per the new law, the oversight board must begin its work by July 1. The governor will appoint five board members, the majority of the board. Lt. Gov. Randy McNally and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, both Republicans, will get two picks each.

A spokesperson for McNally said he planned to make his appointments in “the very near future.”

Eight of the nine oversight board members must be Shelby County residents under the law. However, Sexton negotiated an arrangement that the House speaker can appoint one oversight board member who does not reside in Shelby County, as long as they live in the state.

Under the law, political leaders can remove and rename board members at any time, for any reason.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis board awards Richmond a permanent superintendent contract on the eve of state audit results

2026-04-01T01:33:25+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Memphis school board members voted unanimously to approve interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond’s permanent contract as district leader the night before the results from a state audit were expected to be released.

That reverses the board’s decision only two weeks ago to delay issuing the permanent contract to add language responding to the forensic audit, which is expected tomorrow morning. Republican lawmakers predict that those findings will push forward a more aggressive state takeover of Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

By issuing the permanent contract, the district could be on the hook for a nearly half-million dollar payout if the new state board decides to fire Richmond. That was the first step in the 2023 Houston school takeover that lawmakers say they’re using as a model for MSCS.

But in Tuesday’s special call meeting, board chair Natalie McKinney said it’s more important to offer stability, especially in response to what takeover advocates say they want to see from the district.

“We need stability, and we have that,” McKinney said. “We also understand that the superintendent has done everything that we’ve asked him to do. To continue to prolong this … doesn’t make any sense to me.”

Several MSCS principals also spoke in support of Richmond before the vote, praising his focus on student achievement and district stability over the past year as interim leader. Three board members — Tamarques Porter, Towanna Murphy, and Sable Otey — abstained from a vote to stop debate about the contract before joining colleagues in approving the measure.

Porter and Murphy questioned the urgency of approving a permanent contract only weeks after the board voted to delay that decision. The MSCS board unanimously voted to tap Richmond for the permanent job in February, but members disagreed then on whether to award the official contract without seeking public input.

“You are not respecting the board’s judgement,” Murphy said in Tuesday’s meeting. “We are 18 hours away from an audit to be released. And to make this decision right before that is preposterous to me.”

Richmond’s new contract lasts through Feb. 10, 2029 and pays $325,000 annually. It also states that if he is fired without cause before June 2027, the district will have to pay him a lump sum of 18 months’ worth of salary within 90 days.

Board member Amber Huett-Garcia pointed out that Richmond’s contract is the first to include accountability language based around student achievement. The document says the board can fire the superintendent with cause if two consecutive annual evaluations show “unsatisfactory” results in student achievement and business and finance.

“This is unlike any contract we’ve had in over a decade,” she said. “And (Richmond) accepted those terms. We have to meet the moment, and the public will be able to hold us accountable because we know we have this ability to do so for him.”

Board members also unanimously approved a plan for responding to impending state forensic audit results sponsored by Michelle McKissack. Richmond will have 30 days after the preliminary findings are released tomorrow to present a summary to the MSCS board and identify up to five priority issues. He will also be tasked with presenting a corrective action plan for each issue 30 days after that, including root causes and timelines for solutions.

The plan also requires the same reportables within 45 days of the final audit results. It’s unclear when those findings will come out.

And in further efforts to stave off state takeover pushes, members unanimously adopted a local accountability plan pitched earlier this month. The board is recommending an alternative committee made up of elected officials and community members to inform district decisions.

Otey, who sponsored the resolution, told Chalkbeat that she’s had several conversations with Sen. Brent Taylor and Rep. Mark White, the two Republican state lawmakers leading takeover legislation. They’ve been amenable to talking about the local plan, she said, but have never said they would abandon their own.

“If you look at the plan, it’s mirroring what they were trying to do at the state level,” Otey said. “Obviously, we’re a huge organization and we need some type of support … Let’s work together so it’s not too far off on what you’re saying, but it’s keeping us at the local level.”

Taylor and White have been pushing to establish their state-appointed board of managers in MSCS since last year. But the clock is ticking on passing that legislation with only a few weeks left in this year’s legislative session.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis’ interim superintendent receives mixed reviews from teachers on informal survey

2026-01-21T00:44:48+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

While Memphis teachers want Interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond to visit more classrooms, the longtime Memphis-Shelby County Schools administrator earned high marks from principals and district staff on a survey about his performance.

This is the first step in an informal evaluation of Richmond’s performance over the past 10 months, board members said in a presentation Tuesday. A formal assessment based on his contract is expected in the next 30 days.

Richmond’s interim role is set to expire at the end of July, but he wants the full-time job. Two MSCS board members expressed strong support Tuesday for appointing Richmond as the full-time superintendent without conducting a formal search, the last of which took over a year. But board members won’t vote on whether to start a search until next week.

“I could vote tonight, and we all could, because the work is being done,” said board member Keith Williams. “There’s no reason for us to go beyond the walls of this institution looking for someone.”

A timeline for making the new superintendent decision is unclear. But documents on the selection process presented Tuesday suggest that the board could appoint Richmond as the new leader at any time.

Over 2,300 MSCS staff completed the optional December survey about Richmond’s performance, including under one-sixth of the district’s teachers, or 940 in total. Less than half of surveyed educators rated Richmond as “favorable” in leadership and strategic vision, staff relations and capacity, and operations and finance.

Richmond earned the most “unfavorable” ratings from teachers, at 41% of respondents, on whether he was visible at schools for check-ins or other engagement activities. Richmond said that’s because he has responsibilities such as trips to Nashville and building connections with community members.

“Some of those things have prevented me from getting in schools the way I would like to get in schools,” he said Tuesday. “But if teachers want me to be more accessible, I have no problem with that.”

Richmond said he hopes to start sending out biweekly communication to MSCS teachers about evaluations and recruitment and retention. And he wants to have regional meetings where teachers can voice concerns to him directly.

The MSCS board appointed Richmond as temporary leader almost immediately after firing former superintendent Marie Feagins last January. But the decision to keep him on or start a search might not entirely be theirs to make. Tennessee Republicans are pushing forward a plan to establish a state-appointed board of managers to oversee MSCS, including superintendent hiring and firing decisions.

Exactly 50% of the teachers who responded rated Richmond as favorable in student achievement, the fourth category surveyed. By contrast, more than three-fourths of principals and central office staff gave Richmond the top rating across all four categories.

Every MSCS board member but Towanna Murphy responded to the survey because of a technology disruption, she said Tuesday. She expressed support for appointing Richmond as the full-time leader without a search.

“Doing another search is just number one gonna cost us some more money,” she said. “And I think that having another search will just make things even more difficult … We have him, and he’s doing an amazing job.”

Five board members rated Richmond favorably on leadership and strategic vision and board relations. Six approved of his performance in raising student achievement, and four did the same for operations and finance.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Over 30 Memphis schools could lose cleaning services in January after board rejects custodian contract

2025-12-03T21:16:56+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Memphis school leaders are scrambling to fill an expiring custodian contract that could mean around 35 schools would lose cleaning services come January.

The school board rejected a proposal to hire ABM Industries in a 5-2 vote Tuesday during the last meeting scheduled for this calendar year. Board members cited complaints against the company from its work with Memphis-Shelby County Schools around 10 years ago.

“I care about whether kids show up to clean schools,” board member Amber Huett-Garcia said. “And we have evidence that this is a risk.”

This isn’t the first time custodian contracts have caused trouble for MSCS leaders. The one up for grabs now comes as a one-year emergency deal with ServiceMaster Clean and Parcou, formed after the district suddenly fired former vendor Fresh Start in 2024 for delayed worker payments and contract violations, expires Dec. 31. Each contract costs the district between $7 and $10 million per year.

“We do not want to be back in the news for the same thing we were in the news last year for,” board member Towanna Murphy said Tuesday. “The last thing we need is another Fresh Start event to happen where we have to rush and put people in position to clean these schools.”

Michelle McKissack, who voted to approve ABM’s contract Tuesday alongside Chair Natalie McKinney, said the district is in a “rock and a hard place situation.”

“We’re concerned about issues that were documented a decade ago,” she said.

Other school districts have cited more recent issues with ABM custodial services, including Hamilton County Schools in Tennessee. The company did not respond to Chalkbeat’s request for comment.

MSCS Chief Financial Officer Tito Langston said ABM was chosen based on a rubric that “fairly and objectively” measures vendor performance. The company would only provide services through the end of 2026. Board members are expected to vote on new four-year custodial contracts in May or June.

“When schools start back [after winter break], we need some solution in place,” Langston said. “Our job is to hold any vendor that is in our schools accountable to services.”

Board members pressed district leaders Tuesday to come up with different options, which means a special meeting could be called this month. Langston said the most likely solution will be using existing MSCS staff to fill the gaps.

The district started outsourcing cleaning services in 2013 to save money after the merger of Memphis City and Shelby County schools. That raised concerns about worker pay and service quality at the time, which came to a head in 2022 when the board controversially decided to pay one vendor to manage staff at all schools. One year later, MSCS split services into four different regional contracts.

Three of those original four vendors — ServiceMaster Clean, Parcou, and HES Facilities — were approved by board members for another one-year contract starting Jan. 1, 2026. But Langston said those vendors can’t take over cleaning for the 35 schools in the Northwest region of MSCS, which is what happened this year after Fresh Start was fired.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis’ interim superintendent wants the permanent role. Here’s why.

2025-12-02T21:18:45+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Memphis schools interim leader Roderick Richmond says he wants the permanent superintendent role once his term expires in July to continue his work on “stabilizing the district.”

Richmond has worked in Memphis-Shelby County Schools for over 30 years. In an interview with Chalkbeat Tennessee, he said he knows the school board will make the final decision.

“I have a great relationship with the board, so I would hope that they will consider me long-term,” Richmond said. “But I try to live in the moment and try not to look too far into the future and deal with hypotheticals.”

The MSCS board appointed Richmond as temporary district leader in January, shortly after firing former Superintendent Marie Feagins. Feagins’ ouster sparked criticism from elected officials and some local parents, amplifying pushes for a state takeover of MSCS. All nine board members will also have to run for reelection in 2026, but a lawsuit from the board could be on the horizon.

It’s unclear whether the board will independently appoint a new superintendent or conduct a national search in which Richmond could apply for the job. The last search, which ended with Feagins’ appointment, took over a year due to board infighting and controversies.

In the past 11 months as MSCS leader, Richmond says he’s most proud of his work to rebuild trust in the district.

“I can see where the morale in employees and people is starting to get back to a point of normalcy,” he said. “It’s not like I would want it to be exactly, but I think my team and I have been able to steady the water.”

MSCS board members are conducting an informal review of Richmond’s performance this month, surveying district staff and teachers. They’re expected to review results in early January.

In the meantime, Richmond said he’s focused on finalizing his long-term facilities plan to address growing maintenance needs in school buildings. He’s expected to present a first draft to the school board by Dec. 16.

Richmond said the district has sold around 12 properties since he began his interim term, generating $27 million in revenue, and bought five new buildings to repurpose. He’s also proposed closing four schools by the end of the school year and transferring a fifth to a neighboring school district.

“When I think about what we’ve done in those 11 months, it’s more than we’ve seen in a decade in regards to facilities improvement,” Richmond said. “And those things are only going to get better.”

If he continues as superintendent past July, Richmond said he also hopes to reduce the district’s number of teacher vacancies to fewer than 50 by the start of the next school year. Currently, he said, that number is around 165, a significant reduction from over 300 vacancies last year.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

New proposal would reduce Tennessee world language graduation requirement

2025-11-19T23:32:20+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Tennessee State Board of Education Chairman Bob Eby wants the state to reduce its world language requirement for high school students.

Under a new proposal, Tennessee high school students would only be required to have one language credit to graduate instead of the current requirement of two.

Eby’s proposal also includes increasing state elective requirements from three to four credits.

Though Eby will present the proposal to the board on Thursday, it would not be up for a formal debate or vote until at least February.

The board chairman first informally suggested dropping the requirement altogether earlier this year, suggesting stringent language requirements might restrict students interested in alternate electives such as technology or coding courses.

Eby at the time said he didn’t want to remove world language electives from schools altogether, but his comments sparked significant backlash from Tennessee educators and students.

A petition to maintain the two-year language requirement garnered thousands of signatures, and at least one lawmaker weighed in on the benefits of language education.

Some educators also warned eliminating a world language requirement would lead to schools dropping language classes completely, given staffing and hiring constraints.

“The suggestion of removing this requirement could dismantle years of progress and set Tennessee students at a disadvantage to their peers nationwide,” Matthew Harrison, a Spanish teacher in Kingsport, told the board at a July hearing.

Tennessee students are currently required to earn 22 credits to graduate, including the two in world language, one in computer science, and three in electives. Last year, the state board amended the state’s four-credit math requirement, allowing students to complete required classes before the ninth grade as long as they are enrolled in a math class three out of the four years of high school.

Eby said the math credit debate inspired him to reconsider the language requirements and what flexibility might be helpful for students.

“What can we do to provide the students with the greatest opportunity? That includes world language opportunities, but also includes other other opportunities,” Eby said in July. “A lot of people seem to think that I want to yank world languages out of schools. I do not want to do that.”

Reducing the world language graduation requirement could put Tennessee students at odds with some college requirements.

The University of Memphis lists two credits of language as a “minimum” entrance requirement, but the university states it will consider students for admission without it. The University of Tennessee Knoxville encourages two language credits but does not require it.

But Eby noted in his proposal that at least 26 states do not have a formal language requirement, and many of the states that do provide some flexibility.

“This is obviously not impacting those students from entering colleges of their choice,” Eby said.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Community meeting set for next week in Frayser, where two schools could close

2025-10-17T14:28:43+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Memphis-Shelby County school leaders will host a community meeting to discuss proposed school closures next week in Frayser, where two schools are slated to be shut down this year.

The “listening session” will take place from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at the North Frayser Community Center. In a press release, MSCS leaders described the event as “a chance for families and community members to have their voices heard and get important information” about a range of issues: “the proposed school closures, Board Members roles & responsibilities, available community resources, and historical context of the state takeover.”

Last month, Interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond announced his proposal to close four schools and transfer control of a fifth to a neighboring district. The suggested closures of Ida B. Wells Academy, Chickasaw Middle, and Georgian Hills and Frayser-Corning Elementary schools come as MSCS faces a billion-dollar maintenance bill and chronic underenrollment across its buildings.

There are still many unanswered questions surrounding the proposed school closures, including what will happen to teachers and staff. The district and the state do not track the number of staff in each building, so it’s unclear how many will be displaced by the closures.

MSCS school board members are expected to vote on Richmond’s suggested school shutdowns in February. They would take effect for the 2026-27 school year.

Richmond said at September’s meeting that the district will present more information on rezoning plans for displaced students sometime this month. He also said MSCS leaders will host at least two listening sessions for each school on the proposed closure list before the end of the calendar year.

Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to the event as the first of several town hall events focused on the proposed school closures. District officials later clarified that this event is separate from that planned series.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis school board chooses new leadership in a tense vote divided by superintendent ouster

2025-10-01T03:49:19+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

The Memphis-Shelby County school board tapped Natalie McKinney as its new chair in a vote Tuesday that highlighted ongoing tensions since the ouster of former Superintendent Marie Feagins.

Board members did not mention Feagins, but spoke sharply about past decisions that lost public trust. McKinney won six votes to secure the 2025-26 board chair position, each from a board member who supported firing Feagins in January. Former chair Joyce Dorse Coleman rallied similar support for the vice chair nomination.

“We’ve been in a challenging time, and there are even more issues on the horizon,” McKinney said Tuesday. “We’re working to rebuild the district, focusing on student achievement and support.”

The MSCS board has faced intense scrutiny from state and local leaders and the public since the Feagins vote. Just last week, the Shelby County Commission voted to put all nine school board seats up for reelection in 2026, cutting five members’ terms in half. Four of the members whose terms will be shortened, including McKinney, voted to fire Feagins.

McKinney is now poised to lead the board through another turbulent year. Tennessee lawmakers are continuing their push to establish a state-appointed board of directors to take control of the district, partially because of the Feagins ouster. There’s a $6 million district audit underway, more school closure decisions on the line, and a potential new superintendent search before the interim’s contract ends this summer.

Amber Huett-Garcia, who did not support Feagins’ ouster, received the only other nominations for both board leadership positions, earning three votes for chair and four for vice chair. She said before voting began that she is the best candidate to “rebuild trust” with the community, and urged her colleagues to usher in “fresh leadership.”

Michelle McKissack backed Huett-Garcia both times. While abruptly leaving Tuesday’s meeting, she said to reporters that the decision “is just not right.”

“All that’s old is new again; we’ve just restored it,” she said.

But McKinney says things have changed since January, and she’s excited to focus on moving forward.

“I think actions speak louder than words,” she said. “As we do the work, it will demonstrate that we mean the work.”

McKinney leads the district’s new facilities committee, which is tasked with developing a plan to address a growing school building maintenance bill of over $1.6 billion in the next decade. Last Tuesday, MSCS leaders recommended closing four local schools by the end of this year and transferring control of a fifth to a neighboring district.

McKinney said the importance of community listening sessions and public hearings being shown through that work should be the model for board operations.

“I want to make sure that we commit to sort of codifying that, making that part of our DNA,” she said. “That is something that the board, no matter who’s sitting in these seats, should be doing on a consistent basis.”

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

County leaders vote to reset Memphis school board in 2026, despite legal concerns

2025-09-23T00:43:24+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Memphis-Shelby County residents will vote in an entirely new school board in 2026, meaning five members will have to run for reelection after serving only half of their terms.

The Shelby County Commission voted 7-5 Monday to immediately align school board elections with the general cycle, adopting language directly from a state law passed earlier this year. This comes after months of debate about whether to start the alignment in 2026 or 2030, and questions of whether cutting short board members’ terms is unconstitutional.

Commissioner Michael Whaley sponsored the final version of the resolution, which simply authorizes the state law and does not name a specific start date for election realignment. That returns the language to its original form, which defaults to the next election in 2026.

Whaley said he hopes centering the state law will prevent the commission from being sued. But Megan Smith, a representative from the district attorney’s office, said that protection isn’t guaranteed.

MSCS board members have said the election reset proposal is discriminatory and a form of retaliation. The board has faced heavy criticism and demands from the public for accountability since firing former Superintendent Marie Feagins in January.

Four of the five MSCS board members who will now face shortened terms — Natalie McKinney, Towanna Murphy, Sable Otey, and Stephanie Love — voted to fire Feagins. If reelected in 2026, they would be allowed to serve two full four-year terms again — a potential 10-year total tenure — under new term limits adopted by the commission in August.

Whaley said Monday that the resolution is about “long-term structural change,” not “airing a grievance” with specific people. But Erika Sugarmon, one of the commissioners who voted in opposition, said the measure disenfranchises voters who elected the current board members in 2024.

“If we start overturning elections, where would it end?” she said. “We don’t want to be heavy-handed. We get enough of that from Trump.”

Sugarmon also sponsored a new plan Monday to allow local residents to vote for future recalls of school board members. The commission gave unanimous approval to the proposal, which will come up for an official vote in the coming months.

But the Tennessee state legislature would need to pass a law authorizing that change to the county charter. Residents currently have the power to remove other elected officials from county offices, but not school board members.

Bennie Smith, a state election commissioner, said Monday that recall by referendum is the correct, democratic channel for removing elected officials from office. School board member Natalie McKinney also expressed support for the recall path over election cycle realignment.

The state attorney general has yet to weigh in on the constitutionality of cutting board members’ terms short. In the meantime, commissioner Britney Thornton, who co-sponsored the adopted plan, said community members need to start looking for candidates to run.

“Or else everything that you’ve fought for is for naught,” she told meeting attendees Monday. “We have a seven-month window here.”

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Shelby County leaders again delay vote on Memphis school board election changes

2025-09-09T04:11:05+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

The Shelby County Commission once again delayed voting on a controversial proposal to reset Memphis school board elections, frustrating a crowd of parents calling for immediate action.

The county commission has gone back and forth on whether to begin election realignment in 2026, which would cut short five current board members’ terms, or in 2030, which community members decry as being too late.

“They’re not governed by anybody but themselves,” said Charles Lampkin, director of policy for parent group Memphis Lift. “Bring some governance to this awful situation.”

During Monday’s contentious hearing, school board members called the plan to align their elections with the general cycle punitive and discriminatory. The Memphis-Shelby County board has faced heavy backlash since voting in January to suddenly fire former Superintendent Marie Feagins.

Tennessee lawmakers this year paved the way for the commission to reset MSCS elections to align with other county offices.

“This is just retaliation on the board,” said school board member Towanna Murphy. “We did our jobs. We’re going to continue to do our jobs.”

Education committee members originally proposed the 2026 timeline, arguing aligning the election cycles would boost voter turnout. But the full commission pushed off voting on that plan in July due to constitutionality concerns.

Commissioners are expected to vote on Sept. 22 on the updated proposal to put all school board seats up for reelection in 2030. In August, they voted to limit Memphis-Shelby County school board members to two consecutive terms starting in 2026.

A small group of parents and community members present at Monday’s meeting called the school board members liars and urged commissioners to “return power to the voters” with a 2026 realignment.

One critic of the school board was removed from Monday’s meeting for calling commissioners “greedy dogs,” and another had his microphone cut off for yelling and hitting the podium during public comment. Commission Chair Shante Avant gave multiple warnings for the audience to quiet down.

Commissioner Brittany Thornton suggested returning the proposal to its original 2026 timeline, citing the desire for “urgency” from community members.

“I have not seen many issues where the public has been so charged,” she said.

But the motion failed in a tied vote, with six commissioners voting in approval and six abstaining. Commissioner Erika Sugarmon, one of those who abstained, said the 2026 proposal is akin to a recall of the school board.

“What you’re doing is disenfranchising voters who elected these officials,” she said.

The county commission isn’t legally able to issue a recall on the MSCS school board. State legislators would have to give the local body that power, and some commissioners expressed support for that.

“If there were a recall process, we wouldn’t be here,” said commissioner Amber Mills.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

Shelby County Commission approves term limits for Memphis school board

2025-08-12T01:48:58+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

The Shelby County Commission has again delayed a vote on a contentious proposal to reset Memphis-Shelby County school board elections, kicking the issue into September after an hours-long commission meeting Monday night.

The commission did vote to impose term limits on the school board, which will be held to two consecutive four-year terms beginning with the 2026 election.

The commission pushed a proposal to align school board terms in 2030 back to a Sept. 3 committee meeting amid hours of emotional and, at times, heated debate. This is the second time the commission has delayed a vote on a plan to reset election dates.

In July, a commission committee advanced a proposal to cut short the four-year terms of five board members and force them to seek reelection in 2026, just two years after they were elected. The full commission later balked at taking a vote on the resolution amid constitutional questions and pushback from Memphis-Shelby County school board members.

The proposal was then amended to align school board terms in 2030, allowing board members Tamarques Porter, Stephanie Love, Natalie McKinney, Sable Otey, and Towanna Murphy to serve out their full terms through 2028. Their seats would then be up for election for a two-year term.

In 2030, all nine board seats would be aligned on the same election cycle along with other county offices.

A new Tennessee law, which was sponsored by Memphis lawmakers and received bipartisan support, paved the way for local governing bodies like the commission to reset school board elections to align them with broader county elections.

Supporters of the original proposal have argued that aligning the elections could increase voter turnout and save money, but the election reset also came on the heels of the contentious firing of former Superintendent Marie Feagins.

Four of the five board members who would have been affected by the original resolution voted to oust Feagins, and the proposed election reset is broadly viewed as a de facto recall of a board that has drawn widespread controversy.

McKinney spoke against the effort to cut terms short on Monday night, arguing that increased voter turnout and cost savings were “fallacies.” Otey said it was a “power grab.”

“This undermines democracy,” McKinney said of forcing a reset to the existing board.

Bennie Smith, a Memphis representative elected to the Tennessee Election Commission, urged commissioners to “be careful” when considering actions that would essentially “overturn” an election by cutting short terms.

“We do not overturn election results. We are the consent of the governed, not the consent of this governed body,” Smith said. “We are not going to let a 13-member body overturn terms of people who were duly elected by its citizens.”

Board members in recent weeks indicated they would consider filing a lawsuit if their terms were cut short, and the Shelby County Democratic Party said a section of the Tennessee Constitution states the legislature can’t pass legislation to remove a local official from office.

However, the commission attorney on Monday advised commissioners school board members likely wouldn’t qualify as a constitutional official under the law. And, during a heated and emotional public comment period Monday night, multiple people urged the commission to move forward with the original plan to reset terms in 2026.

Russell Walker, a Memphis resident, said he’s opposed to the state lawmakers stepping into Memphis education but argued the current board isn’t working in the best interest of local kids.

“The current school board seems more invested in themselves than in educating our students,” Russell Walker said. “They should be replaced by the voters at the earliest opportunity.”

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa atmbrown@chalkbeat.org.

Shelby County judge won’t immediately reinstate Marie Feagins as superintendent

2025-08-11T19:05:09+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Former Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins will not immediately get her job back after a judge last week denied a request to reinstate her to the district’s top position.

Feagins had requested a preliminary injunction to reinstall her to the position in her ongoing lawsuit against the Memphis-Shelby County School Board, which voted 6-3 in January to fire her after less than a year on the job.

Though Feagins will not return to her position right away due to Shelby County Circuit Judge Robert Childers’ Friday ruling, her lawsuit against the school board is ongoing. And her ouster continues to bog down the district, as it spends resources on an external law firm to defend its actions in court while facing the serious prospect of a state takeover in the coming months.

In his ruling, Childers wrote that reinstating Feagins to her position at this stage in the case would cause “further disruption” to the school system at the start of the new school year.

Feagins has alleged multiple board members violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act by secretly meeting last fall to orchestrate her ouster. The board members who voted to fire Feagins accused her of professional misconduct and poor leadership, though dozens of community members had urged the board to retain Feagins.

Feagins denied the accusations and filed her lawsuit in February. In addition to her reinstatement, Feagins is seeking nearly $500,000 in back pay and additional benefits.

“At stake here is not just Dr. Feagins,” the former superintendent’s attorney William Wooten said in July. “It’s the public’s right to open, lawful decision-making by elected officials. That right has been disregarded, trampled and violated.”

A judge last month allowed Feagins to amend her official complaint to include defamation claims against board member Towanna Murphy. Feagins alleged that Murphy spread “reckless and wild” rumors about her.

Murphy has declined to comment on the allegations.

Robert Spence, the lawyer representing the district, argued at a July hearing that board members are allowed to privately discuss the superintendent’s performance without running afoul of state law. Spence also criticized Feagins’ testimony as secondhand information, as Feagins frequently relayed conversations she did not participate in but heard about after the fact.

After objections, the judge rejected some of Feagins’ testimony, calling it “hearsay twice-removed.”

Additional hearings in the lawsuit have not yet been scheduled, according to the Shelby County Circuit Court docket.

Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.

School closures, a lawsuit and state intervention: Four Memphis stories to watch as classes begin

2025-08-04T12:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Memphis-Shelby County students return to the classroom today, but leadership and program changes have been brewing all summer.

There are impending school closures, a former superintendent versus school board lawsuit, and a return to district-wide testing. Plus, MSCS students will face a stricter cellphone (and smartwatch) policy backed by a new Tennessee state law.

Here are four important storylines to watch as the year begins.

School closures & backlogged facilities costs

After years of postponing facility repairs, Memphis-Shelby County Schools is staring down a $1 billion maintenance bill for buildings across the district. School board member Natalie McKinney told Chalkbeat that the district will have to close some schools because of those rising costs and under-enrollment.

The board voted in June to establish a committee of education and business leaders to help guide those decisions, including what to do with buildings after they’ve been vacated.

“Traditionally, when you close buildings, people just board it up, or you demolish it,” McKinney said. “But those are in neighborhoods, and people care deeply about their neighborhoods.”

Interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond originally said he wanted a report from the committee by Sept. 1, but the group will meet for the first time on Aug. 13. And as of last week, it still hadn’t filled seats designated for students and teachers.

In related news, MSCS school board members gave Elon Musk’s company xAI the green light to fund repairs for four schools in Southwest Memphis with the most dire maintenance needs. That will ease some of the financial burden, but it also pulls the district into ongoing local protests against the company’s two data centers.

More testing, less tutoring and a regional district structure

MSCS leaders say they’re zeroing in on academic achievement by bringing back district-wide testing and boosting principal support.

Students will be tested in core subjects such as math and reading in late September, early December, and March on a new online platform called Performance Matters. That’s on top of state-mandated testing that happens in the spring.

Schools chose their own internal testing systems for the first time last year, but that didn’t allow for cross-district comparison, officials said.

“We are gauging where our students are still struggling, so then we can react in real time and make adjustments,” said Deputy Superintendent Angela Whitelaw. The data will be shared with MSCS’ new regional superintendents and principal coaches, and teachers will have access to student-specific metrics.

The goal, district officials said, is to give more targeted tutoring and classroom lessons before state standardized tests hit. But over 1,500 MSCS students could lose access to an in-school tutoring program run by local nonprofit Literacy Mid-South because of funding issues.

Last year, the district improved its state scores for the fourth year in a row. But fewer than one-third of elementary students scored proficient in reading, meaning the majority don’t hit a key benchmark that prompts state-mandated intervention.

Alisha Kiner, MSCS’ chief of academics, said boosting principal support is key to improving student outcomes. School leaders are tasked with observing classrooms and providing feedback to teachers.

“The principal position can be isolating,” Kiner said. “Principal coaches and the regional [superintendents] are going to step in and be in the seat with them.”

Who’s in charge of MSCS?

Former Superintendent Marie Feagins is asking the court for her job back after MSCS board members voted her out in January.

In the first hearing of her lawsuit against the district, Feagins alleged that the school board held multiple secret meetings about her ouster, which she says violates the Tennessee Open Meetings Act. But the district’s attorney says Feagins has no solid evidence, only second- or third-hand accounts of private conversations.

Feagins is seeking $487,000 in back pay and a ruling that would overturn the school board’s decision to fire her and appoint Interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond.

Richmond’s temporary contract ends in July 2026, prompting talks of another search for the district’s permanent leader.

The Shelby County Commission also is considering resetting the MSCS school board election cycle to increase voter turnout. The move would cut short five board members’ current terms, which are set to expire in 2028, by two years.

State Republicans want to upend district control…again

In early July, Tennessee lawmakers Rep. Mark White and Sen. Brent Taylor said they’re bringing back bills to establish a state-appointed board to lead MSCS.

Their two separate versions each passed one chamber this spring, then stalled. But the lawmakers said results from a $6 million forensic audit of the Memphis-Shelby County district, which started last month, will help combine and fast-track the legislation, even if it isn’t complete by the end of session.

Meanwhile, Memphis education advocates say the lawmakers’ language is offensive and misleading. In a July interview, Taylor called MSCS board members “dumbasses.”

He and White also compared MSCS test scores to smaller, less diverse nearby school systems, which advocates say is an unfair tactic.

Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.

The move from principal to district leader was fraught. Here’s what I missed the most.

2025-06-26T12:00:00+00:00

I didn’t expect to grieve.

I knew taking a central office role meant trading the school building for a district badge. I knew the days would be filled with policy, meetings, and personnel issues. What I didn’t know was how much I would miss morning announcements, front office chatter, and the small but sacred chaos of classroom life.

When I accepted my central office role at Knox County Schools nearly three years ago, I heard words of congratulations and encouragement, and a lot of “You’ll be great at this.” What I didn’t hear was, “You’re going to miss the cafeteria noise” or “You’ll feel phantom pain for your walkie and reach for it like it’s still there.” No one warned me I’d find myself lingering too long during school visits, trying to feel like I still belong.

What I lost wasn’t just proximity; it was identity.

Meagan Booth

As a principal, I was part of everything. Students shouted greetings across the parking lot. Parents stopped me in the grocery store to ask about bus routes or share weekend news. Teachers popped into my office with questions or just to drop off a piece of cake from the lounge. I wasn’t above the work. I was in it. I was woven into the messy, beautiful rhythm of a school day.

Shifting to the central office changed not just the pace of my day, but the feel of the work. The space was quieter, the communication more deliberate. There are no morning announcements. No car rider line and morning high-fives from kids. No spontaneous TikTok dances during class change. I moved from the rhythm of a living, breathing school to a place where school leadership feels more technical, more filtered, and more removed.

The relationships changed, too. As a principal, you’re not just part of a team; you’re a part of a family. You laugh together, carry each other’s burdens, and share both the stress and the wins. Move into a district role, and you’re now “from downtown,” even if your heart still lives on campus. You walk into buildings with a badge that means something different, and the conversations shift just enough for you to notice.

None of this means the central office work doesn’t matter. It does. Or that I don’t love it. I do. Central office work gives me a systems-level view of how our schools function. I find purpose in improving not just individual outcomes, but the structures that guide them.

Still, the change in relational gravity caught me off guard. And once the initial disorientation passed, it left me with a deeper concern: How will I stay connected to how the work is actually experienced and carried out in schools if I’m no longer living in it each day?

‘What I lost wasn’t just proximity; it was identity.’
Meagan Booth

At first, I told myself it was just a learning curve, that it would pass, that I’d find new rhythms soon enough. And I did — but not before realizing that central office leadership requires a different kind of muscle. One I hadn’t needed before.

As a principal, I lived in fast feedback loops. I saw the effects of my decisions by lunchtime. I knew which teachers were having a hard week, which student needed extra eyes, which parent was about to call. Even hard conversations came with a certain clarity because I was close to the context and knew the culture I wanted to build.

At the district level, the impact is broader but harder to track. The wins take longer to see. The feedback is quieter.

I had to become more intentional about noticing what I could no longer see. That meant listening differently during school visits, paying closer attention to what leaders were navigating, and asking better questions. Not just about what was happening, but what it was costing them to make it happen.

One of the advantages of working at a systems level is being able to recognize patterns across multiple settings. They can reveal root causes that individual concerns might never expose. That clarity opens the door to more aligned, lasting support.

I began thinking less about whether expectations were clear and more about whether they were sustainable. My role was not to direct the work but to support the people carrying it out.

These changes didn’t come naturally. They came because I didn’t want to become a leader who made good decisions in theory but stayed out of touch in practice. I didn’t want to lead by spreadsheet, even though color-coded tabs bring me great joy. I wanted to lead by understanding.

Eventually, I began to see that even though I was no longer in the thick of the school day, I could still choose to stay connected — to show up, to ask real questions, to build trust not just through policy, but through presence.

The classroom educators and school leaders I supported didn’t need someone who had knowledge of what it was like to be a teacher or principal. They needed someone who remembered what it felt like to be one. Someone who hadn’t forgotten the rush of the morning bell or the weight of a tough parent meeting or the impossible feeling of juggling school culture, teacher evaluations, instructional priorities, and a leaky roof all before noon.

I think back often to my first year in central office. The silence. The absence of bells and kids and chaos. The invisible weight of missing something no one warned me I would lose. I remember walking through a school one afternoon and instinctively reaching for my walkie talkie. It wasn’t there. Of course it wasn’t there. But the reflex reminded me of something important: I still wanted to be tuned in.

Leadership doesn’t have to grow lonelier as it grows broader. But staying connected takes intention. It takes habits, not just memories.

I didn’t expect to grieve. But I’m grateful I did. Because grief has a way of reminding you what still deserves your presence.

Dr. Meagan Booth is a former high school principal and current human resources supervisor for Knox County Schools. Her work focuses on how school systems can better support educators through the lens of retention, culture, and generational dynamics.

Tennessee bills on Memphis school intervention outline powers of state-appointed boards

2025-04-18T21:26:41+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

New versions of legislation aiming to intervene in Memphis-Shelby County Schools would establish state-appointed boards to oversee the elected local school board and superintendent contracts, while the bills emerging from the Tennessee House and Senate differ somewhat on the amount and types of authority those boards would have.

The bills follow the firing of MSCS Superintendent Marie Feagins by a divided school board in late January — nine months into her tenure — a move that prompted calls from community members for greater accountability for district leaders. Critics call the legislation undemocratic and state overreach.

In both proposals, members of the state-appointed boards would have the authority to review large contracts for superintendent pay, but it would be up to the districts to pay the members of the state-appointed boards.

Republican Rep. Mark White of Memphis, who sponsored the House legislation, said MSCS needs intervention now.

“For a city like Memphis, it’s important that you have a strong K-12 system,” he said. “It’s time that we address an issue of a system that has a $1.8 billion budget.”

White’s legislation looks much different from a previous iteration, which would have stripped the majority of the elected school board’s powers.

Memphis schools have faced continual upheaval over the past 15 years, from a merger that created the Memphis-Shelby County district and the withdrawal of several municipalities from that district, to the takeover of many local schools by the state-run Achievement School District turnaround program and leadership turmoil that has left the district with its fourth superintendent in less than three years.

Multiple Democratic members pushed back on the bills, saying that the state has a bad track record in intervention, and that the proposals would only add to the district’s upheaval.

“The children have to absorb all of those changes every single year,” said Democratic Rep. Karen Camper of Memphis, adding: “No other county, no other district, has been through this, and it’s been traumatic.”

The House and Senate versions still need to be fully reconciled. Both are set for a full floor vote on Monday.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers passed a budget this week that will fund a forensic audit of MSCS.

Who would make up the board

Both House and Senate proposals envision nine-member boards made up of county residents.

In the House proposal, the members would be appointed by the governor and speakers of the state Senate and House. The board would operate for three years, with the possibility of a three year extension.

In the Senate proposal, the board would include the city and county mayors, or their designees. The board’s oversight would last four years, with a two-year extension option.

In both proposals, the state-appointed board members would be compensated the same amount as the elected school board members, and be paid by the district. In the Senate version, the board would also be allowed to hire up to three staff members and determine their salaries. These salaries would be paid for by the local legislative body — like the county or city — not the state, according to the proposal.

“Now we’re putting a whole new unelected board that taxpayers have to fund, that they did not choose,” Democratic Sen. London Lamar of Memphis said during discussions of the bill this week. “So we’re basically superseding the decisions of voters.”

Republican Sen. Brent Taylor of Memphis, sponsor of the Senate bill, said the board would act in an “advisory” capacity.

The board’s powers: Senate vs. House version

In the Senate version, the state commissioner of education could recommend removing elected board members and the district superintendent, and seek help with this from the state-appointed board. The Shelby County Commission could then appoint new school board members, who would have to be confirmed by the state.

In districts like MSCS that have had frequent leadership turnover, the bill would allow for the County Commission to appoint a superintendent, who would serve for at least four years.

The state-appointed board would submit “recommendations” to items on school board agendas. The board would also conduct an annual comprehensive needs assessment to create a “transformation plan” for the district.

The state-appointed board would review contracts worth $50,000 or more before the elected school board could sign, amend, or renew them.

“Public education in the state of Tennessee is a partnership between the state and the local government,” said Republican Sen. Jack Johnson of Franklin. “It is altogether entirely appropriate that we send an advisory board, that we get further engaged as a partner in how those kids are being educated.”

In the House bill, the board’s main power would be to approve or veto items in the local elected school board’s budget. As in the Senate version, it would review contracts of $50,000 or more. The board would also approve or deny expenditures of $50,000 or more. These contracts and expenditures would exclude contracts and salaries for teachers and principals, but would apply to payments for the superintendent.

Bills create more openings for charter schools

Both bills would help promote the spread of charter schools. For example, they would require the elected school board to send a list of vacant and underutilized property to the state-appointed board. The board would then determine which properties could be occupied by a public charter school.

The Senate version would allow the state commissioner to recommend charter conversion for schools in the district. It would also outline a process allowing charter operators to apply directly to the public charter school commission for authorization.

The House version would restrict the elected school board’s ability to deny charter renewals, charter conversions, or amended applications for new charter schools. The oversight board would need to review and approve any such denial.

“It seems like this is the actual goal: to take these properties and hand them over to your charter friends,” said Democratic Rep. Johnny Shaw of Bolivar.

Rep. White denied that, and said he supports any school that can educate MSCS children.

Thresholds for intervention

Both bills specifically target Memphis-Shelby County Schools, though any district meeting the following thresholds could face intervention.

The Senate version kicks in when:

50% or more of district students are economically disadvantaged
50% or more did not meet grade-level expectations in math and English
At least one school managed by the district has been identified as a priority school for the last five lists released

The House version applies when:

50% or more of district students did not meet grade-level expectations in math and English
At least 30% of district-managed schools receive a failing grade from the state
At least 25% of students are chronically absent
At least one school managed by the district has been identified as a priority school for the last five lists released
The county legislative body approves a resolution declaring no confidence in the district’s school board

Bill to strip power from Memphis-Shelby County Schools board moves ahead

2025-03-18T19:09:02+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

A Tennessee bill that would strip power from Memphis-Shelby County Schools board and create a state-appointed panel to oversee the district advanced in the legislature.

In a 6-2 vote along party lines, the bill from Republican Rep. Mark White of Memphis cleared the Tennessee House’s K-12 subcommittee after a hearing Tuesday, and moved ahead for consideration by the full education committee.

The hearing was lawmakers’ first public discussion of the legislation, which could overhaul how decisions about Tennessee’s largest school district are made. The bill would create a nine-member, state-appointed board to manage the district for at least four years. The elected school board would continue in an “advisory capacity,” but the state board would be able to veto the elected board’s choice of superintendent and direct a range of its actions, according to the draft legislation.

Critics of the legislation warned that the bill, if approved, could set a precedent for the state to encroach on local control in other districts across the state.

White insisted the legislation should not be framed as a state takeover.

It is not that, he said. “I am a representative of the city of Memphis. I am locally elected by the citizens of Memphis and Shelby County, and they have asked me to push forward on such legislation.”

The board members would all be Shelby County residents, and they would be experts in facilities, curriculum, contracts, budget, finance, K-12 education — “all the above things that you need to run the school system,” White said.

Under the draft legislation, the governor would appoint five members to the state-appointed board of managers, with the speakers of the state Senate and House each appointing two others. It also allows the state education commissioner to recommend that district public schools convert to charter schools.

Under the bill, modeled on a Texas law, the state board would have “full authority to right-size the district,” said White.

The legislation leans on Tennessee’s public accountability act, which enables the state education commissioner to intervene if at least 30% of a district’s schools have a D or an F letter grade and 25% of the students are chronically absent, White said.

In the Memphis Shelby County Schools district, just 17% of students are proficient in math, while 1 in 4 are proficient in reading, and the district has more than $1 billion in deferred maintenance needed for its facilities, White said.

MSCS recorded some improvement in the latest round of school letter grades released in December, with more schools earning A’s and B’s, and fewer schools earning F’s. However, 11% of eligible schools in MSCS earned failing grades, the largest proportion of F’s among districts with 50 or more schools.

White said he wants to see better outcomes given that $1 out of every $7 of the state’s $1.8 billion education budget goes to Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

“Our students deserve better than what we’re giving them,” White said. “The state deserves better, and so what I’m working on is a system of intervention.”

The proposal follows several years of leadership turmoil in the district. After Superintendent Joris Ray resigned under a cloud of scandal in August 2022, it took the school more than a year to find a permanent successor. But that successor, Marie Feagins, lasted less than 10 months on the job before the board fired her on the grounds that she misled the board about a range of topics.

The move divided the board and drew strong criticism from educators and members of the community. While some board members saw the firing as a necessary removal of an uncooperative leader, others saw an abrupt, potentially destabilizing decision driven by personality conflicts, and warned that it could invite state intervention.

White had urged the board to retain Feagins, saying the board’s conflict with the superintendent was distracting members from focusing on students’ academic challenges.

District advocates and officials, including school board members, sharply criticized White’s bill this week, and Democrats voiced their opposition at Tuesday’s hearing.

Rep. Sam McKenzie, a Knoxville Democrat, questioned whether the state was an appropriate body to address issues in the local school system, and said passage of the bill would override the rights of local voters to determine how their school district is managed through representatives on the board.

He pointed to the failures of the state’s Achievement School District — a state-run turnaround school district created in 2010 that took over many Memphis schools and turned them over to charter operators in arguing against the bill.

Ron Redwing, the founder of the Save Our Students coalition, told lawmakers he “vehemently opposed this bill.”

Redwing acknowledged the school district faced challenges, but asked lawmakers to let district leaders solve them at the local level. He also warned that the bill could give the state leeway to strip power from other local districts and their elected boards.

“Be careful of the doors you open,” he said. “Because it’s Memphis and Shelby County today, but it’s Crockett County, Fayette County, and every other county tomorrow.”

Max Lubbers contributed reporting.

Feagins lawsuit alleges that MSCS board violated the law when planning to fire her

2025-02-04T20:20:44+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Former Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins is seeking to void the school board’s January vote to oust her.

Feagins claims in a complaint provided by her attorney Monday that the school board violated the Tennessee Open Meetings Act while terminating her contract. She alleges that school board members privately discussed firing her for months ahead of her official ousting in January.

All nine school board members are listed as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed in Shelby County Circuit Court Monday. Feagins also alleges that interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond met with board members in November to discuss becoming her replacement.

The board’s public relations agency did not respond to Chalkbeat’s request for comment. The district’s spokesperson told Chalkbeat that the interim superintendent can not comment on an open case.

Board Member Michelle McKissack, a Feagins advocate, said she is not surprised by the lawsuit.

“The night that Dr. Feagins’ contract was terminated, she said she was disappointed that the board chose litigation over leadership,” McKissack said. “I’m still disappointed at the decision made that evening as well. But now that this is officially a legal matter, and as a member of the MSCS Board, the only comment I have is this is not a surprise.”

In a media availability Tuesday morning, McKissack also said her fellow board members “need to do some soul searching.”

“Now is going to be your chance to step up to perhaps prove [the lawsuit] wrong,” McKissack said.

The complaint is the latest development in a yearslong Memphis-Shelby County Schools leadership turnover saga.

The district’s board voted 6-3 in January to terminate Feagins’ contract after 10 months on the job, approving a resolution that claimed professional misconduct and inadequate leadership from Feagins. The board fired her with cause and avoided paying $487,500 in severance.

That January meeting followed a specially called December meeting focused on whether to fire Feagins. The board voted to delay a decision until January.

Feagins’ attorney William Wooten said the school board’s December meeting “did not provide the required adequate public notice.” The Open Meetings Act allows the public to attend meetings and requires the governing body to provide sufficient notice to the public of the meeting, but does not define how long that notice must be.

The complaint alleges that at several unofficial outings, including at restaurants and birthday parties, board members discussed firing Feagins.

Feagin claims that in October, board members circulated a draft resolution to suspend her. She also alleges that Interim Superintendent Richmond, a longtime district administrator who served as the district’s transformation officer, began forming a team for his new role after meeting with board members in November.

The complaint also said that three days before the initial December meeting to oust Feagins, some board members discussed firing Feagins while attending former Superintendent Joris Ray’s birthday party.

Feagins alleges her termination stems from an incident with Charles “Dow” McVean, a board member for the Peer Power Foundation, a tutoring and mentorship nonprofit that had a contract with MSCS.

Feagins claims McVean yelled at her for not renewing Peer Power’s contract with the district. Feagins then requested a restraining order against him.

After filing the protective order, Feagins alleges that Memphis City Councilman JB Smiley Jr. shouted at her over the phone.

McVean and Smiley did not respond to Chalkbeat’s request for comment.

Feagins, a former Detroit school administrator, was hired by a previous MSCS board to lead Tennessee’s largest school district after a problem-plagued 18-month search for a successor to Ray, who agreed to resign in 2022 amid an investigation into alleged misdeeds.

The resolution to terminate her, first introduced Dec. 17 by Board Chair Joyce Dorse Coleman, claimed that Feagins:

Failed to provide evidence of her statement that district employees were paid $1 million in overtime for time not worked.
Accepted a donation of more than $45,000 without board approval, then misrepresented what happened.
Misled the board and public about a federal grant and its missed deadline.

Feagins firmly denied any wrongdoing and described herself as a target of “false accusations and political maneuvering.”

Dorse Coleman, Vice Chair Stephanie Love, Natalie McKinney, Sable Otey, Towanna Murphy and Keith Williams voted to fire Feagins in January. McKissack, Tamarques Porter, and Amber Huett-Garcia voted no.

After the board voted to oust Feagins, the former superintendent told reporters that she would “see [the board] in court.”

Feagins is fired as Memphis schools superintendent after stormy 9-month tenure

2025-01-22T03:30:04+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Marie Feagins was fired Tuesday as superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools, setting the district back to where it has been repeatedly in recent years: searching for leadership.

A bitterly divided school board voted 6-3 to oust Feagins less than 10 months into her tenure, approving a resolution that cited allegations of professional misconduct and poor leadership.

Feagins, a former Detroit school administrator hired by a previous board to lead Tennessee’s largest school district after a prolonged and problem-plagued search, vehemently denied any wrongdoing. She described herself as a target of “false accusations and political maneuvering.”

Board chair Joyce Dorse Coleman introduced the resolution to fire Feagins and was joined in voting “yes” by members Stephanie Love, Natalie McKinney, Sable Otey, Towanna Murphy, and Keith Williams. Michelle McKissack, Tamarques Porter, and Amber Huett-Garcia voted no.

The board voted to name Roderick Richmond, a longtime district administrator now serving as the district’s transformation officer, as interim superintendent.

In a statement issued later Tuesday night through a public relations firm, Dorse Coleman said Feagins “has not demonstrated the transformational leadership that is critical to the success” of the Memphis district.

“At this pivotal moment, we need a transformational leader who will collaborate effectively with the Board and respect governance protocols, keeping students at the center of every decision,” she said.

The board will hold a news conference at noon Thursday at the district’s central office, the statement said.

According to multiple media reports, Feagins told reporters after Tuesday’s vote that her firing is “exactly the opposite” of what an educational institution stands for. She said many members of the board “chose chaos over children, and it looks like they’ve chosen litigation over leadership.”

She added: “I’ll see them in court.”

After a tense and at times chaotic special meeting, the board approved a resolution Dorse Coleman first introduced Dec. 17 to fire Feagins. The resolution claims that Feagins:

Failed to provide evidence of her statement that district employees were paid $1 million in overtime for time not worked.
Accepted a donation of more than $45,000 without board approval, then misrepresented what happened.
Misled the board and public about a federal grant and its missed deadline.

Feagins’ hiring was supposed to bring stability and rebuild trust after a turbulent 18-month superintendent search, and as the district navigated serious academic and financial challenges, including possible school closures. Instead, months of simmering tension between Feagins and the majority of board members led to a hasty divorce with potentially significant ramifications.

If the decision amounts to a firing for cause the board would avoid paying Feagins in severance — it was estimated at $487,500 as of last month — but potentially open itself up to other costs if Feagins follows through on pursuing legal action. Feagins began work last April on a four-year contract that was to pay her $325,000 annually.

Lawmakers concerned about the prospect of Feagins being fired also were poised to take action.

State Rep. Mark White, Republican chairman of a House education committee, has floated reintroducing legislation he drafted last year that would give the state the power to appoint up to six new members to the nine-member Memphis board. White on Tuesday wrote a letter to the school board urging members to retain Feagins. Another lawmaker, Democratic Rep. G.A. Hardaway, has already filed a bill that would create a process for recalling school board members.

Huett-Garcia and community members who spoke during Tuesday’s public comment period raised the specter of greater state intervention to warn board members against voting to fire Feagins.

A long line of speakers come to Feagins’ defense

More than two-dozen speakers — including teachers, alumni, and community organizers — lined up during public comment to support Feagins and criticize the attempt to oust her.

Among them was Justin Pearson, a Democratic state representative from Memphis who drew national attention in 2023 after Republicans expelled him from office over his participation in a disruption at the Capitol. Pearson, who was quickly reappointed and then reelected to office, called the process targeting Feagins unfair and urged the board to “slow down.”

Pearson used sharper language in an interview with Chalkbeat, calling the process “horrendous.”

“I got expelled in an unjust and unfair way,” he said. “I know what it looks like and that’s what’s happening now.”

The meeting grew heated when the board’s outside counsel, Robert Spence, said his review found the allegations against Feagins were true. McKissack interjected, accusing Spence of acting like he was in a courtroom giving “Perry Mason editorializing.” Dorse Coleman threatened to “clear the room” repeatedly as audience members booed and heckled.

When the room quieted, Spence said Feagins violated her contract and deviated from board policy, and that she exhibited a pattern of untruthful statements. The board then voted to release Spence’s 209-page report to the public.

Before voting to terminate Feagins’ contract, the board rejected a counterproposal from board member Huett-Garcia to keep Feagins and attempt to repair her relationship with the board. Under that resolution, Feagins would have had to provide monthly updates to the board, and board members would have been required to complete board governance training.

Even the superintendent’s most vocal board supporters said Feagins bore some responsibility for the deterioration of her relationship with the board since she started.

Still, McKissack pleaded with her colleagues to listen to community members and adopt the counterproposal to retain Feagins, which she described as fair and balanced.

“We can hit the reset button on all of this,” she said. “We absolutely can do this together.”

It was clear last month that at least five board members were inclined to sever ties with Feagins. But Dorse Coleman hit pause, casting the deciding vote on a proposal to delay the discussion until this month to allow for more deliberation and a response from Feagins.

During a board committee meeting last week, Feagins shared a point-by-point response to the allegations against her. She said some school board members presented misleading and false information, calling the effort to fire her “politically motivated” and vowing not to resign.

Board member McKinney leveled additional allegations at the committee meeting, accusing Feagins of “a pattern of failed leadership” and citing graduation issues, inadequate staffing, and cutting student support systems.

That prompted McKissack to say some of her peers were “hell-bent” on dismissing Feagins, and Huett-Garcia said McKinney was “crossing the line of governance.”

When it came time to finally vote on the resolution to fire Feagins at Tuesday’s special meeting, the discussion was more procedural than emotional. The board members in favor of ousting her did not make speeches explaining their vote. The roll call was taken, and the votes were tallied.

“The resolution was adopted,” Dorse Coleman said. “Thank you.”

Superintendent drama has been running for more than two years

A different board took a markedly different approach in parting ways with Joris Ray, who resigned in August 2022 in the midst of a board-ordered outside investigation over claims that he abused his power and violated district policies. That board approved an agreement that gave Ray a severance package equivalent to 18 months’ salary — about $480,000. The agreement also ended the investigation into Ray before any findings were made public.

District administrator Toni Williams then took over as interim superintendent. She went back and forth on applying for the job on a permanent basis, and ultimately withdrew from consideration. The district restarted its national search in June 2023, after the board agreed on a fresh set of job qualifications and criteria. That eventually led to Feagins’ hiring.

Feagins lasted a little over nine months in the role, not even as long as Williams served as interim superintendent.

Before coming to Memphis, Feagins was an official in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, which, by contrast, has experienced a long period of leadership stability under Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

Vitti, who was hired in 2017 as the district emerged from state control, received a second contract extension in March that will keep him in the post until 2028 and make him one of the longest-serving leaders in district history. He said at the time that working with the board on a succession plan would be one of his top objectives.

One of Feagins’ harshest critics in recent weeks has been board member McKinney, who unseated then-board Chair Althea Greene as District 2’s representative in the August 2024 school board election after campaigning as an advocate of leadership change. She signaled in her campaign that she would emphasize communication and community involvement, telling Chalkbeat: “Family and community engagement must be meaningful, genuine, inclusive, and responsive to truly support our students.”

Memphians are “tired of watching their students graduate but not be prepared for postsecondary opportunities,” McKinney said on election night. “At some point we have to decide who will be responsible for this. If things haven’t worked under that leadership, it’s time to try something new.”

McKinney was one of four newly elected board members last year. But Feagins’ board opposition included a mix of veteran and new board members: Dorse Coleman, Williams, and Love joined with McKinney and two other newcomers, Murphy and Otey. The other newly elected board member, Porter in District 4, sided with Feagins, along with McKissack and Huett-Garcia.

As the meeting room emptied Tuesday night, Overton High School Spanish teacher Noah Nordstrom said he felt shocked, heartbroken, and betrayed by the vote to fire Feagins.

Nordstrom, 26, said he fears ripple effects in classrooms, with teachers returning to a feeling of low motivation that was prevalent before the superintendent position was filled.

“For the last year under Dr. Feagins there’s been this new hope, this new sense of motivation, like our district is going somewhere,” Nordstrom said. “And now it feels like we’re going back.”

Correction, Jan. 23, 12:26 p.m.: A previous version of this story referred incorrectly to the number of days Feagins was in her post.

Attempt to oust Memphis superintendent sparks school funding threat and calls for a ‘reset’

2025-01-06T23:58:41+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Community backlash is mounting ahead of a pivotal decision this month on the fate of Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins.

The Shelby County Commission is set Wednesday to discuss whether to vote Jan. 13 for a resolution of “no confidence” in the school board after several members launched an effort last month to oust Feagins, who began in the role April 1 after a prolonged search.

A second resolution on the commission’s agenda would place a 90-day hold on the county’s recent $33 million allocation toward building a long-anticipated high school in the city’s Frayser community.

A parent advocacy group, meanwhile, has called on Feagins and the school board to work out their differences in private, while a prominent Memphis lawmaker says he is pursuing his own meeting with the board to “reset the conversation.”

The activity comes ahead of a Jan. 15 school board work session in which the board will revisit the case against Feagins, which Chair Joyce Dorse-Coleman laid out in a resolution to terminate Feagins’ contract.

Feagins has forcefully denied any wrongdoing, and was expected to submit written responses to the board on Monday. Any vote to oust Feagins would need to happen at a board business meeting. The next one is set for Jan. 21.

At its December meeting, the board voted 5-4 to push its decision on Feagins to this month. Dorse-Coleman cast the deciding vote, saying she wanted to “keep it fair” and allow more time to review the facts.

The resolution contends that Feagins has been dishonest and difficult to communicate with, and that she mishandled or misrepresented district finances on three occasions.

Conflict draws in state officials

The drama in Memphis-Shelby County Schools has gotten the attention of state officials, too.

Rep. Mark White, longtime chairman of a House education committee in the state legislature, is seeking to meet this week with the entire school board and several other state lawmakers from Memphis.

“We need to dial down the temperature,” said the Memphis Republican. “There’s a lot of people in our community who are very upset by this situation.”

White said poor working relationships between Feagins and certain board members are distracting all of them from more important academic challenges facing Tennessee’s largest school system, such as low reading scores, chronic absenteeism, a high dropout rate, and a critical need for stronger workforce development in the Mid-South.

He said he’s not ready to introduce legislation that he drafted last year to give Gov. Bill Lee’s administration the power to appoint up to six new members to the nine-member Memphis board. However, that avenue remains an option, White said.

“It took 18 months to find this superintendent, and now some board members want to let her go while she’s still trying to learn the ropes and drinking from a fire hose,” White said. “You don’t disrupt an entire community and call a meeting to dismiss your superintendent without a clear definition of the grievances.”

Six board members with Memphis-Shelby County Schools meet with Rep. Mark White and other state officials on Feb. 14, 2024, at the Tennessee Capitol. White decided later against filing a bill to authorize the governor to appoint new members to the Memphis board.

Feagins has hired Memphis lawyer Alan Crone to represent her in the dispute, while the board has retained Robert Spence, another local attorney.

Nearly a year ago, the board voted to hire Feagins away from a leadership position at the Detroit Public Schools Community District, making her the first outside leader to direct Tennessee’s largest school system since it was created through a merger a decade ago.

According to her contract, she must be paid a severance of $487,500 if the board terminates her contract without cause. However, Dorse-Coleman has said the claims by her and several other board members justify a termination, meaning that Feagins would not receive a severance package.

Funding for new Frayser high school at risk

The “no confidence” resolution before the county body that oversees local funding for public schools is co-sponsored by Commissioners Amber Mills and Erika Sugarman. Mills is the sole sponsor so far of the second resolution, to withhold millions of dollars approved on Dec. 16 toward the $112 million cost of building a new high school.

“Firing a superintendent, no matter who they are, at the beginning of a critical project leaves the County Commissioners with no confidence … regarding the new construction of the Frayser High School and other actions,” the first resolution reads.

Mills said the resolutions are her attempt to make the school board think deeply before moving ahead with an ouster attempt that she said has “blindsided our whole community.” Freezing funding for a new Frayser school, she added, would be “just a pause” as the commission seeks “clear direction and accountability from school district leaders.”

“A lot of people love Dr. Feagins and are happy that she’s making changes,” Mills said.

School board member Stephanie Love, who voted against postponing the termination vote, said Monday she’s disappointed that the county commission has gotten involved. She said Mills, whose district overlaps Love’s, has not contacted her to discuss the matter.

“It’s unfortunate that another elected body would consider holding off on building a new school in my district,” she told Chalkbeat. “Kids are the most important thing to me.”

Love added: “I will vote my conscience (on Feagins’ future). We are not going to make everybody happy. The public is unaware of the things we have to deal with behind closed doors.”

Dorse-Coleman, the board chair, did not respond Monday to Chalkbeat’s questions about community backlash. But in a Dec. 26 statement, she said she and other board members have tried sharing their concerns with Feagins privately without success.

“She has a pattern and practice of not providing critical information and instead misinforming the Board Members,” Dorse-Coleman said. “I don’t think this is something we can overcome.”

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis school board delays vote on firing Superintendent Marie Feagins

2024-12-18T03:30:19+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

An effort to oust Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins was put on hold Tuesday night when a divided school board voted to push the debate to next month.

In a 5-4 vote, the board referred a resolution to oust Feagins over allegations of “professional misconduct” to a committee meeting in January.

Feagins forcefully denied the allegations near the end of a heated board meeting that was repeatedly disrupted, describing what she had heard as “meritless and baseless.”

The resolution to terminate Feagins’ contract — brought by board Chair Joyce Dorse-Coleman — claims she violated the terms and must be removed immediately. The resolution alleges that Feagins:

Misled the board and did not present evidence of her statement, made in a work session, that district employees were paid $1 million in overtime for time not worked.
Accepted a more than $45,000 donation without board approval, then misrepresented what happened in violation of board policy.
Was dishonest with the board and public about a federal grant and a missed deadline.

Board members dissatisfied with Feagins’ performance have aired those concerns previously, a clear signal that the relationship between the superintendent and board had eroded. But the effort to oust her Tuesday fell short after a meeting in which Feagins supporters voiced their anger at the prospect of her being terminated less than nine months after she took the job.

When given the microphone, Feagins said she had yet to see the resolution and heard about the effort to end her contract from the media after the meeting was announced Monday.

“I’ve said time and time again, if I’m ever the barrier I will leave,” Feagins said. “What I’ve heard is meritless and baseless. I have been transparent about it and can refute everything that’s been stated.”

She added: “My desire to be transparent has been weaponized against me.” She also referenced working with an attorney depending on how things proceeded.

Dorse-Coleman said in introducing the resolution: “The board believes that Dr. Feagins has engaged in conduct detrimental to the district and the families it serves.”

Board members Michelle McKissack, Amber Huett-Garcia, and Tamarques Porter spoke out against the resolution and fought efforts to push through a vote on it Tuesday night.

“Let’s not get distracted. This is a distraction,” McKissack said.

“This is foolish,” Huett-Garcia said. “We’re not perfect here, but if we do this tonight, we are saying to the public we are not willing to do the hard work.”

Other board members, however, were resolute in wanting to end Feagins’ tenure. Board member Sable Otey said there have been complaints about how MSCS is run since August.

Board members McKissack, Huett-Garcia, Porter, Dorse-Coleman, and Keith Williams voted to move the discussion to committee in January.

Dorse-Coleman was the deciding vote and said to reporters after the meeting she wanted to “keep it fair” by giving the district time to look over the facts.

“There’s a disconnect and it’s a very strong disconnect that our superintendent has created,” she said.

When asked if any of these concerns were brought to Feagins during an evaluation, Dorse-Coleman said the evaluation was not completed because “when people were trying to talk to her, they didn’t get a chance to.”

More than a hundred Memphians attended Tuesday’s meeting, many of them cheering Feagins as she walked into the auditorium and booing board members.

Dorse-Coleman said at the meeting that 57 people were signed up for the public comment portion; the board reduced the time limit from three minutes for each speaker to one minute. Nearly all public comments were in support of the superintendent. Some speakers asked the board to postpone the vote.

The drama around Feagins comes as the district faces serious academic and financial challenges — and just as it was seeking to restore community trust after previous leadership turnover and a protracted 18-month process to find a replacement.

The board hired Feagins in February and agreed to a four-year contract that paid her $325,000 a year, starting April 1. If the board fired her without cause, she’d be due a severance payment of about $500,000.

Feagins previously held a leadership position at the Detroit Public Schools Community District. She was chosen from a field of three finalists to be the first outside leader of Memphis-Shelby County Schools since the district was created through a merger a decade ago.

During the interview process, Feagins explained how she used data to help get more Detroit students on track to graduate, spoke of empowering teachers, and described efforts to increase parent engagement by translating education jargon into understandable terms.

The board and Feagins clashed early, however, over her elimination of about 1,100 positions over the summer, her allegations of overtime abuse by district employees, her response to school air conditioning problems, and her plans to close or consolidate schools under a broader facilities overhaul.

While Feagins gave board members detailed, data-heavy reports during their meetings, several suggested she was not transparent or collaborative enough about the big decisions and shifts she made.

At the same time, many community members were glad to see Feagins taking steps to shake up a district they viewed as top-heavy and in need of significant reforms. Speakers on Tuesday night praised Feagins as a visionary and connector, while threatening to recall board members.

Earlier Tuesday, McKissack released a statement asking her colleagues to delay the vote, citing community support for Feagins.

“I believe we should give Dr. Feagins the opportunity to address any concerns directly and collaboratively,” McKissack said in the statement. “This moment calls for patience and dialogue in the best interest of our students and families.”

Dorse-Coleman said after the meeting that community support for Feagins did not influence her tie-breaking vote.

“What I brought tonight, I still feel that way,” Dorse-Coleman said, referring to the resolution. “She has not properly communicated a lot of things with us.”

The district has been beset by leadership turmoil going back to at least August 2022, when then-Superintendent Joris Ray resigned amid an investigation into allegations that he abused his power and violated district policies. The board agreed to pay him a severance of nearly $500,000 and ended the investigation.

District administrator Toni Williams took over as interim superintendent, pledged she wouldn’t seek the job on a permanent basis, changed her mind and applied for the role, then backed out of the process. The district restarted its national search in June 2023, after the board agreed on a fresh set of job qualifications and criteria.

The school board has a different look than it did when Feagins was hired: November’s election resulted in four of its nine members being replaced.

The latest turmoil could reignite efforts by state leaders and lawmakers to seize some control of the Memphis district. Earlier this year, a Memphis lawmaker floated a proposal to expand the school board with additional members appointed by state officials.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools board will discuss terminating Feagins as superintendent

2024-12-16T23:29:45+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with state education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board has called a special meeting for Tuesday evening to discuss terminating the contract of Superintendent Marie Feagins, who officially started in the position just eight months ago after a protracted search.

The board in February voted to hire Feagins away from a leadership position at the Detroit Public Schools Community District, making her the first outside leader to direct Tennessee’s largest school district since it was created through a merger a decade ago.

However, tensions emerged quickly between the board and Feagins over staffing issues and plans to close and consolidate schools as part of a sweeping facilities plan.

The special meeting — scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday — caught at least one board member off guard.

“I’m just as stunned as the public,” said Michelle McKissack, who represents District 1 and has been a strong supporter of Feagins. “I learned about this at about the same time as everyone else. There has been no discussion, at least with my presence there, to warrant this meeting.”

Other school board members could not be reached or declined to comment Monday night.

Another leadership shakeup could be a jarring setback for a district that took more than a year to choose and install Feagins and faces a series of significant academic and financial challenges.

It also could put the board at odds with community leaders, many of whom were glad to see Feagins taking steps to shake up a district they viewed as top-heavy and in need of significant reforms.

After Feagins started, tensions with the board developed quickly over her decision to eliminate around 1,100 positions over the summer, her allegations of overtime abuse by some district employees at a cost of $1 million, and her administration’s slowness to address air conditioning and other school building needs before the start of this academic year.

There were also missteps over school safety in August, just after the school year began, as Feagins narrowly avoided a walkout by school resource officers and accepted the resignation of the district’s new security chief just days after he started.

The relationships didn’t seem to improve after school board elections that replaced four of the board’s nine members.

Tensions grew over the facilities plan Feagins’ administration was developing to close or consolidate schools — a blueprint that likely would affect nearly every board member’s district.

There was also anger after the Memphis City Council rejected the district’s planned site to build a new high school in Cordova to replace Germantown High School under a 2022 agreement with Germantown and state officials. Several board members said Feagins should have leaned more on board members to lobby council members for the new site.

Feagins came to Memphis well aware of the risks of a strained relationship with board members. Her 2020 doctoral dissertation, Chalkbeat reported in May, noted that a lack of trust can prompt superintendent departures.

At a tense school board meeting on Oct. 21, after a brief discussion with members about building challenges, Feagins became emotional when board member Amber Garcia-Huett asked her what she was most proud of so far in her brief tenure.

Her voice breaking, Feagins said: “People — leaders who keep showing up every day, committed to something they can’t see.”

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

When will we know what Memphis schools are due to close? Superintendent says timeline underway.

2024-12-06T03:10:29+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with statewide education policy and Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins said Thursday she does not have a date set to share what schools are under consideration for closure or consolidation.

The new superintendent has been tight-lipped about how she will address this big issue for the district, which owns many aging buildings and has limited funds to fix them. But a timeline is coming, she said Thursday at a press conference.

“So there are just some obvious things that have to be done to certain spaces,” Feagins said during the press conference. “But then there’s some flexibility in other areas that we don’t have to have, you know, a deep commitment to.”

Chalkbeat reported earlier this year that a draft plan showed 21 buildings that would close and 50 that would receive investments. But no final decisions had been made by MSCS at that time.

The district created complete assessments of all MSCS’ school buildings that include details on conditions and costs for repairs, The Daily Memphian reported in October, but Feagins has not released the reports. Feagins did present a real estate plan to the district board Tuesday that showcased vacant facilities and land, with decisions pending until next summer on whether the buildings will be sold or demolished.

With the new assessments of all buildings, Feagins said she aims to create a website listing each building under consideration for closure, publicizing the status of the facility, the projected recommendations, and the decision for the campus.

The superintendent said transparency is important and that “nothing will be done without the community.”

With hopes of leaving the work for the current superintendent, interim Superintendent Toni Williams assembled committees in 2023 to help create a building strategy to include school closures and consolidations.

The district enlisted several community partners for these committees to gain input on plans and ensure the community feels involved in the decisions.

An initial draft proposal from the fall of 2023 included plans to repurpose 20 academic buildings and consolidate administrative offices, Chalkbeat reported, in an effort to save MSCS more than $200 million.

The draft plan Chalkbeat reported on in January indicated the district intended to reassign students from closed or consolidated schools to facilities MSCS would invest in.

This building strategy aims to address several problem areas in the district, including academic struggles, persistent funding shortages, enrollment shifts and high maintenance costs for aging buildings.

Here’s what winners of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board election told us about their vision

2024-08-02T16:19:37+00:00

Memphis-Shelby County Schools has a newly elected school board following the Aug. 1 election, just in time for the upcoming school year.

In Tennessee’s largest school district, five of the nine seats on the school board — in Districts 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 — were up for election. It was the first election since board members selected former Detroit schools administrator Marie Feagins as superintendent, ending a drawn-out process that shook public confidence in the board.

Two incumbents lost their seats, including board Chair Althea Greene, who played a prominent role in the superintendent search. Natalie McKinney will replace Greene in District 2, while Sable Otey will replace board member Mauricio Calvo in District 5.

Tamarques Porter won the open seat in District 4, while Towanna Murphy is set to take the open seat in District 7. The incumbents did not run for re-election in those districts.

Stephanie Love, the longtime District 3 representative, is the only incumbent returning to the board.

Newly elected board members will oversee the district as it navigates a number of challenges, including the end of federal pandemic relief funds, budget cuts that will affect staff and programs, aging school buildings and possible closures, and the state’s new letter-grade school accountability system.

In our voter guide, Chalkbeat asked the 2024 board candidates about their vision for the district. We’ve compiled the answers below from Thursday’s election winners.

Chalkbeat lightly edited and condensed the submitted bios for clarity, but not their responses, other than adjusting the formatting to improve readability.

Memphis-Shelby County school board candidates on closing school buildings and community concerns

2024-07-24T19:42:05+00:00

Aging school buildings and millions of dollars in unmet repair and maintenance needs have made the conversation around possible school closures and consolidations a high priority for leaders of Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Candidates in the Aug. 1 Memphis school board election have talked about the importance of bringing community input into decisions about these issues, especially given the district’s history of shuttering schools and the impact the closings can have on students and neighborhoods.

Under former interim Superintendent Toni Williams, the Memphis district began drafting an ambitious facilities plan to give 50 MSCS schools investments for their physical buildings or their academic programming, and to close 21 schools.

New Superintendent Marie Feagins — and the elected school board that oversees her — will now be tasked with making decisions on any school closure or consolidation plans moving forward. The board recently approved Feagins’ budget for 2024-25, which included $96.7 million to revitalize school buildings.

We asked the 20 candidates running for board seats in districts 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7: Memphis is contemplating a sweeping new facilities plan that would result in school closures and consolidations. As a board member, how would you engage the community through this process? Should decisions to close, consolidate, or rezone schools be subject to school board votes?

Their responses are below. Chalkbeat lightly edited and condensed the candidates’ bios for clarity, but not their responses, other than adjusting the formatting to improve readability. (Alvin Crook for District 4 and Chavez Donelson for District 7 did not respond to our voter guide questions; District 7 candidate Frank Johnson withdrew last week). Find candidate responses on more topics — like chronic absenteeism and Memphis’ new superintendent— in our in-depth voter guide for the Memphis-Shelby County school board race.

District 2 Memphis-Shelby County Schools board candidates

Ernest Gillespie III

this is a concern that I would highly be looking into before the closing of the schools because my concerns will be what schools will these children be sent too. We have to be very careful with this because of the gang activities in our city, we wouldn’t want to put any child or teacher in harm’s way with relocating students.

Althea Greene

The community is already engaged in the infrastructure discussion. There are parents and community members who serve on the subcommittees. I will recommend that we hold community meetings in each school district to share the recommendations before the board votes on the plan in order for the community to feel comfortable with the recommendations. The board should always vote on major decisions around closures, consolidations and rezoning. That is a part of board governance.

Natalie McKinney

As a Board member, before closing or consolidating any facilities, I would first review the current Real Estate policy (7002) and administrative rules and regulations developed originally under legacy Memphis City Schools as a reform policy. This policy contemplates incorporating the community into the decision to close/consolidate schools. It further contemplates how to potentially repurpose the school to meet community needs and avoid leaving empty and dilapidated buildings, contributing to blight. In reviewing the policy, I would expect the policy review, development and revision process to include relevant stakeholders (e.g. community members, youth, parents/guardians, school leaders, teachers, staff, and administrators) for input and feedback, understanding it is ultimately the Board’s decision. As to decisions to close, consolidate or rezone schools, yes, it should be subject to school board votes given it is provided in state law, and impacts the fiscal viability and sustainability of the district to ensure it is providing a quality and equitable education for all youth.

Watch Chalkbeat’s Memphis school board forum: Boosting literacy, ending teacher shortages top candidates’ priorities

District 3 Memphis-Shelby County Schools board candidates

Stephanie Love

I look forward to reviewing the infrastructure plan and sharing it with the community to receive their feedback. We have to have intentional meetings and have a plan that the community understands. We need teachers, students and the community involved. We have plenty of empty buildings and finding a use for them will be important to having a thriving community.

Ozell Pace Jr.

I believe that closing and consolidating the proposed schools are irresponsible and do not reflect the desires of the community. We must host community meetings and forums to ensure that every community member gets an opportunity to be heard.

Angela Rogers

I would engage the community by holding information sessions to fully explain proposed changes with Q&A, transparency with and from all stakeholders. I would use a SWOT analysis type of approach to engage and inform. Subject to board votes?— I definitely think that it should INCLUDE board votes as the heavier weight because as a board member, I’m speaking on behalf of the parents and scholars directly affected by the decisions. It’s imperative that their voices be heard and concerns be addressed with respect and intentional resolution.

District 4 Memphis-Shelby County Schools board candidates

James Q. Bacchus

Engaging the community on a facilities plan that includes school closures and consolidation is a sensitive and crucial process. The goals must be ensure transparency, gather input, and to build and maintain trust. In order to meet the goals of the plan the following must be put into play: The Plan for School Closures/Consolidation must be carried out through a charrette process with the following actions; early communication with utmost transparency, capture all stakeholder that will be impacted with totally involvement, public forums and meeting, sharing of all impact data, surveys and feedback, clear communication with all alternative considered, if schools are closed an alternative uses plan should be offered, and finally a clear communication on how the decisions was made. Additionally, the plan should included the needed supports of the implementation such bussing or school start times. As a board, the implementation of this plan should voted on and their must be unanimous support in order for the plan to go forward.

Eric Harris

Decisions to close, consolidate, or rezone schools should be subject to board approval so that there is an opportunity for members of the public to be heard. The board represents the people and so we must leverage our authority to promote transparency, accountability, and public participation.

If elected to the school board, not only will I commit to holding public hearings on any decisions to close, consolidate, or rezone schools but will require proper notice and time is given to discuss the consideration with constituents of my district. We need the opportunity to conduct smaller meetings with our districts as well in order to have more intimate and lengthy discussions.

Tamarques Porter

As a board member, engaging the community in the process of contemplating a sweeping new facilities plan is paramount. I would prioritize transparency and inclusivity by organizing community forums, town hall meetings, and surveys to gather input from parents, students, teachers, and other stakeholders. These discussions would provide an opportunity for community members to voice their concerns, share insights, and contribute to the decision-making process.

Regarding decisions to close, consolidate, or rezone schools, I firmly believe they should be subject to school board votes. However, these decisions should not be made in isolation; they must be informed by community input and thorough deliberation. Each decision should consider the unique needs and circumstances of the affected students, particularly those who lack transportation and rely on walking to and from school.

Throughout the process, it’s essential to prioritize fairness and support for all students and families. This includes implementing measures to mitigate any adverse impacts of school closures or consolidations, such as providing transportation assistance, ensuring access to quality education in nearby schools, and offering support services to students during the transition period.

Ultimately, the goal is to arrive at solutions that benefit the entire community and promote educational equity. By engaging in open dialogue, considering diverse perspectives, and involving stakeholders in the decision-making process, we can work towards implementing changes that best serve the needs of Memphis students and their families.

Anecia Washington

As a board member, again, it is important to present a united front to the community as much as possible. We can do this by continuing to educate our families through transparency in the decision-making process. Older schools that are facing lead issues and/or enrollment issues must be closed so that monies can be redistributed and applied to building more environmentally safe and sustainable 21st Century schools. The community would be welcome to participate in sessions such as “lunch and learns” to understand more about the facility issues within MSCS.

Memphis-Shelby County school board candidates discuss Superintendent Marie Feagins’ strategic plan

District 5 Memphis-Shelby County Schools board candidates

Mauricio Calvo

We don’t anticipate closures in District 5; however, it is part of my collective responsibility that we do this well. The administration must create spaces and ways to hear about the impacted communities. Equally important is that the communities affected understand that we will be making the decision based on the best interest of current students. It is negligent to keep a school that is falling apart, doesn’t have enough teachers, and has limited academic options and enriching opportunities just in the name of legacy.

Audrey Elion

As a board member, I would engage the community through the process of school closures and consolidations. Here are steps I would take:

Open Communication: Initiate open lines of communication with parents, students, teachers, and community members through multiple channels, including town hall meetings, public forums, and online surveys. Clearly communicate the reasons behind the proposed changes and how they will impact the community.

Community Involvement: Establish advisory committees including representatives from all stakeholder groups to provide input and feedback on the proposed plans.

Transparent Information Sharing: Provide detailed information and data about the current state of school facilities, enrollment trends, and financial considerations. Make this information easily accessible to the public to build understanding and support for the decisions being made.

Address Concerns: Actively listen to the concerns and suggestions of community members. Address their questions and incorporate their feedback into the planning process where feasible, perhaps revising plans to better meet community needs.

Ongoing Updates: Keep the community informed throughout the process with regular updates on progress, decisions made, and the rationale behind those decisions.

Yes, decisions to close, consolidate, or rezone schools should be subject to school board votes with community input. This ensures accountability and allows for a formal, democratic process where the elected representatives of the community make final decisions based on comprehensive input and thorough deliberation. These votes should follow extensive community engagement to ensure that the decisions reflect the best interests of the students and the broader community.

Sable Otey

As a board member, engaging the community in discussions about school closures and consolidations is crucial. First, I would ensure transparent communication through multiple channels, including public forums, online surveys, and community meetings. This allows for a broad spectrum of voices to be heard and fosters a sense of involvement and trust. Listening to the community’s concerns and ideas is essential in shaping a plan that reflects their needs and priorities.

Next, I would advocate for a policy governance model where the board leads through clear, consistent policies that align with our educational goals. This approach not only streamlines decision-making but also ensures that community input is systematically considered. Effective school boards focus on student achievement and equity, and this must be the lens through which we evaluate any proposed changes.

Involving the community in the decision-making process through advisory committees and stakeholder meetings can also help build consensus. These committees can provide valuable insights and recommendations that reflect the community’s educational values and expectations.

Regarding whether decisions to close, consolidate, or rezone schools should be subject to school board votes, they should be. Such significant decisions have long-term impacts on students, families, and communities. A school board vote ensures accountability and transparency, providing a formal platform for deliberation and public input.

Engaging the community and making decisions through a transparent, inclusive, and policy-driven process will help navigate the complexities of school closures and consolidations effectively.

District 7 Memphis-Shelby County Schools board candidates

MSCS board member Frank Johnson ends his campaign, citing health issues

Danielle Huggins

As a board member I am going to be very transparent with the community. Hosting a forum, town hall meeting, or having a district newsletter will keep the community informed of the process. As a school board member, I will work alongside the Superintendent and administration to make the decision to close, consolidate, rezone schools.

Towanna Murphy

Before I make any decisions I would meet with the community, Parents and the faith base community to hear their concerns and ideas. The one thing I never want to do is blindside the people. They have a say on what happens to our schools. So, if and when this issue arises I would speak with my district to hear their concerns before I vote.

Jason Sharif

As a Board member if there are schools in my District facing closures I would hold community meetings at those schools with principals, teachers, parents, students, elected officials, and other community members to get their input. I definitely believe the community’s input should be considered in the Board’s decision although everyone may not be pleased with the final outcome.

Don’t forget: Read candidate responses in full in our in-depth voter guide.

Find out where the 2024 Memphis school board candidates stand in Chalkbeat’s voter guide

2024-06-14T22:51:14+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

Five of the nine seats on Memphis-Shelby County Schools board are on the ballot Aug. 1 at a time of great transition for the school district, which is under the leadership of a new superintendent.

In the last year, the board rebooted a botched superintendent search process to choose a successor to former Superintendent Joris Ray, who departed in scandal in 2022. The board selected Marie Feagins, an education administrator in Detroit, as the new superintendent. She officially took the helm in April.

The process put intense pressure and scrutiny on the board. Now, 20 candidates are vying for board seats for Districts 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7. Each of the five races is contested.

On the horizon for Memphis are the end of federal pandemic relief funds and budget cuts that will impact staff and programs. Aging facilities in the district continue to be a priority, as costs to improve and build new schools are rising. And academic outcomes for Memphis students are under new scrutiny, with new accountability systems from the state.

The board is sure to have at least one new member to represent students and families in District 4, which includes parts of East Memphis, Hickory Hill, and southeast Shelby County. Longtime board member Kevin Woods, who was appointed in 2011 and served through the historic merger of the city and county school systems, is the only incumbent not seeking reelection.

Althea Greene, the District 2 representative and chair of the board for the last two years, as well as Stephanie Love, a longtime board member for District 3, both joined the board during successful runs in 2020.

Board member Frank Johnson of District 7 and Mauricio Calvo of District 5 are both seeking election to their seats for the first time, after joining the board midway through the last four years through appointments to vacancies.

Chalkbeat asked each of the 20 candidates to share more about their positions on the issues facing the district and how they planned to approach their leadership.

Eighteen of them responded (Alvin Crook for District 4 and Chavez Donelson for District 7 did not), and you can read their responses in this voter guide.

Chalkbeat lightly edited and condensed their bios for clarity, but their responses to questions have not been edited by Chalkbeat, other than formatting adjustments to improve readability.

Click on a candidate’s name to read their responses to each question. To compare candidate responses to a specific question, click on that question.

Check your voter registration status here.

Find a sample ballot and polling locations here by entering your name or address.

To view all of the school district maps, go here.

The voter registration deadline is July 2. Early voting begins July 12 and continues through July 27, before Election Day on Aug. 1.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Marie Feagins, a longtime student advocate, faces new tests as Memphis superintendent

2024-05-28T10:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

To dig in to her new job as superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools, Marie Feagins took her seat at a desk.

Not her own desk at district headquarters, but a student desk in a classroom. She sat amid Northaven Elementary School students learning how to put together and define compound words like “horsefly” and “blackbird,” and later with Grandview Heights Middle School seventh graders solving math word problems about super-cold temperatures.

“I really want to see — and feel, more importantly — what the experience is like for you all,” she told a group of Grandview Heights students in April.

It wasn’t all just for the cameras. Feagins, 42 years old, came to Memphis having established a long record as an advocate for students, starting with an internship in Alabama serving youth entering the workforce and more recently as a top academic official in Detroit’s public school district working to boost high-school graduation rates.

She’s putting that record to the test in a district that needs to boost stagnating academic outcomes for students and restore the trust that has been eroded by scandals and school board discord.

Feagins has officially been superintendent for only about two months, but has been gearing up for this role for a long time. She published a doctoral dissertation in 2020 that examined challenges for Black women in getting hired and succeeding as superintendents. She secured her Tennessee teaching license before returning for the second round of interviews for the MSCS job, and arrived in Memphis within weeks after her selection, even before she had a final contract.

Marie Feagins watches a student work at Grandview Heights Middle School on April 23. She began her official term with a nine-day school and community tour.

She began her official term with a nine-day school and community tour, seeking to build relationships and trust as the first outsider to run the merged district since it was formed a decade ago. She has chronicled her experiences in social media posts and comments, even responding to others’ posts about her.

She has called upon a team of current and former superintendents to guide her through the transition, and assembled a much larger group of local stakeholders to help develop a long-awaited strategic plan for the district. And she has a team of about 100 students advocating for their 100,000 classmates across the district.

Between her school visits, community meetings, and the early teambuilding, Memphians are beginning to learn more about how the new leader will exercise her power over Tennessee’s largest school district, how she will build bridges in a community where she has never worked before, and how she will turn research and vision into action and change.

Michelle McKissack, the school board member who nominated Feagins for the job, took early note of the new superintendent’s intensity.

“I felt that she captured having vision for this district, and for our children, and bringing people together. I think what she has already done in just a few weeks’ time, before she even started officially, that is exactly what I was looking for,” McKissack told Chalkbeat in early April.

Feagins is already being tested. She started three months earlier than the board initially planned. So her first month coincided with a last-minute announcement of a school closure and a contentious Tennessee legislative session that heaped new measures on Memphis. She’s shaking up top leadership with open applications for new job titles and is the face of hundreds of expected position cuts and realignments needed to reduce spending by $150 million.

Though Feagins has had some wins, such as increased teacher pay, building her own leadership team could be a chance to quell early concerns from some school board members that her leadership style was based more on theory than evidence. Her district administration experience is limited to a recent three years in Detroit, where she held four different roles.

Supporters from throughout her career said Feagins’ strengths are her communication and people skills. She celebrated her most recent birthday — her fifth day as superintendent — by organizing a Habitat for Humanity build with teams of student athletes.

Marie Feagins speaks with Grandview Heights students during her April 23 visit. At one time, she told students there, “I didn’t even know I could be a superintendent," since every superintendent she had encountered was "a man who didn't look like me."

Feagins, who declined to speak with Chalkbeat for this story, has been open about wanting to be a superintendent. She applied for the Memphis role during the first search in 2023, and has pursued the top job before elsewhere. A previous job application impressed Michael Hinojosa, a former superintendent of nearly 30 years in Texas and Georgia who was part of the search team.

Feagins didn’t get an interview, but Hinojosa thought, “This lady is going places.” He kept her number, and is now leading a team of current and former superintendents, including Carol Johnson Dean, the former superintendent of Memphis City Schools — who are helping Feagins strategize her first moves.

For all her determination, Feagins didn’t always picture herself as a superintendent, she told an inquisitive Grandview Heights student during that April visit.

“I didn’t even know I could be a superintendent,” she said.

“Every superintendent I’ve ever had or seen has been a man, and a man that didn’t look like me,” she added. But she knew she wanted to be a leader, she told the students, and run a large organization. As superintendent, she said, she’ll mix the art of leadership with the art of teaching.

Feagins stood out as an advocate for students

Feagins, who graduated from the University of Alabama, began her career in the South, and has focused on education and related roles, except for brief stints in business and local journalism. The curated biography she shared notes that she once won a guest co-anchor position with Katie Couric, and has appeared in films including “Selma.”

One of her first jobs was with the youth services division of Birmingham, Alabama, working under another young leader, Cedric Sparks, who is now chief of staff for Mayor Randall Woodfin. She began as an intern, Sparks said, helping with programming for students entering the workforce. Creative and attentive, Feagins took direction well but also developed and implemented her own ideas advocating for students.

“You couldn’t put her in a box,” recalled Sparks, who has since received regular career updates from Feagins.

Sparks credits his own rise to someone seeing and nurturing his potential. Of Feagins, he said, “I would hope that they would give her the same grace.”

As her career advanced, Feagins kept up with her colleagues and mentors, and cited testimonials from dozens of them on a website she listed on her resume. Sparks was among them, as was Clarence Sutton, Jr., the longtime principal at Central High School in Tuscaloosa, which has struggled with academic performance and integration.

Sutton, now superintendent of Huntsville City Schools, remembers Feagins’ brief stint as a counselor for the way she could connect with each student, and expose them to new opportunities.

Marie Feagins joins students eating at Northaven Elementary School on April 23. Supporters from throughout her career said Feagins’ strengths are her communication and people skills.

Feagins arrived in the Midwest in 2017 as an assistant principal at Cleveland’s John F. Kennedy PACT High School. The school’s students were predominantly Black and came from poor families, as with many Memphis schools, and its academic performance was among the lowest in Ohio, according to state data.

Aaron Talton, who was a student at JFK PACT at the time, recalls Feagins creating a stir at first with her Southern accent, bright clothing and smile, and establishing herself as an advocate for students.

Importantly, he said, she tried to fill in their gaps.

“She came and she dominated the place,” Talton said, describing a leader who “stood out in ways that were controversial” because people weren’t used to the type of accountability in leadership she displayed.

When students were banned from convening after school at the library in the shopping center around the corner, Feagins expanded tutoring hours after school, Talton said. She helped provide him a dress shirt and slacks, making him more comfortable in professional spaces.

Talton became a first-generation college student and graduated from Ohio’s Central State University.

During her February interview for the Memphis job, Feagins told board members about her efforts to increase parent engagement at JFK PACT High, by creating programs that translated education jargon to terms that families could better understand. Part of that was communicating data about the school’s failing letter grade.

Feagins took over as principal in 2019-20, the year interrupted by the start of the pandemic. Clarke Perkins, who was new to teaching and Cleveland then, remembers Feagins having to step into the principal role at the year-round school without much notice.

Feagins offered guidance, Perkins said, but didn’t lower expectations. She was the kind of leader who wanted to make change, despite systemic barriers facing the school. Together, they stayed late to wrap packages with sweatshirts for students. They organized Black History Month programming and a mock election.

“I’m telling you, she’s like superwoman,” said Perkins, who is now an attorney.

Feagins capped off her first year as principal with a drive-thru graduation. She was the last principal of the school before it closed and merged into a new building a mile away.

Marie Feagins participates in a pep rally at Ed Rice Community Center on April 23.

In Detroit, Feagins pushed for more students to graduate

By the next summer, she was in the Detroit public school district, where she spent nearly three years. Half of that time was in a role overseeing high schools and leadership, and the other half was split between three different roles, including as a special assistant to the superintendent.

During interviews with the Memphis school board, Feagins touted her work in Detroit to improve outcomes for high schoolers after the pandemic, especially graduation rates. Detroit’s efforts during that period included close monitoring of student progress and increased attention to credit recovery, where students who are not on track to graduate shift to make-up options for coursework.

The graduation rate, a four-year metric, began to bounce back and came to 74% for the 2022-23 school year. That was about a percentage point away from the pre-pandemic rate, and the first couple years of improvements that the district’s graduation rate had seen in years.

In a recommendation letter written in May 2022, Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti praised Feagins for the “improved cohesion” she brought to those reforms.

Feagins began by sharing data with the principals, closely auditing student transcripts, and getting to know the specific stories about why schools were behind, so she could assign additional staff, she told Memphis board members. By tracking the data daily, Feagins said, she and school staff were able to make quick improvements to the number of students who were on track to graduate.

The most successful strategy, she told board members in February, was “operation graduation,” which included a final push to the finish line: Schools competed with one another to decrease the number of make-up courses students needed to be on track for graduation. They were celebrated with public recognition and a trophy, Feagins said. The winning school hosted a basketball game between teachers and staff, whose evaluations also included these high school success metrics.

“I did whatever we needed to do to make the work fun, because that’s not fun work,” Feagins told board members in February. “I also didn’t want kids to feel like because they were so far behind that it was impossible.”

The dropout rate declined in 2021-22, but increased to a recent high of 16% for the 2022-23 school year, Michigan data show.

Although the data on four-year graduation rates was promising, Chalkbeat Detroit reported in March 2023 that it came with costs. Credit recovery courses helped students get back on track to graduate. But because many were online, they could be disruptive to high school learning experiences. Students who transferred to other schools to focus on recovery courses missed out on clubs and other programs at their former schools.

Feagins appears poised to bring some of the Detroit strategies to Memphis, in hopes of boosting the district’s graduation rate from near 82%. She’s proposed $1.5 million in resources toward increasing the frequency of transcript audits, and adding staff who can focus on freshman and sophomore students at the district’s lowest performing high schools, and counselors who can help keep students on track.

“All of those (career) experiences have afforded me a pretty wide lens,” Feagins told reporters in May, “so that nothing really surprises me other than we’re not a little farther along than we are. And we’re not where I believe we should be.”

During her tenure in Detroit, the school district launched a competition among schools to encourage credit recovery and improve graduation rates after the pandemic. “I did whatever we needed to do to make the work fun," she said, "because that’s not fun work.”

Feagins’ early steps aim to rebuild trust in MSCS

Feagins, though new to Memphis, knows about the importance of establishing trust — both among school board members and the community. She wrote about that in that doctoral dissertation, noting that lack of trust can prompt superintendent departures.

Already, Feagins has acknowledged that 10% of teacher positions are vacant, sharing a figure that the district historically has been reluctant to publicize. Transparency with the school board, Feagins found in her research, is one way to improve trust.

“People generally don’t care what’s on your resume, really,” said Johnson Dean, the former Memphis superintendent. “They care about how you interact with people and how responsive you are to their needs.”

The ability to reestablish trust in the school system was a consistent theme during Memphis’ tortuous search for a superintendent to replace Joris Ray, who resigned in 2022 amid an investigation and scandal.

Feagins, for her part, has sought to meet the challenge by keeping a full schedule of school tours and community meetings, and by surrounding herself with advisers who understand the city and the job.

And the community has responded to her openness.

“A change is gonna come,” a chorus of Melrose High School students sang to Feagins on the morning of April 1, her first day on the job.

The Orange Mound high school welcomed her with balloons and performances by the band and the cheer team, and other communities showed similar enthusiasm. Parking lots overflowed as school leaders and families showed up to see top students celebrated and hear from Feagins, who entered to a Tye Tribbett track proclaiming “new, new, new everything.”

“We wanted her to feel comfortable, like she’s at home, like she’s walking into her own school,” Melrose junior Rhyan Brown told Chalkbeat. His peers hope Feagins can keep alumni involved in the school, and find ways to more meaningfully address student behavior and bring more teachers to the school, rather than virtual teacher alternatives.

Feagins walks with students at Grandview Heights Middle School. To build trust in her leadership, Feagins has kept a full schedule of school tours and community meetings, and surrounded herself with advisers who understand the city and the job.

It’s early yet, but Feagins’ tenure so far has offered refreshing harmony among the superintendent, board, and community, said Venita Doggett, director of advocacy for the Memphis Education Fund. Doggett had closely scrutinized the superintendent search with requests for more transparency and authentic community engagement. Now she’s looking toward the team Feagins assembles to help her execute in the role.

Ultimately, Doggett said, how she assembles her cabinet and advisory teams “will tell us what her leadership looks like,” Doggett said. “Right now, she feels very inclusive.”

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Here’s who will guide Marie Feagins as she takes on new superintendent role in Memphis

2024-04-11T11:02:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

New Memphis schools leader Marie Feagins plans to rely on a group of former and current superintendents for support during her transition to the role by working with the Council of the Great City Schools, a national coalition of big-city districts.

The council’s work in Memphis could serve as a pilot project for future educators new to the superintendency.

Speaking about the transition team Tuesday, Feagins said, “That’s who I will depend on to give some of those sharper recommendations of how we move forward, as to not impede the progress based on a learning curve that I will continue to lean into.”

Feagins, a former administrator in Detroit’s public school system, took over as Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ superintendent on April 1, and has been visiting schools and communities to build relationships in her new city. She has also pointed out expected reviews and changes to staffing, budgeting, and academic programming, specifically for students with learning disabilities.

Feagins’ 100-day plan calls for a new strategic plan for the district by September, plus an academic audit. She has also pledged to streamline the central office and continue the district’s plans to close and consolidate some schools and build new ones.

The team from the Council of the Great City Schools is expected to “complete a systems review with a focus on operations, engagement and communications, and equity and inclusion” in the coming months, MSCS said.

Michael Hinojosa, a superintendent-in-residence at the national council who has helped lead the transition team, has nearly 30 years of experience as a superintendent, most recently with Dallas Independent School District. The team was born from a congratulatory text he sent Feagins after she was appointed superintendent in February, he said.

Hinojosa supports professional development for school superintendents — many of whom, like Feagins, are new to the role — and works with coaching programs. Hinojosa said the council wants to help prepare the new leaders and keep them from “rookie mistakes.”

“It’s very important to have a good launch,” Hinojosa told Chalkbeat.

The eight-member team will be “very organized,” he said. “We’re not going to spend months studying things, because she’s got to get some things done, and she’s got to get the right things done.”

Historical context is vital, Hinojosa said, sharing advice from his own mentor: “Before you take that fence down, you better know why it was put up.”

Hinojosa said he hopes this transition team can be an example of another way the council can support new superintendents.

Also among the members are Adrienne Battle, superintendent of Metro Nashville Public Schools, and Carol Johnson Dean, a former Memphis superintendent who has already helped facilitate meetings for Feagins.

The broader council includes superintendents who have navigated the role from “a blue city, in a purple county, in a red state,” Hinojosa said, which will be a necessary perspective for Memphis, where city and district leaders are often at odds with the legislative proposals of the GOP-dominated General Assembly.

Feagins told reporters earlier this week she expects to follow up the team of superintendent experts by selecting a team of local community members, including students.

“There aren’t very many decisions that I’ve made in my career as an educator that didn’t include students,” Feagins said. “And so this is not for show. This is really the type of leadership style that I have.”

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

New Memphis superintendent’s contract includes ethics clause, reflecting lessons of Ray’s exit

2024-03-27T02:54:59+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members say the contract being finalized for incoming Superintendent Marie Feagins reflects the lessons learned after former Superintendent Joris Ray departed the district in scandal.

For starters, the proposed contract includes a new ethical conduct clause, board members say. The board voted unanimously to approve terms of the four-year contract on Tuesday.

“I think that ethics clause was necessary,” Board Chair Althea Greene told reporters Tuesday. “It’s necessary for the district. And so it covers the district in the event that something unfortunate happens. We’re able to terminate a contract and not have to go through a long, drawn-out process.”

Feagins, a former administrator in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, is set to begin her term on April 1, and will earn a $325,000 annual salary. She has already begun working for the district under a per-diem agreement.

Feagins’ salary is 5% higher than the $310,000 Ray was earning at the time he left the district. Interim superintendent Toni Williams also earned $310,000 for the role.

Ray departed as superintendent in August 2022 while under an investigation into allegations that he abused power and violated policies. The board ended the investigation and provided him severance pay of nearly $500,000 when he agreed to resign.

Since his departure, and the appointment of Williams as interim superintendent, board members have reviewed elements of their own governance policies — lowering the dollar threshold for approval of professional service contracts, for example, and creating a board policy on nepotism.

The school board approved a new superintendent salary and contract transparency policy after a report from The Commercial Appeal found that Ray’s final salary — used to calculate his termination pay — included an unconventional raise.

Greene said the language of Feagins’ contract would be online within the week. Outside attorney Herman Morris explained its terms to the board Tuesday.

Morris said negotiations were taking place up until the start of the meeting. He said the terms and provisions of Feagins’ contract — which he said was still a “work in progress” — are fairly standard.

Feagins will be visiting schools and community centers across the nine elected board districts throughout April. Details about the tour and instructions for attending it are on the Memphis-Shelby school system’s social media pages.

Williams is expected to join the district as a consultant. She declined to discuss the scope of work with reporters.

Greene said a special called meeting is forthcoming for board members to approve the terms of Williams’ consulting agreement.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Incoming Memphis schools leader Marie Feagins begins work, set to assume superintendent role April 1

2024-03-13T22:28:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

Update: This story has been updated with details of Feagins’ per diem contract.

Incoming Superintendent Marie Feagins has started working with Memphis-Shelby County Schools under a per diem agreement, allowing her to begin a transition to the superintendent role while the school board hammers out her contract.

Feagins’ temporary employment took effect March 1, according to a press release from school board Chair Althea Greene on the same day. Greene said she expects Feagins, a Detroit public school district administrator, to begin officially as MSCS superintendent on April 1, months ahead of the July 1 start that board members had targeted during the search process.

Greene said it is important for Feagins to begin work soon, especially as Tennessee’s largest school district faces major budget decisions and state lawmakers consider several changes to education policy, including a major expansion of private school vouchers that could affect district revenues.

“Dr. Feagins is excited to be here now to start making Memphis and Shelby County her home,” Greene said.

Memphis school board appointment bill on hold amid talks with state lawmakers

Since the board selected Feagins on Feb. 9, she has been in Memphis for several meetings, including a lunch Friday co-hosted in part by former Memphis schools Superintendent Carol Johnson-Dean.

“Everybody wants to welcome her, and they want her to be successful,” Johnson-Dean told Chalkbeat, adding that several community leaders attended, including both the city and county mayors. She said school board members did not attend.

Feagins also attended part of the Memphis school board’s February business meeting and received a standing ovation. A separate press release at the time said she was working on a plan for her first 100 days on the job.

But at the time of the per diem announcement, the school board had not otherwise discussed her employment in a public meeting, and board members had taken no votes on a contract.

Board members Mauricio Calvo and Stephanie Love said that they had not seen the per diem contract. The following week, Calvo shared a copy of the contract to social media with a caption that said: “...Transparency is key as we work to build confidence and trust.”

The document showed Feagins can earn up to $20,000 in March, as she transitions into the role. Greene, in a statement on March 13, also shared the contract.

Chalkbeat’s attempts to reach Feagins for comment on March 1 were unsuccessful.

Greene has said she expects the board to take action on Feagins’ superintendent contract at a meeting scheduled for March 26. The per diem contract also requires board approval, according to the document.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis school board appointment bill on hold amid talks with state lawmakers

2024-03-01T11:00:00+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

A state lawmaker is giving the Memphis-Shelby County school board time to devise an improvement plan before pursuing legislation to empower Gov. Bill Lee to appoint up to six new members to the locally elected body.

Rep. Mark White said he has spoken with several current board members and the district’s incoming superintendent, Marie Feagins, since Chalkbeat reported in early February that he’s consulting with the state attorney general’s office on a school governance bill aimed at his home county.

“I’ve told them you’re going to have to manage the district better, and they indicated that they understood,” White said during a recent interview in his office at the state Capitol.

The Memphis Republican wants the board to deliver an action plan to him in March, before the legislature is expected to adjourn in April. The plan, he said, should include how district leaders are addressing challenges with literacy, truancy, graduation rates, teacher recruitment, underutilized school buildings, and a backlog of building maintenance needs, among other things.

MSCS building strategy is in the works. See which schools may be affected.

“Our city is begging for change when it comes to education, and I want to know that this school board has a plan,” said White, who chairs a House education committee.

If the board doesn’t deliver, White plans to file his legislation in the next few weeks.

Several board members have said White’s proposal smacks of state overreach — but they want to collaborate with the lawmaker, who is also locally elected, to advance the school district’s work. Still, there’s confusion about exactly what White wants and when he wants it.

“We do have to come up with those agreements or deliverables that he’s talking about,” said board member Mauricio Calvo, who tried unsuccessfully in January to get the board to set priorities for its next superintendent.

“It’s not just because he is saying that. It’s because we want to get to better outcomes for children, for students,” Calvo continued.

Althea Greene, the board’s chair, did not respond to Chalkbeat’s questions about the status of the talks. She sent a statement through the board’s external communications firm saying, in part, that “we are currently in the process of engaging our community with Rep. White regarding his plan.”

White has cited prolonged frustration with the board’s leadership. His legislation would keep the board’s current elected members, but add others through Lee’s appointments based on recommendations from local officials and stakeholders.

The East Memphis lawmaker met with six of the district’s nine school board members, including Greene and Calvo, during a previously scheduled Feb. 14 meeting at the Capitol, which he called “very productive.”

Six school board members for Memphis-Shelby County Schools pose with Rep. Mark White and Sens. Raumesh Akbari and Brent Taylor during a meeting at the Capitol on February 14, 2024.

Days after, White spoke by phone with Feagins, a Detroit school leader picked by the board in February to be the next leader of the state’s largest school system. Her selection came in spite of White’s 11th-hour request that the board keep interim Superintendent Toni Williams and delay hiring a leader for a second time.

Michelle McKissack, another school board member at the Capitol meeting, is hopeful for more discussions with state officials that include Feagins. More specifically, she wants to understand White’s expectations.

“I would love to have a meaningful meeting with Rep. White,” she told Chalkbeat Thursday, “but I have no idea what his plans are.”

Feagins, who is scheduled to start her new job by July 1, impressed board members during interviews with booklets that included her review of the Memphis district. (Chalkbeat’s request for these public records has not yet been filled.)

Though she does not yet have a contract, Feagins was introduced at Tuesday’s board meeting and has been meeting this week with Memphis leaders. She is also building a plan for her first 100 days on the job, according to a press release from the board’s communications firm.

White has emphasized the need for urgency and expects to meet with Feagins next week to “get better communications.”

The Feb. 14 meeting with school board members included two other state lawmakers representing Memphis: Democratic Sen. Raumesh Akbari and Republican Sen. Brent Taylor. Taylor is listed as the Senate co-sponsor of White’s proposed legislation.

“We all want the same thing: for our kids to read and write and compete on a national and international level,” Akbari said.

“But the elephant in the room was the pending legislation,” she continued, “and I suggested that we set that aside because I don’t think it’s necessary. School board members are elected by the people, and their constituents should hold them responsible.”

White agrees.

“The best fix would be if the citizens of Memphis elect some strong school board members,” he told Chalkbeat. “Five seats are up [for election] this year. We shall see.”

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee lawmaker to file legislation to add appointed members to Memphis school board

2024-02-07T01:40:58+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

A Tennessee lawmaker said he plans to introduce legislation giving Gov. Bill Lee’s administration the power to appoint up to six new members to the board of Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

Rep. Mark White of Memphis cited prolonged frustration with the board’s locally elected leadership when explaining his plans to Chalkbeat on Tuesday.

The nine members currently on the board of the state’s largest school district would remain in office under the proposal.

And the additional members would be appointed later this year based on recommendations from local officials and stakeholders, said White, a Republican who represents parts of East Memphis and the suburb of Germantown.

“I’m very concerned about the district’s direction, and I just can’t sit back any longer. I think we’re at a critical juncture,” said White, who chairs a powerful education committee in the House.

In a statement Tuesday, board Chair Althea Greene said White’s proposal is unnecessary.

“We may have had some challenges, but more interference from the General Assembly is not warranted at this time,” she said. “We have to stop experimenting with our children.”

White’s comments come as the school board is days from selecting a district superintendent to end a tortuous 18-month search process. All three finalists came from out of state last week for final public interviews.

The proposed bill also represents another attempted state foray into oversight of Memphis, spotlighting historic tensions rooted in race, politics, and power, in which both sides claim the moral high ground.

White said he is unhappy with the board’s handling of the superintendent search for a district where strong, stable, and timely leadership is especially critical. Most MSCS students are considered economically disadvantaged and continue to significantly trail state benchmarks in reading and math following devastating pandemic-related academic declines.

“I’m concerned about the three people they’ve whittled it down to, and I’m just not impressed,” said White, who did not specify the candidates’ shortcomings.

There are “highly qualified people in Memphis who know how to improve the system,” White added.

His criticisms echo recent frustrations from some local educators and community members at the prospect of an out-of-state candidate leading Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Some have called for a local candidate or for the board to permanently hire interim Superintendent Toni Williams, the district’s former finance chief.

Board member Michelle McKissack expressed surprise about White’s plan and his comments about the finalists. She praised their qualifications.

“This has been an extraordinarily robust search, and we have listened to all members of the community every way we know how to,” McKissack said.

Adding board members — particularly appointed candidates who don’t have constituents to answer to — would only complicate board governance, she said.

“It’s not going to make board operations any easier when you have a 15-person board,” McKissack said, pointing to the challenges of the previous 23-member body that oversaw the historic merger of the city and county school districts and created Memphis-Shelby County Schools a decade ago.

She added: “They think they have a problem now? Well then get ready.”

White and Sen. Brent Taylor, a Memphis Republican, expect to file their legislation this month and have been working with the state attorney general’s office “to get the language right,” White said.

The legislation could affect upcoming nonpartisan school board elections in which five seats are up for grabs. Greene is the only incumbent to have pulled a petition for the August election since the filing opened on Monday, according to Shelby County Election Commission officials.

White drew a distinction between his proposal and a 12-year-old state initiative to take over low-performing schools, mostly in Memphis, to place them with charter school operators under the oversight of the Tennessee Achievement School District.

“This is not about taking over schools. It’s about putting in place stronger governance over the elected bodies for low-performing districts,” he said.

The Memphis school board is responsible for hiring the superintendent, but also charting the direction for the district, often by prioritizing how to use the $1.2 billion it receives each year, plus the additional hundreds of millions in one-time federal funds. Board members also play a role in addressing issues of their community and educator constituents.

The board struggled with its first superintendent search for a successor to Joris Ray, who left in August 2022 amid a scandal over allegations that he abused his power and violated district policies. Last spring, board members were dissatisfied with the slate of final candidates and chose to scrap the list and reboot the selection process.

The board’s second search last fall generated 22 applicants, according to the search firm the board hired to oversee the process. Just one local candidate, Angela Whitelaw, the district’s top academics chief, was among the five finalists. Following the guidance of their own evaluations and the community’s input, the board selected three finalists:

Yolonda Brown, chief academic officer in Atlanta Public Schools
Marie Feagins, chief of leadership and high schools for Detroit Public Schools Community District
Cheryl Proctor, deputy superintendent of instruction and school communities for Portland Public Schools in Oregon

It’s not the first time that White has introduced bills to give the state the power to intercede in local matters.

He successfully sponsored legislation in 2022 that forced the Memphis district to cede four schools to several nearby suburban districts, including in Germantown, which serves mostly white and affluent students. The move reignited persistent criticisms that the decade-long tug-of-war over the valuable school properties was essentially about race and class. Ultimately, Shelby County commissioners increased taxes, in part to help pay for a new high school for the urban district’s mostly Black students from low-income families.

White also asked the Tennessee attorney general to weigh in last year about potential conflicts of interest for Keith Williams, the executive director of a local teacher union in Memphis who was elected to the board in 2022.

Memphians have long been wary of Tennessee lawmakers who have repeatedly singled out Memphis on education matters. For instance, a controversial 2019 law created a private school voucher program that only applied to Memphis and Nashville, even though local officials overwhelmingly opposed it.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach her at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis school board poised to select new superintendent Feb. 9

2024-02-03T03:24:25+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

At last, the Memphis-Shelby County Schools superintendent search has an end date in sight.

Board members are set to select a new public schools leader from a slate of three out-of-town finalists in a meeting on Feb. 9, signaling a resolution to a process that is well into its second year.

Finalists Yolonda Brown of Atlanta Public Schools, Marie Feagins of Detroit Public Schools Community District, and Cheryl Proctor of Portland Public Schools in Oregon made their final cases to board members in public interviews on Friday, the culmination of a days-long return visit to Memphis that also included private interviews with community leaders and educators, as well as a tour of school buildings.

Choosing one of the three candidates will be a final step for the Memphis school board, and could be a testament to the work board members did to relaunch a second, smoother search process for a successor to former Superintendent Joris Ray.

A successful appointment requires votes from six of the school board’s nine members, and Joyce Dorse-Coleman, vice chair of the board and co-chair of the search committee, said Friday she had the “utmost confidence” in the board agreeing on a candidate.

“It’s been a journey, and we’re ready to move on,” Dorse-Coleman said, adding that she has appreciated the “strong leadership” of Toni Williams, the district’s former finance chief who has held the interim role since August 2022 following Ray’s exit.

Successful contract negotiations with the board’s selection will bring an outside leader to helm Memphis public schools for the first time in more than a decade. The new superintendent is expected to start by July 1.

Two of the three finalists in Memphis’ restarted search also applied to the role back in the spring. Feagins was among a public list of applicants during the initial search. Proctor revealed during her interview Friday that she was also a contender in the spring, but withdrew before finalists were announced because of a family emergency. Brown appears to be a new applicant.

Board members tailored questions during the second-round interviews to each of the three finalists’ experiences, but themes emerged that reflect the district’s needs and community’s concerns. Chalkbeat selected a highlight of each candidate’s two-hour interview process for publication.

Yolonda Brown, chief academic officer in Atlanta Public Schools

Brown told board members she would consider conducting an academic audit for Memphis-Shelby County Schools, similar to one by the Council of Great City Schools she used to implement changes in Atlanta.

“We were able to streamline the support, and schools knew exactly who they could call, reach out to, and get support from ... and they knew what services we could provide. And so that was the biggest impact,” Brown said.

Speaking about how she would lead as a newcomer to Memphis, Brown said: “It doesn’t matter how great you know academics or the strategy. If the culture is not right, it doesn’t matter ... And so you don’t come in and automatically say, ‘Everything’s bad, and I’m here to fix it,’ because leadership is not about one person.”

Marie Feagins, chief of leadership and high schools for Detroit Public Schools Community District

In Detroit, Feagins said she increased the number of students who were on-track to graduate by monitoring data regularly and introducing a competition among schools.

Of managing teachers, she said: “People are okay with being responsible for the things that they can directly contribute to and own … I think that when you tell people what to do, you get robots. And when you empower them, then you get the type of creative leaders that we need in our spaces. And that’s how we get the results that we’re ultimately seeking.”

Feagins explained her approach to leading Memphis public schools like this: “I want people to get to know me first, and so that you know that the heart of the decisions are good, they’re pure, the intent is right. But you also know that I honor that the impact is what is felt most, and is what matters most ... and that’s where the leadership begins.”

Cheryl Proctor, deputy superintendent of instruction and school communities for Portland Public Schools in Oregon

Proctor told board members that her experience in large Florida school districts make her familiar with rigorous state accountability systems like the third-grade retention law and letter grades, as well as school voucher programs.

“We need to stay focused on what’s happening in our local environment, and in our local community,” Proctor said of responding to education vouchers in Tennessee. She added: “My priority is going ... to be that our district schools are schools of choice … All of our schools should have high-quality learning programs with specializations.”

Proctor told the board: “I bring perspective … having to find my niche of belonging as a child and as a student — as a student, who also at some point fell through the crack, fell victim if you will, to that soft bigotry of low expectation.”

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis superintendent search nears close with final set of candidate interviews

2024-02-01T02:08:12+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

When the top three candidates for superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools make their final cases to community and board members later this week, they will not only be explaining their leadership and academic successes, but also proving how well they can get to know a new community.

The school board’s current attempt at a national search for superintendent has produced three out-of-state finalists, positioning the district to have its first leader from outside Memphis in more than a decade. While new-to-town leaders have helmed Memphis public schools in the past, internal candidates have been favored in the last decade.

Being considered for the role are Yolonda Brown of Atlanta Public Schools, Marie Feagins of Detroit Public Schools Community District, and Cheryl Proctor of Portland Public Schools in Oregon.

Now in its second year and on its second round of candidates, Memphis’ search process for a successor to former Superintendent Joris Ray has been long and winding. It buckled last spring as board and community members disputed interim Superintendent Toni Williams’ eligibility for the role. But now, almost a year later with a smoother search process underway, some Memphians have wondered why a local candidate isn’t in the mix.

“There’s a lot of reason for the community and the educators to be wary of anyone coming in” after such a long process, said Rachel S. White, an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Community members and educators could wonder how long a new leader may stay, why they want to be here in the first place, or how to build trust.

The school board can drive a successful transition for the new leader they select with support, resources, and patience, White said. That could look like a contract with clear evaluation expectations and more than a year to execute changes, plus mentorship by another superintendent.

Whoever emerges as the next leader has a challenging job: Like other public school districts, Memphis is projecting a large budget gap as federal pandemic relief funds expire, leaving leaders to decide which academic programs and personnel they can afford to cut or keep. Plus, the current administration has launched a major facilities overhaul that could involve school consolidations and closures.

The new leader will also have to deal with direct challenges to local control from state leaders and lawmakers, who have stepped up the pressure on public school systems. New policies from the GOP-led state government include restrictions on classroom instruction, changes to school evaluation criteria, and an expansion of private school vouchers.

White’s research suggests that contentious political environments in education are responsible for a growing proportion of superintendent departures in recent years. White, a former school board member, has studied the superintendent position as the founder and director of The Superintendent Lab.

Superintendents “don’t get in this job to be politicians, and to manage politics of communities and boards,” White said. “They get into this job because they want to serve kids.”

National data also show an increase of new-to-the-job superintendents, White said. None of the three finalists for the Memphis role have been superintendents before.

The final round of interviews in Memphis includes a public meet-and-greet on Thursday evening, plus a two-hour long interview with the school board for each finalist during the day on Friday. Community organizations will also meet with the candidates in private sessions, according to the school district.

School board members are expected to vote on a final candidate by the end of February, said co-chair of the search Joyce Dorse-Coleman, but no date has been set yet. The finalist will need support from at least six of the school board’s nine members to become superintendent. The new leader will start by July 1, and is expected to receive support transitioning into the new role from current interim Superintendent Williams, whose contract allows her to return to her former role as finance chief or stay on as a consultant.

Dorse-Coleman and search co-chair Stephanie Love said the tortuous search process has been worth it.

“We have had hiccups along the way, speed bumps along the way,” Love said, “but I am happy with the way it’s going now.”

Having three newcomers has ushered in renewed calls from some community members and educators for a candidate with local expertise. At a recent board meeting, Southwind High School Principal John Bush said he represented Memphis’ principals association in making a plea for a “candidate who has worked and lived in this community.”

Sarah Carpenter, a vocal education advocate who is the executive director for parent group Memphis Lift, said she’ll be watching to see how the finalists can support Memphis’ Black and Hispanic students. But she trusts that one of the three finalists can do the job.

Carpenter said, “We asked for a national search, we got it, and they can’t mess it up this time.”

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee education chief Lizzette Reynolds challenged by Democrats over job qualifications

2024-01-22T17:44:45+00:00

House Democrats called Monday for the ouster of Lizzette Reynolds as Tennessee’s education commissioner over questions about whether she meets the state’s legal requirements for the job.

Reynolds has nearly three decades of policy and legislative experience in education at the state and federal levels. But she has no teacher’s license or experience leading a classroom, in apparent violation of a century-old state law requiring the commissioner to be a person “of skill and experience in school administration” and “qualified to teach in the school of the highest standing over which the commissioner has authority.”

Rep. John Ray Clemmons of Nashville, who chairs the House Democratic caucus, and Rep. Sam McKenzie of Knoxville, chairman of the legislature’s Black caucus, said Reynolds should step aside.

“There is no vagueness in this statute,” Clemmons said during a news conference at the state Capitol. “Commissioner Reynolds is legally unqualified, and she must resign.”

If she does not, McKenzie said, Gov. Bill Lee should fire Reynolds and hire a leader who understands the method of teaching, in both theory and practice.

“There are plenty of qualified people out there to lead this great education system we have,” McKenzie said.

Calling for the resignation of Lizzette Reynolds, Rep. John Ray Clemmons points out language in state law listing Tennessee’s requirements to be education commissioner. Clemmons, who is a Nashville Democrat, was joined by (from left) Rep. Ronnie Glynn of Clarksville and Rep. Sam McKenzie of Knoxville.

Reynolds, who has a political science degree from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, was hired last year to succeed Penny Schwinn.

Her job pays $255,000 a year, up from $236,000 when she started in July. The average salary of a licensed Tennessee teacher was $58,594 in 2021-22, according to the department’s most recent annual statistical report.

Reynolds previously was chief deputy education commissioner in Texas and most recently served as vice president of policy for ExcelinEd, founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to pursue education policies that he believes improve student learning and lessen inequities.

The challenge to Reynolds’ credentials comes as she works to implement multiple sweeping policy initiatives passed by Tennessee lawmakers during Lee’s first term in office.

Tennessee is in its first year of operating under a new education funding formula, and also must enforce a controversial 2021 reading law under which thousands of fourth-graders are expected to be held back this year, based on projections for state test results this spring. In addition, the state is overseeing large-scale tutoring and summer programs in response to learning losses during the pandemic. And Lee is seeking a massive statewide expansion of vouchers to let families use government money to send their children to private schools or some home schools.

Asked about the Democrats’ assertions, a spokesperson for the governor defended Reynolds’ experience, saying her credentials qualified her to serve as commissioner.

“We’re proud of the work she’s doing to accelerate academic achievement and support all Tennessee students,” said Elizabeth Lane Johnson, Lee’s press secretary. “Additionally, though not explicitly required by statute, Commissioner Reynolds is currently enrolled in the [University of Tennessee]-Martin Education Preparation Program to expand upon her previous experience.”

In an interview with Chalkbeat last July, three weeks after starting her job, Reynolds said Lee hired her for her ability to roll out policies.

Asked then about her lack of teaching credentials or experience, she talked about her public school experiences as a student and a parent.

“As a parent of public school kids, I’m as close to the classroom as you’re going to get, because I’m a consumer of the public school system,” she said.

The vast majority of Tennessee’s top education officials have been longtime educators with deep knowledge of and experience in the practice of teaching.

For example, Candice McQueen was the dean of Lipscomb University’s College of Education, which the state rates among its top teacher training programs, when Republican Bill Haslam chose her in 2014 to lead the state education department during his second term as governor. She had won multiple awards for her teaching at both the K-12 and college levels.

Lana Seivers, who served as Democrat Phil Bredesen’s education chief from 2003 to 2008, was a teacher, principal, and district superintendent in Tennessee for most of her career. She also served on a long list of state and regional boards related to K-12 and higher education.

Both McQueen and Seivers held multiple graduate degrees in education.

Several other recent commissioners had backgrounds that, like Reynolds, leaned more toward policy and politics. But they also had some non-traditional teaching experience. Schwinn, who preceded Reynolds in the Lee administration, and Kevin Huffman, who was Haslam’s education chief during his first term, started their careers in the classroom through Teach for America. Schwinn also had a brief stint as administrator over a charter school in Sacramento, California.

JC Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, called Lee’s hires to lead the education department a “troubling trend,” even as he praised Reynolds for giving access to stakeholders.

“This governor has spurned people from Tennessee from key roles in state government,” he said. “There are highly qualified people from this state who know this state well.”

Leaders with the the state’s largest teacher organization said the governor should respond to questions that are being raised.

“It is Gov. Lee’s responsibility to know Tennessee state law and the requirements to serve as commissioner of education,” said Tanya T. Coats, president of the Tennessee Education Association. “In appointing the current commissioner, it appears his focus may have been on finding someone who would be on board with his privatization agenda and would enforce policies like A-F school grades that undermine our strong public schools.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from the governor’s press secretary.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools board narrows superintendent search to 3 finalists

2023-12-20T00:06:20+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board voted unanimously Tuesday to narrow its slate of superintendent finalists from five candidates to three, none of whom are from Memphis.

The three finalists advancing to the next round of interviews are:

Yolonda Brown, currently the chief academic officer in Atlanta Public Schools
Marie Feagins, chief of leadership and high schools for Detroit Public Schools Community District
Cheryl Proctor, deputy superintendent of instruction and school communities for Portland Public Schools in Oregon

You can read more about these finalists at the end of this story.

Carlton Jenkins, who recently retired as superintendent of the Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin, and Angela Whitelaw, MSCS’ deputy superintendent of schools and academic support, the two other candidates who interviewed with the board Friday, won’t advance to the next round of interviews.

With Whitelaw off the slate, Memphis is poised to have a school superintendent from outside the city for the first time in more than a decade.

“This is just the beginning,” said board member Joyce Dorse-Coleman, who is leading the search effort along with Stephanie Love. “We’ve started on this, and we’re going to see it all the way through. … We will continue with our community engagement through this process.”

The top three candidates are expected to return to Memphis in the new year for a round of in-depth interviews. Board members are expected to select a permanent superintendent by the spring, and that person would start the job in time for the July 1 start of the new fiscal year and 2024-25 school year.

The three finalists emerged from a group of five leading candidates that search firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates announced to the board on Friday. All five answered a series of questions from the board in interviews that were open for the public to watch. Most of the interviews were about 45 minutes long.

Board members evaluated each of the candidates on a rubric, and community members who attended — about 30 throughout the day — also filled out scoresheets. Tomeka Hart Wigginton, a former Memphis school board member who has helped the board throughout its superintendent search process, shared composite scores with board members Tuesday. Love called Hart Wigginton’s contributions “instrumental.”

The rubric called for evaluating candidates on student achievement (30%), business and finance (20%), governance and board relations (20%), staff relations and leadership (15%), and community relations (15%).

Rankings from board members aligned with the rankings from the community, she said Tuesday.

Brown, Feagins, and Proctor — the finalists the board voted to advance — received the highest marks from Friday’s interviews. None of them has been a superintendent before.

Of nine people who issued public comments before the board vote Tuesday — including two activists who have been critical of the board — most were supportive of the way the board has moved the search forward.

Some members of the community complained that the initial interviews were held during the workday on Friday. Community advocates have pushed for transparency and integrity in the search, and community members and educators want to remain part of the process.

“No superintendent will be successful without us holding them accountable. And so I want us to keep that in mind as we ask them questions,” said board member Amber Huett-Garcia.

“We still have a lot of tough questions for the candidates ahead of us,” she added.

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board is on track with the hiring timeline it set out over the summer, when it relaunched the search for a new superintendent.

Its first attempt unraveled in April amid a board dispute, partly over whether interim Superintendent Toni Williams, the district’s former finance chief, was qualified to take the permanent job. The board agreed to restart the process it began in August 2022, after former Superintendent Joris Ray resigned in a cloud of scandal.

Williams is expected to assist the new leader’s transition, and can stay on as chief financial officer or a consultant after her term as interim superintendent ends, according to her contract.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools hears from new slate of superintendent finalists

2023-12-15T15:51:02+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

Editor’s note: Additional information about the finalists can be found at the bottom of this story.

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board interviewed five finalists for superintendent Friday — including one candidate from the district — as it tries to wrap up a tortuous search that began more than a year ago.

The finalists are:

Yolonda Brown, currently the chief academic officer in Atlanta Public Schools
Marie Feagins, chief of leadership and high schools for Detroit Public Schools Community District
Carlton Jenkins, who recently retired as superintendent of the Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin
Cheryl Proctor, deputy superintendent of instruction and school communities for Portland Public Schools in Oregon
Angela Whitelaw, deputy superintendent of schools and academic support in Memphis-Shelby County Schools

The start of the interview process is a significant step toward hiring a new leader for Tennessee’s largest school district, which has been operating with interim Superintendent Toni Williams in charge since August 2022, when Joris Ray resigned under a cloud of scandal.

The search for Ray’s successor appeared to be nearing an end in the spring, only to collapse as some board members balked at an initial slate of finalists selected by search firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates — and the process that produced them.

The five finalists who interviewed with the board Friday emerged from a group of 22 applicants who sought the job this time around, down from 34 applicants in the previous search attempt. Max McGee, president of Hazard Young, said the search drew candidates from outside Tennessee but also included “strong local interest.”

“I am especially impressed with the breadth and depth of the applicant pool,” McGee said in a statement released by MSCS in November.

Feagins, Jenkins, and Whitelaw also applied in the earlier part of the search process, according to a partial applicant list released at the time, and Jenkins was one of the initial finalists. Brown and Proctor appear to be new applicants.

If the interviews ultimately lead to the selection of a candidate who wins board approval, it will be the first successfully completed national superintendent search since the district was formed in the merger with Shelby County Schools just over a decade ago. The two previous leaders were internal candidates who got promoted: Dorsey Hopson in 2013, and Ray, who took over for Hopson in late 2018.

The board is expected to choose a permanent superintendent early in 2024, and that person would start the job by July 1.

The first attempt to find Ray’s successor unraveled in April amid a board dispute, partly over whether Williams, the district’s former finance chief, was qualified to take the superintendent job. The board agreed to restart the process.

Since then, the board has largely avoided controversy and maintained the revised timeline it laid out in June.

Williams’ contract spells out the ways she could stay with the district when her term as interim chief ends: The next superintendent or the board could reassign her to her previous role as chief financial officer, or give her a chance to stay on as a consultant.

Tomeka Hart Wigginton, a former school board member who helped the board get the search back on track this summer, is expected to play a role in the next phase of the search as well, said board member Joyce Dorse-Coleman, co-chair of the search.

Hart Wigginton will tally the board’s scorecards after this first round of interviews, and announce the results at a public meeting next Tuesday. At that point, the board will narrow the slate to three finalists, using their own evaluations and evaluations from community members to guide their decision.

Those three candidates are expected to be in Memphis in the new year for more extensive interviews in a process that will include more community engagement.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Why this award-winning school superintendent donates his bonus back for his students every year

2023-11-02T10:00:00+00:00

If his school community had to choose between himself and its nine therapy dogs, David Snowden jokes that “the director of schools would have to go.”

Now in his 23rd year as leader of Franklin Special School District, south of Nashville, Snowden has championed the canine program since Mattie Grace became the school system’s first trained therapy dog in 2018.

Five years later, each of the district’s eight schools has a canine companion on site, as does its central office, to provide emotional support to students and staff.

Snowden says the program is popular — and needed. Even before the pandemic, faculty and staff were seeing an increase in student anxiety, depression, and mental distress.

But all of the comfort and joy brought by the pups wouldn’t be financially possible if Snowden hadn’t donated his performance bonus back to his home district to help cover the cost. It’s a practice he’s done every year since coming to his suburban district in 2001 — to acknowledge and reward the collective work of the students, teachers, and staff who surround him.

“It takes a team effort to be successful,” he explained.

In all, Snowden has returned about a quarter of a million dollars in bonus money to pay for various needs over the years, whether to hire tutors, buy chargers for Chromebooks, or provide water bottle refilling stations during the pandemic.

His colleagues call him a “true servant leader,” but his peers across the state recently gave him another title: Tennessee Superintendent of the Year. Because of the honor bestowed on him in September by the state’s superintendents organization, Snowden will represent Tennessee in February in San Diego at the national competition sponsored by the American School Superintendents Association.

In a recent interview with Chalkbeat, Snowden talked about why he chose a career in education, how he tries to bring out the greatness in others, his strategy for dealing with negative politics, and what gives him hope for the future.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What led you to a career in education?

Other than my parents, the most influential and inspiring people in my life were teachers and coaches. Any and all successes I may have had, both personally and professionally, are directly related to their support and mentorship. With my own career, I wanted to provide students with those same positive influences to help them become as successful as possible.

Tell us about your own experience as a student and how it affects your work today.

Growing up in rural Mississippi, I was an average student who enjoyed school but struggled with self-confidence. Fortunately, I had teachers who supported and inspired me to achieve higher than what I thought I could. With those influences, I became a fairly good student by high school. But those early struggles still resonate with me as I watch our great teachers positively connect with and encourage students each day. Every child is not going to excel at the very highest levels, but we know every child can be successful with the help and support of great teachers.

Describe an interaction with a student or teacher that made a lasting impression on you.

When I was an assistant high school principal in Pascagoula, Mississippi, my initial interaction with this particular student didn’t make a lasting impression. However, the note I received from her 20 years after she graduated made me realize that we, as educators, can have a positive impact on the lives of students, even when we don’t immediately see the fruits of our labor.

This young woman was constantly late to school and class and seemed to have a terrible attitude in general. I tried to get through her tough exterior but never thought my counsel resonated. When I wrote her a detention note, she routinely wadded it up like trash as she left my office. She managed to graduate from high school, so that end result was positive. Fast forward 20 years. I received a note from her (written on the back of a detention notice, no less) thanking me for all of our interactions through the years and the advice I had given her. She wrote that she never would have graduated, had it not been for those “tough love” conversations and my support. I still have that note!

What’s the best advice you ever received, and how have you put it into action on the job?

“Be yourself.” “Do your very best each and every day.” “Listen more than talk.”

Leaders shouldn’t try to be someone they are not. No matter how hard they may try, most people can see through the facade.

Doing our best means to never accept the status quo and to always be open to new ideas and growth.

I strive to be a good listener and to model one of Stephen R. Covey’s principles of highly effective people: “Seek first to understand and then to be understood.” If someone doesn’t understand a person, there is no way they can effectively address their problem, issue, or idea. When we are engaged listeners, we understand better.

Kindergarten students at Moore Elementary School surprise Snowden at a 2023 leadership team meeting to congratulate him for his Tennessee Superintendent of the Year award.

What’s one thing you’ve read that has made you a better educator?

Many years ago, I read “Good to Great,” by Jim Collins, about why some companies become great, while others merely remain good. It made me realize the importance of always striving for continuous improvement. “Good is the enemy of great,” he wrote, so we know if we are not improving, we are regressing. He also said that you have to be willing to “face the brutal facts” of why you are not where you want to be in order to achieve greatness. It is important to create a culture of collaboration and trust in order for continuous improvement to occur.

In education, as we constantly analyze and utilize data, we must do our best to determine the root causes of our successes, as well as what’s at the root of areas that need improving.

What were the biggest challenges for you as a school leader during the most recent school year, and how did you address them?

The negativity we heard from some corners about public schools and public school educators in Tennessee was definitely a challenge. Those comments were not based on fact but came from people who want to disparage public education — in my opinion, for their own benefit. We responded by accentuating the positive aspects of public education at every opportunity and highlighting the work of public school teachers in our district and across the state. Our school board members also spoke out publicly about the unfair and unfounded attacks on public education.

What were the biggest rewards?

One of the biggest rewards centered on the resolve of our teachers and leaders to work together for student success, despite the challenging political environment. Our parents were great partners and supporters as they gave our teachers perks on a regular basis and frequently volunteered their time. And we saw continued local investments in facilities for our students, including a new state-of-the-art performing arts center, a new gymnasium, and a new athletic complex. All of these facilities provide our students with high-quality venues to showcase their gifts and talents.

Many students are facing heightened challenges with mental health. What do you think are the root causes, and how is your team helping to support them?

Schools are a microcosm of society, and we’re seeing the struggles of many people from all walks of life. This was true even before the pandemic.

Snowden checks in with Blake, a therapy dog at Franklin Elementary School, and his handler, art teacher Jennifer Alvarado.

We provide training related to trauma and how best to help individuals and groups of students to overcome the residual effects of adverse events. Being better informed about the effects of trauma is important so we can recognize those signs and provide specific support.

Through a partnership with a local clinic that provides behavioral health counseling services, we now have a mental health therapist at every school in our district, most of them five days a week.

In 2018, we launched a therapy dog program with one canine at Johnson Elementary School. The initial plan was to add a dog each year. But seeing the clear positive impact, we fast-tracked the initiative and now have a therapy dog in each school. We even have a dog at the central office to provide support for both students and adults.

How do you take care of yourself when you’re not at work?

The goal is to stay active, whether it’s walking or working out. I enjoy playing golf, which gives me an opportunity to soak up some Vitamin D while trying to improve a not-so-good golf game. My wife, Kathy, and I like to travel, so we are always thinking about our next adventure.

What gives you hope at this moment?

My hope always lies in people and their human spirit. Even though there is a great deal of divisiveness today in our society, we believe that through perseverance, love, and character, we will return as a society to that place of mutual respect and understanding. Obviously, that doesn’t mean everyone will agree on every issue, but we can disagree without being disagreeable. As educators, we have to model how best to interact and effectively communicate with each other to enhance our community, state, and country.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee hires leader to jump-start school turnaround efforts statewide

2023-09-01T01:00:09+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with Memphis-Shelby County Schools and statewide education policy.

Tennessee has appointed a school improvement leader to manage all of its school turnaround work under a powerful new position that will touch urban, suburban, and rural districts.

Bren Elliott, who was a Nashville school administrator from 2001 to 2007 and has been school improvement chief for District of Columbia Public Schools since 2017, will begin her job as state turnaround superintendent on Tuesday.

The Tennessee Department of Education announced Elliott’s hire on Thursday, three years after launching its first search to fill the job. The position is considered key to jump-starting school improvement work in Tennessee, which has helped pioneer several turnaround models with limited success.

Bren Elliott, Tennessee’s new school turnaround leader, returns to the state from Washington, D.C., where she was a school improvement leader. Elliott has previously been a teacher, principal and administrator in Nashville.

She is among the first major hires for Education Commissioner Lizzette Reynolds, who started her job on July 1 with an early focus on school accountability.

Elliott’s experience in school improvement “will be an asset to the state and provide intentional support to these schools to ensure all students receive a high-quality education,” Reynolds said in a statement.

Chief among Elliott’s new responsibilities will be overseeing the Achievement School District, the state’s most aggressive lever for improving low-performing schools. The state-run district, which takes over schools and assigns them mostly to charter operators to manage, has itself struggled, with little to show so far for its turnaround efforts over the past decade.

Elliott also will be responsible for supervising interventions for all 95 of the state’s so-called priority schools — those that score academically in the bottom 5% — as well as schools that need targeted support due to large achievement gaps among groups of historically underserved students such as English language learners, students with disabilities, or those from low-income families.

In all, nearly 300 Tennessee schools fall in those categories.

She will also work closely with local leaders of district-level turnaround initiatives, from the Innovation Zone in Memphis and Nashville to the Partnership Network in Chattanooga.

“I look forward to working with our schools most in need of support and intervention, including the Achievement School District, to improve student achievement and help all students in these schools succeed,” said Elliott.

Turnaround efforts are at a crossroads

For many local school improvement leaders, the education department’s naming of a statewide turnaround chief came as a surprise. Under Gov. Bill Lee, the department launched multiple searches to fill the job, even naming three finalists in 2021. But those searches stalled due to the pandemic, budget issues, and uncertainties about what direction the state wanted to take its turnaround work.

Victoria Robinson, the department’s spokeswoman, said making the hire was a priority for Reynolds.

“Dr. Elliott was identified several months ago as a potential candidate, and since that time has completed the interview, hiring and other processes with the state, including with Commissioner Reynolds and TDOE leadership,” Robinson said.

Reynolds has not said what she has planned for the ASD and other turnaround work. State law gives the commissioner the authority to identify schools for state takeover and place them in the ASD.

Under Reynolds’ predecessor, Penny Schwinn, the department unveiled a new vision for the ASD that would have had a “smaller footprint” and new takeovers, but none of the updates materialized.

The ASD, which launched in 2012, has been mostly a disappointment. Under charter management, its schools typically performed no better than low-performing schools receiving no intervention. As a result, Tennessee has not taken control of a neighborhood school since taking over four in Memphis in 2016.

Most of the ASD’s schools are Memphis, with a few in Nashville, but the district has shrunk by more than half to just over a dozen schools in recent years. A few have closed, some have returned to their local districts, and many that have shown the most improvement have moved under the oversight of a new state commission for public charter schools.

A lack of steady leadership in the ASD has complicated the complex exit process for schools once their charter contracts expire. The district’s last leader, Lisa Settle, departed in summer 2022. Since then, other staff with the education department have managed it.

Elliott has Tennessee ties

Elliott, who is a member of Chiefs for Change, an influential national education leadership network, is a native of North Carolina and no stranger to Tennessee.

She was a teacher and administrator in Nashville public schools for 15 years, and spent her last year at the district as a director focused on priority schools. She earned her master’s degree from Tennessee State University.

In 2020, Elliott lost a bid to become director of Metro Nashville Public Schools to Adrienne Battle, who was the interim leader at the time. This summer, Elliott was a superintendent finalist for Huntsville City Schools in Alabama, which also picked its interim leader instead.

Before joining the Washington, D.C., school district, she spent eight years as an administrator for two school districts in North Carolina, where she focused on support services for students in Wake and Guilford counties.

As the state’s overarching turnaround leader, Elliott also will work with local officials who manage district-run turnaround models.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools operates the Innovation Zone with funding assistance from the state. The so-called iZone gives its schools autonomy over curricular, financial, scheduling, and staffing decisions, similar to charter schools.

State officials also have worked closely with Hamilton County Schools’ Partnership Network, a model that seeks greater collaboration between the state and the local district.

But the ASD is the state’s most scrutinized turnaround program.

This spring, state Rep. Antonio Parkinson received bipartisan support for a bill that would revamp the state’s turnaround model and halt school takeovers altogether.

On Thursday, the Memphis Democrat said the department needs a school turnaround leader, whether his legislation passes or not next year.

“We need to be utilizing and putting our efforts and resources behind those practices that actually work,” Parkinson said, “and stop feeding millions and millions of dollars into the practices that didn’t work.”

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Tennessee’s new education chief says implementing policy is her strength and the governor’s priority

2023-07-24T10:00:00+00:00

Three weeks into her job as Tennessee’s education chief, Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds says her charge from Gov. Bill Lee is to implement existing major policy changes — from how reading is taught to the continued rollout of private school vouchers — not to craft new initiatives.

She feels prepared for that role, having overseen state-level education policy work in Texas for nearly a decade, including six years as its No. 2 administrator. She also has years of policy and political experience at the federal level, and most recently led policy work for the advocacy group ExcelinEd, founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

“Implementation is kind of my sweet spot,” Reynolds said. “When I was chief deputy commissioner in Texas, that’s what I did.”

Among her priorities in Tennessee: executing new programs to develop stronger readers; troubleshooting the switch to a new K-12 funding formula as of July 1; strengthening school models to prepare students for success after high school; and operating and expanding Lee’s controversial voucher program that gives taxpayer money to eligible students to attend private schools.

Meanwhile, much of the work to roll out a comprehensive new school safety package, approved this spring after a mass school shooting in Nashville, has shifted under a new law to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

Since her official start on July 1, Reynolds’ schedule has been packed with meetings with staff, lawmakers, government officials, and education stakeholders.

Among the latter is JC Bowman, executive director of the Professional Educators of Tennessee, who described Reynolds as “straightforward and direct.”

“She made it clear that she is here to serve students and educators in Tennessee. … I think she will do well here if she will stay above the political fray,” said Bowman, who was a frequent critic of Reynolds’ predecessor, Penny Schwinn.

This week, the new commissioner travels to Memphis, home to the state’s largest school district, for introductions with local officials and community leaders.

Last week, in her first media interview since Lee announced her hiring in May, Reynolds sat down with Chalkbeat to talk about her background, priorities, and leadership style. Since she’s on a learning curve in a new state, questions about policy specifics were off the table.

But she was open about her own K-12 experiences as a public school kid growing up in Harlingen, Texas, a heavily Hispanic community in the Rio Grande Valley near the U.S.-Mexico border.

She described how, as a Hispanic American and a female, she experienced discrimination. As a first-generation college graduate and the oldest of four children of working-class parents, she benefited from scholarships and financial aid. And, as a parent of three children, one of whom was diagnosed with a disability in elementary school, she tapped both public and private schools to find the best fit for her family.

Reynolds said she jumped at the chance to join the administration of Lee, a Republican businessman who pushed for sweeping changes to education in his first term and was easily reelected last year.

“Tennessee has always been the bellwether state of doing things that challenge the adults in the system to continue to do better,” she said. “I want to be part of that story.”

Below are highlights of Chalkbeat’s interview, which has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Getting to know you on a personal level, describe your own education experience. Did you go to public schools? Private schools? How did they shape you?

My only early experience in a private school was attending a Catholic school in pre-K. From kindergarten through 12th grade, I went to public schools in Harlingen.

From an early age, my mom drilled into me that “you got to go to college.” So I was always in a competition to be at the top of my class. I was going to be an astronaut, by God!

“I was going to be an astronaut, by God!”

I loved math but, when I took trigonometry in high school and it wasn’t connecting, my teacher was like, “You know, you’re a girl. You really don’t need to be doing this. You probably should just drop my class.” So I did.

I was shy and I couldn’t wait to get out of Harlingen. I was blessed with a great school counselor. When I told her I wanted to go to college, she said, “OK, here’s what you need to do.”

I got a merit scholarship to attend Southwestern University, where people in the financial aid office became my best friends and I was able to cover tuition increases through a combination of work-study and Pell grants. By then, I wanted to become an accountant. But after taking a political science class with a truly dynamic professor, I changed my mind. I wanted to save the world.

Your selection was announced by the governor’s office on the same day that Schwinn’s impending departure was announced. How did you come to this job?

A lot of the work I did for the Foundation for Excellence in Education (ExcelinEd) was not only to advocate for its policy agenda but to work across the country with other advocates and supporters and philanthropy. I was on the proverbial “list” of people across the country who might be interested in being a state-level deputy or chief. And I’ve paid my dues. I had thought maybe I might lead the Texas Education Agency someday. But I wasn’t actively looking. I’d been at ExcelinEd almost seven years and loved my job.

This spring, the governor’s office here called and wanted to talk about Tennessee’s chief position and I said, ‘Of course I’ll talk.’ What a great opportunity to meet Gov. Lee, who had a great relationship with Gov. Bush. (During the week of April 11) I came to Nashville and met with (Chief Operating Officer) Brandon Gibson and then interviewed with the governor the next day.

“Tennessee has always been the bellwether state of doing things that challenge the adults in the system to continue to do better.”

When I walked into his office, everybody was so awesome. Gov. Lee looked at me and said, “Why do you want to be commissioner of education in Tennessee?” I basically said, “Who wouldn’t want to be commissioner here?” Tennessee has always been the bellwether state of doing things that challenge the adults in the system to continue to do better. It’s still strong in accountability and assessment. There’s great work passed in this administration and previous administrations. And then, just the fact that the governor really cares about education, that it’s a priority.

Tennessee is just a good place to be. I want to be part of that story and the continued success of this state with kids. At this agency, we don’t touch kids every day, but we help influence what happens in the classroom because of the supports and resources that we provide.

When I walked out of the governor’s office, I said to myself, ‘I want to work for that man and I’m going to be really disappointed if I don’t get the offer.’

About a week and a half later, I got the offer.

What did you and Gov. Lee talk about in your interview? Why do you think he picked you?

Bottom line, this job was going to be about implementation and execution of the agenda passed through the legislature and through his leadership and (Penny Schwinn’s) leadership at the agency. A lot has already been done. Now the hard work is the implementation piece and that is kind of my sweet spot.

“Tennessee is where reform really percolated and expanded and continues to live.”

When I was chief deputy commissioner in Texas, that’s what I did: Making sure resources are there, thinking about the right resources, bringing folks in to support those implementation efforts — all the pieces of the puzzle that need to come together to ensure that kids and educators get what they need to be successful.

But sometimes implementation also requires you to say no to some things or to certain vendors.

Because of your policy work with ExcelinEd, with its focus on school choice and privatization, many stakeholders think your selection suggests that voucher expansion and advancing choice programs are Job One for you under this administration. How would you respond?

First of all, it’s not about privatization. Our No. 1 priority at ExcelinEd was to improve the system because we know that about 90% of our kids are in a public school system. Second priority is the options outside the system, which includes ESAs (education savings accounts, a kind of private school voucher), charter schools, open enrollment, public school choice, letting parents go where they want to go in the public school system. Third priority is reimagining the system, so really thinking about what other ways we can develop these comprehensive high schools. That’s how we think at ExcelinEd, and that’s why I think I was a good candidate for this job.

Yes, ESAs are part of the package, but it’s not the only package. There is no silver bullet when it comes to education. ESAs are great, but they’re not for everybody. It all depends on the parents and the families and what they want to do and what options they want to pursue.

It wasn’t that long ago that a Tennessee governor wouldn’t think of choosing an education commissioner who didn’t have teaching experience. But you don’t, nor do you have a teaching license. How will you have “street cred” with educators here, given that your background is primarily in policy and politics?

As a parent of public school kids, I’m as close to the classroom as you’re going to get because I’m a consumer of the public school system. To say that my experience is irrelevant, I don’t think it’s very fair. But in that vein, I also want to listen and learn. Earlier today, for instance, I met with folks at the Tennessee Education Association (the state’s largest teacher group).

I’ve got to come at it with empathy and support. Have I done their job every day? No, I haven’t. But we’re all in this together. I’m going to listen. I’m going to engage and implement in a way that is fair and where the decision-making is transparent.

The department has had a number of significant departures in recent months, including Chief Academic Officer Lisa Coons and Deputy Commissioner Eve Carney, who was a veteran manager responsible for many of the state’s biggest education programs and initiatives. How are you building out your cabinet and filling out gaps in leadership? Will you look inside or outside of the state?

I’m looking for the best qualified folks, but my preference is to find people in Tennessee. We just hired Kristy Brown from Jackson as our chief academic officer. We need to fill the role of chief program officer, and I’d love to find a Tennessean for that. I don’t feel the need to look outside of the state because I think there’s a lot of qualified people here. Tennessee is where reform really percolated and expanded and continues to live.

Have you and your family officially moved from Texas to Tennessee, or do you plan to?

I’m here and I’m moving soon into a place in East Nashville. My husband is staying in Austin with our youngest son, who’s a rising junior, until he finishes high school. Our son wants to look at colleges here, so I’m super excited.

I don’t know if I’ll go back to Austin to live. We’ll see.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

MSCS board prepares to reactivate superintendent search with key votes

2023-06-13T03:39:41+00:00

After two months of discussions, Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members are ready to put their search for a new superintendent back in motion.

The board is poised for a set of pivotal votes on Tuesday to reactivate the stalled search, including one to settle a question that has sown divisions on the board and in the community since April: whether one of the finalists, interim Superintendent Toni Williams, is qualified under board policy to be a candidate for the permanent job.

Board members also plan to vote on adopting a formal list of qualifications and on whether to expand the pool of candidates under consideration. The board last month signaled its interest in taking both these actions.

Tuesday’s planned votes cap a period of intensive discussions aimed at uniting board members behind a shared understanding of what they want in the next leader of Tennessee’s largest school district, and reassuring the public that MSCS can complete a search with integrity and transparency. They have not set a new target date for getting it done.

Tomeka Hart Wigginton, a former Memphis school board member who has facilitated recent board meetings, has told board members the end date is less important than doing the process right.

“It moves at the pace of trust,” Hart Wigginton said. “And that’s what’s making it hard.”

Said board Vice Chair Sheleah Harris: “I still feel like we’re running in molasses.”

The decisions will clearly have ramifications for Williams and possibly other candidates. But the board’s own image — among Memphians and educators watching elsewhere — is also on the line.

Tuesday’s meeting offers board members a chance to showcase the results of their efforts over the past two months to improve their governance and provide better leadership to a school district whose 100,000 students have urgent academic needs. A successful set of votes would be a step toward regaining public trust that has eroded since former Superintendent Joris Ray departed in scandal last year.

Board compiles its own list of qualifications

MSCS’ search for Ray’s successor ran aground in April, when search firm Hazard, Young, Attea, and Associates presented a slate of finalists that left some board members dissatisfied with the candidates and the process. The top criticism was that board members didn’t have enough input on the criteria and qualifications that Hazard Young used to evaluate candidates and determine the finalists. Board members have acknowledged they didn’t discuss these issues enough publicly.

The discussions since then to produce a proposed set of qualifications led board members to acknowledge that, for the most part, they had more in common than they assumed. Getting there revealed how much they had not communicated about beforehand, and how much they still needed to do.

Many of the qualifications they included in their formal list are similar to what Hazard Young listed in its rubric, but the two lists are not identical. The board’s list also has some overlap with community interests identified in a report by KQ Communications, the PR firm that was working with the board on soliciting public input.

Here’s the full list of proposed qualifications that the board plans to vote on:

Strategic leadership on budget and finance
Governance and board leadership
Community advocate
Courageous decision maker
Politically savvy
Attract, retain, and build capacity of a strong team
Ability to positively impact culture and climate
Dynamic, visionary, adaptive leader
Proven track record of success
Effective change management
Strong academic visionary

Board members are expected to learn from Hazard Young whether these qualifications are all represented in the firm’s existing evaluations of candidates, and then determine if any part of the rubric needs to be changed.

Vote would resolve Williams’ status

Along with the search criteria, the board intends to resolve questions about how to apply its existing policies on the minimum job qualifications for a superintendent. That issue emerged as a point of contention after Williams, the interim superintendent, applied for the permanent post, despite reassurances that she didn’t plan to.

Williams, the district’s former finance chief, does not have the minimum in-school experience required for a superintendent under board policy. Hazard Young did not incorporate the board’s experience requirement when it evaluated candidates in the spring, allowing Williams to make the finalist list.

On Tuesday, though, the board will consider the policy in a separate vote. The policy offers the board an option to approve “equivalents” to the required in-school experience. Board members are expected to discuss these options in a committee meeting Tuesday afternoon before the vote.

“You can’t get around your policy,” Hart Wigginton said. “You’ve either got to change your policy, or you’ve got to implement your policy.”

Williams’ contract as interim superintendent is set to expire in August, one year after she was appointed. The board has not yet completed her performance evaluation, which was due May 1 under the terms of the contract.

The board is considering amending the contract in a vote later this month.

Chalkbeat has an outstanding open records request for application materials from other applicants.

The board will begin committee meetings at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the board office at 160 S. Hollywood St. The special voting meeting will begin at 6 p.m. The school board’s website has more information about attending the meeting online or in person.

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Key Tennessee education official Eve Carney resigns amid leadership transition

2023-06-05T23:30:24+00:00

Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the Shelby County public school system and statewide education policy.

The leadership transition at the Tennessee Department of Education accelerated this week with the resignations of two high-level officials, including a veteran manager responsible for many of the state’s biggest education programs and initiatives.

Deputy Commissioner Eve Carney will step down on June 30, a department spokesperson confirmed Monday.

The departure of Meghan McLeroy, the department’s chief officer responsible for supporting schools and districts statewide, is effective Aug. 1, the spokesperson said.

A staff member with the department since 2008, Carney currently oversees state-level work involving federal programs, school choice, testing, accountability, school improvement, and the state-run Achievement School District for low-performing schools. She is among the deepest wells of institutional knowledge within the department.

Her resignation comes at a critical time as Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds prepares to take the helm of the department on July 1 after Penny Schwinn ended her four-year tenure as commissioner last week.

Carney — who is one of four remaining members from Schwinn’s original cabinet — was expected to play a key role in helping Reynolds as the new commissioner from Texas faces myriad challenges.

Tennessee is shifting to a new education funding formula on July 1, enforcing a controversial new third-grade retention policy for struggling readers, operating large-scale tutoring and summer learning programs to help students catch up from the pandemic, expanding its private school voucher program to a third major city, and fortifying its school buildings after a Nashville school shooting left three students and three staff members dead on March 27.

The state also is scheduled to start giving A-to-F grades to its 1,700-plus public schools this fall after delaying the new accountability policy for five years because of testing and data disruptions, most recently caused by the pandemic.

A former Tennessee high school teacher and former chief of districts and schools for the department, Carney became Schwinn’s go-to manager to oversee high-level, high-profile programs.

She often stepped in to provide oversight amid employee turnover in Schwinn’s first months on the job. And last summer, when the Tennessee Supreme Court lifted a 2-year-old order to let the state resume work on its new private school voucher program, Schwinn turned to Carney to launch the rollout in a matter of weeks.

Carney was viewed as a possible successor to Schwinn, especially after Chiefs for Change, a national network of education leaders, named her in January to its latest cohort of “future chiefs,” considered a springboard for administrators seeking top jobs.

But in May, when Schwinn announced plans to step down at the end of the school year, Gov. Bill Lee went out of state to find his new education chief. Reynolds has political and policy experience in Texas and Washington, D.C., and most recently oversaw policy for the advocacy group ExcelinEd, founded by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Lee also named Sam Pearcy, the department’s deputy commissioner of operations, to serve as interim education commissioner until Reynolds’ arrival. Pearcy was sworn in on June 2, after Schwinn’s last day on June 1, said department spokesperson Brian Blackley.

An alum of Teach for America, Pearcy joined the department in 2011 as part of the team overseeing school reform work under Tennessee’s $500 million award for the federal Race to the Top program.

McLeroy, another early member of Schwinn’s cabinet, has been with the department since 2011. She also initially helped to lead the state’s Race to the Top work.

The department plans to reassign Carney’s and McLeroy’s responsibilities to existing staff by the end of June, Blackley said.

Earlier this spring, Lisa Coons, the state’s chief academic officer, left Tennessee to become superintendent of public instruction for Virginia’s education department.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Texan Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds to lead Tenn. education department as Penny Schwinn exits

2023-05-01T20:01:44+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the Shelby County public school system and statewide education policy.

Penny Schwinn will step down as Tennessee’s education chief at the end of this school year and be replaced by a former Texas administrator who currently oversees policy for the Jeb Bush-founded advocacy group ExcelinEd.

Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds will become the first Hispanic American to lead Tennessee’s education department when she starts her job on July 1.

Meanwhile, Schwinn told reporters Monday that she plans to continue living in Tennessee and will share her next venture at a later date.

“It’s just the right time for me and my family,” said Schwinn, a mother of three young children, about leaving after more than four years as education commissioner.

The changes, announced Monday by Gov. Bill Lee, come at a critical time for the state’s 1 million public school students and just a few months into the second term of an administration that has been one of the most active in history on changing education policies.

Tennessee is shifting to a new education funding formula, enforcing a controversial new third-grade retention policy for struggling readers, operating large-scale tutoring and summer learning programs to help students catch up from the pandemic, expanding its private school voucher program to a third major city, and fortifying its school buildings after a Nashville school shooting left six people dead on March 27. Replenishing Tennessee’s teacher supply is also a priority.

Reynolds brings policy experience, if not classroom chops

In Reynolds, Lee has chosen a leader who is heavy on political and policy experience but who has little to no experience leading a classroom.

Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds

In conjunction with her appointment, she will actively work toward her Tennessee teaching license.

“The governor has full confidence in her ability to serve Tennessee students, families, and teachers,” said Jade Byers, Lee’s spokeswoman.

Reynolds graduated in 1987 with a political science degree from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, before embarking on nearly three decades of policy and legislative work in education at the state and federal levels.

In her home state, she was deputy legislative director for then-Gov. George W. Bush and later served as chief deputy commissioner for the Texas Education Agency.

At the federal level, she worked in the Bush administration under U.S. education secretaries Rod Paige and Margaret Spellings.

Since 2016, Reynolds has been vice president of policy for ExcelinEd, launched by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in 2008 to pursue education policies that he believes improve student learning and lessen inequities. They include emphasizing early literacy and school accountability, and giving families more education choices such as charter schools and vouchers.

She currently sits on the boards of several nonprofit education organizations, including KnowledgeWorks Foundation and the Texas-based charter school operator IDEA Public Schools. Her LinkedIn profile also lists advanced studies in education leadership from the Pahara Institute.

Schwinn leaves with a mixed record

Schwinn’s departure comes after more than four tumultuous years of overseeing schools during a global pandemic and while ushering in sweeping changes in how the state funds its schools and students, and how it teaches its students how to read.

The pandemic, she said, was easily her greatest challenge, spurring Tennessee to become a national leader in providing specialized programs to bolster learning for students who fell behind.

“When we look at the last four and a half years and the pretty incredible challenges that we’ve faced in education across this country, I cannot think of a state that has shown more leadership than Tennessee,” she said.

Schwinn was 36 when Lee hired her for one of his most important cabinet jobs days before his first inauguration in 2019.

She had been on a fast track after starting her career in 2004 in Baltimore with Teach for America and later founding Capitol Collegiate Academy, a charter school in her hometown of Sacramento, California, where she still serves on the board of directors. Schwinn served briefly in leadership roles for Sacramento’s school district and Delaware’s department of education before becoming chief deputy commissioner of academics for Texas in 2016.

Her tenure in Tennessee has been marked by both big wins and big controversies.

She helped Lee deliver a major victory last year with the rewrite of the state’s 30-year-old education funding formula to let funding follow the student, and set aside more money for students with higher needs. She also shepherded numerous major initiatives, including a comprehensive plan to improve literacy, help students recover from pandemic learning loss, and expand grow-your-own teacher training programs.

But in her first nine months on the job, nearly a fifth of the education department’s employees left, mostly from resignations. And early on, she frustrated lawmakers who said she rolled out initiatives and took administrative shortcuts without ample legislative input, review, or approval.

On Monday, Schwinn thanked Lee for “taking a chance on me,” adding: “It has been a very tough and very rewarding job.”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with new information about Reynolds.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Community panel advising MSCS on superintendent search sets first public meeting

2023-01-17T20:33:17+00:00

As the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board prepares to select a firm to head its national search for a new superintendent, a community advisory committee will hold its first public meeting this week to discuss how the board should conduct the application and interview process.

The meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday at the MSCS board auditorium, the board announced in a press release Tuesday.

The board-appointed committee includes representatives from local advocacy groups and nonprofits such as Memphis LIFT, Bridges, Literacy Mid-South, Whitehaven Empowerment Zone, MICAH, Memphis Education Fund, and Stand for Children.

On Tuesday, the board identified the four search firms that had applied to lead the search: They are: Alma Advisory Group of Chicago; GR Recruiting of Fountain Hills, Arizona; Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates of Schaumburg, Illinois; and Ray and Associates of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Several board members said last week that they’d like the board to vote to pick a search firm by the end of the month. The board’s next business meeting is Jan. 31.

Board Chair Althea Greene; Kenneth Walker, the district’s general counsel and chief legal officer; and Quintin Robinson, the district’s newly appointed chief of human resources, will review the applications and recommend one search firm to the board ahead of its vote.

“We look forward to a final vote on the search team so we can move to the next step in the MSCS Super Search,” Greene said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the board also reminded the public of two remaining public input sessions. The first session, targeting the Spanish-speaking community, will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Kingsbury High School. The last meeting will be held at noon Saturday at the MSCS board auditorium. The board’s online survey will also remain open until Sunday.

After the meetings, Greene said, KQ Communications, which the board hired to handle media relations for the superintendent search and host the community meetings, will compile feedback to be provided to the search firm in February.

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Cleared of wrongdoing, two top MSCS officials opt to leave their posts

2022-11-19T02:24:10+00:00

John Barker, a Memphis-Shelby County Schools deputy superintendent who was on leave pending an investigation into a complaint against him, has retired from the district.

Additionally, the official who made the complaint, district human resources chief Yolanda Martin, has resigned in the wake of an investigation of a separate complaint against her last month.

The district announced the two moves in a press release late Friday. According to the release, the investigations found no evidence of wrongdoing by Barker or Martin. It said both were eligible to return to their jobs, but opted not to.

Barker, deputy superintendent for strategic operations and finance, “decided instead to retire from MSCS and pursue other opportunities,” the release read. “We accept his decision yet share our appreciation for his longstanding service to our school community in various roles, including Director of Research and Evaluation, Chief of Staff, and his position as Deputy Superintendent.”

Martin, the district said, “elected to pursue other professional endeavors,” noting her service as a teacher, assistant principal, instructional leadership director and human resources leader.

“Her support and leadership will not soon be forgotten, and we wish her well with her next opportunity and beyond,” it said.

Barker was placed on paid leave in September as the district investigated an employee complaint against him. The employee turned out to be Martin, who, according to a letter obtained by The Commercial Appeal, said that she was subjected to ongoing harassment based on race and sex from Barker, whom she directly reported to.

The investigation into Martin began a month later. Martin told Chalkbeat she believed the nature of the complaint was retaliatory, but MSCS board chair Althea Greene said it wasn’t related to its probe of Barker

Another member of MSCS’ executive cabinet will take on Barker’s duties, according to the release, while MSCS has hired a new chief of human resources, Quintin Robinson, who is set to start on Nov. 28.

The investigations followed the departure in August of former Superintendent Joris Ray, who was himself under investigation into allegations that he abused his power and violated the district’s code of conduct.

The departure of two more district leaders comes in the midst of big challenges for MSCS, including academic recovery from the COVID pandemic, declining enrollment, teacher shortages, rising gun violence, and the search for Ray’s successor. The search is expected to run into next summer.

Samantha West contributed to this story.

Tennessee election: Gov. Bill Lee wins second term, will prioritize education again

2022-11-09T01:26:16+00:00

Gov. Bill Lee cruised to a second term in office in Tuesday’s election, partly on his campaign pledge to Tennessee parents and teachers to “make the most of the next four years” on education. But he offered few details on exactly what that will mean.

The Associated Press reported that election results showed the Republican governor easily defeated Dr. Jason Martin, a Nashville physician and the Democratic Party’s nominee, whom he declined to debate. The ruby-red state hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office since 2006.

Lee’s landslide victory sets up the governor to claim a mandate for whatever he proposes through 2026, or to support any ambitions he might have for national office.

In his victory speech Tuesday evening, the governor said he will continue to elevate parental rights. He also touted public school investments under his administration, as well as expanding choices for families “who want something a little different for their kid” than traditional public schools.

“I’ll remind you for the next four years ... that those two ideas are not in conflict with each other,” Lee said. “We can fund public schools and provide alternative opportunities for children at the same time if we are committed to funding students and not systems.”

During his campaign, Lee has been short on details about his second-term agenda for education. Instead, he’s emphasized staying the course on his first-term accomplishments, including rewriting Tennessee’s 30-year-old education funding formula, expanding middle and high school access to career and technical training, and grounding reading instruction in phonics.

Lee’s final 30-second campaign ad — part of a $3.2 million campaign spending blitz in October — also touted safer classrooms and ended with this promise: “Parents and teachers, you have my word that we’ll make the most of the next four years.”

Campaign spokeswoman Laine Arnold said the ad signaled Lee’s “intent to continue making education a top priority.”

Asked on the eve of Election Day for specifics about his education priorities for his second term, Lee said he again wants to invest more money toward teacher pay and further expand education choices through charter schools and private school vouchers. He also wants to continue prioritizing vocational, technical, and agricultural education.

“These are all things that we have implemented in the last four years, but we now have to make certain that those are growing, that they’re invested in, and that there’s significant improvement in all areas,” the governor told reporters during his final campaign stop in Franklin, south of Nashville.

Gov. Bill Lee speaks to a small crowd during his final campaign stop on Nov. 7, 2022, in Franklin, Tennessee, where Lee graduated from a public high school in 1977.

But Democrats — who are still smarting that Lee pushed through a private school voucher law with a controversial, razor-thin vote during his first year in office — are interpreting the governor’s vague TV promise on education as an ominous threat.

They expect Lee and another GOP legislative supermajority to try to expand his education savings account program to shift more taxpayer money from public to private schools. Currently, the program is limited to Memphis and Nashville.

Democrats also expect more proposals to censor books and instruction in public schools.

In 2021, Tennessee became one of the first states to enact a law, which Lee signed, to restrict K-12 classroom discussions about the legacy of slavery, racism, and white privilege.

This year, Lee pushed through a law requiring reviews of school and classroom library collections. He signed a second measure that authorizes the state textbook commission to ban challenged materials statewide if its appointed members deem them “inappropriate” for students’ ages and maturity levels.

As for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Lee has said students should be taught that the deadly 2021 insurrection was a day of “lawlessness” by individual attackers. He has not referenced the broader plot, still under federal investigation, to disrupt the transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.

“Republicans have already started to systematically eradicate history in textbooks and ban teachings related to race, gender identity, and sexuality,” said Rep. Vincent Dixie, a Nashville Democrat who chairs his party’s House caucus. “Four more years under this leadership will only lead to more micromanagement of school curricula and stricter fines and punishment for our already overworked and underpaid educators.”

Lee won big despite a major misstep

A businessman and farmer from affluent Williamson County, near Nashville, Lee surprised both political parties four years ago when he survived a bruising primary race and won his first bid for public office to become Tennessee’s 50th governor.

Campaigning for more education choices for families and vocational training options for students, he made education a top priority and used the state’s GOP muscle to pass much of his agenda.

But Lee suffered a humiliating blow this year after inviting the president of Michigan’s conservative Hillsdale College to bring up to 100 charter schools to Tennessee, only to have a Hillsdale-linked charter group withdraw its first three applications after a Lee-appointed panel found the proposals weren’t up to snuff.

Lee also was stung by public outrage — and criticized by numerous members of his own political party — after a leaked video showed him sitting silently at a private reception in June as Hillsdale’s president, Larry Arnn, mocked teachers, their training programs, and diversity officers. The governor declined to disavow Arnn’s remarks or disaffiliate with Hillsdale. Instead, he blamed “left-wing activism in public education” as hurting the “genuine work of our teachers.”

At the time, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally called Arnn’s comments “ill-conceived, unfortunate and untrue.” This week, the legislature’s top GOP leader said Lee’s accomplishments have offset any of the governor’s missteps over Arnn’s comments.

“I think voters have been looking at his entire record,” said McNally, who’s from Oak Ridge. “He was dealt the worst hand of any governor I can remember — with COVID, floods, tornadoes, and protests. I think he’s handled it very well.”

Dr. Jason Martin campaigns to be governor.

But Martin, a critical care doctor, said it was the governor’s hands-off approach to the COVID pandemic that spurred him to run against Lee. The Democratic nominee also criticized Lee-backed school voucher, charter, and censorship policies for giving the state ultimate control over those decisions at the expense of locally elected officials.

Other critics have said it’s hypocritical for Lee’s campaign ads to claim that children, families, and moms have been his “top priority,” when he has not supported expanding Medicaid. That position has cost Tennessee billions of dollars in federal health care benefits for the working poor.

The governor also helped to grow the state’s rainy day fund to record levels while its Department of Children’s Services — the state agency charged with caring for abused, neglected, and foster children — is severely understaffed and short of beds for children taken into custody.

Next steps: Shaping another term in office

Fresh from his Election Day victory, Lee will kick off budget hearings Wednesday to prepare for his 2023-24 state spending proposal, which he’ll present to the Tennessee General Assembly several weeks after lawmakers convene on Jan. 10.

Budget discussions about K-12 education with Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn are listed second on the four-day schedule.

Months before his reelection, Lee pledged to invest an additional $1 billion in students and schools next fiscal year, when federal pandemic relief funding is set to run out and the state’s new funding formula kicks in.

But while Lee was considered a heavy favorite for a second term in office, many education stakeholders have wondered privately whether Schwinn will stay on.

The former Texas academic chief shepherded the governor’s major initiatives, including strategies to improve literacy and help students recover from pandemic learning loss, as well as expanding grow-your-own teacher training programs and implementing a new education funding formula that lets money follow the student, plus sets aside more money for students with higher needs.

But in her first nine months on the job, nearly a fifth of the education department’s employees left, mostly from resignations. And early on, she frustrated lawmakers for rolling out initiatives and taking administrative shortcuts without ample legislative input, review, or approval, even as she led Tennessee through the pandemic, considered the biggest education upheaval in modern history.

Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn

Asked last month if she expected to continue her role for a second term, Schwinn said she and Lee “have had those conversations.”

“I plan to be here, and we’re moving full steam ahead,” she told Chalkbeat.

She cited the state’s strategic plans on literacy, student acceleration, innovative school models, grow-your-own teacher training programs, and the state’s new funding formula.

“We are really proud of these big pieces of legislation that have passed and the interventions and work,” she said. “Now we have to double down and stay the course.”

Clarification: Nov. 21, 2022: A previous version of this story said early employee turnover had been high in the education department and that Schwinn’s future in the second term of Gov. Lee’s administration was less certain than his. This version reports early employee turnover data and clarifies that numerous stakeholders have wondered if Schwinn would stay in her role for a second term.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Here is what Tennessee governor, Democratic challenger say on education

2022-10-07T14:00:19+00:00

Gov. Bill Lee and his Democratic challenger, Dr. Jason Martin, agree that Tennessee students need timely and relevant vocational training opportunities, but the two candidates for governor don’t concur on much else when it comes to K-12 education.

In fact, the two men hold widely divergent positions on charter schools, book bans, the state’s new third-grade retention law, and most of the biggest education issues facing Tennessee for the next few years, according to their responses to Chalkbeat’s 2022 candidates survey.

Lee, a Williamson County businessman and farmer who was elected governor in his first run for public office, staunchly defends initiatives he’s championed since 2019 to give the state more control — at the expense of local officials — over classroom instruction, books, school choice, and education spending.

“Nothing is off the table when it comes to expanding opportunities for Tennessee families,” the Republican governor responded when asked if he wants to widen the state’s recently launched private school voucher program beyond Memphis and Nashville, where local officials opposed the policy.

Martin, a Nashville physician who has been critical of Lee’s hands-off approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Tennessee’s biggest educational challenges are rooted in inadequate school funding and wraparound services to support students both in and out of the classroom. Making his own first bid for public office, he consistently sides with policies that uphold local education control.

“Decisions that affect our schools, teachers, and students should be made by those closest to the community,” Martin said when asked about a new law allowing a state panel to overrule school board decisions and ban certain library books statewide.

Election Day is Nov. 8, with early voting from Oct. 19 to Nov. 3.

Below, you can read our questions and the candidates’ responses, which have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.

Chalkbeat: COVID-19 has caused the biggest disruption to education in modern history. What is the single most important way the governor can help stabilize and support Tennessee school communities moving forward?

Lee: In January 2021, we called a special legislative session to address learning loss. That action made Tennessee a national leader in early interventions for kids. With the help of partners in the General Assembly, we created summer learning camps and targeted interventions for literacy. Recent data — including state test scores showing that reading proficiency has returned to pre-pandemic levels in almost all grades — suggests Tennessee students are recovering well. We will build on those efforts.

Martin: Tennessee schools would not have been hit nearly as hard during the pandemic had our schools been properly funded before. Ranking 45th in the nation in per-pupil spending, we need a better way to fund our schools that takes into account the different economies across communities and resources needed for each district. We must reevaluate our state’s education funding formula to make sure teachers are paid a fair salary and schools have the resources to keep kids healthy, educated, and safe. Those include more social workers, guidance counselors, and after-school programs. We also must ensure that every household, rural or urban, has access to high-speed broadband so our students can learn in a 21st-century setting.

How can the state address learning lag, especially for student groups who already were behind, such as people of color, with disabilities, or from low-income families? Should Tennessee make its tutoring and summer learning programs permanent intervention tools? What else can the state do to help students catch up?

Lee: Closing the achievement gap has been a priority woven throughout our administration’s approach. It is a key reason why we have put so many resources into literacy and early intervention, and I anticipate those programs, like summer camps, are here to stay. It is also a major factor in why we pursued an overhaul of the state’s outdated approach to school funding and built a student-centered approach via the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement. This new education funding formula will give us more capacity to address the unique needs of low-income students, students with disabilities, and students with learning challenges like dyslexia.

Surrounded by GOP legislative leaders and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, Gov. Bill Lee signs Tennessee’s new education funding bill into law on May 2, 2022, at Franklin High School, where Lee graduated in 1977.

Martin: Education inequities are the result of years of ignoring marginalized and low-income communities, and I would prioritize funding their schools to match what well-funded communities have. Tennessee should utilize public and private partnerships to create year-round wraparound programs in schools, including support for student populations experiencing learning lag. Additional interventions such as permanent tutoring, after school-programs, and summer learning camps are important, but so is widening access to softer experiences such as internship and study programs. As a state, we need to try harder to relate classroom learning to the experiences of students where they live. As governor, I’ll sit down with educators to figure out how we can grow those resources and opportunities throughout our state.

As rates of pandemic-era depression and anxiety surge among children and young people, how can the state better support the mental health needs of its students? Would you propose investing more money in Tennessee’s new education funding formula base so that districts can hire more counselors, psychologists, social workers, and nurses?

Lee: Early in my administration, we pushed for an outside-the-box approach to fund student mental health resources, which resulted in the creation of the Tennessee’s Mental Health Trust Fund. We invested $250 million into that fund to expand students’ access to clinical services, suicide prevention, violence prevention, and other supports. More than 60% of kids who receive mental health care do so through their school, and we believe the trust fund will ensure those services are high-quality. We also have funded a behavioral health liaison for all 95 counties and have filled at least 79 of those positions, despite workforce challenges. As for nurses and other school supports, the TISA funding formula increases state funding for public schools by almost 20%, allowing local communities to make informed decisions about what is needed.

Martin: I would not suggest adding more money into the base of Tennessee’s new education funding formula, because I believe that the formula needs to be rewritten. I do support expanding Medicaid and insuring more children to make sure they get the health care they need, including for mental health. I also support funneling more money directly into schools so they can hire health care professionals. We need to invest in wraparound services to expand access to mental health counselors, nutrition programs, interventionists, and other programs that help to keep students on track.

Should the legislature revisit the new state law that puts up to 70% of third-graders at risk of being held back if they don’t test as proficient in reading by the end of this school year? Why or why not? Specifically, would you support scaling back the law so it applies only to students who score in the state’s bottom achievement category, which currently comprises about a fifth of third-graders? And should retention decisions take into account local input, in addition to the state test results?

“If you really care about a child’s future, the last thing you should do is push them past the third grade if they can’t read.” —Gov. Bill Lee

Lee: If you really care about a child’s future, the last thing you should do is push them past the third grade if they can’t read. This law is about working with parents to do right by their students before it’s too late. While retention is an option, we are making sure parents fully understand their students’ reading progress and the tools that are available to them well before repeating third grade is on the table. Tennessee’s law also prioritizes strategic investments in proven practices to support reading, such as participating in an extended summer program and in high-dosage, low-ratio tutoring to help their kids catch up. There shouldn’t be any stigma around pausing to help children learn a skill that will impact them for the rest of their lives.

Martin: We should revisit the law and, this time, take into account what teachers, administrators, and groups who represent educators say. Having the state legislature pass a law that affects so many students without consulting those who know most about the issues is not just irresponsible, but detrimental to our children. If the consensus among our education experts, which includes teachers, is that we should scale back the law to apply only to students who score in the state’s bottom achievement category, then I would support that position. No one is better qualified to speak to a student’s proficiency than a teacher. That local input is necessary for a successful education policy.

As governor, how will you measure the success or failure of Tennessee’s new Education Savings Account Pilot Program? Would you consider expanding the program beyond Memphis and Nashville to provide private school vouchers statewide? And should the Tennessee Constitution be amended to clarify that taxpayer-funded subsidies to private schools are constitutional?

Lee: After a definitive Tennessee Supreme Court ruling, three years of waiting, and just weeks before this new school year, parents in Memphis and Nashville finally got the opportunity to apply for education savings accounts. The response was tremendous and our Department of Education has worked overtime to create a high-quality, transparent process for families who want to participate. We’ve received heartfelt letters from students wanting this opportunity. One young man signed his application letter “please consider me” and noted how much it would mean to be in a more supportive learning environment after his father passed away. Critics who have fought this program tooth and nail should sit down face to face with these families to see what it looks like to deny opportunity. Hundreds of families are already enrolled, but nothing is off the table when it comes to expanding opportunities for Tennessee families. It’s all about parents deciding what’s best for their children.

“I would work with both sides of the aisle to repeal the unconstitutional voucher program.” —Dr. Jason Martin

Martin: The Tennessee Constitution should not be amended, because the voucher program is unconstitutional and has been found so by several courts. As governor, I would not consider expanding the program. In fact, I would work with both sides of the aisle to repeal the unconstitutional voucher program. Public taxpayer dollars should be spent on public schools.

Recent polling by the State Collaborative on Reforming Education found that Tennessee voters believe — by a 2-to-1 margin — that decisions on whether to approve taxpayer-funded, independently run charter schools should reside with local school boards, and not with state government. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Lee: Charter schools are public schools. The process lives first at the local level, and the charter commission handles appeals. Tennesseans have both a transparent look into the approval process and an opportunity to provide input. It is a healthy mix of citizen, local, and state collaboration when it comes to determining what new options are available to parents.

Martin: Yes, I absolutely agree. Locally elected school boards should decide whether or not to approve a charter to run a school independent of the local district. When money collected locally is what is being spent on some of these charter schools, it is best left to those in the community to decide where that money goes.

Dr. Jason Martin speaks to protesters in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on Sept. 14 before the state’s public hearing on an American Classical Education charter school application rejected by Rutherford County Schools.

What should Tennessee do in the next two years to reverse trends that show more teachers leaving the profession and too few entering it? How can policymakers address the workload and lack of respect that many teachers cite as their reasons for exiting?

“We must also address why the bureaucratic side of school systems is growing so heavily, yet the teacher workforce has been shrinking.” —Gov. Bill Lee

Lee: Teaching isn’t just a job; it’s a calling, and we’ve increased teacher pay each year we’ve been in office. We have also closed loopholes that prevented those hard-earned raises from making it to teachers’ paychecks. Tennessee is a nationally recognized pioneer in growing the teacher workforce. Our education department worked with local districts and our Department of Labor and Workforce Development to build the Grow Your Own program so Tennesseans can train to become a teacher for free while earning a wage. It is the first-ever federally recognized teaching apprenticeship program and is already attracting new teachers to the classroom. We’re making progress. But I believe we must also address why the bureaucratic side of school systems is growing so heavily, yet the teacher workforce has been shrinking.

Martin: To begin with, I wouldn’t ever disparage teachers by sitting by and accepting criticism of their profession or where they went to school. First and foremost, we must increase teacher pay. Second, if the state invests in wraparound services and fully funds our schools, it will lessen the workload of teachers. Third, we need to incentivize aspiring teachers by reducing the costs of going to school to become a teacher and to obtain their certifications. New teachers should not be saddled with insurmountable debt to serve in this noble profession. Finally, improving the profession is an ongoing effort. As governor, I would hold regular meetings with teachers to develop strategies and measure progress.

With book bans making headlines, should decisions about removing books from classrooms and school libraries be made by locally elected school board members, based on local community standards — or by a state-appointed panel such as the Tennessee Textbook Commission, as authorized under a 2022 law? And why?

Lee: Our priority is to ensure parents know exactly what their children are learning at school — and that the learning materials are age-appropriate. We’ve added transparency so parents can see what materials are in classrooms and libraries. We’ve also given parents recourse to address divisive politicking in the classroom that has nothing to do with educating our kids well in reading, math, and the basics.

Martin: Decisions that affect our schools, teachers, and students should be made by those closest to the community. That includes decisions about curriculum and what books that students should be allowed to read. The Tennessee Textbook Commission has shown itself to be overbearing and unwilling to listen to what parents, teachers, and administrators have asked for in their children’s education.

Will you commit to working to move Tennessee out of the bottom fifth of national rankings in per-pupil funding? And as Tennessee switches to a new education funding formula next year, how will you ensure the state is keeping up with the true costs of educating students?

Lee: My administration has increased funding for education every single year I’ve been in office. We’ve invested a historic $1 billion of new funding directly into our students. That’s an almost 20% increase in state funding, the largest in Tennessee history. A key function of TISA is to fund our students well and pay our teachers competitively.

“I believe that TISA will actually burden many of our school districts with new costs.” —Dr. Jason Martin

Martin: Yes, I am committed to moving Tennessee out of the bottom national rankings in per-pupil funding. I do not believe Bill Lee’s TISA will do that, nor do I believe that it will keep up with the true costs of educating students. In fact, I believe that TISA will actually burden many of our school districts with new costs. We cannot identify a solution and expect it to fix the problem forever. So we should routinely revisit and reevaluate our state’s education funding formula. If we don’t, we won’t be able to keep up with education advancements and their costs, including new technology, teaching methods, and curricula.

Anything else you’d like to say about your priorities for K-12 education?

Lee: I’ve been a passionate advocate for putting career and technical education back in Tennessee classrooms. This has been a priority — not only because of my longtime work with plumbers, pipefitters, and welders, but also because of teachers like Dan Smith. A former Agriculture Teacher of the Year, Dan taught at Dyer County High School and is an inspiration behind one of my most important initiatives: the Governor’s Investment in Vocational Education, to enhance career and technical education. Other things we’ve accomplished include Reading 360, a nationally recognized literacy initiative. We’ve expanded family engagement through Ready4K, giving parents easy-to-use activities that promote early learning with their children. And the state has invested $500 million to eliminate structural barriers between high school, workforce, and postsecondary systems. Every high school and middle school in the state will benefit.

Martin: Many Tennesseans depend on trade and vocational schools, training programs, apprenticeships, and two- and four-year colleges and universities to achieve their goals. This requires increased incentives while undergoing K-12 education for trade programs, certifications, future nurses and healthcare workers, and training for a more technologically competitive workforce. In supporting more local control of curricula, it is my hope that local administrators and teachers will provide the right instruction for all students, whether they choose to attend college or a trade school, or to pursue another path after graduating from high school.

Tell us about the kinds of schools you went to, what school was like for you, and how that influences your education policy today.

Lee: I am a proud alum of Fairview Elementary, Franklin Junior High School, and Franklin High School. It was especially meaningful to return to my alma mater this spring to sign our state’s new funding formula into law. I studied mechanical engineering at Auburn University, and that training really shaped my perspective on how we can methodically solve big problems. As an engineer, I’ve worked on massive, complex jobs where you used both blueprints and shop drawings. While a blueprint gives direction, it’s the shop drawings that dictate the day by day. The shop drawings capture every little detail that brings the vision to life. Our blueprint for education in Tennessee says kids should be prepared for life beyond the classroom. Our shop drawings look like putting parents back in the classroom and reinforcing that parents are the authority on their children. This looks like teaching our kids informed patriotism and becoming a top five state for civics education.

Martin: I attended public schools in lower Alabama, including a magnet high school. My schools were diverse across income levels and racial backgrounds. We had lifelong teachers who were committed to their classrooms. High school is where my activism for public education began. I founded a group called Students for Education, which advocated for public school funding and did coalition building to pass a property tax to increase funding for our district. Learning about the formula that funded my own public schools while attending them is a lesson that has stayed with me. And in my community, I have continued to fight for adequate school funding.

When it came time to choose schools for your own children, did you choose public schools? Private schools? Charters? Home school? And why?

Lee: I have four children, and we made decisions about their education based on each of their unique needs. That meant a mix of public school, private school, and home school for my children. I also became involved with charter schools while mentoring Adam, a young man who was growing up in the inner city and needed a different environment to succeed. When we keep our focus on students, we see the value in each offering, whether public, private, or home school.

Martin: Working in the medical field, my wife and I began our careers in our 30s. We were often on the move because my focus was on serving communities needing healthcare attention the most. So that our daughters didn’t have to change schools frequently, we chose an independent school that provided them with stability in their education, regardless of zoning or ZIP code, and that met their individual needs. It is a school that values economic, racial, and religious diversity and that reflects the values in our home.

For more information about voting, visit GoVoteTN.gov or call the Tennessee Division of Elections toll-free at 1-877-850-4959.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Top MSCS administrator is suspended with pay pending investigation into complaint

2022-09-12T19:06:45+00:00

A top Memphis-Shelby County Schools administrator has been put on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into an employee complaint.

The nature of the complaint against John Barker, deputy superintendent for strategic operations and finance, is unclear. In a statement shared with district employees and the media on Monday, interim Superintendent Toni Williams said the district investigates all complaints lodged against employees and would not comment further.

It is also unclear how long the inquiry will take. Until the investigation is resolved, Patrice Williams Thomas, the district’s chief of staff, will fill in for Barker.

Board Chair Michelle McKissack said Monday that Barker’s suspension was typical district protocol, and denied media reports that he was escorted off district property.

“This is not anything out of the ordinary or unusual,” McKissack said. “He acted accordingly when he was informed of it. There was no dramatic escorting out of the building. None of that.”

Barker could not be reached for comment.

Barker’s suspension comes nearly three weeks after Joris Ray agreed to resign as superintendent of MSCS. Ray was on paid administrative leave over claims that he abused his power and violated district policies. During the investigation, Barker and fellow Deputy Superintendent Angela Whitelaw were serving as acting co-superintendents.

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis school board candidates want stronger superintendent policies

2022-07-22T20:37:56+00:00

School board candidates in Memphis are calling for stronger policies to hold the board’s sole employee accountable after Tennessee’s largest district placed its superintendent on paid leave during an investigation into allegations that he abused his power and violated existing workplace policies.

Questions about district leadership — and related policies — at Memphis-Shelby County Schools were front and center Thursday evening at a Chalkbeat-sponsored candidates forum that covered issues from gun violence and student mental health to looming questions surrounding Superintendent Joris Ray.

More than 200 people attended in person, with others watching online, as 11 Memphians, including three incumbents, made their case for filling four seats up for grabs in the Aug. 4 election in Districts 1, 6, 8, and 9. One District 6 candidate, Kenny Lee, did not participate.

Watch our candidate forum in full above or at this link.

The current board voted 7-2 last week to place Ray on leave over allegations that he had adulterous relationships with co-workers. Ray has said he’s confident he has not violated district policies. At the specially called meeting on July 13, the board also appointed former U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III to lead an investigation of Ray and named two deputy superintendents as interim leaders.

“It’s obviously a question that’s very important, and it’s right at the front of the mind of everyone who’s in this room and in our community,” said board Chair Michelle McKissack, who is running for reelection in District 1 against former board Chair Chris Caldwell and educator Rachael Goodwin Spriggs.

McKissack, who unseated Caldwell in 2018, said her top priority is rebuilding trust, including “being transparent and laying out what the review reveals, and then … hearing input from the community.”

She acknowledged that a search for a new superintendent may follow and noted that the board will hold a retreat in September to review and “tighten up” existing policies.

“This is something that is bigger than any one individual, and certainly not about any individual board member,” McKissack said. “This is about our district and our community as a whole and moving forward ... no matter who may be in that role as superintendent.”

“Rebuilding trust” was a phrase used by multiple candidates, including both of McKissack’s opponents.

“Right now, there has been a loss of trust due to the lack of accountability when it comes to how we hold our superintendent accountable,” said Spriggs, a former Memphis teacher who co-founded the GAME Changers mentorship program in North Memphis.

“That is one of the primary things we need to start with as a board, because that work probably will fall right in our lap if we’re elected,” Spriggs said.

Caldwell said strong policy is the best way to hold the superintendent — and board members themselves — accountable. He said the district had ethics policies in place for both when he served on the board from 2011 to 2018, including one year as chairman.

“They were aspirational,” Caldwell said of the policies, “but they implied having the highest character and displaying that in front of the students.”

Caldwell said that a strong contract with a superintendent is also critical, and that he found Ray’s current contract vague about the consequences of misconduct.

“There was nothing in the contract that addresses this kind of situation,” he said.

In District 8, in East Memphis, Amber Huett-Garcia is the sole candidate to fill the seat of Billy Orgel, who chose not to seek reelection. She called for a comprehensive review of board policies.

“What we’re facing is interpretation here, and so making sure that it’s very clear that we’re holding all of our leadership accountable, not only our superintendent but anybody who is interacting with children,” she said.

Huett-Garcia, a former Memphis teacher and education policy adviser for Shelby County, suggested that Ray’s future with the district is precarious, even if current policies are unclear, because school leaders must be role models for students.

“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” said Huett-Garcia, who formerly worked for the Tennessee Department of Education as director of student and family support. “For me, it’s an issue of integrity.”

Two candidates are on the ballot to represent District 9, which includes the Orange Mound neighborhood.

Challenger Rebecca Edwards said “much trust has been lost” between the district and the community in recent weeks. If elected, she pledged to make sure the board’s policies clarify that “you can’t do XYZ, and if you did that, it is grounds for termination.”

“The board has one employee, and that is the superintendent,” said Edwards, founder of Cultural Arts For Everyone, which works with students and underserved neighborhoods.

Edwards faces incumbent Joyce Dorse-Coleman, who along with board member Stephanie Love voted against the motion to place Ray on leave pending the investigation’s outcome.

Dorse-Coleman, a longtime resident and activist in Orange Mound, didn’t give specific reasons for her vote but said: “Whatever decisions that we have to make, I don’t take them lightly.”

Chalkbeat Tennessee reporter and forum moderator Samantha West, assisted by student moderator Ibrahim Hussein, hands the microphone to board candidates for Memphis-Shelby County Schools in Districts 1, 8, and 9.

In District 6, which spans the Whitehaven, South Memphis, and Westwood communities, five candidates are challenging incumbent Charles Everett, who was appointed in March to fill a seat on the board after Shante Avant resigned.

Everett, a Westwood fixture and a longtime activist on local and state parent-teacher associations, said the investigation of Ray must be transparent and fair.

“We have to make sure that the community is confident in the process,” he said.

Should the board eventually oust Ray, challenger Tim Green Jr. favors a national search for a new leader — and a better process for evaluating superintendents.

“Our teachers have more rigorous evaluations than our superintendent does,” said Green, a former teacher and education consultant who founded The Dividend and Memphis Restorative Justice Coalition, both programs that work with students.

Ray has consistently received positive evaluations since being hired as superintendent in 2019 after the board abandoned a national search for a successor to Dorsey Hopson. At the time, board members called Ray, a longtime district administrator who had been serving as interim superintendent for months, an “exceedingly qualified candidate” who could step in immediately.

David Page Jr., another challenger, said any decision about Ray’s future should be based on evidence uncovered by the investigation. But if Ray leaves, he opposes a national search for the district’s next leader.

“I think that person should be local,” said Page, a former teacher who owns The Ticket Program behavioral management group and serves as president of Westwood’s neighborhood association. “We have a problem with individuals outside of Memphis not really understanding this community.”

Tiffani Perry, another challenger, said questions about Ray have provided an opportunity to address “culture and climate” within the entire school system.

“The attitudes of our teachers, students, and our stakeholders is as a result of the leadership,” said Perry, the district’s former public information officer and the current chief of staff at the historically Black Rust College in North Mississippi.

Keith Williams, a former teacher who is executive director of the city’s largest teachers organization, said 28 teachers in the district were fired last year for behavior similar to what’s alleged against Ray, based on the law.

“We have to be fair, we have to be open, and we have to be consistent with policy,” said Williams, who is also running to replace Everett.

To learn more about the candidates and their positions on the issues, visit Chalkbeat’s Voter Guide.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent who covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools communication chief to leave

2022-05-13T20:42:12+00:00

Jerica Phillips, Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ chief of communications, will leave her position at Tennessee’s largest school district at the end of the month.

In a Friday news release, Superintendent Joris Ray announced Phillips recently accepted a position at ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where she will lead areas of media relations and strategic communication.

Phillips is the third member of Ray’s cabinet to depart this school year. In September, Chief of Schools Antonio Burt left the district to become the head of KIPP Memphis Public Schools, a network of five charter schools in the city. And Gerald Darling, the district’s chief of safety and security, announced his retirement in January.

Ray did not name a temporary or permanent successor for Phillips on Friday, but he lauded Phillips’ growth as a “key leader” of his cabinet since he became superintendent. After a career in journalism, Phillips joined the district as the deputy chief of communications in 2019, according to her LinkedIn profile, and she assumed the top communications role a year later.

In the news release, Ray highlighted several of Phillips’ accomplishments in the role, from her role in urgent communication and storytelling through the pandemic and her input in creating the district’s “Reimagining 901” strategic plan, to the district’s recent rebrand and her leadership in a restructure of the district’s communications office.

“We admire and will sincerely miss her fervor for storytelling and ability to authentically influence others to action,” Ray said in the release. “We’re pleased that she will remain in the community, carry on her advocacy for children, and continue her parental involvement in schools.”

Phillips’ last day at the district is May 27.

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools picks new academic, security leaders

2022-04-12T00:28:19+00:00

Memphis-Shelby County Schools officials on Monday appointed two new assistant superintendents and filled a new security position as a part of the district’s ongoing academic restructuring and leadership reorganization.

The two new assistant superintendents will oversee academics at the middle and high school levels, splitting duties that were previously handled by the chief of schools. That position has been vacant since Antonio Burt left MSCS in November to head the KIPP Memphis public charter school network.

“In order to effectively provide targeted support, it is necessary to narrow the focus for grade bands,” MSCS Superintendent Joris Ray said in a Monday news release. “I am confident that our ongoing academic restructuring strategies will accelerate and sustain student success.”

Docia Generette-Walker

Monday’s announcement comes weeks after the district announced that employees at Hamilton and Kingsbury high schools and Airways Achievement Academy would have to reapply for their jobs as part of what the district calls a “fresh start” process to reevaluate school culture and climate.

The new assistant superintendent for high schools is Docia Generette-Walker, an MSCS veteran and former Middle College High School principal, who most recently was the district’s director of college, career, and technical education, according to the news release. In 2016, Generette-Walker was named the Tennessee Department of Education’s state principal of the year. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Alcorn State University, and a master’s degree from Jackson State University.

Daniel Jack

Overseeing the middle schools will be another MSCS veteran, Daniel Jack. Jack was most recently the principal of Ridgeway Middle School, and represents West Tennessee for the Tennessee Principals Association, according to the release. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Grambling State University and a master’s degree from Christian Brothers University.

Filling the new deputy chief of security position is Greg Sanders, who joined MSCS in 2019 after serving the Memphis Police Department for 29 years. In his most recent position as the district’s director of safety, Sanders implemented new intervention and prevention strategies for students experiencing social and emotional trauma, violent aggressive behavior and gang involvement.

Greg Sanders

In his new role, Sanders will provide extra support to the district’s Department of Safety and Security, now led by Carolyn Jackson, interim chief of safety and security. Jackson, who was executive director of the department, assumed the safety chief role after Gerald Darling retired in January. The district has yet to announce a permanent replacement for Darling, or announce a search.

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Memphis Academy of Health Sciences fights closure order

2022-03-14T20:12:29+00:00

As sixth- and seventh-graders sat at their desks, hurriedly typing away on their tablets, it seemed like a typical Wednesday afternoon at Memphis Academy of Health Services’ middle school.

But behind the scenes, school leaders are fighting for the charter school’s life, seeking to overturn the Memphis-Shelby County school board’s January decision to shut them down.

“I just think that there is so much greater potential to help not only the students that we serve now, but our future students and the community as a whole,” said Alan Gumbel, executive director of MAHS, one of Memphis’ — and the state’s — first charter schools. “In no way can Memphis afford to lose institutions that are promoting a high-quality education and raising children to become good citizens.”

In a recent appeal letter sent to the newly formed Tennessee Public Charter School Commission, MAHS officials argued the state’s largest school district erred when it revoked the school’s charter based on the alleged criminal activity of three former school leaders.

They also contended that the district’s Office of Charter Schools thwarted MAHS’s attempts to communicate with them and failed to give proper notice or provide an opportunity to remedy issues that led to the charter being revoked. Memphis-Shelby County Schools officials declined to comment for this story and referred questions to the commission.

A December report from the state’s Comptroller of Treasury Office found that Corey Johnson, the former executive director of the schools, and fellow former administrators Robert Williams and Michael Jones allegedly used school money for trips to Las Vegas, a hot tub, seafood, NBA tickets, and auto repair, among other personal expenses, from 2015 to 2019. No trial for Johnson, Williams, or Jones has been set yet, a representative of the Shelby County Attorney’s office said, but they will be back in court at 9 a.m. April 12.

While MAHS officials recognize the gravity of the unlawful use of funds, in the statement they noted that many other organizations “fall victim to crimes” of this nature — especially when they’re committed by high-ranking employees who go to great lengths to conceal them.

The Memphis Academy of Health Sciences comprises a middle school (pictured) and high school campus, and was among the first charter schools in Tennessee to open in 2003.

In Gumbel’s view, revoking the school’s charter now will punish the 750 students in grades 6-12 who attend MAHS’s middle and high schools, and their dedicated teachers and school staff — some of whom have worked at the charter since it opened in 2003.

While MAHS predominantly serves students in the East Frayser and Raleigh neighborhoods surrounding the schools, Gumbel noted that many parents specifically chose the charter school for their children — for its tight-knit atmosphere, the smaller class sizes, quality instruction that focuses on health sciences, and the opportunities to dual enroll in college courses while still in high school.

Through collaborations with Baptist Health Sciences University and Southwest Tennessee Community College, students have the opportunity to leave high school with a leg up — real work experience or an associate degree — in the health science industry. MAHS focuses on nursing, biomedical sciences, sonography, health care administration, sports medicine, radiography, and population health, among others.

If a student can immediately get a job as a machinist in the health science industry after graduating high school and make $60,000 a year, “that’s an incredible opportunity,” Gumbel said, noting the majority of MAHS students are considered economically disadvantaged. Just over 30% of MAHS high school graduates in 2019 concentrated in a career and technical education program of study, according to state report card data, meaning they earned two or more college credits.

That experience, Gumbel said, is not something students can easily get elsewhere in Memphis. And he knows parents will be especially frustrated if MAHS closes and they must send their children to a lower-performing school.

A Memphis-Shelby County Schools report analyzing the impact of the MAHS closure found that a majority of both middle and high school students would be sent to schools with a lower school performance rating, a scale that weighs academics, growth, college and career readiness, and school climate.

While Memphis-Shelby County school board members expressed sympathy for students, families, educators, and other MAHS staff, they questioned why school officials failed to report suspicions of unlawful conduct for over four years and accused MAHS’s board of directors of failing to provide adequate oversight of school employees and finances.

“It is the desire of this board to ensure that every dollar allocated is used for the success of students. That’s why we sit here; that’s our responsibility, to make sure we do it right,” board member Althea Greene said at the Jan. 12 meeting. “We do care about students, we care about the staff there, but this board has a responsibility.”

In MAHS’s written statement to the Public Charter School Commission, however, officials contend that they only learned of the school’s former executive director’s “questionable transactions” when the Tennessee Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury launched its investigation in November 2019, and they didn’t realize “the full extent of these crimes” until the final investigative report was released in December.

Rather than waiting for the final report, MAHS officials emphasized that they “took swift action” to launch their own internal investigation, retained outside legal counsel to assist in the internal investigation and cooperate with the comptroller, and fired the employees involved, according to the written statement.

In the statement, MAHS officials also detailed their efforts to revise several procedures and policies, including revamping the organizational structure to increase oversight of finance and operations, requiring auditors report directly to the board of directors, and expanding its financial team, among others.

But the district did not consider any of these corrective actions, MAHS officials argued in the statement. Instead, the district “focused on the criminal activities of the former employees” and denied MAHS’s requests to provide the district with information.

It also denied school requests for information, including the documents the district was using as the basis for its recommendation to revoke MAHS’s charter, or closing impact reports, according to MAHS’s appeal letter.

MAHS also contends that the district falsely claimed that the MAHS board of directors concealed the comptroller’s investigation and refused to consider solutions other than closing the school.

“MAHS is committed to its students, families, staff, and neighborhood,” the statement reads. “If offered the opportunity, MAHS remains determined to correct any remaining issues and, if required, have a corrective action plan in place.”

That opportunity is all Veronica Fair-Miller wants for students like her two sons, who excelled at MAHS after transferring there from the Germantown Municipal School District for high school. She feels they will be unfairly punished if MAHS closes.

Fair-Miller’s older son, Cameron, graduated from MAHS in December, a semester early, and she said is thriving at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he’s studying kinesiology and playing football. Her younger son, Christian, a junior at MAHS, has flourished in the smaller school environment and wants to finish his K-12 school career there, with his friends and the many educators who have supported him.

To Fair-Miller, Christian and his classmates deserve that — especially after the pandemic upended the last two school years, forcing them to learn virtually at home, away from their peers and teachers.

“I can’t describe the anxiety that we felt when we heard about the revocation of the charter. He has worked so incredibly hard and he really wants to graduate from the school he’s been attending for all of high school, the school his brother graduated from,” she said. “These kids have dealt with enough.”

The state Public Charter School Commission will decide MAHS’s fate at its next meeting on April 1.

Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Students who were part of Tennessee pre-K program continue to trail peers who weren’t, study shows

2022-01-28T00:39:29+00:00

Economically disadvantaged children who attended Tennessee’s public pre-K program a decade ago are still faring worse in school than their peers who didn’t participate, according to the latest findings from an ongoing study.

And the students’ challenges by the end of sixth grade are even more comprehensive and pronounced than the troubling trends identified after finishing third grade. Long term, the students logged slightly poorer academic achievement and higher numbers of disciplinary infractions and special education referrals, the study shows.

“The whole package of outcomes we have found is disconcerting,” wrote researchers from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development.

The results, published this month, fly in the face — again — of conventional wisdom about the power of pre-K. Other research and data suggest such programs help students, especially in low-income communities.

For example, a recent study in Boston found participants in the city’s program were more likely to graduate from high school. And Head Start, the large-scale federal preschool program, has been shown to yield benefits including high school completion and health outcomes. However, a 2010 Head Start study also identified issues with pre-K benefits fading over time.

“Possibly the problem in Tennessee is not with pre-K, but with K-6 and how it treats children who went to pre-K,” said Steven Barnett, senior co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. “No one knows what went wrong in Tennessee, and that is a real problem.”

Tennessee has made significant changes to improve the quality of its Voluntary Pre-K program since the study’s cohort of students attended pre-K in 2009 and 2010.

But the study’s lead author, Dale Farran, said her team’s jarring findings should jumpstart conversations about whether early child care and education are headed in the right direction in the United States. She’d like to see other states replicate Vanderbilt’s studies to gauge the effectiveness of their pre-K programs, as well as more research into best policies and practices.

Tennessee is among about half of states that share oversight of public pre-K programs with local school districts. Farran said these programs steer toward an academic framework that focuses on basic skills like knowing letters and numbers instead of on child development strategies such as exploring learning through interaction and lots of outdoor play. There’s too much focus on group instruction and rigid behavioral controls, according to Farran. Even discussion during “story time” is generally limited to questions with a single “right” answer, instead of engaging children to think more deeply.

“There are people pushing to make pre-K a grade below kindergarten,” said Farran, a research professor of early childhood education. “Our data show that’s not likely to have good results for children.”

The multi-year study is the nation’s only thorough, ongoing investigation into the impacts of a statewide pre-K program for economically disadvantaged children using a random sample, which lessens the likelihood of bias.

The first findings, published in 2015, shook the early education community in Tennessee and across the nation. Researchers found that early benefits of participating in Tennessee’s program faded by the end of kindergarten. By the end of the third grade, the impact was slightly negative.

At the time, the authors cautioned against cutting pre-K funding pending further examination. The problems, they said, could lie with the program’s quality, or with uneven or mediocre schooling from kindergarten through the third grade.

The latest research tracked 2,990 children from the first study through the sixth grade. Half had attended the state’s pre-K program, the other half applied but didn’t land a spot. A third of the second group ended up in other learning environments such as federal Head Start classrooms, private pre-school, or a combination of the two.

By the end of sixth grade, the state pre-K cohort fared worse than the non-pre-K group, both academically and behaviorally.

Tennessee’s Voluntary Pre-K launched in 2005 after the state piloted 30 pre-school classes. Today, the program serves 18,500 4-year-olds in 925 classrooms. That represents about a fifth of the state’s 4-year-old population, and most districts have a waiting list to enroll in the 5½-hour, five-day-a-week program.

The first round of research, led by Vanderbilt’s Farran and Mark Lipsey, contributed to passage of a 2016 Tennessee law designed to raise pre-K quality. Among other things, districts must now use research-based curricula in their classrooms and provide teachers with coaching and other professional development.

Tennessee also requires that each pre-K classroom be capped at 20 students and staffed by a state-licensed teacher endorsed for early childhood education. The teachers are paid at public school teacher rates, and each room must also have an educational assistant.

“We know that quality is crucial,” said Blair Taylor, president and CEO of Tennesseans for Quality Early Education, which continues to lobby for improvements.

The advances have garnered notice. Last year, Tennessee was one of 12 states judged to meet nine of 10 quality benchmarks for pre-K effectiveness, according to the most recent preschool report from the National Institute for Early Education Research.

Of the 43 states that fund pre-K programs, Tennessee is considered above average in quality and arguably ranks in today’s top tier, according to the Vanderbilt report.

But Farran, who is a developmental psychologist and has observed hundreds of pre-K classrooms, believes Tennessee and much of the rest of the nation are falling significantly short on early child care and education.

The big question is why.

“It’s an issue that the country needs to come to grips with,” she told Chalkbeat. “I think the fundamental problem is we don’t need school for 4-year-olds. A lot of higher-income families don’t choose these kinds of academically rigorous programs for their children. They choose programs that involve exploration, or being outdoors. Why is it that we think poor children need more academic instruction?”

Dale Farran is a developmental psychologist and research professor at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development.

Pre-K advocates are well-intentioned, she continued. “But because our child care system is so fragmented and in such poor shape, people search for some magic bullet, like pre-K being in the public schools. That may be simpler to advocate for, but it just puts off the hard work we really need to be doing,” she said.

Barnett, with the National Institute for Early Education Research, disagrees and calls Farran’s diagnosis “purely speculative.”

He believes the issue is not about academic rigor but about having a coherent approach for helping 4-year-olds develop. Too many children in pre-K spend too much time “waiting to do something or in aimless activities.”

The biggest red flag for Tennessee, Barnett said, is that pre-K is funded at only about half the amount that his organization estimates is needed for quality pre-K. The state spends about $85 million annually and hasn’t increased its investment since 2007 — a concern that early education advocates are raising as Gov. Bill Lee considers overhauling the state’s education funding formula and the state maps strategies to help students catch up during the pandemic.

“Funding is not everything, but funding matters when we’re looking to strengthen our quality,” said Taylor, of the state’s early education coalition.

Parent Reva Schoenherr said she’s not seeing problems — only improvement — in her son since he entered pre-K in September at an elementary school in Lenoir City, near Knoxville.

“Without a doubt, Ezra has blossomed in every aspect, but especially with language skills. His speech was significantly behind after being at home pretty much all the time during the pandemic,” she said.

Schoenherr is convinced that Ezra will benefit from his pre-K experience this fall when he starts kindergarten, but also for years to come.

“Now he talks all the time. He tells me about his day. He’s making friends and he’s learned a lot about how to regulate his emotions,” she said. “Those are life skills.”

Chalkbeat reporters Ann Schimke and Matt Barnum contributed to this report.

Parents plea to save two KIPP Memphis schools from closure

2022-01-19T03:11:16+00:00

Impassioned community members pleaded with the Shelby County school board Tuesday night to keep two KIPP charter schools operating, despite low test scores. The district is considering shuttering them after administrators said the schools failed to meet standards for academic success.

Shelby County Schools administrators have recommended revoking charters of KIPP Memphis Academy Middle School and KIPP Memphis Collegiate Elementary based on low test scores at both schools.

The middle and elementary schools are part of KIPP, a national nonprofit network of public charter schools. Since coming to Memphis nearly two decades ago with the opening of one school, the regional network has grown to five schools — two elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school — and now serves nearly 1,800 students in and around North Memphis.

Three-year TN Ready test averages from the 2016-17 to 2018-19 school years show only about 6% of KIPP Memphis Academy Middle students reached or approached mastery in math, according to district records. During the same time period, about 10% of students reached or approached mastery in English.

At KIPP Memphis Collegiate Elementary, about 10% of students reached or approached mastery in English and 18% in math, during the same period.

Antonio Burt, CEO of KIPP Memphis Schools, said he’s not satisfied with the two schools’ academic performance, but said many KIPP students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and often face greater learning challenges.

At KIPP Memphis Collegiate Elementary and KIPP Memphis Academy Middle, about 86% and 78% of students, respectively, are considered economically disadvantaged.

Burt, who has headed the charter network since November, highlighted its efforts to improve, including boosting literacy, curriculum and instruction, school culture, and the recruitment of high-quality teachers.

Burt pointed out that the district itself found that if the elementary and middle schools were to close, many of their students would be assigned to other district-managed schools with even lower school performance scores.

According to the report, of the middle school’s 227 students, the district estimated about half would transfer to lower-performing schools, including district-managed schools with sagging test scores and Achievement District schools that the state runs due to chronic underperformance.

Of the elementary school’s 324 students, the district predicted at least 59 would transfer to a lower-performing district or state-managed school, the report states.

Board member Stephanie Love agreed with Burt, and suggested the district may want to consider changing the structure of charter agreements and how administrators decide which charter schools should close.

“I don’t see, especially for the middle school, another viable option for students if they were to consider closing this school,” Love said.

Other board members expressed their support for KIPP and their belief that Burt is qualified to lead a turnaround within the charter network. Burt, who most recently served as SCS chief of schools, received national acclaim for his work turning two low-performing Memphis schools into models of student achievement.

“I am here to support KIPP,” board member Althea Greene said. “I would really like to give them an opportunity to prove themselves. No doubt, sitting in front of us is a very capable leader.”

Community members and parents echoed board members’ comments. Dianechia Fields, representing The Memphis Lift, said the parent advocacy organization supports Burt and the KIPP network.

“Looking at the data, yes it’s disappointing, but leadership matters and the leadership that’s in place today and his team — we have faith that they can turn those numbers around,” she said.

Although Temicka Oliver’s daughter, an eighth-grader at KIPP Memphis Academy Middle, wouldn’t be affected if the school were to close after this school year, she fears that other students would miss out on the positive impact the school had on her daughter.

Oliver’s daughter has attended the middle school since fifth grade and previously attended the KIPP elementary school with most of the same classmates. The atmosphere is tight knit — like a loving family, Oliver said.

“We want all those kids to have the same opportunities as she had,” Oliver said.

Tuesday’s charter grievance hearing came almost a week after the school board decided to close a non-KIPP charter school, the Memphis Academy of Health Sciences, for non-academic reasons at the end of the school year. Memphis Academy of Health Sciences can appeal the decision to the newly formed Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. Also last week, the board spared Memphis STEM Academy after hours of debate over exceeding its enrollment.

The board is scheduled to vote on closing KIPP Memphis Academy Middle and KIPP Memphis Collegiate Elementary at its Jan. 25 meeting at 5:30 p.m. at the Board of Education.

Does Tennessee’s education funding blueprint deliver on governor’s promises? Maybe, but ‘the devil’s in the details’

2022-01-14T00:36:46+00:00

A blueprint for overhauling Tennessee public education funding appears to align with Gov. Bill Lee’s pledge to consider each student’s needs and circumstances. But the big question is how much more money would be added to bolster learning for nearly a million students.

Lee wants a student-centered funding approach that would set a base amount of funding per pupil, then distribute additional money per pupil to support students in certain groups, especially those from economically disadvantaged families. Thirty-eight states use that model, or a hybrid that also includes separate funding for certain resources.

Tennessee’s would become a hybrid too, since the blueprint also calls for extra funding for programs like tutoring and career and technical education.

The four-page document, released this week by Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, also recommends additional money to support the state’s neediest students, including those learning the English language, living in rural areas, or with disabilities.

Funding for school nurses and counselors — where Tennessee trails nationally recommended numbers and the pandemic has exposed huge vulnerabilities — would be part of the formula’s foundation, as would educator salaries, technology, and the state’s intervention program for struggling students.

Other funds would be set aside to tutor rising fourth-grade students who scored below proficiency on third-grade state tests.

“We’re encouraged,” said Gini Pupo-Walker, director of The Education Trust in Tennessee.

“But the devil’s in the details,” she added. “We know the state is going to put more money in. The question is how much, and will it be recurring?”

‘A unique opportunity’

The state’s 30-year-old Basic Education Program, or BEP for short, is a resource-based formula built around enrollment. Forty-six components determine how much school systems get from the state to pay toward teacher salaries and resources like textbooks, technology, and bus transportation.

Two former governors, Republican Bill Haslam and Democrat Phil Bredesen, failed at attempts to update or revise the BEP, which has been chronically underfunded and prompted a pending lawsuit against the state by nearly half of Tennessee school systems.

To reform education funding, conventional wisdom among policymakers and funding experts is that Tennessee must create a bigger pie — not just divide it differently — to avoid creating winners and losers. That’s especially significant in an election year, when Lee and lawmakers are asking voters to keep them in office.

With one of Tennessee’s largest budget surpluses in history, “the current budget landscape creates a unique opportunity” for a rewrite, the document said.

“This fiscal year, our state has taken in a billion dollars over what we budgeted due to economic growth, so we’re blessed and this is a real opportunity,” said Rep. Mark White, a Memphis Republican who chairs a House education committee.

Democrats say the formula may need updating, but that the foundational problem is inadequate funding. Many parents and advocates agree.

“One of the things I, as a parent, would like to see is just additional dollars,” said Venita Doggett, advocacy director of the Memphis Education Fund. “If we’re really going to support students, we have to make a concerted effort to increase the amount of dollars that flow to kids. It’s just not enough.”

Tennessee invests $5.6 billion annually in K-12 education, or just over $11,000 per pupil. That’s almost $4,300 below the national average and puts the state 44th in funding, according to the Education Law Center.

Last year, the group gave the state two Fs and a D for its funding level, allocation as a percentage of economic activity, and distribution, respectively.

Student-centered

The blueprint recommends weighting the heaviest funding for students living in poverty, moderate additional funding for students in rural areas, and light extra funding for the state’s 42,000-plus charter school students.

The amount of extra funding for students with unique learning situations — whether disabilities, giftedness, learning the English language, or qualifying for a Section 504 dyslexia plan — would depend on the need, according to the document.

JC Bowman, executive director of Professional Educators of Tennessee, was excited to see dyslexia on the list. “That’s a big issue, and a lot of students with dyslexia have gone underfunded for a long time,” he said.

The next phase of the conversation will be about how much extra funding to assign to each category of need, as well as the definitions used to count those students.

“At the end of the day, it’s about whether our highest-needs students are getting the resources they need to learn,” said David Mansouri, president and CEO of the State Collaborative on Reforming Education.

Mansouri called the framework “the right track.”

The blueprint also proposes setting aside more funds for fast-growing school systems and to bolster career and technical education, the latter of which has been a priority for Tennessee’s businessman governor, who has a mechanical engineering degree.

Charter school expansion is another priority for Lee, who has championed additional funding to pay for charter facilities each year since taking office in 2019. More than half of Tennessee’s charter school students are considered economically disadvantaged. Because the weighted funding is “stackable” — meaning that students could draw extra funding for multiple needs — those students could draw additional dollars for both categories.

Wish list

Other major costs are still under consideration. Among them: decreasing class sizes for Tennessee’s lowest grades and expanding the state’s program for pre-kindergarten students beyond the 22% of 4-year-olds who are now served.

Both needs have been discussed for years, but the pandemic has heightened the urgency of making impactful interventions in the early grades to address learning lag and support student mental health.

More than three-fourths of Tennessee school districts have waiting lists to enter pre-K. Meanwhile, the state’s pre-K program, which currently is funded outside of the BEP, hasn’t been expanded since 2007, and the funding level hasn’t kept up with inflation.

“We know the pandemic has exacerbated what was already a significant early learning crisis,” said Blair Taylor, president and CEO of Tennesseans for Quality Early Education. “Research repeatedly proves pre-K can help lay a critical foundation for education and life success, and it’s time for us to make better use of this tool.”

The wish list also includes career coaches for middle school students to guide them to the best options in high school. Others want any new formula to retool the salary schedule for non-educator school staff.

Tying funding to outcomes

The proposal outlines a per-student funding bonus for performance, especially for economically disadvantaged students, with five possible areas of measurement: literacy, college and career readiness, career and technical education, work-based learning and apprenticeships, and completion of the form for Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, to apply for financial aid for college.

Advocates say those areas need fine-tuning.

A big decision will be whether the state would measure reading improvement based on academic growth or proficiency. Tennessee’s current accountability framework is based on growth, which takes into account out-of-school factors like poverty that might hold students back.

“We’d like to see outcomes that incentivize growth, not just flat achievement,” said Pupo-Walker.

FAFSA completion is one of the more surprising components, since it’s not an indicator of college and career readiness. It’s just about who completes a form.

“This is not to say our proposal is the final draft,” Schwinn said Thursday to members of the governor’s 12-member steering committee reviewing feedback. “I’m giving you all the options on the menu.”

Looming questions

Much of the feedback so far has centered on concerns about what local governments would be expected to contribute, since the formula requires a local match.

Schwinn promised plenty of time for local officials to make adjustments. Any launch would require a year of planning and preparation. She’s also recommending a five-year “grace period” to give local funding agencies time to make adjustments.

But other questions loom.

Would school systems still have flexibility over how to spend the state’s allocation, as they do under the current formula?

Will Tennessee make teacher pay more competitive as its educator workforce shrinks?

And, should the state slow the funding conversation? After all, it took years to come up with the current formula, which has lasted longer than the people who created it expected.

“We cannot afford for Tennessee to fumble on a funding model in which our students could suffer,” said Leah Watkins, superintendent of Henry County Schools, a rural district in West Tennessee.

“It’s a heavy lift,” acknowledged White, the Republican education leader in the House. “But, if not now, when?”

Tennessee is asking for public comment on its draft summary by emailing tnedu.funding@tn.gov by noon, Jan. 18. More formation is available here.

The governor is expected to present any resulting proposal during his State of the State address on Jan. 31.

Legal scholar Jennifer Collins elected Rhodes College president

2021-12-06T17:43:22+00:00

Jennifer Collins, dean of the law school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, will serve as the next president of Rhodes College in Memphis. Search committee Chair Cary Fowler announced the president-elect during a press conference Monday morning. Collins starts in July, succeeding Interim President Carroll Stevens who served this school year following the departure of President Marjorie Hass. Hass left this summer to head the Council of Independent Colleges.

In making the announcement, Fowler lauded President-elect Collins for her work on behalf of the LBGTQ community and efforts to increase campus diversity, her thoughtfulness on tough topics, and her management skills which led to new initiatives for the SMU law school and a fundraising record for the program, he said.

The opening for the Rhodes presidency drew more than 100 applicants, and Fowler called it one of the strongest pools he’s ever seen. During Collin’s interview, Fowler said he wrote the following notes: “Articulate. Empathetic. Relatable. Good listener. Substance over style. Decisive. Unflappable. No sharp edges. Has everything. Rings true. Shares our values.”

Collins received her bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University and her law degree from Harvard University, and has served on the faculty at Wake Forest University. The legal scholar who also served as assistant U.S. attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, admitted that she has a lot to learn about Memphis.

“I promise you that I will approach this role with a firm commitment to listen and learn, to respect your culture and values,” she said, “and to work collaboratively transparently and joyfully with all the people who make Rhodes so special.”

Charles McKinney, chair of Africana Studies at Rhodes, said that he was not involved in the search, but he is pleased with the selection because Collins seems like a good fit.

“I’m encouraged by the credentials she brings to her new job. From an initial glance at her record at SMU, she understands that the road to actual diversity and equity is paved with something more substantive than press releases and task force reports,” he said. “She seems well prepared to help Rhodes move forward with boldness and clarity. I hope this will be the case.”

He taught a dance legend. Now he’s working to bring veteran teachers to Memphis.

2021-11-18T10:00:00+00:00

Chris Coleman let out a hardy laugh when asked if he taught Lil Buck how to dance.

“What I didn’t do was discourage him. That’s what I didn’t do,” said Coleman, who taught the legendary dancer and actor Charles “Lil Buck” Riley geometry, not jookin, during his days at the now-closed Yo! Memphis Academy. “I didn’t want to discourage him from his dreams.”

“He would always tell me ‘Mr. Coleman, I just want to dance, you know.’ And I’m just like, ‘Okay, well dance, but do my math while you’re doing it,’” remembers Coleman.

Over his two decades in education, Coleman has taught hundreds of students, attempting to coach each one on how to reach the dreams they set for themselves.

“I think that’s the beauty of teaching,” he said. “You get to see how they flourish. Does that always happen? No. But that’s what you go into the work for.”

This year marks Coleman’s 21st year in education. Today, instead of mentoring students in the classroom, he’s coaching teachers and creating strategic plans as the executive director of Teach For America Memphis. This year, the organization celebrates its 15th year in Memphis, and Coleman is helping it develop an alumni program to recruit and retain veteran teachers. Coleman has been with TFA for eight years and began his tenure as executive director in February. Chalkbeat asked Coleman, who has master’s degrees in education and business, about his transition from teaching to administration and how he leads.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What was your first job?

A production supervisor at Tyson Foods in Arkansas. A line supervisor, basically, and it was a great experience for a number of reasons. I learned that I don’t like to work graveyard shifts! But I did also learn an important lesson: you never know what’s going on in someone’s life. So you have to be careful, especially when you’re in a position of power and authority. Don’t think you can just reign down on folks because now you’re the “boss.” You do have a responsibility — don’t get me wrong — but when you have discretion sometimes, use it. I learned a lot during those two-and-a-half months about how to listen and be with people because you can’t get the work done if the people won’t follow you.

What’s one strategy you use to help staff get on board with organizational change?

If it’s just wanting to connect or they want to talk, I say, “Now, what role do you actually want me to play in this conversation? I want to know so I know which way to engage in this conversation. Do you want me just to listen or more?”

If I’m trying to get them to buy into something, I explain what it is and then listen. I try to cut off the ‘let me respond’ instinct and say, “Let me just hear your thoughts.” In order to have anyone get on board with anything, you have to bring them along as partners in the process. You have to ensure their voices are heard. When developing our five-year strategic direction, we heard from staff, school partners, alumni, and community members. Their voices were key as we didn’t want to be prescriptive. You must have trust and strong relationship building to make this work happen.

In an article earlier this year, you mentioned, “I want to be a part of the work that illuminates the systems of inequity.” How have you done that so far in your time as Executive Director with Teach For America?

A: My role has been supporting our team as they equip our nearly 100 new teachers with the tools they need to provide the most inclusive and impactful educational experience for all children. We’ve seen the inequities at play, and they are vast. COVID-19 has shone a light on the inequities, especially for kids from low-income backgrounds, and there’s much work to be done, so they are not left behind.

In 2021, Teach For America celebrates its 15th year in Memphis, and new executive director Chris Coleman is helping it develop an alumni program to recruit and retain veteran teachers.

What is the biggest misconception about Teach For America?

The biggest misconception is that our teachers come to Memphis, teach for two years, and then leave. While some teachers move to other roles due to a change in their career or life goals, the vast majority of our teachers, around 80%, choose to stay beyond their initial commitment each year. Today, we have nearly 700 Teach For America alumni working at all levels across the city. Because a student’s educational experience is impacted both inside and outside of the classroom, we’re both excited for those who choose to stay in teaching and those who choose to take what they learned from their time teaching to help fight systems of inequity outside the classroom. Having great teachers is just one piece of the puzzle. Teachers don’t impact healthcare, housing, or policy, so having alumni working in these sectors only helps our cause.

Who is one teacher or administrator who has inspired you, and how?

There was one at Ford Road Elementary [in Memphis]. His name was Mr. Jordan, and he told me, “You’re going to be good at math.” And I believed him. I didn’t know what he saw. He didn’t tell me what he saw. I just believed him, and so as a sixth grade kid, I started giving all my efforts from that point into being great at math.

While I was in college at Southern Arkansas University, I did hit that place where it was a struggle in some of my math classes, and I was about to drop calculus. But Ms. [Joyce] Keenan told me she wasn’t gonna let me quit. She said, “I won’t let you drop. You keep coming to me during my office hours, and we’ll work through it,” and those are the qualities that I think make great teachers. Like I tell my students all the time, you’ll probably remember nothing that I teach — especially when it comes to the content, some of this is just hoops you’ve got to jump through — but I hope during your time in my class, that there’s something that endures that will actually impact your life far beyond the content that I’ve taught you.

Memphian among three finalists to become Tennessee’s first-ever school turnaround chief

2021-11-17T20:27:22+00:00

Tennessee has chosen three finalists, including one longtime Memphis educator, in a national search for the state’s first-ever school turnaround superintendent.

Cedrick Gray, a former school principal and current education adviser to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, made the short list out of 54 applications submitted to the Tennessee Department of Education.

The other finalists are Tamekia Brown, who most recently was chief academics officer for public schools in El Paso, Texas, and Lateshia Woodley, assistant superintendent for Kansas City Public Schools.

Tennessee’s hire is considered key to jump-starting school improvement work in a state that has pioneered multiple turnaround models with limited success.

Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn rebooted the search this summer after two delays — once in 2020 when the pandemic began and again in January due partly to budget uncertainties.

Tennessee aims to select its top candidate by the end of the year to start the job by February 1, 2022, said Brian Blackley, a spokesman for the department.

The superintendent will supervise state interventions in schools in the bottom 5% across Tennessee, including the state-run Achievement School District, known as the ASD. The charter-based model is at a crossroads after yielding sluggish and uneven results for almost a decade in schools in Memphis and Nashville.

The turnaround chief also will work with non-ASD schools that have large achievement gaps among groups of historically underserved students such as English language learners, students with disabilities, or those from racial and ethnic groups or economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

All three finalists have overseen school turnaround initiatives in multiple states.

A native Memphian, Gray is a former principal of several Memphis schools including Craigmont Middle. He had short stints as a school superintendent in Fayette County, Tennessee, and Jackson, Mississippi, and joined the Harris administration in 2019.

Brown has been a school administrator in Arkansas and Texas, while Woodley has been a school turnaround leader in Georgia and Missouri.

The finalists were interviewed in person in early November by staff at the education department, plus separate virtual interviews with up to 14 invited education advocacy and community groups that provided feedback to the department.

Participants in the virtual interviews — which were led by the Iowa-based search firm of Ray and Associates Inc. — included representatives of Shelby County Schools, Achievement School District, Memphis Lift parents group, State Collaborative on Reforming Education, Tennessee Public Charter School Commission, TennesseeCAN, Hamilton County’s Partnership Network Advisory Board, Hyde Family Foundation, and Capstone Education Group.

Should Tennessee limit school mask mandates? Tell us what you think.

2021-11-03T20:33:39+00:00

While most Tennesseans were asleep early Saturday morning, state lawmakers passed legislation barring public schools from mandating masks except temporarily in extreme circumstances. Private schools and businesses would have more leniency on issuing such mandates. The legislation, largely approved among partisan lines, was among several rollbacks to COVID restrictions.

Gov. Bill Lee has yet to sign the bills into law and declined Monday to share his stance on the package of legislation. If enacted, the policies stand to dial back mitigation efforts in public schools as the pandemic grinds on.

Chalkbeat wants to know what Tennessee students, parents, teachers, and educators think about the plan to curb mask mandates. Share your insight in the form below, or go here if you are on a mobile device.

Proposal to turn school board races partisan clears Tennessee legislature

2021-10-29T23:43:59+00:00

School board races across Tennessee can become partisan contests under a measure approved Friday by the GOP-controlled legislature.

The bill, co-sponsored by the legislature’s top leaders, passed 52-39 in the House and 20-10 in the Senate. It is expected to be signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee.

The measure lets local political parties decide whether to put forth school board candidates with Republican or Democratic labels beginning next year, when half of school board races will be held across Tennessee. Candidates also could run as independents. But the legislation does not require partisan races, as one earlier proposal would have done.

It’s one of a bundle of bills approved during a special session called by Republican lawmakers to curb or preempt COVID restrictions such as mask and vaccine mandates for schools, businesses, and government entities.

Their petition for a special session was wide enough in scope to consider the school board bill, however, after many of those local meetings have turned into ideological battlegrounds over school mask mandates and how to teach students about racism.

Proponents said party labels will take the guesswork out of school board elections and give voters more information to select candidates who reflect their ideals for one of the most important policy jobs in their communities.

“Some try to argue that school boards are somehow apolitical because they don’t have an R or a D beside their names. That’s nonsense,” said Rep. Mark Cochran, a Englewood Republican, citing governmental philosophies about school budgets and curriculum.

“The politics are already there. This is just shedding light on what politics are there,” Cochran continued.

A few Republicans joined outnumbered Democrats to argue that Tennessee needs less partisanship — not more — in education. They worried a change will take the focus off what’s best for students and diminish the pool of qualified candidates because of the expense of campaigning and escalating political tensions.

“We all want good school board members because good school board members are going to make for good schools,” said Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, a Signal Mountain Republican who voted against the bill. “But we have seen across our state and across the country how difficult some school board meetings are. It’s going to be harder and harder to get good candidates to even consider running.”

Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro agreed during debate in his chamber.

“I just don’t know anybody who really thinks that the biggest problem we got is not enough partisan politics,” said the Nashville Democrat.

Professional organizations representing the state’s school boards and superintendents opposed the change, which removes one of the last protected bastions of nonpartisan local elections in Tennessee. Parties already have the ability to interject partisan cues in races for county mayors, commissioners, trustees, and sheriffs.

Gov. Lee hasn’t vetoed a piece of legislation since taking office in 2019. His spokeswoman said Lee won’t comment on the bill until after the special session is done.

It’s unclear how many and which races across Tennessee would shift to partisan contests, but any that do would be in a minority nationally. Less than a fourth of school board elections in the United States are conducted with party labels. That number could increase if Florida lawmakers approve similar legislation to require partisan school board races.

Research is thin on the effects of school board partisanship. However, national research on state Supreme Court races during regular election cycles show that more voters cast ballots in those races when party labels are attached to candidates.

“Having party labels changes how people vote and encourages them to vote for co-partisans based on their affiliations,” said Vladimir Kogan, a researcher and assistant professor at Ohio State University.

He added, “I suspect that any move toward partisan school board races isn’t about increasing turnout, but rather about electing more Republicans in districts that are already pretty red.”

Kogan, who has examined school board election data in 25 states, said partisan races can be good and bad when it comes to locally elected education leaders.

“When Republicans and Democrats disagree about core issues like masking or how to teach about race, having those labels will let voters choose the candidates that are most representative of their beliefs,” he said. “On the other hand, partisan loyalty and voting behavior often means electing people who are less competent. It can at the expense of other desirable things like expertise.”

Indicted Tennessee senator steps aside, for now, as leader of key education committee

2021-10-27T23:16:23+00:00

A Tennessee legislator is stepping aside temporarily as the Senate’s top education leader after being indicted on charges of violating federal campaign finance law.

Sen. Brian Kelsey announced his decision Wednesday on the Senate floor after lawmakers kicked off a special session aimed mostly at curtailing COVID-related mandates for vaccinations and masks.

“I’m totally innocent,” the Germantown Republican said in remarks that lasted three minutes. “I trust in time the truth will prevail and I will resume my leadership role on the education committee.”

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally named Sen. Jon Lundberg, a Republican from Bristol and the committee’s vice chairman, as interim leader during the special session, which likely will stretch into next week.

A spokesman for McNally later said the speaker would not comment further at this time about a more permanent successor while the senator challenges the charges in court — a process that could take months or years.

The nine-member committee is the primary gatekeeper of hundreds of proposals annually that can affect Tennessee students, educators, and schools. Kelsey has served on the panel for a decade, and McNally named him the leader in January after long-time chairwoman Dolores Gresham retired last year.

An attorney from Shelby County and influential conservative voice, Kelsey has been a passionate advocate of education choice policies like vouchers that would provide state funding to help families pay for private school tuition. He also helped craft language in a 2021 law that restricts classroom instruction about systemic racism.

Last week, a grand jury indicted Kelsey and Joshua Smith, the owner of a Nashville social club, on charges they illegally concealed the transfer of $91,000 during Kelsey’s failed U.S. congressional campaign in 2016.

Kelsey, who is up for reelection next year, is to appear in federal court on Nov. 5. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of five counts.

In his remarks, Kelsey said he believed he was operating within the law. He questioned the timing of the indictment, five years after the alleged offense and under the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Under Senate rules, Kelsey would have had to appear before a Senate ethics committee about his leadership position or be suspended had he not stepped aside.

McNally thanked Kelsey for his decision. “I think this will allow you to concentrate fully on your case and not be burdened with the issues of chairmanship,” the speaker said, “and I appreciate you as a senator and as a person.”

Lundberg takes the helm as the legislature takes up thorny matters in the days ahead such as school mask mandates and several bills to make school board races partisan contests.

He did not immediately respond when asked to comment on his new role.

Mask mandate hearing raises issue of ‘separate but equal’ for Tennessee students with disabilities

2021-09-09T20:20:57+00:00

Schools can use creative scheduling to comply with the Tennessee governor’s order that allows families to opt out of masks in schools and still protect the rights and health of immunocompromised students, argued attorney Jim Newsome during a court hearing on Thursday.

Newsome, attorney for defendant Gov. Bill Lee, was among the parties presenting their cases in a Memphis courtroom before U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman of Tennessee’s Western District. Lipman will now decide if a temporary injunction is appropriate to continue to block the governor’s order, or if the court should reinstate it.

The judge issued no ruling on Thursday, but a temporary restraining order issued on Friday remains in effect until Sept. 17. The temporary injunction, if granted, would remain in effect while the trial is pending or until overturned in an appeals court.

Three Shelby County parents of students with disabilities filed the class action lawsuit on Aug. 27. The suit says allowing students to circumvent a county masks-in-schools mandate violates the Americans with Disabilities Act because it jeopardizes the health and education of their medically vulnerable children who are at higher risks for severe complications from COVID. Parents in Florida have filed a similar lawsuit, and the Biden administration also is investigating related issues in Tennessee and other states.

Newsome argued that the lawsuit was premature because the parents had not exhausted the appeals available through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Schools also should consider using gyms as classrooms to allow more social distancing or make special class schedules for students with disabilities to help limit their contact with their maskless peers, he said.

Brice Timmons of Donati Law, who is representing the plaintiffs, scoffed at such ideas after court.

“I thought that separate but equal was over but apparently we’re going to argue that again for students with disabilities,” he said.

“That is completely antithetical to the central purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is to integrate persons with disabilities into the mainstream of American society,” he said.

Lawyers for Shelby County, who also filed a lawsuit against the governor over the executive order, supported the plaintiffs in court on Thursday.

The only witness called on Thursday was Theresa Nicholls, assistant commissioner for special populations at the Tennessee Department of Education.

Nicholls, a defense witness and the head of special education services for the state, walked through the extensive accommodations that the state has made to help students with disabilities access a “free appropriate public education” since the beginning of the pandemic.

On cross-examination, the plaintiff’s lawyer asked if Lee consulted with her before issuing the order, given her expertise on disability services.

“No,” she replied.

In Thursday’s hearing, attorneys and the judge also spoke to the effectiveness of masks, with the plaintiff’s attorneys echoing the sentiments of a brief filed in the case by the state and national chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The statement said, “The AAP’s strong recommendation of universal masking for students, teachers, and support staff in school has remained consistent from the beginning — because masks are a safe, effective, and critical infection control measure.”

The statement also quoted one of Lee’s statements on masking.

“In short, the science squarely backs up Gov. Lee’s advice that “If you want to protect your kid from the [COVID] virus or from quarantine, the best way to do that is to have your kid in school with a mask,” it said.

Lee, who is vaccinated and often wears a mask, has given mixed messages on masks for Tennessee schoolchildren. In interviews, press conferences, and social media posts, he has said both that masks are unnecessary in school and necessary for safety. However, Lee has remained steadfast that parents should make that choice for their children, not a county or school district.

The issue of masks in schools has been hotly debated nationwide, but especially in the Republican stronghold of the South where some conservatives argue that masks are an intrusion on personal liberties.

At the end of Thursday’s hearing, an anti-mask protester approached plaintiff attorney Bryce Ashby and called him a bad lawyer for his position in the case.

After the hearing, Ashby’s colleague addressed the outburst, political climate, and a threat made against one of his clients. He said he’s worried about his clients’ safety but added that he has already witnessed their toughness.

“Parents of kids with disabilities are some of the strongest people I’ve ever met,” he said. “They have to be tough. They have to constantly advocate for their children’s needs.”

Memphians demand district create more virtual learning options to stop the COVID spread in schools

2021-09-01T22:41:34+00:00

Four weeks into the school year, a growing chorus of Memphis parents are pressing Shelby County Schools to be more aggressive in creating a virtual learning option as safety concerns mount amid a surge in community COVID cases.

But district officials made clear at an emotional school board meeting Tuesday night that it’s not likely to happen, citing the strict requirements Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn has set for granting waivers to the state’s virtual learning restrictions.

On Friday, Schwinn said that she would allow school districts to shift severely affected schools or classrooms to virtual or hybrid learning as outlined in each district’s continuous learning plan. But Schwinn maintained her stance that the switch could not happen districtwide.

Memphis deputy superintendent John Barker said during Tuesday’s board meeting Schwinn’s announcement will most likely benefit smaller school districts because she will only grant the waivers if there aren’t enough adults to cover the classroom.

With its robust staff of central office employees, many of whom have teaching licenses, it is unlikely that Shelby County Schools would have the same teacher shortage that some smaller districts might face, said Barker.

“What people heard about virtual learning is not really a viable opportunity for a district like us, like Metro Nashville, like Hamilton County that actually has the ability to go and keep the school open,” said Barker.

Superintendent Joris Ray said that school officials have received threats warning them that if the entire district switches to virtual learning or hybrid learning that funding, the board, and the superintendent could be removed. He did not specify the source of those threats.

“It’s been a number of threats to this particular issue. I’m unsure of what ramifications may occur,” he said to an overflow crowd who gathered Tuesday night in the board auditorium to share frustrations with the district’s management of its third school year in a pandemic.

During the public comment section at the beginning of the meeting, speakers denounced what they view as unsafe schools. Many urged Ray to take a bolder stance against Gov. Lee and officials in the state capital who oppose widespread remote education.

“There needs to be a consciousness above the law. A consciousness above what Nashville might be telling you to do. A consciousness that requires us to act and to behave differently because there is a global pandemic going on, and we have to ask, Dr. Ray, at what cost is my mother’s life worth?” said Justin Pearson, a Memphis activist and son of a Shelby County Schools educator.

Pearson mentioned local students and teachers who have died of complications from COVID this school year and asked the board and the superintendent if they would “rather carry caskets” than “draw the ire of Bill Lee.”

“This is the injustice that we’re fighting,” said Pearson.

As of Aug. 26, there have been 987 students diagnosed with COVID and 155 staff members, according to district records.

The district does not have a vaccine mandate for teachers, but has continued to require masks in school despite the governor’s executive order that states that families can request to opt out of that policy for any reason. Shelby County government and the parents of immunocompromised students have filed lawsuits attempting to bar the executive order.

SCS currently operates one online academy, Memphis Virtual School, but it is only available to students in grades four through 12 and has an enrollment capacity of 1,500 students. A district spokesperson said Wednesday that 900 students are currently enrolled in the virtual school — more than triple a typical school year — and that administrators are reviewing hundreds of pending applications.

Without more options to learn virtually or telework, teachers and students who don’t want to return in person because of preexisting conditions face a precarious situation in the classroom, said Raquel Williams, a teacher and officer with the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association.

Williams also voiced concern over the new Shelby County Schools online dashboard of districtwide COVID cases. She feels it does not go far enough, and said that teachers and parents should receive daily, not weekly, updates of coronavirus cases in their schools and classrooms.

And she challenged the district to change its policy on staff absences due to quarantine.

“Teachers should not be forced to utilize sick days while quarantining,” she said to applause.

Recently, Adrienne Battle, head of Metro Nashville Public Schools, announced that vaccinated teachers would get extra paid sick days. Memphis board member Kevin Woods supported considering a similar policy in Memphis.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Woods also joined his fellow board members in praising the superintendent and his “amazing team” for their management during the pandemic. The superintendent’s annual board evaluation was shared Tuesday night, and he received high marks in every category.

Woods gave the superintendent kudos for his “impressive” efforts to raise awareness about vaccinations and increase access to COVID testing, including mobile testing units that rotate to each school.

Woods pushed back on the sentiment that the district hasn’t taken bold and necessary actions to keep students and staff safe.

“This board stood up. Your general counsel stood up. Our kids stood up; they are wearing masks,” said Woods. “So this whole conversation about the recoil of going back to where we were, that’s a non-starter. My daughter wants to be back at school, and as long as we’re doing everything possible to keep our kids, our adults safe, let’s keep them in the classroom.”

But parent and pastor Sara Corum who watched the entire meeting online shared one of the lesser discussed consequences of the virtual learning controversy.

“My two just came off a 10-day quarantine from exposure. During the quarantine they received work to do but no instruction because their teachers are not permitted to teach them from home,” she said.

With hesitation and concern, she sent them back to school after the quarantine ended.

“We don’t have a lot of viable options,” she said. “And yet, it feels like we’re playing Russian roulette with our children. No parent should ever be in the position we’re in. Ever.”

Masks required in all public and private schools in Shelby County

2021-08-06T16:56:26+00:00

Masks will be required in all public and private daycares, preschools, and K-12 schools in Shelby County following an order released by the Shelby County Health Department on Friday morning.

Shelby County Schools, which largely covers the city of Memphis, was the only district in the county to have its own mask mandate. Under the new order, face coverings will be required in private schools and the county’s other districts: Collierville Schools, Germantown Municipal School District, Bartlett City Schools, Arlington Community Schools, Lakeland School System, and Millington Municipal Schools. Some of the districts have already started their school year. Classes in Memphis start Monday.

In a statement, the department said, “This amendment is deemed necessary because Health Department data indicates an alarming increase in pediatric COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. More than one quarter of the current active cases are among those 17 and younger. Regional hospitals also report an increase in COVID-19 pediatric cases, many of whom require intensive care and ventilatory support.”

At a press conference earlier this week, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton threatened to withhold funding from any school district mandating masks.

Face coverings have been proven to reduce the spread of COVID. In July, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that all students and school staff wear masks this year. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control later followed suit, issuing updated guidance that recommended “universal indoor masking by all students (age 2 and older), staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.”

Despite this guidance from scientific and healthcare leaders, masks in schools have been a controversial issue nationwide, but especially in the South where a strong anti-mask movement has developed.

One group, Parents Rise TN, scheduled a meeting in East Memphis earlier this week to plan a proactive response against mask and vaccine mandates.

In an email announcing the meeting, organizers said, “It is our duty as parents to ensure our children are never subjected to health mandates again as a condition of full enjoyment of their education, put a stop to the social conditioning of fear, and take back our rights over our children’s health choices.”

Other parents expressed relief over Friday’s announcement.

“I am thrilled,” said Katie Anderson, mother of a Bartlett second grader.

She added, “The under-12 population is still vulnerable, as are others, and the delta variant is proving more dangerous to them, as well as more contagious. I applaud the Shelby County Health Department for taking this step to keep our kids safe and add an extra layer of protection to reduce transmission rates as we head into the fall.”

Having trouble viewing this form on mobile? Go here.

Lipscomb University names former Tennessee education chief Candice McQueen its new president

2021-08-05T16:33:10+00:00

Former Tennessee Education Commissioner Candice McQueen is leaving her job as CEO of a national nonprofit education organization to become president of Lipscomb University in Nashville.

Since 2019, McQueen has been at the helm of the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, which works with districts and schools to attract, develop, and keep high-quality educators. She was former Gov. Bill Haslam’s education chief from 2015 to 2018.

Lipscomb officials announced Thursday that McQueen will return to the university where she served as dean of the College of Education before joining Haslam’s administration. Lipscomb, a private Christian liberal arts school with about 6,000 students, consistently ranks as having among the state’s top teacher training programs.

McQueen, 47, was unanimously elected the first female CEO of the 130-year-old university during a special meeting this week of the Lipscomb Board of Trustees. She suceeds L. Randolph Lowry III, who will become the school’s chancellor.

Saying she was “honored and humbled” by the opportunity, McQueen called Lipscomb “a truly remarkable place where students grow in their faith and character while building toward their careers.”

A native of Clarksville, Tennessee, McQueen is a former teacher who joined Lipscomb’s education faculty in 2001 and was appointed dean in 2008. Under her leadership, the College of Education doubled its enrollment and added six graduate programs. She also was the founding director of Lipscomb’s Ayers Institute for Teacher Learning and Innovation.

Her tenure as state education commissioner included overhauling requirements for student learning, championing literacy, grappling with online testing problems, and shaping Tennessee’s new plan for schools under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act.

McQueen will remain on the board for the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, which will be led by co-presidents Josh Barnett and Laura Encalade. Encalade was McQueen’s chief of staff at the Tennessee Department of Education and transitioned with her boss to the institute, where she has been executive vice president of strategy and partnerships.

Schwinn: Guidance for what Tennessee teachers can and can’t teach on race will come by Aug. 1

2021-06-09T23:46:35+00:00

Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn said teachers deserve clarity about a controversial new Tennessee law limiting what they can teach about racism and inequality, and she promises to deliver guidance by Aug. 1.

The guidance also will outline the state education department’s process for evaluating complaints filed with her office and levying financial penalties against districts whose teachers cross the line, Schwinn said.

In an interview Wednesday with Chalkbeat, Schwinn spoke publicly for the first time about the law she is required to enforce when the 2021-22 school year begins.

“My job is to implement the bills as they are passed by the General Assembly,” she said. “I think what teachers deserve more than anything is to understand what is expected of them and certainly any parameters that are in place.”

The law says “the commissioner shall withhold state funds, in an amount determined by the commissioner” if a public school district or charter school “knowingly violates” the ban on teaching or promoting 14 concepts that the legislature viewed as divisive, cynical, or misguided. (See section 51 of the law.)

The concepts include elements of critical race theory, an academic framework that explores how race and racism influence American law, culture, business, and politics. Banning them would restrict classroom conversations about white privilege, institutional racism, and racial bias.

The GOP-controlled legislature passed the ban along partisan lines last month on the final day of its legislative session, and Gov. Bill Lee signed the measure into law on May 24.

Schwinn said her department’s legal team has been collaborating with the state attorney general’s office to prepare guidance for educators. She plans to seek feedback on the first draft from a group of superintendents, lawmakers, and members of the public before making revisions and publishing a document by Aug. 1.

The commissioner made clear that the state will provide guidance — not training — on how to comply. Any training and professional development must come at the district level.

Dale Lynch, who leads the state superintendents organization, said school leaders will have to work quickly to ensure teachers understand the new parameters.

Most Tennessee school systems start their academic year in August, preceded by teacher training on new state or federal policies affecting them. Adding to the challenge, district leaders will have just wrapped up expanded summer learning programs and then face deadlines in August to submit plans for spending their federal coronavirus relief funds.

“It is definitely a very tight timeline,” Lynch said of receiving the guidance as late as Aug. 1.

“Superintendents across the state have got to lean on the department to help us understand how to follow the letter of this law,” he said. “The earlier that we can get this type of information, the better training that we’ll be able to provide to our teachers.”

But Schwinn said she won’t rush guidance on “this incredibly sensitive topic.”

Penny Schwinn

“We recognize that this is something that needs to be treated with care and sensitivity,” she said. “We are working closely with counsel to ensure we are fully compliant with the law and also taking into account a representative group of voices because this process needs to be transparent.”

She added: “What is very important to me is that I do not want this to be a subjective process. I don’t want this to be a process where it was not clear on the front end what the expectations are.”

Rep. John Ragan, the Oak Ridge Republican who co-sponsored the bill, said educators who object to the new law must still comply with it.

Some teachers have said on social media and in news reports that they planned to ignore the ban, but Ragan cites Tennessee’s teacher code of ethics, which says educators must abide by all applicable federal and state laws.

“Those teachers who have announced they will not follow this law have announced that they’re intending to violate their own code of ethics,” Ragan told Chalkbeat recently. “I personally find that unacceptable.”

“I certainly respect the opinion of teachers,” he added, “but I will not respect an avowed intention to disobey the law.”

Flush with cash, Tennessee makes modest recurring education investments in newly approved budget

2021-04-30T00:58:17+00:00

Tennessee lawmakers on Thursday approved a $42.6 billion budget that allocates state funding toward a 4% pay raise for teachers, shores up the pension plan for educators, and creates a $250 million endowment to bolster student mental health services.

The spending plan also sets aside $141 million for learning recovery programs like summer camps and after-school tutoring to help lagging students catch up from the pandemic. And, because next year’s funding for education is based on this year’s enrollment, it includes extra money to ensure schools aren’t penalized for students who didn’t show up during the pandemic.

The final document — described as “fiscally conservative” by Republicans and a “missed opportunity” by Democrats — passed along party lines under a GOP supermajority. It now heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who promised teachers in January that he would increase funding toward their salaries.

While adding tens of millions more to Tennessee’s $5 billion-plus budget for K-12 education, the investments aren’t likely to significantly change Tennessee’s national ranking for student funding. Tennessee is 46th based on the latest data from the National Education Association.

Flush with cash in state coffers because of better-than-expected revenues, GOP leaders brushed aside last-minute pleas from Democrats to dedicate more recurring money to public schools through Tennessee’s education funding formula. Instead, they prioritized investments in one-time spending for infrastructure and capital improvement and maintenance projects, most of which aren’t related to K-12 education.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson called the plan a “good budget that makes smart investments in key areas of our economy.”

Republicans voted down proposals to scuttle the governor’s novel trust fund idea, which will dedicate annual investment income toward student mental health needs. Democrats tried to put that $250 million investment instead toward hiring more school-based counselors, psychologists, social workers, and nurses, which in Tennessee are far below nationally recommended numbers. School leaders have said more specialists are needed to curb soaring rates of student anxiety and depression during the pandemic.

But Republicans stuck with the trust fund, which they said will provide a dedicated stream of resources for student mental health, though it won’t quickly pay for more specialists.

During an emotional speech on the Senate floor, Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro explained his vote against the budget for the first time since he took office in 2014.

“At a time when we have the largest recurring balance since I’ve been here, I don’t think that we’re meeting the obligations that we have to public schools in the state like we could,” said the Nashville Democrat, who listed other concerns, too.

Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Democrat from Memphis, said the final spending plan means Tennessee will continue to lag behind most other Southern states in student funding.

“I know that our primary constitutional duty is to pass a state budget, and there are so many good things in here that I think are great,” she said. “My concern is what’s not in here. With this amount of revenue, and also the possibility of other federal funds, we really could have done some transformative things.”

Tennessee also is getting more than $4 billion in federal funds for K-12 education, but that one-time money must be spent by September of 2024 for relief and recovery from COVID-19.

The state budget includes $29 million in recurring funding for school vouchers. The program, which would provide taxpayer money to eligible families toward private school tuition, was halted last year when a judge ruled the voucher law unconstitutional. The case, which the state has since appealed, is awaiting arguments before the Tennessee Supreme Court, and the governor hopes to resurrect the program this fall.

During negotiations with Lee’s administration, GOP leaders halved the governor’s proposed $200 million investment to close internet service gaps. They also cut grants for local governments and a planned food sales tax holiday.

With the savings, they made a one-time deposit of $250 million in the state’s pension fund for teachers and other government employees in order to meet retirement obligations.

They made a $100 investment in the state’s rainy day fund to bring the total for reserves to well over $1 billion. And they didn’t tap into about $238 million in recurring money that could have been allocated for other needs.

“Not only are we back to being structurally balanced, we’ve got excess that will be waiting on us next year,” said Johnson, the Senate majority leader from Franklin.

Beth Brown, president of Tennessee’s largest teacher organization, called the budget priorities disappointing, especially because there’s widespread consensus among educators that students need more specialists to help them recover emotionally and academically from the pandemic.

“The money is there to make a significant increase to K-12 funding, but Gov. Lee and the General Assembly have instead chosen to continue stuffing mattresses full of cash,” said Brown on behalf of the Tennessee Education Association.

Shelby County mayor and superintendent have a $31.6 million difference of opinion on facilities funding

2021-04-22T21:55:08+00:00

There’s about a $31.6 million gap between the amount that Shelby County Schools has requested for building new schools and renovating campuses and the amount that Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris has allocated for such projects in his proposed budget. Harris gave Shelby County Commissioners a preview of his budget for fiscal year 2022 on Wednesday.

The $1.4 billion balanced budget includes $427 million for schools and about $23.4 million for construction costs for Shelby County Schools, the largest district in the county. Following Harris’ presentation, which he called “The Road to Recovery,” Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray presented his own school construction proposal, dubbed “Reimagining 901,” which seeks to upgrade facilities for Shelby County Schools.

Ray’s plan proposes about 60 changes to campuses across Memphis and Shelby County, including building five new schools, closing 13 to 15 schools, and merging or renovating several others. To pull off the ambitious plan and build the new facilities, such as more outdoor learning spaces and new STEM classrooms, Ray and the school board need the County Commission to allot $55 million annually towards school construction and renovations for the next 10 years.

Commissioner reactions to the superintendent’s presentation and the $55 million request were mixed.

“You know, I heard through the presentation, “We have challenges throughout,” and for the ask, we have challenges too,” said Commission Chairperson Eddie Jones.

“Realistically, if I were to look at it from a CIP standing, $55 million to SCS would equate to about 70 [percent] of our CIP spend annually, which is $75 million,” added Jones.

The county’s CIP, or capital improvement plan, covers the area’s infrastructure upgrades, which includes improvements to roads and county-owned buildings. Shelby County Schools construction makes up about 31 percent of the CIP in the mayor’s proposed budget. The commissioners will amend and approve the county budget by June 30, and more committee and one-on-one discussions will unfold between now and then.

To meet the superintendent’s request, the county would have to cut some of its own projects or increase its CIP spending, said Commissioner Edmund Ford, Jr. The latter could mean adding debt or raising taxes. The mayor’s budget included no tax increases and no new debt.

“I just had to give you the realistic context because we can ask for whatever, but if it’s not realistic and there’s no real communication, all we’re saying is ‘Hey, we just printed off some stuff on some nice paper and it’s a wish,’” said Ford.

Commissioner Brandon Morrison said she is hopeful that there is the “political will” to make the 10-year, $550 million commitment. Commissioner Tami Sawyer joined Morrison in calling for more accountability measures or a progress tracker to ensure that the money, if given, provides the facilities, such as more space for tutoring and reading programs, necessary to improve student achievement.

The superintendent has made increasing literacy rates a focus in his recent speeches and hopes to raise the on-time graduation rate to 90 percent by 2030. Currently, about 76 percent of the district’s middle school students read below grade level and about 22 percent of students don’t graduate from high school on time, according to SCS data.

“I continue to be disheartened by where we are right now, but that doesn’t mean I lack hope that we can get to these mileposts,” said Sawyer. “When we think about what we’re facing in our broader Memphis community, as you know, regarding crime and acts of violence and mental health issues and things like that, this all loops together. And I’ve said this before, and many Commissioners have agreed with me, I’d rather fund schools than fund jails.”

Closings, mergers, and expansions: Memphis superintendent proposes transformation of district school buildings

2021-04-20T02:37:11+00:00

Shelby County Schools would build new school buildings, close others, and expand some that are overcrowded under an ambitious plan Superintendent Joris Ray unveiled Monday.

Among the myriad of proposals in Ray’s “Reimagining 901” initiative, spelled out during a school board committee meeting: building new high schools in Frayser and Southeast Memphis, expanding Melrose High School, White Station High School, and Willow Oaks Elementary, and closing Shady Grove Elementary and Tech High/Northwest Prep.

In all, the proposal includes constructing five new schools, expanding 13 existing schools, and closing 13 to 15 schools by 2031, although some of the schools slated for closure were not named on Monday.

The plan, two years in the making, is likely to spark debate: Few topics are as sensitive in school communities as proposed closures and consolidations.

The long list of projects would be funded by at least $240 million in federal stimulus money and $550 million from the Shelby County Commission. The board is requesting $55 million a year for the next 10 years from the commission to help cover construction costs and tackle deferred maintenance, which includes HVAC unit replacements, roof repairs, and information technology upgrades.

Ray is scheduled to formally introduce his plan to the commission Wednesday.

The plan also calls for improvements to stadiums and gyms. Central High School’s Halle Stadium, Whitehaven High School Stadium, and Melrose Stadium are slated for renovations under the proposal and a half-dozen elementary and middle schools would get new gyms, including Grahamwood Elementary.

The 10-year plan would transform campuses in dozens of neighborhoods across the county. It also phases out many middle schools, merging them into newly formed K-8 or 6-12 schools. The administration suggested this change as a way to use space more efficiently and reduce the disruption of changing schools as students advance to new grades.

“Here’s our commitment, board and community: that we’re going to remain flexible,” said John Barker, the district’s deputy superintendent for strategic operations and finance. “What we told and asked and said to our partners downtown at the City Council and County Commission was that we need help in engendering this awesome workforce development opportunity to get these dollars spent and get these buildings built.”

Federal stimulus dollars must be spent by 2024, Barker added.

School board member Stephanie Love said the district also needs to invest in the more rural Woodstock area, saying it presents it a unique opportunity in a largely urban district.

Love also cautioned the superintendent and his team that buildings alone do not transform schools.

“I also want us to be mindful when we’re talking about — whether it be merging schools or building new schools — we have to make sure that we’re providing our parents and students with something better,” Love said. “Yes, a building is good, but the academics and the supports have to be better than what they had in the beginning.”

Legislation pulled but mission accomplished: Memphis and Germantown leaders will discuss future of suburban schools

2021-04-20T00:16:14+00:00

A Tennessee senator on Monday withdrew legislation that would have forced Memphis school leaders to transfer four campuses to suburban school systems in Germantown and Millington.

Sen. Brian Kelsey, a Republican from Germantown, said a state order is unnecessary because leaders in Memphis and Germantown recently began discussions about the future of Germantown elementary, middle and high schools, which are located in Germantown but operated by Memphis-based Shelby County Schools.

His legislation, which originally was proposed by Rep. Mark White of Memphis, would prevent a district from operating schools within the jurisdiction of another district. The bill also would have affected Lucy Elementary School in Millington, another bedroom community of Memphis.

The retreat by Kelsey and White keeps state officials out of the controversial local matter with the understanding that local officials will revisit the arrangement created in 2014 when public education in Shelby County splintered into a system of haves and have-nots by race and class.

Shelby County Schools was created by the 2013 merger of Memphis City Schools, which served mostly Black students from lower-income families, and the suburban county district that served mostly white and more affluent students. When six suburban towns seceded and created their own school systems a year later, the newly consolidated Shelby County Schools continued to run the four suburban schools under a legal settlement.

Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo asked White to file legislation this year to force negotiations over the schools known as “the three Gs.” He said Germantown needs those campuses to better serve its growing population — and that one building also could provide adult learning through a partnership with either the University of Memphis or the University of Tennessee.

“I’m happy to report that serious negotiations have already started,” Kelsey said Monday night on the Senate floor, referring to recent informal talks between Palazzolo and Kevin Woods, a school board member for Shelby County Schools.

Woods said follow-up meetings are scheduled and that Shelby County Schools “will move forward in good faith to discuss ownership and operations of the buildings.”

Issues to be discussed include a fair price for the school buildings, as well as how to mitigate the impact of a property transfer on students, families, and school employees. Currently, the three Germantown schools serve about 3,400 students, most of whom live in unincorporated areas of Shelby County.

Memphis school leaders say transferring the properties would force their district to build new schools for displaced students at a cost of $100 million to $140 million — far exceeding the $25 million that Germantown has offered for the three campuses.

Both Kelsey and White have said they plan to resurrect the bill in 2022 if the discussions don’t yield an agreement.

‘There are better days ahead’: Superintendent wants ‘Memphis’ back in district name and to add dual language programs, fine arts to all schools

2021-04-17T00:05:41+00:00

A decade after voters approved merging Memphis City Schools with the county school district, Superintendent Joris Ray is now proposing that Memphis be added back into the district’s name.

At an elaborate breakfast at the Hilton in East Memphis — complete with lights, balloons and radio DJ Stan Bell — Ray delivered his first speech since the pandemic began, on the theme “Reimagining 901.”

“I know there are better days ahead,” he told the crowd of about 150 district staff, elected officials, and community leaders gathered on Friday morning. “And I need you in this work with me.”

Ray’s latest initiatives include raising the minimum teacher salary by 7%, hiring hundreds of teacher assistants to reduce the ratio of children to adults in elementary schools, and adding more dual language and fine arts courses.

The address, which began at 9:01 a.m., is the public’s first glimpse of the district’s 10-year “Reimagining 901” plan for school buildings and academics that has been in the works for two years. Next week, district officials plan to share details of the plan, which will likely include school closures. The presentation to school board members is scheduled for Monday and to county commissioners on Wednesday.

A graphic for Shelby County Schools’ State of the District, announcing a change in the district’s name to Memphis Shelby County Schools.

The proposed initiatives would mostly be paid for by the $500 million from the district’s third round of federal coronavirus relief money. But in order to sustain the changes and help students “climb their way out of generational poverty,” Ray, who’s approaching his second year as head of schools, said the district would need more money from city, county, and state governments.

“We cannot pretend that one-time funding washes away historic underfunding of public schools,” he said. Students “are not whole until they can read as well as their peers. They’re not whole until their parents can earn a living wage. They’re not whole until they have trained, well-paid teachers every single day.”

Ray’s plan also pushes back the district’s lofty goals to graduate 90% of students on time by 2025 to 2030.

A slew of technical issues in recent years meant that state test results measuring the district’s progress had not been available, said Angela Whitelaw, a deputy superintendent.

“As we were thinking about Reimagining 901, we came back and we looked at those goals and now we have another set of goals not far off from where we were,” she said. “The fact is that we now have measurements that we can count on and we can get there by 2030.”

In 2015, Ray’s predecessor, Dorsey Hopson, unveiled a 10-year plan that included boosting early literacy, community partnerships, and preparing students for college and careers after high school. The district is not on track to meet those many of those goals by 2025. The district’s average score for the ACT college entrance exam has been stagnant for the past three years at about 17.8. A student is considered ready for college if they score a 21. After years of incremental growth, the district’s graduation rate also slightly dipped last year, mirroring a statewide trend.

Ray’s proposal to change the district’s name to Memphis-Shelby County Schools is a long time coming. The district inherited the Shelby County Schools name when the Memphis City Schools system dissolved in 2013. But after six suburban towns split off to form their own districts the following year, Shelby County Schools’ boundaries shrunk to Memphis city limits plus small incorporated areas of the county.

Below is a list of efforts Ray announced during the speech Friday morning. Some have been in the works for years, while others are new:

Staffing

Hire teacher assistants for elementary schools to reduce the adult-to-student class ratio from 1:25 to 1:13. This is Ray’s second attempt to secure funding for these positions.
Increase minimum teacher pay in Shelby County Schools from $43,000 to $45,965 and increase maximum salary from $73,000 to $80,635.
Explore returning to a “step and lane” annual pay increase for teacher salaries, which is based on years of experience and advanced degrees, which the district’s two teachers unions have requested.
Cut an additional $22 million from central office operations. Over the past two years, the district has made $41 million in cuts.

Academic programs

Offer pre-kindergarten for all 4-year-olds. The district has made progress toward this plan through city, county, and philanthropic money, but is still short of its goal.
Offer dual language and bilingual programs to all students starting in pre-kindergarten. The district currently has one dual language program at Treadwell Elementary.
Explore later start times for high schools; many start as early as 7:15 a.m.
Expand performing arts programs to all schools after years of cuts.
Develop service-learning projects for elementary and middle schoolers and require 24 hours of community service for high schoolers to graduate.
Resurrect the effort to establish an agricultural sciences high school open to surrounding counties.
Open a high school where students can earn an associate’s degree by graduation.
Add more job certification opportunities in high school.
Add more Advanced Placement courses for college credit through a virtual program and add more honors classes.
Create classes in leadership, conservation, and international studies, and expand coding and engineering classes.
Continue social-emotional learning for all students.

Facilities

Expand outdoor learning spaces.
Create more K-8 schools to have students in the same building longer; create programs for sixth graders transitioning to middle school and start exploring possible careers.
Renovate stadiums and athletic fields.
Build school additions as more schools are closed and combined.
Chip away at a $400 million backlog of building repairs and facility upgrades.

But the most pressing issue on some parents’ minds had nothing to do with long-term plans.

Several parents watching the livestream on Facebook wanted to know what school would look like for students in the fall. Shelby County Schools reopened classrooms in early March after offering only virtual classes most of this school year. Still, about two-thirds of the district’s students are learning remotely. Students who are in classrooms still log into video calls for class, a practice that some frustrated parents nationwide have dubbed, “Zoom in the room.”

A district official responded to the question in a Facebook comment: “Our goal is to ensure a safe learning environment for in-person learning. At this time, the District is still in early discussions regarding virtual options for next school year.”

Reactions from teachers union leaders, school board members, and students present at the event centered on building upgrades, increases to teacher pay, and adding more staff in elementary school classrooms.

A sign displayed at Shelby County Schools’ State of the District address on April 16, 2021.

Jolie Madihalli, the president of the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association, said that as a former kindergarten teacher, having another adult in the classroom to help with taking students to the bathroom or discipline issues would allow for more time to teach.

Madihalli said she was also glad to hear Ray talk about teacher pay. The district’s two teachers unions have been negotiating with Shelby County Schools leaders for a new agreement, which includes teacher pay and working conditions, for two years with no resolution. In Tennessee, teachers union members do not have to vote on the resulting contract before approval; the school board has the final say.

“The unions have worked really hard to… return to a step and lane system,” she said. “I hope it does come to fruition when we’re back at the table.”

Hailey Henderson, a sophomore at Middle College High School and the granddaughter of a teacher, said, “While we’re focusing on the children, which is amazing, we’re not forgetting the people who have to teach the kids and make sure that they’re set up for success.”

The expansion of language courses was also important to her.

“It opens so many opportunities anywhere you go,” she said.

Talking with reporters after Ray’s address, Miska Clay Bibbs, the school board’s chairwoman, said the district is coming into its own identity after years of transition.

“We’re now making sure that we understand who we are to the community and putting our stake in the ground around what that looks like,” she said. ”The reality of it is, we’re now getting into our groove.”

District takeover proposal advances in Tennessee legislature, as opponents warn of a ‘power grab’

2021-03-31T01:14:58+00:00

A bill outlining reasons the state may take over a local school district cleared its first legislative hurdle Tuesday. Supporters praised the legislation as providing clarity on when to step in, while opponents questioned the timing and warned of an impending “power grab” in Nashville or Memphis.

Rep. Scott Cepicky, a Republican from Maury County, said his proposal aims to strengthen Tennessee law by providing a clear process for when the state education commissioner should take control of a district, which could include firing the superintendent and replacing elected school board members.

“That should be the nuclear option, so to speak. But right now, it’s very vague and ambiguous as to what actually has to take place,” he told members of the House Instruction Subcommittee, which approved the bill on a voice vote.

The legislation ratchets up tension between the state and its two largest and most diverse school districts. Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and Memphis’ Shelby County Schools only recently reopened classrooms during the pandemic, amid intense pressure from Republican Gov. Bill Lee and threats by the GOP-controlled legislature to pull their state funding.

Earlier Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers from Nashville held a news conference to slam the measure as another jab at Nashville and Memphis school systems, which are also in litigation with the state over funding and education vouchers.

“The last time I checked,” said Rep. Bo Mitchell, “there is no one in the Tennessee Department of Education that has ever run a school district. So it’s troubling that they would want to take over a number of school districts in the state when there’s no experience in the department to do so.”

Rep. Mike Stewart, another Nashville Democrat, called the four-page legislation “the most amazing power grab I think I’ve seen in a proposed education bill.”

State law already gives the commissioner authority to pursue takeover and replace local leaders with approval by the Tennessee State Board of Education and a legislative oversight committee on education.

Cepicky’s bill proposes standards for requiring an improvement plan or pursuing takeover based on current and historical academic performance, as well as operational and fiscal “competence” and compliance with federal and state laws and guidelines.

The bill says the commissioner should assess each school system annually to ensure it’s meeting the performance goals and measures the state board set. Beginning with the upcoming school year, the commissioner could “assume all powers of governance” if a district is not meeting its responsibilities to one or more “priority schools” in the state’s bottom 5%, or certain schools that have significant disparities in how different groups of children perform.

Removing the superintendent or school board members would still require approval from the state board.

Rep. Sam McKenzie, a Knoxville Democrat who voted against the bill, questioned the timing of any discussions about district takeovers when schools are focused now on mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on students, especially those who come from low-income neighborhoods.

“This legislation at this time seems to be ill-conceived to grant takeover powers when we’re just trying to get back to normal,” McKenzie said.

Cepicky characterized any delay as “kicking the can down the road.”

Rep. Scott Cepicky

“I’m here arguing for students, folks — the students that are trapped in failing school systems,” he said. “Most of our school systems are doing the best they can … but there are districts out here that are failing these kids year after year after year, and we’ve got to address that moving forward.”

Tennessee has a poor track record for taking over and improving low-performing schools based on its nearly 10-year-old school turnaround initiative known as the Achievement School District, or ASD. The charter-reliant program has been slow and spotty in improving schools in Memphis and Nashville, and lawmakers are considering another bill to set exit strategies for 27 schools approaching 10 years with the state-run district.

The takeover bill is on the agenda for Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee and likely will be heard next week before the full House Instruction Committee.

Tennessee could take over school systems and replace leaders under legislative proposal

2021-03-30T01:08:37+00:00

After a contentious debate over school reopenings in Memphis and Nashville, one lawmaker filed legislation Monday outlining how Tennessee’s education commissioner could take over any district that is falling short of its academic goals, potentially firing its superintendent and replacing elected school board members.

In addition to academics, the proposal says the commissioner could factor in district “competence” in meeting operational and fiscal responsibilities, as well as federal and state laws, rules, regulations, policies, and guidelines.

Rep. Scott Cepicky, a Republican from rural Culleoka near Nashville, could introduce his amendment as soon as Tuesday to a House education subcommittee that he chairs.

The measure is co-sponsored by Sen. Joey Hensley, a Republican from Hohenwald. Hensley’s staff directed all questions to Cepicky, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The proposal appears to be the latest volley in a tense school reopening dispute between local officials in Tennessee’s two largest school systems and the state, which has struggled to improve achievement in low-performing neighborhood schools it has taken over in the last decade.

After the legislature threatened to strip away their funding, Shelby County Schools and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools recently became the state’s last districts to return students to school buildings during the pandemic.

Both communities also are in the midst of major legal battles with the state over education. The state has appealed a judge’s 2020 ruling that overturned a school voucher law championed by Republican Gov. Bill Lee. A separate case is challenging the adequacy of state funding for schools, especially for students in urban districts.

Cepicky’s proposal could authorize the commissioner to take action as soon as the upcoming school year for any district that is not meeting, or historically has not met, performance goals and measures set by the Tennessee State Board of Education.

Such action could include guidance and technical assistance to develop an improvement plan — or the state assuming “all powers of governance,” including recommending to the state board that the superintendent or school board be replaced.

Rep. Scott Cepicky is a Republican from Culleoka in Maury County.

Cepicky’s amendment defines a district’s academic shortcomings as not meeting its responsibilities to one or more “priority schools” in the state’s bottom 5%, or certain schools that have significant achievement gaps among student groups.

The proposal says the state would have five years to return the district to local control. It also stipulates that no leaders who are turned out could be eligible for appointment or election to their office in the future.

The pending legislation drew quick responses from district leaders in Nashville, while officials with Shelby County Schools said they were studying it.

Christiane Buggs, who chairs Nashville’s school board, called the measure an “anti-democratic” proposal that would be “disastrous public policy.”

“We look forward to any support the State of Tennessee can give to school districts in a cooperative manner to achieve better student outcomes,” Buggs said in a statement.

Under state law, the commissioner must get approval from the state Board of Education to fire a district’s superintendent and school board members. The commissioner then must make a case before a legislative oversight committee on education in order to proceed.

House Education Committee Chairman Mark White said he was OK with Cepicky’s proposal. “It is already in law giving the commissioner this right. This bill just puts in place a procedure for doing so,” he said.

Talk of Tennessee taking over school districts has been going on for years, even before the state began taking control of low-performing schools in Memphis and Nashville in 2012 as part of its school turnaround initiative known as the Achievement School District, or ASD. That charter-reliant program has been slow and spotty in improving schools, and lawmakers are considering another bill to set exit strategies for schools whose 10-year charter contracts with the state are about to expire.

“If history is our guide, we know that state takeover of schools in Tennessee has been a failed strategy on virtually every measure — and most importantly for the students we hope to help,” said Gini Pupo-Walker, a Nashville school board member who also leads The Education Trust in Tennessee.

You can follow the bill that Cepicky is seeking to amend here.

Tennessee governor wants ways to keep some turnaround schools under state oversight after 10 years

2021-03-26T22:24:36+00:00

When Tennessee started taking over low-performing schools and matching most with charter operators in 2012, the plan was to return the schools to their home districts when they improved in an estimated five years.

Now Gov. Bill Lee is proposing other options for schools that have remained in the state’s turnaround program for nearly 10 years — most notably to let some of the higher-performing ones move from one state-run district to another.

Under legislation introduced this week, Lee proposed letting some charter schools bypass their original district when leaving Tennessee’s Achievement School District, also known as the ASD. Instead, they could apply to move directly to the state’s new charter school commission, which the governor helped to create.

The bill also would let charter operators seek to return schools to their original districts and apply for new charter contracts, which school boards could accept or reject.

A third option allows the schools to remain in the ASD, if at least 60% of their families want to stay.

The legislation gives the most detailed blueprint yet for the future of 27 schools and more than 9,000 students in Tennessee’s turnaround district. The initiative is the state’s most intense model for intervening in chronically underperforming schools, but academic gains have been spotty since it launched using a portfolio of charter operators.

Except for schools where most families support staying, the proposal would require schools to exit the ASD after 10 years — or sooner if they’ve stayed off Tennessee’s list of its 5% of lowest-performing schools for two three-year cycles. Tennessee’s education commissioner also could OK an early exit based on various performance data.

The Achievement School District, which so far has only taken over schools in Memphis and Nashville, was never intended to keep the schools longer than 10 years.

“When the ASD began, the focus was on taking over schools — not on how those schools should transition out of the district someday. This bill offers clarity,” Rep. Mark White said after the measure cleared its first hurdle in the House on Tuesday.

White, a Memphis Republican, is shepherding the proposal for the governor, a charter advocate who championed a 2019 state law creating the charter commission with the charge of strengthening Tennessee’s sector of the independently operated and taxpayer-financed public schools.

If the ASD bill passes, the commission’s role will expand, and its portfolio of charter schools is likely to grow. (The entity currently oversees three schools in Nashville and one in Memphis.) For now, the commission’s authority is limited as an appellate authorizer of charter organizations deemed to be high quality but rejected by local school boards.

But whether the new commission has the capacity to take on turnaround schools is a big concern for Gini Pupo-Walker, board member for Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and leader of The Education Trust in Tennessee.

“It’s one thing to be an appellate authorizer. It’s quite another to oversee a portfolio of schools that have been chronically underperforming for possibly generations,” she said.

Tess Stovall, the commission’s executive director, said the nine-member board and her staff “will be prepared to take on that additional responsibility” if the legislature decides to expand the body’s role.

Tennessee leaders have been talking for years about how to exit ASD schools that haven’t met early improvement goals acknowledged now as too lofty. But because the transition involves everything from people and property to finances and governance, the state has found it almost as hard to transition schools out of the ASD as it was to take them over.

Last summer, after the pandemic sidelined the state education department’s first proposal, the legislature demanded a more detailed transition plan to consider this year before ASD charter contracts begin to expire in 2022.

Early reviews of the resulting legislation are mixed. Several charter operators and advocates said they were pleased overall, while local district officials had more questions than comments.

“I think the structure and the vision of the transition is exactly right,” said Bob Nardo, founder and executive director of Libertas School in Memphis, whose contract with the ASD expires in 2025. “It creates options for exiting, but it ties those options to performance.”

White said the proposal gives higher-performing schools the option of transitioning directly to the new state commission if their application is approved by that body.

“Some of them are doing well and don’t want to go back to the [local district], White said. “They’re afraid they’ll get closed down.”

A spokeswoman for Shelby County Schools did not respond to questions about the bill, while a spokesman for Metro Nashville’s district declined to comment. But multiple sources said district leaders have serious concerns about provisions that appear to chip away at local control of neighborhood schools.

Much of the bill aims to address the thorny issue of property if a charter school moves from the ASD to the new state commission. Operators that have been leasing county-owned school buildings for free could pay to lease the campus for at least three more years or purchase it at or below fair market value, minus whatever they’ve invested to repair or improve the property.

“For schools to transition, obviously having a short-term period by which facilities could continue to be leased or sold to them by the school district is important for the stability for students and families,” said Charlie Bufalino, assistant commissioner of policy and legislative affairs for the state education department.

But it’s uncertain if that plan would run contrary to local government requirements for selling property.

The bill is scheduled to go before two more legislative committees next week.

Memphis works to bring back a normal school calendar after COVID summer ‘crunch’

2021-03-24T02:14:28+00:00

Shelby County Schools leaders want to return to their regular school year calendar after a year of pandemic related changes — an option supported by most parents and teachers in a district survey.

The 2021-22 school year would begin Aug. 9 and end the Friday before Memorial Day under a proposal Superintendent Joris Ray presented to school board members Tuesday evening.

The proposed calendar means the upcoming summer break will be three weeks shorter than normal, but ensures that fall semester exams wrap up before winter break starts on Dec. 20. School board members are scheduled to vote on the calendar during their meeting Tuesday, April 6.

For the last year, policymakers and families have been focused on trying to stay well and help students learn. Discussions about the school calendar are an early sign of a desire by teachers, students, families, and district officials to return to normalcy even as effects of the pandemic linger.

District leaders started this school year three weeks late because of COVID-19 and to allow more time to distribute devices for virtual learning. The last day of school this year is June 16.

Because a new summer program required by state law is slated to start in early July and run for four weeks, participating teachers would only have one weekend off, and students would have only one week off before going back to school in August.

“It’s nonstop,” said board member Stephanie Love. “I understand that it’s give and take, but we’re going to have to show our teachers some grace somewhere down the line.”

The Tennessee Department of Education allowed the district to shorten its summer program from six weeks to four, Ray said.

Superintendent Joris Ray at Riverwood Elementary School on the first day of elementary schools reopening March 1.

Normal Memphis summer programs need about 1,800 teachers, said Shawn Page, the district’s chief of academic operations and school support. District officials expect needing double that number to instruct up to 30,000 eligible students.

Ray acknowledged the summer is “a bit of a crunch.”

But in conversations with small groups of teachers about the calendar, Ray said they were more concerned about making sure next year would end by Memorial Day than about a shorter summer. Starting Aug. 9 allowed them to do that.

Earlier this month, the district surveyed teachers, parents, administrators, central office staff, and other district employees. When offered two calendar options, about 64% of teachers and 66% of parents preferred the one with an earlier start date. About half of the 10,000 participants were parents, a third were teachers, and the rest were other employees.

Given teachers’ desires to end the year by Memorial Day and keep weeklong breaks for fall, Thanksgiving, and spring, board member Kevin Woods said this option was the best.

“Knowing that we have to say yes to all the other things that teachers want puts us into quite a box for formulating the calendar,” he said.

Board member Michelle McKissack said she hopes to see more creative solutions in the future such as starting the school year a little later by cutting a few days from Thanksgiving break and switching to virtual days so people could travel.

How Tennessee school leaders spend billions in federal relief funds will carry huge stakes, both practically and politically

2021-03-24T01:25:47+00:00

For years, one faction of Tennessee’s education community has argued that more money is the answer to improving schools, while another has championed giving families more choices through programs like charter schools and vouchers.

Now the first faction is about to get its wish, and the second is watching closely to see how it goes. The stakes are high, both practically and politically.

Tennessee is receiving $4 billion-plus in federal funds for K-12 education through three pandemic recovery packages. That’s more than two-thirds of what the state spends in a single year on its students.

How the one-time money is spent over the next four years — and whether student achievement goes up as a result — will not only affect a generation of students disrupted by the pandemic. Some are setting this up to be a referendum on the perennial debate over whether more funding is key to improving schools.

“If students are still performing at the same level after we spend all this money, then money’s not the issue. It’s leadership,” said House Education Chairman Mark White, referring to Tennessee superintendents and school board members who have broad discretion over where to invest the massive amount of cash.

The Memphis Republican is among the GOP supermajority that, rallied by Republican Gov. Bill Lee, has embraced school choice policies as the route to jump-start academic gains that mostly have stalled in Tennessee since 2013.

Democrats, meanwhile, say Tennessee chronically under-resources its public schools via a broken funding system. Joined by several educator groups and backed up by reports and research, they’ve called for major investments to reduce class sizes, boost teacher salaries, and hire more specialists like school-based nurses, counselors, social workers, and academic interventionists.

Currently, Tennessee spends about $6 billion a year on education and ranks 46th in the nation in per-pupil spending, according to research compiled by the National Education Association.

Under a decade of GOP leadership, the state has, in fact, upped K-12 funding by more than $1.5 billion. But critics say the increases haven’t kept pace with inflation, forcing local governments to take up the slack and prompting a legal challenge from school systems in Memphis and Nashville over the adequacy of state funding.

National research consistently shows that spending more money on education yields better outcomes for students, including higher test scores, higher graduation rates, and often higher wages as adults.

White, the GOP leader from Memphis, believes the stimulus funding will serve as a test in Tennessee. Lawmakers plan to watch closely to see if students improve.

Rep. Mark White of Memphis chairs a key education committee in Tennessee’s legislature.

“If the needle has not been moved in two years, don’t come here griping because you’re not using your money wisely,” he said, citing student test scores as the primary measure of success.

Claire Smrekar, associate professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University, said it will take at least three to five years to fairly judge the impact of the federal money. Learning gaps, she noted, aren’t the only challenges the pandemic has imposed on students.

“This isn’t the stock market, and children are not machines,” Smrekar said. “Our students are going to need care, including cultivating their health and mental health. This is a process that will require intentionality, thoughtfulness, and a lot of collaboration.”

Either way, Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn wants every school leader to understand it’s a make-or-break time for educators.

“I’m looking at 900 different ways to explain this moment to school districts so they understand both the opportunity and gravity of this funding,” Schwinn said.

It’s unclear whether and how much students have fallen behind over the last year. State assessments will be given between April 12 and June 10 to determine where students stand.

But it’s increasingly clear that Lee’s administration expects the additional funding to generate test scores that both recover and raise the bar by spring 2025, especially for the state’s youngest students.

“We’re not going to tell district leaders how to spend the money. But how they choose to spend it and what happens will absolutely have an impact on every conversation we have about school funding moving forward,” Schwinn said. “This is a moment in time to show us.”

Districts will get about $2.2 billion of nearly $2.5 billion coming to Tennessee schools from President Joe Biden’s recent American Rescue Plan. Federal law requires that a fifth of the money pay for programs and resources designed to catch up students from pandemic-related learning lags. The rest is to address other pandemic-related needs that could include technology, student mental health services, and school building improvements to reduce risk of virus transmission, among other things.

Many district leaders are still figuring out how to spend the second pot of money, which totals $1.1 billion in Tennessee, much less the much larger third pot. But the clock is already ticking. By law, they must spend or obligate the funds by September 2024.

Beyond launching required learning recovery programs, Montgomery County Superintendent Millard House has his eye on long-neglected buildings in his school system along the Tennessee-Kentucky border. “This is an opportunity to address deferred maintenance and air-quality issues that have been skipped over for years,” he said.

The one-time money can’t be used on recurring expenses like raising teacher salaries or lowering classroom sizes, so school leaders must be especially strategic, said Dale Lynch, executive director of the state’s superintendents organization.

“I think it’s important to remember that this is money sent to us for relief and recovery. It’s to help our children, our school systems, recover from COVID-19,” Lynch said.

School systems must report expenses to the state education department to get reimbursed with the federal funds.

To elevate accountability on the third round of money, Schwinn wants local leaders to submit monthly reports to her department beginning July 1 — and to publicly post spending plan summaries to help parents, students, and educators understand where the money is going.

“We’re also strongly, strongly recommending that districts spend 1% of their funding on staffing to monitor the spending. This is not the kind of work that can be placed on existing staff,” Schwinn said.

Smrekar, with Vanderbilt University, believes the historic infusion of cash should transcend politics to improve and innovate public education. It doesn’t have to be a referendum, she said.

“This is not a contest. It’s a clarion call to come together,” Smrekar said. “The decisions that are made today and implemented tomorrow will become part of the historical legacy of this pandemic.”

Proposal would change Tennessee law to let for-profit companies run charter schools

2021-03-18T02:50:08+00:00

Tennessee charter school law, which currently allows only nonprofit organizations to run the independently operated public schools, would open the door to for-profit companies under a bill approved Wednesday by a key legislative committee.

The Senate Education Committee voted 6-3 for a proposal backed by National Heritage Academies, a Michigan-based company and one of the nation’s largest private education providers.

Most of the major education advocacy groups in Tennessee — including the Tennessee Charter School Center and organizations representing the state’s school boards and superintendents — oppose the legislation.

“We’re not supportive of taxpayer dollars being used to earn a profit when they should be used to support students and teachers,” said Elizabeth Fiveash, chief policy officer for the charter center.

The vote tees up another battle over a proposal that critics say would privatize public education and proponents argue would expand education choices for families. In 2019, after a bitter fight, the legislature passed a school voucher law that has since been overturned by the courts and is under appeal

“I am for expanding parental choice anywhere I can do it,” said Sen. Mike Bell, a Riceville Republican who is co-sponsoring the charter bill with Rep. David Hawk, a Republican from Greeneville.

“It’s just a different organization and a different way to manage an operation that would operate a charter school,” Bell told the Senate Education Committee. “It allows them to raise capital that’s not available to not-for-profit charter schools. It allows them to take their money and reinvest it back.”

Gov. Bill Lee has sought to open more high-quality charters that show academic gains, but on Wednesday his office declined to give a position on the measure. “At this time, we’re tracking the bill as it moves through the legislature,” said spokeswoman Casey Black.

Charters are publicly funded schools that operate independent of the local district and under flexibility aimed at innovation. About 12% of the nation’s 7,400 U.S. charter schools have for-profit operators, and the rest are nonprofits. All charter schools are free to attend, though some may charge fees for certain activities.

When Tennessee passed its 2002 law allowing charters, lawmakers stipulated that the schools must be run by nonprofit operators. Several attempts to allow for-profits have since failed, most recently in 2014 when then-House Speaker Beth Harwell killed a similar measure in a scheduling committee after it cleared the legislature’s education panels. At the time, she said privatizing charters would harm Tennessee’s relatively young charter sector.

Tennessee now has 115 charter schools, with the majority authorized by districts in Memphis and Nashville. A 2019 change to state law shifted their appellate oversight from the Tennessee State Board of Education to a new state commission beginning this year.

“I think we’ve made much progress in the 20 years since charter schools were authorized,” said Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Memphis Democrat who voted against Bell’s bill. “There does not seem to be a problem with having charter management organizations as nonprofit managers to manage our charter schools. So my question to you is why now? Why are we introducing an element that is profit-motivated into our schools?”

Sen. Mike Bell

Bell argued that Tennessee’s charter law needs to be updated to allow more choices and that his bill ensures participation by only high-quality for-profits. “We put the guardrails in here to say, if we do this, we’re going to make sure that they have a track record of high performance,” he said.

National Heritage Academies operates 96 charter schools for 60,000-plus students in nine states and has a mixed academic record. The company, which was founded by a prominent Republican family in Michigan, has hired The Ingram Group, an influential consulting business in Nashville, to lobby for the bill.

“The for-profits have tried to come into Tennessee for a long time, and I think the General Assembly will be open to a discussion on that,” House Education Committee Chairman Mark White told Chalkbeat. “Whether it goes anywhere, I don’t know. But a nonprofit and a for-profit can be a lot alike, depending on how it’s managed.”

The bill is scheduled to be heard next week in a House education subcommittee.

Correction: March 17, 2021: A previous version of this story said the bill was opposed by the State Collaborative on Reforming Education. A spokeswoman said the group is studying the measure and has not taken a position.

This Tennessee superintendent leads with ‘resilient’ students and schools in mind

2021-03-17T19:26:39+00:00

Bryan Johnson says few experiences prepared him to lead a school district during a pandemic, so he leaned on several principles that have served him well as a leader so far in his career.

Keep students at the center of all decisions. Listen to the experts on the ground. Never forget that you’re a public servant.

That ethos has helped Johnson become a leader among leaders in public education. This year, he represented Tennessee as one of four finalists for National Superintendent of the Year.

In four years at the helm of Chattanooga-based Hamilton County Schools, Johnson has shepherded student performance from the bottom to the top of Tennessee’s ranking system for academic growth. His district’s high school graduation rate has climbed for four straight years. And its number of schools designated below state expectations has dropped from nine to three.

In 2018, Johnson launched an initiative called Future Ready Institutes, placing 23 career academies in high schools to help students prepare for the jobs of tomorrow. To pay for the program, he secured over $3 million from local business and industry.

He also spearheaded a partnership with the local electric utility to provide broadband access for more than half of the school system’s 44,000-plus students, a third of whom opted to learn remotely during the pandemic and many considered economically disadvantaged.

Johnson’s pathway to leadership began with his own public education in Nashville and included stints as a teacher, principal, and chief academic officer in Clarksville, home to a U.S. military base on the border of Tennessee and Kentucky.

He spoke recently with Chalkbeat about his job, including ways to catch up students, helping children through a season of grief and trauma, and why no school day looks the same during a pandemic.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Had anything in your career prepared you for the challenges of leading a school district during a pandemic?

Each of my experiences in school leadership has helped to equip me, but this year has been unlike anything I’ve experienced in public education. I’ve relied on my commitment to public service to guide me during these difficult circumstances. When you focus on serving others, you can see beyond the personal stress that we’ve all felt.

How are you guiding your staff through this unprecedented time?

I’m trying to listen and respond to their needs. The “higher” your role, the more important it is to listen deeply to experts on the ground. We have established several feedback groups so we can hear directly from students, teachers, leaders, and the community. As always, we keep children at the forefront of all decisions.

What does a typical day look like for you now?

COVID-19 has taught me there is no such thing as typical. My day includes school visits, video calls, school board communication, COVID response, and meetings with local leaders. Because of the pandemic, I’ve had to become even more nimble and available to address the urgency of any given day.

How are you addressing learning gaps following months of remote learning?

Last summer, we offered programs for about 2,000 of our most at-risk learners, which gave us an opportunity to close some gaps and make adjustments for COVID prior to reopening in the fall. That experience helped us. Our district had 84 days of in-person learning during the first semester, and we’ve been on campus for the second semester since Feb. 1. We also ramped up our afterschool programming for intervention and enrichment and will expand our summer offerings.

After nearly a year of upheaval — and in some cases grief and trauma — are you doing anything different to account for what so many families have been through?

We know there are varying degrees of fear, anxiety, trauma, and uncertainty with regard to the virus, and that the COVID experience has not been uniform for every student and family in Hamilton County.

Last March, we set up a hotline in English and Spanish for families to call for any reason — from food and utilities to over-the-phone guidance from a school counselor for students. By the end of the summer, the hotline had fielded 1,500 calls.

This school year, we set up virtual learning centers in community spaces like the YMCA and local churches for families who opted their students out of in-person school but still needed support with virtual learning. Several of our community partners called remote students regularly to make sure they were engaging with online instruction and that their non-academic needs were being addressed.

We also began using a social-emotional learning screener from Panorama Education to identify areas of concern district-wide. And we launched “Wellness Wednesday” sessions to support the wellbeing of both teachers and students.

Bryan Johnson became superintendent of Hamilton County Schools in 2017. The Chattanooga-based school system has 44,500 students in 79 schools.

What inspired you to become an educator?

My parents were public servants. My mother was a social worker and caregiver, and my father was in the Navy and still serves as a pastor. Their emphasis on serving others and making an impact made a great impression on my siblings and me. Both of my parents were first-generation college attendees and elevated the importance of education in our home.

Describe your own experience as a student.

I grew up in Nashville and attended public schools from kindergarten until graduation. It was an amazing experience, and I remember many great teachers. Not only did I learn content and curriculum, they taught me about character, high expectations, and citizenship.

What’s the best leadership advice you received?

First, to always put students at the center of every decision you make as an educational leader. Second, to seek input whenever possible before making decisions. I’ve learned the decision is rarely, if ever, wrong when children are first in the decision-making process.

What’s one thing you’ve read that has made you a better educator?

Our senior leadership team is currently reading “The Infinite Game,” and one of the key themes is so appropriate in this season. The author, Simon Sinek, compares stability to resilience. Stable organizations weather the storm, he writes, while resilient organizations transform as a result of the storm.

Superintendent Bryan Johnson talks with a Hamilton County student who opted to learn in person during the pandemic.

What interactions with students, teachers, or principals inspire or affect you the most?

I try to be as visible as possible in schools. Seeing teachers, leaders and students in their everyday environment keeps me grounded on what matters most. I get to see great learning, teaching and leading on a regular basis, and it inspires me to continue to push. I also get to see collective efficacy in action as people like school nutrition workers and educational assistants work alongside teachers and leaders in support of children.

What gives you hope at this moment?

Our students have shown such resilience. And I’m inspired by the way our teachers have risen, challenged themselves, and sacrificed for children during this difficult season.

Tennessee teachers could seek to remove unruly students under bill approved by legislature

2021-03-11T23:54:16+00:00

A bill aimed at empowering Tennessee teachers to remove chronically disruptive students from their classrooms cleared the legislature Thursday over objections that such exclusionary disciplinary practices ignore deeper problems.

The Senate’s 25-8 vote came following an 81-15 vote in the House on Monday. The House is expected to concur next week on one minor change in language and send the bill to Gov. Bill Lee for his signature.

If the governor signs the measure as expected, the Teacher’s Discipline Act will create a uniform referral process allowing teachers to petition to remove students who repeatedly or substantially interfere with classroom learning. The policy is championed by the Professional Educators of Tennessee, which says out-of-control behavior by some students is driving teachers out of the profession.

The renewed emphasis on potentially punitive discipline comes as educators brace for a wave of social and emotional challenges from students as a result of the pandemic.

Opponents argue the bill, while well-intentioned, could take Tennessee backward. In recent years, the state increasingly has embraced restorative disciplinary approaches that deal with bad behavior without punishing offenders. The tactics also take into account adverse childhood experiences such as physical or mental abuse, neglect, or household dysfunction, which can lead to disruptive behaviors.

“When a teacher faces a disciplinary issue like this, removing the unruly student from the classroom isn’t the problem; the problem is getting that student the help they need so they can be reinstated into the classroom and achieve academically and behaviorally,” said Sen. Page Walley, one of two Senate Republicans who voted against the bill.

Walley, a psychologist who is a former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, said the bigger issue is funding schools adequately to support student mental health and well-being. Currently, Tennessee does not provide enough money for districts to hire the nationally recommended numbers of school-based counselors, social workers, and nurses.

Sen. Joey Hensley, the Hohenwald Republican who co-sponsored the bill with Rep. Scott Cepicky, argued Tennessee needs to strengthen the authority of teachers to manage their classrooms, which ultimately will help all students.

Among the proposal’s six steps: Teachers must document actions taken to address the student’s behavior, speak with the student’s parent or guardian, and seek to involve a school counselor or other professional to help.

When all steps are exhausted, the school principal would take action based on the district’s discipline policies or student code of conduct. That could include placement in another classroom, in-school suspension, referral to an alternative education program, or denying the teacher’s petition and finding support to help the teacher.

“It provides for a formalized response that pays attention to the student’s rights, provides opportunities for counseling to find out what the cause of that disruption is, and it also backs up the teacher,” said Sen. Ken Yager, a Kingsport Republican and former teacher, who voted for the plan.

Others raised concerns that Black or disabled students could bear the brunt of the discipline, based on decades of research that schools disproportionately discipline students who are Black or have special needs.

“At a time when students in our country are encountering both a reckoning with racial injustice and a pandemic that has caused massive instructional loss and trauma, it is disturbing to see Tennessee lawmakers focus on legislation that would punish students rather than devote resources to addressing their social and emotional needs,” said Wendy Tucker, senior policy director for the Center for Learner Equity.

While federal law prevents removing students with disabilities from classrooms, several student advocacy groups worried the legislation will lead to the removal of those who haven’t yet been identified as having a disability. Other advocates said the bill doesn’t align with Tennessee’s efforts to understand and address traumatic childhood experiences.

“When it comes to trauma, you cannot discipline trauma out of the child,” said Rikki Harris, chief executive officer of Tennessee Voices, a coalition promoting mental health services for children.

“My concern about [the bill] really is that it advances the pathway to alternative school, and that could be a real setback for our state,” Harris told the Senate Education Committee in testimony last week.

JC Bowman, leader of Professional Educators of Tennessee, said the goal is to create a more objective, methodical, and supportive blueprint for discipline so teachers can teach and students can learn.

“We hope it’s going to be a rare occurrence that a child is removed from a classroom,” Bowman said. “But we live in a civil society, and rules matter. If we don’t have consequences for continued bad behavior, we’ll have more bad behavior.”

Want big advances from students and schools? Invest in principals, says new research

2021-03-05T23:53:42+00:00

School principals, who rank second only to teachers in influencing how well students learn in school, matter even more than previously believed, according to major new research.

In fact, replacing a below-average principal with an above-average one will result in an additional three months of learning in math and reading annually for the average student, compared with an extra four months of learning when replacing a below-average teacher with an above-average one.

The impact happens indirectly when principals work with faculty on their teaching practices through feedback, coaching, evaluations, and establishing data-driven teaching programs.

Additionally, a principal’s contributions are larger in scope than a teacher’s because they are distributed over an entire school rather than a single classroom.

The research, released last month by Vanderbilt University and The Wallace Foundation, suggests the potential payoff merits a greater focus on strategies to cultivate, select, develop, and support high-caliber principals. It also concludes that principals are uniquely positioned to make public education more equitable for an increasingly diverse student population.

The findings draw on 219 studies across 20 years of research and update a groundbreaking 2004 review that helped to establish the importance of school administrators to student learning.

Jason Grissom

“It’s difficult to envision an investment with a higher ceiling on its potential return than a successful effort to improve principal leadership,” said Jason Grissom, co-author of the report and professor of leadership, policy, and organizations at Vanderbilt.

That return isn’t limited to student achievement though. The researchers found that, under top-notch leadership, teacher satisfaction rose and turnover declined, while student attendance and discipline also improved.

But there are growing racial and ethnic gaps between principals and the students they serve, according to data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Department of Education.

Since the 1980s, school leadership has become markedly more female but only slightly more racially and ethnically diverse, despite dramatic changes in the composition of students.

Meanwhile, the average level of experience as a principal has declined, especially in schools with high poverty and high needs. It dropped from 10 years of experience in 1988 to seven years in 2016. For schools serving mostly impoverished students, principals averaged less than six years of experience in 2016.

And in general, principals are having shorter tenures in each school they serve, averaging four years in 2016, compared with more than six years in 1988.

All of the data factored in the latest examination of years of research on school leadership.

Grissom and his co-authors — Anna J. Egalite at North Carolina State University and Constance A. Lindsay at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — found that principals who are the most effective exemplify four sets of skills and expertise: They work with faculty on how to be better teachers; build a productive school climate; facilitate collaboration so teachers work together to improve their instruction; and strategically manage personnel and resources.

In short: instruction, people, and organization.

The researchers also suggested that principals have the power to significantly advance educational equity as public schools serve growing numbers of students who are of color, have disabilities, are learning the English language, or come from economically disadvantaged families.

“Equity in education has been part of the conversation for quite some time, but we’re encouraging school principals to take that next step and make equity an organizing principle of their work,” Grissom said.

That means, for instance, making equity central to how a principal hires faculty, coaches teachers, or builds a school’s climate to create opportunities and set high expectations for all students, regardless of their background.

Beyond the school level, the research has implications for policymakers looking to attract and develop school leaders.

“We have to think intentionally and holistically about the principal pipeline, from how we select people to training to licensure to professional development,” Grissom said. “Some places are starting to think comprehensively about how to build these skills and capacity, but it’s not as widespread as it could be.”

The Wallace Foundation plans to release two related reports this year on school leadership. One will focus on the role of assistant principals and the other on the importance of principal preparation and professional development.

Tennessee school districts must set educator diversity goals under new policy

2021-02-06T00:07:42+00:00

Tennessee school districts will have to set goals and strategies to get more teachers of color in front of their students under a new policy approved Friday by the state Board of Education.

Beginning with the 2021-22 school year, district leaders must submit their plans to the Tennessee Department of Education, then share subsequent reports annually on how they’re doing. State officials also want them to publish their goals and data on district websites to create an environment of collaboration, transparency, and accountability around racial diversity.

“I’ve been really excited to see this policy come together,” said Sara Morrison, the board’s executive director. “The real impact will come from the conversations that we’re already scheduled to have with directors of schools.”

The policy aims to address the growing mismatch between Tennessee’s increasingly diverse student population and the educators who teach them. In 2018, students of color comprised 37% of Tennessee’s K-12 enrollment, but only 13% of teachers, according to the education department.

The change aligns with a growing body of research showing that a racially and ethnically diverse teaching force can have positive impacts academically, socially, and emotionally on students of all races. There are also growing national calls for more nonwhite teachers as America becomes more racially diverse.

Studies have found that Black students in particular benefit from having a Black teacher, leading to better test scores, more positive views of school, fewer suspensions and expulsions, more referrals to gifted classes, and lower dropout rates. Black teachers, research has found, also have higher academic expectations for Black students than other teachers.

White students benefit too, according to other evidence. Teachers of color can disrupt racial stereotypes and share valuable insights about people with different backgrounds. One study published in 2016 found middle and high school students, regardless of their race and ethnicity, had more favorable perceptions of their Black and Latino teachers than of their white teachers.

Tennessee’s new policy positions the state to become a leader in promoting diversity in a nation where the teacher force remains overwhelmingly white, said Gini Pupo-Walker, state director of the Education Trust, which advocates for high academic achievement of all students, especially those of color or living in poverty.

“This acknowledges that a diverse teacher workforce is good for all kids and asks districts to set goals. The intent is to say that what gets measured, gets done,” she said.

Tennessee has tried to address the challenge for at least three decades, with minimal success. With its new policy, it’s specifying the need for more teachers who are Black, Latino, Asian American, Pacific Islander, or American Indian.

Diarese George, executive director of the Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance, calls it a game changer.

“Tennessee is a very data-informed and equity-driven state on education, but we’ve never really had goals around educator diversity,” said George. Meanwhile, the state has shown improvement when setting goals and following strategies to raise ACT scores, high school graduation rates, and the number of Tennesseans earning a college degree or certificate.

As a Black educator, George understands firsthand the importance of teachers of color. Growing up in Clarksville, he had his first Black teacher in high school and his first Black male teacher in college. Later, he was the only Black male teacher on staff at Clarksville High School, and many of his students told him he was the first nonwhite teacher that they had had, too.

“I saw the impact and power I had with the students I taught,” he said. “I know that what the research says is true because I’ve lived it.”

Educator diversity is particularly challenging for rural districts, but George says the hurdles aren’t insurmountable if leaders think intentionally and set longer-term goals.

“It’s extremely hard to convince someone living in an urban area to pick up and move to a rural area,” he said. “So instead, what about investing in a student of color from your community? You can provide them with the resources to go to college and get a degree and guarantee them a job to come back and serve in that district.”

His organization wants to be a resource for district leaders as they strategize.

“Our disparity problem didn’t happen overnight, and it’s not going to get solved overnight either,” George said. “But we’ve got to start somewhere. There’s no state in the country that’s doing this particularly well. We can do better.”

Race, politics, and power loom large in dispute between state officials and Tennessee’s two largest school districts over reopening

2021-02-03T01:17:25+00:00

In the pitched debate over school reopening, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has repeatedly chided leaders of the state’s two largest school districts for not “putting the needs of students first.” His Republican colleagues in the state legislature are threatening to strip funding from the Memphis and Nashville districts if they don’t pivot quickly and reopen their classrooms.

Although Nashville announced a gradual return starting this week, Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray has stood firm. The district is sticking with all-remote learning indefinitely. Ray accused state leaders of being out of touch with the needs of Memphis students, who are mostly Black, living in poverty, and disproportionately affected by the deadly virus.

The profound disconnect is the latest example of how a decade-long rift between Tennessee’s state-level decision-makers and urban school leaders can boil over and shape policy affecting the state’s most vulnerable students. Like previous state battles involving Memphis and Nashville, this one is shaped by politics, race, and power — with both sides claiming the moral high ground.

“We’ve seen this before,” Memphis City Councilman Martavius Jones said of the seemingly intractable debate. “It feels like another case of us versus them.”

New, however, is the global health crisis that is disrupting classrooms and disproportionately affecting people of color. The stakes are high because COVID-19 is a life-threatening virus that is putting a generation of students at risk academically and emotionally.

“At the end of the day, our children are suffering,” said Dianechia Fields, a Memphis parent who wants state and local leaders to find a way to collaborate. “At some point, we have to stop fighting each other and sit down and come to reasonable and sensible solutions.”

The reddening of Tennessee

Much of the fracture can be traced to politics.

Mirroring a regional flip, Republicans gained control of Tennessee’s legislature in 2008 and, two years later, the governor’s seat, too. That historic shift, in a state where Democrats had mostly reigned for more than a century, has profoundly changed the working relationship of state government with its two remaining Democratic strongholds.

In the decade since, Tennessee’s reform-minded legislature has singled out Memphis and Nashville for multiple controversial education initiatives, even if their locally elected officials oppose them. GOP leaders point to the high concentrations of low-performing schools that have languished in both cities as justification to intervene.

Beginning in 2012, the state took over dozens of schools in Memphis and a few in Nashville through its Achievement School District. The takeovers, which handed control to charter operators that for the most part have also struggled to improve the schools, angered people in neighborhoods where schools were a source of pride.

A student at Caldwell-Guthrie Elementary School listens in 2015 as parents protest the state’s process for matching charter operators with Memphis schools taken over by Tennessee’s Achievement School District.

The legislature also approved measures aimed at luring private charter organizations to use public money to open and operate schools that are supposed to use innovative teaching methods. Memphis begrudgingly became home to most of the charter schools, while Nashville’s school board pushed back the hardest.

More recently, the legislature passed a school voucher law that would give taxpayer money to eligible families who leave public schools to pursue a private education. The 2019 law, which was championed by the governor, only applied to Memphis and Nashville, opening the door to a successful legal challenge. The state has appealed the ruling.

In separate litigation, Memphis and Nashville school boards are challenging the adequacy of state education funding, especially for urban schools. Their 5-year-old lawsuit, which is set for trial in October, aligns with Democrats’ calls to invest more money in education in a state that still ranks near the bottom in per-pupil spending.

The lawsuits have infuriated state Republican leaders, while providing recourse for local officials who believe Capitol Hill isn’t giving them a fair shake.

“Since 2010, the legislature has kind of quit listening to the people on the ground in its biggest urban areas, especially in Memphis,” said Marcus Pohlmann, professor emeritus of political science at Rhodes College. “They’ve imposed policies that are premised on the idea that school choice is pretty much the answer to everything.”

Many urban educators long have argued for an approach that is more comprehensive — and expensive. Their want list includes expanding early childhood education and wraparound programs that combat poverty and improve health care.

“It’s just like playing whack-a-mole if you’re not trying to solve the systemic problem,” said Miska Clay Bibbs, school board chairman for Shelby County Schools.

‘Race cannot be ignored’

Tennessee’s school reopening debate has centered on the state’s two most diverse school systems, which also are led by Black superintendents.

“The undercurrents of race cannot be ignored,” said Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Memphis Democrat.

“The official line is that this is not about race,” said Akbari, who is Black. “But it’s difficult for Memphians to think otherwise when folks from other places in our state are trying to decide what’s best for Memphis and Shelby County, and it’s in conflict with the decisions of local school leaders who know their community best.”

Trust in state government, including its predominantly white legislature, is particularly low in her hometown, she said. About 65% of the population is Black.

Memphians are still smarting over legislative decisions that prompted the school board to give up its charter for Memphis City Schools, which served students who were mostly of color and from low-income families. That move led the city district to merge in 2013 with the suburban Shelby County district, which served more affluent students who were mostly white.

A year later, six suburban towns seceded and created their own school systems after Republican legislators passed a new law to allow it. Their exodus is considered one of the nation’s most egregious examples of public education splintering into a system of haves and have-nots over race and class.

“That was a big thing,” recalls Councilman Jones, who served on the city school board before schools were desegregated, then quickly resegregated. “It led to a lot of mistrust, and that has never dissipated.”

Dianechia Fields’ mistrust only grew when she began traveling to the Capitol in 2016 to lobby for education policy changes with the parent advocacy group Memphis Lift. Fields, who is Black and has two sons in Memphis schools, was surprised by how little rural white legislators knew about the state’s largest school district and the experiences of Black parents and students. One lawmaker remarked that he didn’t know Memphis parents cared about their children’s education.

“That was eye-opening,” she said. “They didn’t know. They just knew what they saw on paper. But none of them had visited schools to see what was actually happening.”

“Don’t hurt my children,” Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray has told lawmakers about a GOP proposal to cut funding for districts that use completely virtual instruction.

Multiple surveys conducted by Shelby County Schools show parents and educators have serious concerns about whether schools can keep students and teachers safe from the virus. Most say they don’t want to return to classrooms due to their city’s large number of COVID-19 cases. Many Memphis students live in crowded and multigenerational homes with older family members who are more at risk of dying if they get sick.

“The health concerns are real,” said Pohlmann, who has authored several books on education and race in Memphis. “People are dying, and the feeling is that, if you have to err, maybe you err on setting back kids’ learning a little bit in order to protect lives. Kids can recover, but dead people don’t come back.”

Who gets to decide?

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson said he believes in local education control, but not when it runs contrary to state policies aimed at “the best interest of kids.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently said there’s little evidence of coronavirus transmission in schools if precautions are followed. By contrast, staying remote has put a strain on students’ mental health and compromised access to food for children from impoverished families. Other data shows that Black and Hispanic students, as well as those in schools that serve low-income students, are falling further behind in reading and math.

“The state sets the parameters in which the [school systems] operate and provides about two-thirds of the funding,” said Johnson, who represents an affluent district south of Nashville and co-sponsored the bill to tie funding to reopening. “When they are not adhering to the letter or spirit of those parameters, we have every right to intervene — and we will.”

Flanked by Tennessee GOP leaders including Sen. Jack Johnson (far right), Gov. Bill Lee speaks to reporters on Jan. 22, 2021, at the close of a special legislative session on education.

Johnson has little patience at this point for school systems that don’t offer an in-person learning option. “These are massive school systems. They have enormous facilities. They’ve had ample warning and plenty of time,” he said.

But that kind of top-down talk feels more like a “master-slave narrative” in which “I know what’s best for you,” says Natalie McKinney, a former policy director for Shelby County Schools.

“We cannot purport to say we’re changing something for the better for someone and we don’t include them in that process,” she said.

Others worry that choosing a combative tone ultimately will be counterproductive.

“Power dynamics go both ways,” said Joshua Glazer, an education policy professor at George Washington University, who has studied education and race in Memphis. “Local districts depend on the state for funding. And the governor and state education agency really need school districts to carry through and implement their plans. There’s a web of interpendence here where all these different players really need to work together.”

Unfortunately, Glazer said, the divide over how to best reopen schools follows years of other disagreements that have created a debilitating level of mistrust between the state and districts in Memphis and Nashville. Without a history of healthy institutional relationships to fall back on, he said, “things can very easily spiral downward, which it seems to be doing.”

“COVID didn’t invent these problems; it just put them in the limelight,” Glazer continued. “And there’s no vaccine that will cure when cities and the state can’t work together.”

Changes in KIPP Memphis prompt calls from staff to remove executive director

2021-01-15T23:49:17+00:00

A group of educators at KIPP Memphis charter school network want to replace their executive director, citing a lack of transparency in personnel decisions, low teacher retention, and unexpected school closures.

Nineteen KIPP Memphis Academy Middle staff members sent a letter to the board of directors last week asking them to remove Kendra Ferguson, who has led the charter network of five schools since 2016 and reports to the board.

The group, Cypress Coalition, worries Ferguson’s decisions will affect student learning, which already lagged behind KIPP schools nationally. The group is named after the former Memphis middle school building that closed in 2014 and is now used by KIPP.

In April, KIPP’s board members announced, without community discussion, that they would close two schools. Then in December, Ferguson removed principals at two other schools. The staff letter demands an explanation for removing the award-winning principals, whom staff called “titans” of the charter network.

“The continual flux in leadership has eroded staff’s trust in Dr. Ferguson’s efficacy as the executive director of KIPP Memphis,” said the letter dated Jan. 8.

Coalition member Cartavius Black, who grew up in Memphis, said, “I know students strive the best when they have consistent faces in front of them. In Memphis, that’s half the battle.”

He added attempts to understand Ferguson’s decisions have been “completely shut down and glossed over.”

Cartavius Black is a sixth grade social studies teacher at KIPP Memphis Academy Middle.

Ryan Gibbs, the KIPP Memphis board chairman, defended Ferguson on Thursday and said he plans to send a full response to the letter next week.

“The board feels right now that Dr. Ferguson and her team have our full support,” he said. “If she didn’t, she wouldn’t be in that role.”

Staff retention has declined since Ferguson came to Memphis. In her first year, 66% of staff stayed with KIPP the next year; by 2018, that number fell to 55%. Nationally, that year, 72% of staff in KIPP schools across the country stayed on at their school.

According to a KIPP Memphis staff survey in October, about 80% of the 150 teachers across the network said they would return next school year, a spokesman said. In December, after KIPP leaders announced they were removing two principals, a survey of 47 staff done by the coalition at those schools showed about two dozen staff changed their minds and plan to leave.

Ferguson said Thursday she has not been able to pinpoint the reasons behind the low staff retention. National research shows that if effective teachers leave, student learning suffers. But keeping the same teachers by itself is not always good. If schools can accurately identify ineffective teachers and replace them with better ones, the changes can actually help students.

The call to remove Ferguson comes as the city’s chapter of the nation’s largest charter network is undergoing significant changes to boost academics, incorporate more community input, and hire more native Memphians. The charter network was one of the first to open in Memphis in 2002 and one of the first to help take over low-performing schools on behalf of the state.

“We just have not held to our promise to make sure that our kids were ready to go to and through college at the rates we promised,” Ferguson said. “And with that, we’re doing some changing.”

The staff letter said the decision to close the two schools this spring was “devoid of transparency and community voice,” which they said characterized Ferguson’s leadership. Parents and staff were surprised because unlike most school closures, there was no warning they might be coming. That surprise prompted board members to reflect on how they communicate their vision to improve schools, Gibbs said.

“They feel things are happening behind their back and they don’t know what to expect, so that causes tension and anxiety,” he said. “So, trying to assure them of the direction we’re going, what we’re doing, is important.”

Gibbs said closing the two schools in South Memphis brought KIPP “back to our roots” in North Memphis where the network opened its first school in the city in 2002. He said the charter network grew “really fast” and came with growing pains. The network now educates about 2,100 students across five schools.

The letter also called for leaders to explain why they removed principals Andrea Criollo Echetebu of KIPP Memphis Academy Middle and Andrew Bobowski from KIPP Memphis Collegiate High. The staff letter said their removals “will cause unnecessary and significant harm” to the schools.

A KIPP spokesman said Echetebu and Bobowski were eligible to apply for other positions in the network and could stay on to help in the transition. Echetebu and Bobowski declined to comment Friday.

Black, the middle school teacher, said when KIPP leadership held a virtual staff meeting last week following the announcement, he came with a list of questions to learn more about why Echetebu was removed. But when he joined the video call, everyone was muted and the chat box was closed. He never got answers to his questions.

Ferguson and Gibbs declined to share details of the decision about the principals, but said they are slated to finish out the school year. Ferguson said her team is currently reviewing candidates to replace Echetebu and Bobowski.

“Teachers go so long being undervalued, they expect when they make a decision, for teachers to rock with it or get out of the way,” Black said. “This is not even a plea to get our old people back. We just want some transparency. We want to know why.”

Tennessee’s new Senate education leader is pro-voucher attorney

2021-01-14T00:36:53+00:00

A Memphis-area lawmaker who is an attorney for a pro-voucher group was named Wednesday to lead the Tennessee legislature’s powerful Senate committee over education policy.

Germantown Republican Brian Kelsey will replace Dolores Gresham, the longtime GOP chairwoman who recently retired from the legislature.

Lt. Gov. Randy McNally called Kelsey the “obvious choice” because of his commitment to education reform during his 10 years on the committee.

Two other Republican lawmakers from West Tennessee were named House education leaders as the newly elected legislature convened this week. Rep. Mark White of Memphis, who previously chaired the committee, will lead a panel on education administration, which includes K-12 and higher education. Rep. Deborah Moody, who previously led the subcommittee on curriculum, testing, and innovation, will chair a new education and instruction panel. Speaker Cameron Sexton split the committee in two because of the large number of education bills filed every year.

Committees are the gatekeepers of hundreds of proposals each year that, if approved, can affect Tennessee students, educators, and schools.

Vouchers, which provide families with state funding to help pay for private school tuition, have been at the center of bitter legislative fights in Tennessee in recent years. Last spring, a judge overturned a 2019 voucher law and halted the state’s program before it could launch. It’s uncertain if there’s appetite to take up new voucher legislation this year during the pandemic.

Kelsey is an attorney for the Liberty Justice Center, a Chicago-based group supporting the state’s appeals to reverse the voucher ruling. The state Supreme Court is considering whether to hear the case after a lower appeals court sided with the judge in September.

Next week, Kelsey will chair the Senate panel that will consider major legislation from Gov. Bill Lee during a special session on pandemic-related challenges to the state’s education system. On the agenda are teacher pay, school funding, literacy, testing, and programs to catch students up.

“Unfortunately there has been significant learning loss as a result of this pandemic,” Kelsey said Tuesday. “I support our governor’s efforts to shine a light on the education of our children.”

Gresham chaired the Senate panel for 12 years and staunchly supported policies like vouchers to give parents more education choices for their children.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Kelsey praised the state’s direction on education under Gresham’s leadership and talked about his own background for the job.

“Personally, the main reason I ran for office 16 years ago was to improve the education system in Tennessee. My wife and my mom are both former teachers and have taught me the importance of a good education for success in life,” he said.

Kelsey declined to comment when asked about a 2019 news report that a grand jury was investigating campaign transactions related to his failed bid for Congress in 2016.

His nine-member committee will include only one Democrat, Sen. Raumesh Akbari of Memphis. Akbari, who is also the only person of color named to the committee, opposes vouchers and has called for targeted investments in public education to help the state’s most vulnerable students.

Below are new committee assignments. (* denotes new members)

Senate Education Committee

Brain Kelsey, R-Germantown, chairman
Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, first vice chairman
Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, second vice chairman
Mike Bell, R-Riceville
Rusty Crowe, R-Johnson City
Ferrell Haile, R-Gallatin
Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald
Bill Powers, R-Clarksville*
Dawn White, R-Murfreesboro*

House K-12 Education Committee

Mark White, R-Memphis, chairman
Chris Hurt, R-Halls, vice chairman
Charlie Baum, R-Murfreesboro
Michele Carringer, R-Knoxville*
Glen Casada, R-Franklin*
Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka
John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville
Mark Cochran, R-Englewood
Tandy Darby, R-Greenfield*
John Gillespie, R-Memphis*
Yusuf Hakeem, D-Chattanooga
Kirk Haston, R-Lobelville
Justin Lafferty, R-Knoxville*
Harold Love, D-Nashville
Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis
John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge

Education & Instruction Committee

Deborah Moody, R-Covington, chairman
Terri Lynn Weaver, R-Lancaster, vice chairman
Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka
Vincent Dixie, D-Nashville
Bruce Griffey, R-Paris*
Torrey Harris, D-Memphis*
Kirk Haston, R-Lobelville
Tim Hicks, R-Gray*
Eddie Mannis, R-Knoxville*
Sam McKenzie, D-Knoxville*
Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis
John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge
Iris Rudder, R-Winchester
Mike Sparks, R-Smyrna*
Todd Warner, R-Chapel Hill*

Speaker Sexton also named three House education subcommittees: K-12, chaired by Rep. Kirk Haston; higher education, chaired by Rep. Justin Lafferty, and education & instruction, chaired by Rep. Scott Cepicky.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include House committee assignments.

Tennessee again delays hiring its first statewide school turnaround superintendent

2021-01-08T23:34:57+00:00

The new job that’s considered key to advancing Tennessee’s school turnaround work won’t be filled any time soon after state officials abruptly halted the search for a superintendent to shepherd the state’s lowest-performing schools.

“While we had a strong candidate pool, we will not be filling this position at this time due to budget and other uncertainties,” said Victoria Robinson, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education.

The department plans to resume its search in August “when we expect to have a clearer path forward,” Robinson said this week when asked about the position.

The decision marks the second delay in hiring Tennessee’s first-ever statewide school turnaround superintendent in a state that has sought to be a leader in school improvement work. The pause suggests the education department won’t move quickly to restructure its Achievement School District, its initiative for trying to turn around Tennessee’s lowest-performing schools, since the new superintendent was to play a key role in the overhaul.

Last spring, the department paused its first search for a turnaround superintendent after the coronavirus pandemic hit, then picked it up again in the fall. Tennessee planned to present finalists in December to key stakeholders in the state’s school turnaround work, then make the hire soon after.

On Tuesday, the department relayed its decision to suspend its search to those stakeholders, including policymakers and charter leaders under the ASD initiative.

Bobby White, CEO of Frayser Community Schools, with three Memphis schools under the ASD, said his charter network’s day-to-day operations won’t be affected. “Nothing really changes for us because we’re professionals about getting the work done and doing what’s best for students and families,” he said.

Tennessee became a pioneer in turnaround efforts beginning in 2011 after winning a major competitive grant from the U.S. Department of Education that required a focus on improving chronically low-achieving schools.

The new superintendent is to play a pivotal role in deciding how to begin returning 27 ASD schools and 9,000 students to their districts in Memphis and Nashville. After nearly a decade of generally disappointing results in taking over struggling neighborhood schools and mostly assigning them to charter operators, Tennessee officials acknowledged last year that their most ambitious school turnaround model had fallen far short of its goals. They’ve promised a reboot under a revised model.

The superintendent also is to begin working closely with local districts statewide to support struggling schools at risk of state takeover.

Tennessee identified finalists out of 69 applicants for the job, but Robinson could not provide details. She said the decision to suspend the search stems from “uncertainties” ahead as the legislature prepares to take up numerous proposals related to K-12 education — not the quality of candidates.

“We are entering new budget and legislative sessions, and we need to have a clearer understanding of the budgetary or legislative impacts,” she said. “This is a big decision. We want to get this right.”

Lisa Settle

In the meantime, Lisa Settle will continue as the ASD’s interim superintendent, while the department has hired Robin Copp as assistant commissioner of school improvement.

A former Memphis charter school principal and founder, Settle has been an ASD administrator for five years and became interim leader last year. Copp has worked most recently as the state’s regional director of school improvement in East Tennessee.

Teacher pay, school funding, mental health: Large districts look ahead to Tennessee legislative session

2021-01-06T00:25:43+00:00

The leaders of Tennessee’s four largest school districts asked lawmakers Tuesday to keep funding intact for education, raise teacher pay, and invest more in student mental health as the coronavirus pandemic tests school communities in unprecedented ways.

They also talked about the need to accelerate vaccinations against the virus and praised Gov. Bill Lee’s administration for bumping up teachers and school staff on the state’s priority list for shots.

In addition, Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray lauded the state for its newly released plan to invest $100 million of one-time federal funding in early literacy programs.

“Literacy is life,” said Ray, noting that just one in four students in his Memphis district are reading on grade level. “If our students can’t read by the time they’re in third grade, we are in big trouble.”

Ray and his counterparts in Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga appeared virtually for an hourlong panel discussion with members of the House Democratic Caucus ahead of this year’s legislative session. The General Assembly is scheduled to organize next week and reconvene on Jan. 19 for a special session called by the governor to focus on education issues.

Tuesday’s discussion marked the first time during the COVID-19 crisis that all four urban superintendents were asked to weigh in collectively and publicly with lawmakers about their challenges and needs, albeit with members of the legislature’s minority party. Although they oversee more than a fourth of the state’s nearly 1 million public school students, none of the urban leaders were among the six superintendents invited to testify in September when the GOP-led House Education Committee met to discuss learning loss during the pandemic.

“It’s been a year like no other,” said Bryan Johnson, superintendent of Hamilton County Schools in Chattanooga. “I’d love to paint it rosy, but it’s been difficult.”

Superintendents described how their school systems have tailored learning models to their local populations and community spread of the virus. Schools in Knoxville and Chattanooga have provided more in-person instruction, followed by those in Nashville. The state’s largest district in Memphis, where spread of the virus is highest, continues to operate virtually.

“Our schools are completely connected to our communities,” said Adrienne Battle, director of Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. “Our goal here, and I know across the state, is to bring students back for in-person instruction as soon as possible when it is safe to do so.”

A masked student looks at a hallway billboard in Nashville’s Westmeade Elementary School as Tennessee’s second largest district worked to navigate the coronavirus pandemic in the fall of 2020.

Reflecting national trends, the vast majority of Tennessee’s 147 school districts have experienced dips in enrollment this academic year. Most of Tennessee’s declines stem from families who shifted to homeschooling or private schools or held back students due to start kindergarten, according to Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn.

Superintendents are concerned that the enrollment drop could put hundreds of millions of dollars at risk in next year’s state budget for education, since enrollment from the current school year sets per-pupil funding levels for the next one. Early statewide data shows about 33,000 fewer students started public school in the fall, which normally would decrease Tennessee’s allocation for public education by at least $320 million.

“If we can just make sure that we continue to be funded based on the [enrollment] from last year – in other words, hold us harmless – that would be extremely helpful,” said Superintendent Bob Thomas. He gave a long list of new pandemic-related expenses for Knox County Schools and added that virtual learning options “are here to stay,” even when the pandemic ends, requiring more funding.

Thomas and Ray also asked for more money for teacher pay, as all four superintendents described educators adapting to the pandemic to teach virtually, in person, and sometimes both.

“Teachers and leaders and support staff have been absolutely remarkable and heroic in regards to what we’ve asked them to do,” added Johnson, who recently recovered from his own bout with COVID-19.

School funding and teacher pay are among five key education issues to be taken up during the special session. Legislative leaders have indicated they’re likely to keep funding intact as more students are expected to return to public schools next year. And the governor has said he’d like to boost teacher salaries too if possible, after rolling back a planned 4% hike last year as the economy sputtered.

But new investments in student mental health are less certain. That need did not make Gov. Lee’s list of education priorities to be discussed during the special session, even as superintendents have asked for more counselors, social workers, and other mental health professionals due to the pandemic’s heavy emotional toll.

“We’re trying to do as much as we can to make this as normal as we possibly can in a very abnormal situation for our students and our teachers,” said Knox County’s Thomas.

Last year, before the pandemic emerged, the governor proposed creating a $250 million trust fund to support and grow mental health services for students in Tennessee’s highest-risk schools. But that proposal was quickly scuttled after the pandemic hit.

Other issues slated to go before lawmakers during their special session are literacy, learning loss, and policies designed to hold students, teachers, and schools accountable for their performance.

Legislator wants to ensure Tennessee won’t cut millions of dollars from schools during pandemic

2020-12-09T21:06:57+00:00

With the pandemic putting hundreds of millions of dollars at risk next year for Tennessee public schools, one state lawmaker wants to make sure that education funding remains intact in next year’s budget.

Rep. Scott Cepicky’s bill would stabilize state funding in the 2021-22 school year at this year’s levels, even though a statewide decline in student enrollment this fall would normally decrease the allocation by at least $320 million.

If passed, the measure would enable local officials to begin drafting their next school budgets without fearing cuts.

Enrollment from the current school year sets per-pupil funding levels for the next one. Early data shows about 33,000 fewer students started in Tennessee public schools this fall, with many parents opting to hold back kindergarteners for a year or move older students to home-based or private schools because of disruptions caused by the coronavirus.

Tennessee has avoided budget cuts to K-12 education so far during the pandemic, and Gov. Bill Lee has said he hopes to shield districts from the financial repercussions of the enrollment drop. But with another economic slump possible because of the spreading virus, that’s not guaranteed.

“This is a critical concern,” said Cepicky, a Maury County Republican who filed his bill last week. “If these students come back next year when the virus is more manageable, it’s going to create an undue hardship on local governments to come up with more funding.”

His proposal, called the School Stabilization Act, follows months of conversations with superintendents and school boards.

Statewide organizations representing both of those groups support the legislation. “This is a major concern for districts throughout the state,” said Ben Torres, assistant executive director of the Tennessee School Boards Association.

Cepicky hopes the newly elected legislature will take up his bill soon after convening in January. “Most of our county commissions will be in budget hearings January through May, and it will help them a lot if they know their funding from the state is going to be stable,” he said Tuesday.

The governor also is reportedly considering calling a special session early in 2021 to focus on education issues that likely would include funding, testing, and literacy.

Screenshot of Rep. Scott Cepicky

Cepicky believes the pandemic is reshaping funding needs for education. He would like the legislature to authorize a rewrite of the Basic Education Program, or BEP, Tennessee’s formula for funding its schools. Such an endeavor would need to be discussed in education committees, he said.

Created in 1992, the BEP is designed to provide a basic level of education for all Tennessee students, no matter what their school district. The formula uses 45 ratios based on factors such as what a typical class size should be and how much an administrator should be paid to determine a fair and equitable allocation of state funds.

Critics say the BEP lowballs the cost of education and hasn’t kept pace with inflation, government mandates, a growing charter school sector, and expenses driven by changes in technology. The state has tried to update the formula several times, most recently under former Gov. Bill Haslam, who tinkered with the BEP but received pushback about winners and losers under a comprehensive rewrite.

“I think we can do better,” Cepicky said. “If we pass the School Stabilization Act that allows [districts] to remain funding solvent for another year, it would create a window of opportunity and urgency to address the BEP. We’d have about 14 to 15 months to get that done.”

House Speaker Cameron Sexton said this week that the legislature needs to consider tying funding for districts to the instructional model they use, with less money going to those that aren’t teaching students in person. He’s frustrated that Shelby County Schools recently gave its employees a 1% pay raise with money saved by teaching virtually during the pandemic.

BEP equity and adequacy has been the source of several court cases over Tennessee’s system for funding its schools. The biggest one — stemming from a 5-year-old legal challenge from districts in Memphis and Nashville — is scheduled to go to trial next October.

As Memphis district works through pandemic, board grants 2-year contract extension to superintendent

2020-12-02T01:44:35+00:00

The Shelby County Schools board extended Superintendent Joris Ray’s contract for two years to 2025, citing the need for stable leadership amid the pandemic’s disruption of education.

The contract amendment increases his annual salary to $293,550, up 3% from $285,000. Certified employees received a 3% raise last year, which under Ray’s contract, means he was eligible for a matching increase. He also gained 10 additional vacation days.

Board member Stephanie Love said Ray has not only looked out for students’ needs, but also their families.

“When we think about us being in a pandemic knowing that our students would not be able to go to school, this district provided laptops for every student. When we think about our parents who have lost jobs during the pandemic, this district partnered with FedEx to provide jobs for our parents,” she said.

The decision shows the school board is reinforcing Ray’s efforts to improve the closely watched district, the largest in Tennessee, where students have been struggling academically for decades. Despite pressure from the state to open school buildings in the face of the pandemic, Ray has steadfastly resisted.

Ray’s initial contract started in 2019 and was set to expire in 2023. The year 2025 is the target for the district’s “Destination 2025” goals.

By 2025, the board hopes that 80% of high school graduates are ready for college or a job, that all of those students enroll in college or are hired in sought-after careers, and that 90% of students graduate on time. To accomplish those goals, Ray’s administration has focused on improving literacy, developing and retaining teachers, and exposing students to more career certifications.

The extension follows Ray’s recent performance evaluation showing that he “completely met expectations” last school year based on a 4.13 out of a possible 5 score from the board. He received accolades for the people he hired for his leadership team and for securing laptops and tablets for all of the district’s 90,000 students.

Thirty-eight people, mostly administrators but also teachers, community leaders, and even the CEO of a national education organization, supported Ray’s leadership during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Principal Margaret McKissick-Larry, who is the longest-serving employee in the district with 60 years, said Ray “has garnered the support and respect of the community, at large, which account for the improvements across the board.” She also noted that Ray has “created an atmosphere of hope for the future of the district.”

When the pandemic began, Shelby County Schools was the first in the state to close its buildings in an effort to prevent spreading the virus. Because most students in Memphis did not have a district-issued laptop or tablet and internet access, Ray held off requiring online classes until after the district could distribute devices and internet hotspots this summer.

He kept school building doors closed to students this fall despite pressure from the state to reopen after COVID-19 cases surged in July. He has also said his plan to reopen classrooms for in-person learning in January could be delayed if community spread worsens. All other school districts in the state have at least partially reopened school buildings, though many have intermittently closed when COVID-19 has caused staffing shortages.

The district still has a long way to go to meet its 2025 goals. About 78% of the district’s class of 2020 graduated on time, down from 79% the year before and the first significant decline since the initiative started. The state’s graduation rate also dipped this year, but only by one-tenth a percentage point.

For reading skills, about 24% of the district’s third graders met state requirements on the latest annual exam in 2019, down from 27% the year before. The district wants 90% of third graders to meet state requirements by 2025.

Statewide, 36% of third graders met requirements in 2019, about the same as the year before. The state’s goal is 75% by 2025. State lawmakers canceled exams for 2020 because of the pandemic.

The decision to support Ray in continuing to pursue the district’s goals was “painless,” said board member Kevin Woods.

“It’s us allowing more time for Dr. Ray to continue to do the great work, so he can continue to recruit great talent, and continue to make sure that we have a district of choice for people across Shelby County,” he said.

Former Rep. Bill Dunn, a passionate voucher advocate, hired by Tennessee governor as education adviser

2020-11-11T20:04:03+00:00

Former Rep. Bill Dunn, who helped steer Gov. Bill Lee’s controversial school voucher plan through the legislature, is joining Lee’s administration as a special adviser on education, just days after his term ended.

The Knoxville Republican began working Monday in the state education department as a senior adviser to Commissioner Penny Schwinn.

A news release from the governor said Dunn will focus on “key priority areas and engagement strategies” but gave no details. A department spokeswoman said his annual salary is $98,000.

In an interview, Dunn said one of his first assignments will be working with his former colleagues in the legislature to pass a comprehensive early literacy plan. “That’s one of the issues that got cut short last session during COVID, and this gives me an opportunity to complete unfinished business,” he told Chalkbeat.

His hiring puts a well-respected leader who is knowledgeable about both education and the legislature in the state education department during a time when its commissioner is under fire from many lawmakers and school superintendents.

Dunn was the longest-serving GOP member of the House of Representatives and announced last year that he would not seek reelection after 26 years in office. Most recently serving as the No. 2 leader in the House of Representatives, he ended his last term on Election Day.

“Bill is a man of impeccable integrity, and his counsel will be critical to our success as we navigate one of the most challenging school years in our state’s history,” Lee said in a statement.

In a separate statement, Schwinn said she was excited to have Dunn on her team.

“As a statesman, he dedicated his life to serving Tennesseans and has been respected across the state and across the aisle for his work,” she said.

This year, numerous lawmakers have criticized Schwinn for rolling out initiatives and taking administrative shortcuts without ample legislative input, review, or approval. Last month, the chairs of the House and Senate education committees called for an investigation into the department’s management of millions of dollars earmarked for coronavirus relief, as well as the state’s school voucher program for students with disabilities.

Dunn has been a steady member of the House Education Committee and an outspoken advocate for giving parents more education options for their children.

In 2019, he carried the governor’s education savings account plan to give eligible families in Memphis and Nashville taxpayer money to help send their children to private schools. It passed out of the House of Representatives by just two votes — the first time a major voucher bill had advanced out of that chamber. The voucher law has since been struck down by the courts, and Lee’s administration is considering appealing to the Tennessee Supreme Court.

“It is an honor to be able to continue serving Tennesseans in a statewide role and help build upon the great work being done by the Tennessee Department of Education under the leadership of Commissioner Penny Schwinn,” Dunn said in a statement.

Speaking with Chalkbeat, Dunn called the job a “unique opportunity” that he had not sought — but agreed to when the governor asked. His role, he said, will be to foster communication between the department and the legislature as Tennessee works to support students and improve education.

“What happened in the past is past,” he said of friction between Schwinn and some legislators. “We’ve had an election and some new members are coming aboard. Hopefully everyone will say, ‘Kids come first, and let’s get to work.’”

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include Dunn’s salary.

Legislative leaders want Tennessee education department investigated over CARES spending, voucher management

2020-11-02T23:07:04+00:00

Two legislative leaders are calling for an investigation into the Tennessee Department of Education’s management of millions of dollars earmarked for coronavirus relief, as well as the state’s school voucher program for students with disabilities.

Sen. Dolores Gresham and Rep. Mark White, who chair the legislature’s two main education committees, want the state’s chief internal investigator to look into “questions and concerns” raised about both CARES funding and the 4-year-old voucher program known as Individualized Education Accounts.

Neither lawmaker provided details but, in an Oct. 23 letter to Comptroller Justin P. Wilson, said the concerns “come from every level of education across the state.”

“In light of these outcries,” they wrote, “we respectfully request that your office conduct an investigation into the management of these two areas to determine if they are being administered in accordance with both state and federal law.”

A spokeswoman said the department will cooperate fully in any investigation.

The request comes as the department oversees a massive infusion of federal cash to respond to the pandemic while its own ranks have thinned due to significant turnover and restructuring under Commissioner Penny Schwinn. The education chief also has been rebuked by lawmakers for rolling out initiatives and taking administrative shortcuts without ample legislative input, review, or approval.

This summer, Tennessee was awarded almost $260 million in one-time education funding as part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The department is managing $26 million, with the rest going to the state’s 147 school systems to help pay for pandemic-related needs such as school building sanitation, new technology for remote learning, and support for students with special needs.

Of the $26 million stewarded by her department, Schwinn announced in May that half would be invested in technology, including grants to help districts provide students with new devices, plus $4 million for online instructional resources. The rest was to help some school systems grow innovative strategies to benefit students, recruit and equip new teachers, provide mental health and community resources, and train school leaders.

“We are confident in the allocation of CARES funding to school districts and the administration of the state set-aside, all of which has been presented to various levels of legislative leadership,” said spokeswoman Victoria Robinson on behalf of the department.

Under Schwinn’s leadership, the state’s nearly 4-year-old voucher program for students with disabilities has been rife with complaints from numerous parents and some district leaders.

Known as Individualized Education Accounts, or IEAs, the voucher-like program is designed to assist families who say public education isn’t working for their children. It provides taxpayer funding toward private school tuition, tutoring, and other education services for students with disabilities such as autism, hearing and sight impairments, and traumatic brain injury.

But last fall, many participants reported receiving their state disbursements late and complained that the program office was ignoring their calls and emails. The complaints came following a complete staff turnover in the office, part of a larger exodus of employees under Schwinn during her nearly two years on the job.

This summer, the department’s ability to manage the voucher program effectively was called into question again over enrollment violations as the number of participants doubled to 325.

The enrollment jump wasn’t surprising given that the coronavirus disrupted schooling worldwide, especially services for students with disabilities that are difficult to provide in a remote or virtual setting. But the increase was noticeable since the program has been small since launching in January 2017 with 36 families. Last school year, it served 165 students.

Robinson said this year’s enrollment was trimmed from 325 to 289 as some “account holders were removed because of inappropriate eligibility, moving out of state, re-enrolling in public school, or misuse of funds.”

It marked the first time that any enrollees have been found to be ineligible. In previous years, the IEA office rejected ineligible students as part of the application process — and before enrolling them.

In August, department officials dismissed two people who helped oversee the program, including Robert Lundin, the assistant commissioner whom Schwinn recruited from Texas to join her leadership team.

Asked about the enrollment issues, Robinson said: “While the IEA Program has had a history of challenges, an internal review by the department earlier this year has created process and codification improvements and we have seen a greater uptick in participation in the program.”

Sen. Dolores Gresham, a Republican from Somerville, is retiring chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee.

White, a Republican from Memphis, said he has not studied concerns that have been raised but agreed that the comptroller should look into them.

Gresham, a retiring legislator who sponsored the 2015 law that created the IEA program, said it’s especially important for the state to oversee with integrity any initiative that’s designed to help its most vulnerable students.

“We just want this to work the way it is supposed to work,” she said.

The comptroller is part of Tennessee’s legislative branch and serves essentially as the state’s independent “money cop.” When a legislator asks for an investigation, the office reviews the request and decides if a probe is merited.

In a unanimous show of support, Memphis school board to consider extending superintendent’s contract

2020-10-28T00:28:55+00:00

The Shelby County Schools board will consider extending Superintendent Joris Ray’s contract next month after giving him a high evaluation score last week.

The board voted unanimously Tuesday to give the public notice that it would discuss and vote on amending the annual $285,000 contract sometime in November.

“The board recognizes the importance of stable, exemplary leadership during the novel coronavirus pandemic as it seeks to transform the district and improve student achievement,” the resolution said.

Board policy requires 15-day notice before voting to amend the superintendent’s contract. Ray currently has a four-year contract that ends in 2023. The decision shows strong support from the school board for Ray, who is in charge of making most decisions about the district’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, including its reopening timeline.

Ray, who has spent his entire career in Memphis schools, is in his second year at the district’s helm after the school board appointed him in April 2019. Last week, the board scored his performance 4.13 out of 5 during the 2019-20 school year, signaling that he “completely met expectations.”

The superintendent is also one of 20 finalists for the Green-Garner Award, the top prize for urban school leadership from the Council of Great City Schools, a national group of urban school districts. His predecessor, Dorsey Hopson, was also a finalist for the award in 2018.

The school board met over the weekend and discussed adding more detail and data to his performance evaluation, but the board has not figured out when a revised evaluation would go into effect.

Tuesday’s resolution was presented by board member Althea Greene, who had previously urged the board to extend the superintendent’s contract in April as the district ramped up its response to the pandemic. That was before the board had evaluated Ray’s performance, so the proposal was postponed. In other action Tuesday night, Greene will now lead the board in updating how it evaluates Ray.

Board member Stephanie Love was the resolution’s co-sponsor and several board members signed on as co-sponsors before the vote.

“There are still things we have to get done and I know in order to do that, we most definitely must have stability,” Love said before the board voted.

Memphis superintendent gets high marks on evaluation for first full school year

2020-10-21T00:48:46+00:00

Superintendent Joris Ray earned high marks from Shelby County Schools board members in his evaluation for his first full school year.

Ray’s overall score was 4.13 out of 5, showing that he “completely met expectations” during the 2019-20 school year. His highest score was in business and finance as board members praised him for securing laptops and tablets for students and hiring new leaders for district finance, human resources, and information technology.

His lowest score was in staff relations and evaluations, but still mostly met expectations. Board members noted they thought staff morale has increased, he publicly praises employees, and that his relationship with teacher associations is evolving. Board members said Ray needs a more accurate and rigorous evaluation of staff.

The evaluation reflects robust support from the nine-member school board. All but one were in office when Ray began his tenure: Sheleah Harris joined the board this summer after unseating Scott McCormick. Having support from board members, who hire the superintendent, is especially crucial as the district works though managing the pandemic and helping its students grow academically.

Board member Kevin Woods commended Ray for improving district culture among staff and hiring staff who push for better academics. Board member Shante Avant said Ray keeps students at the forefront of his decision-making.

“We will continue to work hand-in-hand with him and make sure we’re keeping the main thing, the main thing, which is educating our children,” she said.

Student achievement makes up 30% of the superintendent’s evaluation score, but the main measure, annual state tests, was canceled this spring because of the coronavirus pandemic. Board members still gave him a 3.98 out of 5 for student achievement because of academic programs Ray started before the pandemic.

The score is higher than Ray’s initial evaluation from his first six months since board members appointed him in April 2019. Prior to that, Ray was the interim superintendent for three months and a member of the previous superintendent’s cabinet.

The board expects to discuss using different data to evaluate the superintendent next year when they meet Friday and Saturday to discuss goals and long-term plans. Board member Stephanie Love said evaluations for Ray and central office staff should be as detailed and involved as teacher evaluations.

“Then and only then will we be on the same page and everyone will be held accountable for our children,” she said, noting that she and board member Althea Greene plan to bring a resolution the board directing Ray to create a better evaluation system for employees.

DeVos appoints Tennessee lawmaker to board overseeing the Nation’s Report Card

2020-10-14T22:30:01+00:00

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has appointed Tennessee legislative leader Mark White to the board that helps set policy for the tests known as the Nation’s Report Card.

White, a Memphis Republican who has served in the Tennessee General Assembly since 2010, will hold a four-year term on the 26-member governing board that oversees the assessment of thousands of students nationwide.

Known formally as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, NAEP has played an important role in evaluating the condition and progress of American education since 1969. The board determines subjects and content to be tested, sets achievement levels for reporting, and releases the results to the public.

In a split decision in August, the board decided that the congressionally mandated tests should proceed in spring 2021, even though members acknowledged that the data might not be accurate or even useful since many students might not be back in school buildings because of the coronavirus.

States are required to participate in order to receive federal Title I funds for schools serving low-income students.

A decade ago, Tennessee students scored near the bottom of states in reading and math proficiency. Since 2011, however, the state’s national rankings have steadily increased.

As chairman of the legislature’s House Education Committee, White has been a strong advocate for state testing and using the results to hold students, teachers, schools, and districts accountable. He is currently running for reelection.

White is a former teacher, principal, and small-business owner and co-founded the Global Children’s Educational Foundation to provide financial assistance and educational opportunities to impoverished children in Panama.

He is one of four appointments announced last week by DeVos.

Schwinn based Tennessee learning loss projections on pre-pandemic data

2020-09-25T22:09:56+00:00

Pre-pandemic test data analyzed by national researchers — not recent back-to-school test results from Tennessee students — was the basis for state projections this week that proficiency rates will drop by 50% or more for third-grade reading and math due to schooling disruptions during the pandemic.

The state education department spent much of Thursday and Friday fielding questions from school superintendents, legislators, and journalists asking about the basis for statewide projections that Education Commissioner Schwinn presented Wednesday during a news conference with Gov. Bill Lee.

Schwinn had said her estimates were informed by back-to-school testing data that was voluntarily shared by some Tennessee school districts, combined with national study and analysis by two groups. But asked later for details, members of her staff referred only to “national researchers using historical, Tennessee-specific data.” That data dates from 2014 to 2019, before the coronavirus emerged in the U.S.

“These are estimated predictions. They certainly do not reflect every district in every part of the state,” Schwinn told superintendents on Friday during a conference call. “Many of our students have done exceptionally well, especially those in high-performing bands.”

The revelations brought important context to numbers presented by Schwinn as the governor made his case to get students back into school buildings as soon as possible during the public health crisis. Currently, about half of the state’s 1 million public school students are working remotely, and Lee has been adamant that in-person learning is best to keep children on target or to catch them up.

A significant learning loss was expected nationally as students returned to in-person and virtual classrooms late this summer after school buildings were shuttered in March. The backsliding is expected to disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, such as students of color, those from low-income families, and children with disabilities. But national experts have cautioned against prematurely making pinpoint estimates of student readiness for the new school year.

In Tennessee, school districts have been administering their own diagnostic tests to determine how much their students know. In Memphis, home to the state’s largest district, those assessments happened just this week and the results won’t be back until mid-October.

Numerous superintendents said Schwinn’s comments were misleading in suggesting that recent homegrown data was taken into account in formulating the state’s projections.

“This is about doing your homework,” said Leah Watkins, superintendent of Henry County Schools in West Tennessee. “Before the state releases numbers to millions of Tennesseans, let’s make sure it’s accurate and shared with appropriate context.”

She called the presentation a “gross misrepresentation” that left out important facts.

“It sends a message to the public of gloom and doom — that what we’re doing in our public schools is not adequate,” Watkins said.

Watkins was among dozens of superintendents who complained to Schwinn about the projections, how she framed them, and why she chose to announce them during a news conference before sharing and vetting the data with district leaders. In multiple meetings earlier this week with both superintendents and state legislators, the commissioner did not discuss specifics about learning loss.

“Superintendents don’t need to be surprised by comments coming from our state leaders out of Nashville,” said Dale Lynch, executive director of the state’s superintendents organization. “We just think it’s important that the commissioner and her leadership team know that superintendents are at the point of the spear in their own communities on all things COVID.”

On the conference call with superintendents on Friday, Schwinn apologized for not giving them a heads up. But she did not backpedal on her projections.

“Learning loss data does not reflect the tremendous efforts made by our schools so far this year,” she wrote superintendents in a separate email. “This data makes the case for our continued collective focus and urgency on education in the state.”

Legislative leaders were also taken aback by Schwinn’s midweek announcement, which was shared in a press release by the governor’s office.

Rep. Mark White, who chairs the House Education Committee, said students and their families need careful and consistent messaging from the administration during the public health crisis.

“We know there’s a loss of learning. But before making blanket statements, the state needs to ask superintendents for their data and then look at it closely,” said White, a Republican from Memphis.

Rep. Scott Cepicky, a Republican from Maury County and frequent critic of Schwinn, said the commissioner should have shared her projections with the House Education Committee on Tuesday during a five-hour hearing on reopening schools.

“We just talked Tuesday in committee about her lack of communication. She shook her head and said she’d do better,” he said. “But nobody said a word to us about this pretty big news release coming on Wednesday. It feels like we took one step forward on Tuesday and two steps back on Wednesday.”

Cepicky, who once called for a vote of no confidence in Schwinn but later backed off, said Friday that Schwinn needs to work fast to rebuild trust with lawmakers before the next legislature reconvenes in January.

“This commissioner reports to the governor, but it’s the legislature that makes the laws,” he said. “We can change who people report to. We can require confirmation votes. There’s lots of things we can do.”

The Tennessee analysis was conducted by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, also known as CREDO and based at Stanford University. It is based on a national study conducted by the education nonprofit NWEA, which makes and sells assessment materials used by many school districts.

Gov. Bill Lee reasserts support of education commissioner Penny Schwinn: ‘I am pleased’ with her work

2020-09-10T22:45:35+00:00

Brushing aside a growing chorus of doubt and discontent with the leadership of Tennessee’s education commissioner, Gov. Bill Lee maintained his support Thursday of Penny Schwinn.

In an hourlong press conference that was meant to highlight the work of a statewide team on policing reforms, Lee was twice asked to address the no-confidence in Schwinn among some of his own party’s lawmakers. At least one Republican legislator has suggested holding a no-confidence vote on the education chief.

But Lee dismissed those concerns saying he was “very pleased” with the commissioner’s work, especially in such trying times.

“Opening schools in the midst of a pandemic is one of the greatest challenges that any state has faced.” Lee said. “Our state has been one of the first to do it and we’ve done it effectively.

“I’m very pleased with where we are in opening up our schools and that’s the No. 1 job right now of that commissioner and of that department.”

When asked if she would also like to address complaints about her leadership, Schwinn did not respond, instead allowing Lee to do so.

This is not the first time that lawmakers have criticized Schwinn for not seeking legislative input before launching initiatives.

Last month when Schwinn announced a statewide plan to conduct well-being checks on children at home during the pandemic, legislators thought that amounted to government overreach and another example of her not working with lawmakers. Days later, the commissioner apologized for “missing the mark” in her desire to support at-risk children and was forced to abandon the plan.

Addressing student mental health needs has been a cornerstone in Schwinn’s plan to address the “whole child,” including expanding wellness and social services to at-risk children since Lee hired her in January 2019.

Lee said Schwinn has done an admirable job ensuring that student academic needs are being met along with providing mental health and nutrition services, and other resources that are often performed in schools.

“Our commissioner of education is solely committed to that and the work of that department is one that I’m very pleased with so far,” he said.

Former school turnaround chief Chris Barbic joins Tennessee charter center board

2020-09-01T22:02:13+00:00

Chris Barbic, the founding superintendent of Tennessee’s Achievement School District and now a partner in a national charter school investment group, has joined the board of the state’s leading nonprofit charter advocacy organization.

The Tennessee Charter School Center announced the appointment of Barbic to its 10-member board on Friday.

Barbic, who founded a successful charter network in Houston in the 1990s, was a highly visible education leader in Tennessee from 2012 to 2015 as the first superintendent of the state-run turnaround initiative known as the Achievement School District. In that role, he shaped Tennessee’s most intense model for improving schools, in which the state takes over low-performing schools and assigns them mostly to charter operators. Tennessee is now revamping that model, which was applied mostly in Memphis and has achieved limited success in meeting its goals.

A resident of Nashville, Barbic is now a partner with The City Fund, created in 2018 by a group of high-profile education reformers including former Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman. The fund seeks to expand charter and charter-like schools and has invested millions of dollars in organizations in more than a dozen cities, including Memphis and Nashville.

“Chris is dedicated to students and good schools and he’s not afraid to try new things and to innovate,” said Maya Bugg, CEO of the Tennessee Charter School Center. “He also brings a national perspective and has insights into state-level education work here in Tennessee.”

Formed in 2013 through a merger of two charter groups, the charter school center is a research, resource, and advocacy group that aims to support and develop high-quality public charter schools.

“Our larger vision is that all students across Tennessee have access to a high-quality public education, and we think we can leverage public charter schools to help that along,” Bugg said of the publicly funded, independently operated schools.

Others who joined the center’s board this year are Terence Patterson, CEO of the Memphis Education Fund and past president and CEO of the Downtown Memphis Commission; and Lydia Hoffman, a partner with the Charter School Growth Fund, a national nonprofit organization that invests in charter school work.

Patterson is also a member of the new Tennessee Public Charter School Commission, which in 2021 takes over responsibility for hearing appeals from operators whose applications to start, renew, or amend charters are denied by local school boards. That responsibility currently rests with the state Board of Education, but is shifting to the commission under a 2019 state law backed by Gov. Bill Lee.

Tennessee lawmakers want answers from Schwinn after fallout over plan to conduct child ‘well-being checks’

2020-08-28T00:15:07+00:00

When Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn unveiled her plan this month to use $1 million in federal funds to support “well-being checks” on Tennessee children, the goal was to make sure kids were safe, fed, and healthy, despite schooling disruptions created by the coronavirus pandemic.

Within days, Schwinn walked back her plan and apologized to state lawmakers dealing with public uproar about the prospect of families receiving phone calls, emails, or a knock at the door through a new government initiative. “Although well-intentioned,” she wrote on Aug. 14, “we have missed the mark on communication and providing clarity around our role in supporting at-risk students during an unprecedented time.”

The episode highlighted the challenges of supporting children outside of their school buildings, especially in a state that is intent on parental responsibility and wary of government intrusion. It also pointed to Schwinn’s pattern of rolling out initiatives and taking administrative shortcuts without ample legislative input, review, or approval, even as the former Texas academics chief is leading Tennessee through the biggest education upheaval in modern history.

“I sincerely believe that the commissioner’s intention was good because kids have not been in school and there are issues with hunger and mental illness and domestic abuse,” said House Education Committee Chairman Mark White, a Republican from Memphis. “But when things get out without much vetting, we in the General Assembly are the ones getting calls from parents, teachers, and superintendents.”

The resulting tension between the GOP-controlled legislature and Gov. Bill Lee’s administration could hurt Schwinn and the Republican governor’s chances of providing long-neglected social and emotional health support for students at a time when the pandemic has escalated anxiety and stress for families and school communities.

“Our legislature is conservative and wants to keep government small, but some agencies get exuberant about their ability to create programs out of nowhere,” said Rep. Martin Daniel, the Knoxville Republican who chairs the legislature’s powerful Government Operations Committee.

‘Whole child’

Schwinn pinpointed student mental health as a gaping hole in Tennessee education after Lee picked her in January 2019 as one of his most important hires. In a strategic plan unveiled last November, she made “whole child” education one of three priorities and envisioned using schools to expand mental health, wellness, and social services in Tennessee’s highest-risk schools.

Commissioner Penny Schwinn jumps to her feet on Feb. 3, 2020, as Gov. Bill Lee announced new investments to K-12 education, including a $250 million trust fund to grow mental health services for Tennessee students.

But the coronavirus tanked tax revenues and the funding earmarked by the Lee administration to grow those resources. In June, Schwinn convened a 38-member child well-being task force, including four members of the legislature, to explore the challenges of extended school closures and galvanize communities “to check on our kids.”

The group produced a report, and the department created guidance for local leaders about conducting well-being checks on children from birth to age 18. Schwinn also announced that federal funding would be set aside to assist school districts and hire regional staff.

“There’s no Big Brother intent at all,” Schwinn told conservative Nashville talk show host Brian Wilson one day after her announcement created a firestorm on social media. “This is really about, ‘How do we support school-age children if they are not in school buildings?’ ”

Schwinn declined to speak this week with Chalkbeat, but her chief of staff, Chelsea Crawford, said Thursday that the well-being “toolkit” was an optional resource to guide local decision-making. She said the department is “going back to the drawing board” on how to help vulnerable students.

Meanwhile, Daniel said the Government Operations Committee has yet to receive an explanation from Schwinn saying under what authority she was acting to create what amounted to a new state program. She was scheduled to appear this week before the panel but was pulled from the agenda when Lee’s office intervened. Schwinn is now expected to testify in late September before the House Education Committee.

It wasn’t Schwinn’s first reprieve from answering lawmakers’ questions.

In February, a House subcommittee responsible for overseeing the spending of taxpayer money blasted Schwinn’s department for awarding a no-bid contract for $1.25 million a year to manage a new school voucher program that has since been put on hold. The award, for twice the budgeted amount, also bypassed the legislature’s fiscal review subcommittee. Chairman Matthew Hill, a Republican from Jonesborough, ordered Schwinn to appear with documentation showing exactly how the department decided on the award, but the governor’s office talked him down and no public hearing occurred.

A month later, members of the Senate Education Committee grilled Schwinn during back-to-back meetings about the department’s relationships with several private companies over recent textbook adoptions that prompted a lawsuit by one publisher. They also had questions about discussions with vendors over millions of dollars’ worth of anticipated contracts under a major literacy proposal that the legislature hadn’t approved. Lawmakers dropped a third round of questions when they abruptly recessed in March as the pandemic reached Tennessee.

“The whole COVID thing got us off track with addressing a pattern under Commissioner Schwinn,” said Rep. Scott Cepicky, a Republican from Maury County and a member of the House Education Committee, which had similar concerns. “I think there’s a general sense that this commissioner does what this commissioner wants and is not consulting those who have been elected by the people of Tennessee to be their voice on education policy.”

Big job

Schwinn was named to Lee’s cabinet just days before his inauguration. She had started her career in a Baltimore classroom with Teach for America and founded a charter school in her hometown of Sacramento, California, where she still serves on the board of directors. She later had brief leadership stints with education departments in Delaware and Texas, the latter of which included a controversial no-bid $4.4 million special education contract award in which an audit found Schwinn failed to follow state policies.

Lee has stood by Schwinn from the outset, even as she raised eyebrows with her very first policy initiative, which failed. Last summer, she proposed quick changes to Tennessee’s pioneering model for holding its schools accountable, then retreated after the chairs of the legislature’s two education committees told her to slow down and engage more stakeholders.

Her department also has had a revolving door, with more than 250 departures — mostly from resignations — in the first nine months of her tenure. That 19% departure rate exceeded those of her two predecessors over comparable periods. (The department has not provided updated turnover numbers as of this year, despite Chalkbeat’s multiple requests since February for that information.)

White said the turnover has hurt Schwinn’s ability to work with the legislature.

House Education Chairman Mark White speaks to the Tennessee General Assembly in 2020.

“When you lose a lot of institutional knowledge and experience, you don’t have the staff there to give you the background that you need and things get out without a lot of vetting,” White said. “I think that’s what happened with this child well-being plan. It wasn’t workable. It added more layers of government when we have two other departments who handle those responsibilities.”

Rep. Vincent Dixie, a Nashville Democrat and freshman lawmaker, has a different perspective after two years of serving on the House Education Committee.

“I think Commissioner Schwinn is stuck in a hard place,” Dixie said. “Gov. Lee has not provided clear direction and leadership during the pandemic, and the commissioner has had to make decisions that she’s not communicated clearly with the legislature. I think that’s caused a lot of confusion, miscommunication, and mistrust, but ultimately it all starts at the top.”

One upshot: Lawmakers’ confidence in the education department has deteriorated, and they’re increasingly leaning on the Tennessee State Board of Education, an 11-member body of appointed citizens that works with staff led by Executive Director Sara Morrison. Because of the emerging public health crisis and its impact on schools, the legislature voted last March to give the board emergency authority to address policy questions that crop up while lawmakers are recessed.

Digging in

Asked about legislative discontent with Schwinn’s leadership, the governor’s office pointed to a four-page list of partnerships and resources provided by the education department to support students, educators, and districts during the pandemic.

“Commissioner Schwinn is leading the department through an unprecedented crisis and the most challenging school year in the history of our state,” said Gillum Ferguson, Lee’s press secretary, adding that Schwinn is equipped for the challenge.

Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn greets students at Clay County High School on October 20, 2019, as Gov. Bill Lee watches on.

She also has earned points with superintendents for frequent communication since COVID-19 arrived. Three times a week, Schwinn holds statewide conference calls to discuss everything from federal relief funding to waiver requests to questions about staffing and data sharing during the public health emergency.

“This kind of communication and opportunity to provide feedback is extremely important for superintendents and something we have appreciated from the Commissioner during these challenging times,” said Sara Bunch, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents.

Cepicky wants that same commitment to communication and collaboration with the General Assembly.

“I think a clearing of the air is in order,” he said about meetings set for Sept. 22-23 by the House Education Committee.

Sen. Dolores Gresham, retiring chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee after 12 years at the helm, said she also wants answers after fielding numerous calls and emails from concerned constituents. She’s calling for the commissioner to testify before lawmakers this fall.

“I support the House Education Committee and other legislators’ efforts to get further details or to investigate some of these concerns,” Gresham said.

Tennessee governor lists school vouchers among his biggest accomplishments — and disappointments

2020-08-20T21:15:00+00:00

Gov. Bill Lee says passage of a school voucher law in Tennessee is among his administration’s top accomplishments, while court rulings that blocked the program’s launch this year is among his biggest disappointments.

Lee also expects the program’s rollout, which was halted when a Nashville judge overturned the 2019 law in May, will be resurrected in 2021. The Tennessee Court of Appeals is expected to rule this fall on the state’s appeal.

“I think that’s going to be temporary, but I expect that will go forward,” he said several court rulings that blocked the state from a fall kickoff.

During an online talk show broadcast Thursday by the pro-voucher Beacon Center of Tennessee, Lee talked about his highs and lows since taking office in January of 2019. The overturned education savings account law, which would allow eligible families in Memphis and Nashville to use taxpayer funding to pay for private school tuition, was near the top of both lists.

“Education savings accounts, parent choice, especially for minority kids and low-income kids, [are] very deeply important to me,” said Lee, who also cited expansion of vocational education and abortion restrictions as accomplishments.

Regardless of the outcome of the appeal, the voucher case likely will end up at the Tennessee Supreme Court. Metropolitan Nashville and Shelby County jointly challenged the law because it applies only to their communities without giving their local governments or voters a say.

The Beacon Center, a conservative public policy group, is among three pro-voucher organizations that have joined the state’s voucher appeal.

During the center’s 37-minute podcast, the Republican governor also spoke about school reopenings during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as ongoing racial justice protests and demonstrations that erupted following the May 25 killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis.

Lee has urged school districts to reopen school buildings. He has said he plans to sign legislation passed last week by Tennessee lawmakers to increase penalties for certain protest-related offenses and impose mandatory minimum sentences in some cases.

Architect of Tennessee’s newest charter school district picked to lead oversight commission

2020-08-12T22:43:25+00:00

A new commission assuming oversight of charter schools across Tennessee will be led by the woman who has managed more than 30 charter appeals to the state in the past six years.

Tess Stovall, director of charter schools for the Tennessee State Board of Education, was chosen Wednesday to become the first executive director of the Tennessee Public Charter Schools Commission.

Tess Stovall

Commission members unanimously selected her from a field of 33 applicants. They plan to sign off on the hire on Aug. 26 after the terms of her contract are worked out.

The role gives Stovall broad power to shape the future of the state’s new oversight commission and set the tone for charter school expansion across Tennessee. As executive director, Stovall will recommend whether to approve or reject appeals from operators whose applications to start, renew, or amend charters are denied by local school boards. She also will serve as a superintendent of sorts for a small but likely growing crop of charter schools that were rejected by local school boards and later authorized by the state.

“The first few years of the commission are going to be critical to its success,” Stovall told commissioners in her final interview. “I also think it’s crucial for whoever steps in this role to be ready to jump into the work.”

Preparing for a seamless transition

The commission’s work will be especially relevant in Memphis and Nashville, home to most of the state’s 118 charter schools, including the three that are currently operated by the state Board of Education. But Tennessee communities in other urban and rural areas eventually could see more charter schools crop up under a 2019 law that created the commission and gives the state a greater say in the sector’s growth. Gov. Bill Lee championed the changes as a way to promote more high-quality schools and close low-performing ones.

Stovall’s selection comes with about five months to go before the commission takes over responsibilities now resting with the state board. It signals the commission’s desire to move quickly to prepare for a seamless transition in January by turning to an official with a track record of managing the complexities of state charter school law since 2014.

Stovall, who has a bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science, designed the infrastructure for the new state-run charter district and has become a national expert on charter authorization.

She wants the new entity to serve as a model for local school districts that consider charter applications and says the state Board’s work can serve as the foundation.

‘She built the plane’

Stovall’s state-level policy experience gave her the advantage over the other two finalists: Jerry Sanders, a Memphian with 18 years of local and network charter school experience, including stints with KIPP; and Ben Schumacher, executive director of Teach for America in Nashville and Chattanooga and a former charter school teacher with Valor Collegiate Academies in Nashville.

“She built the plane, so she ought to fly it,” Commissioner Derwin Sisnett said of Stovall in his evaluation of the candidates.

Early in the search process, Sisnett and Commissioner Terence Patterson, appointees from Memphis to the nine-member commission, called for a diverse pool of candidates representative of students of color who are primarily served by charter schools. Sisnett noted Wednesday that, while Sanders was the only Black finalist, Stovall also represents diversity.

“It means a lot for our state to have Tess, as a woman, as our inaugural leader,” he said.

The commissioners, who began meeting in February, frequently said their most important decision would be hiring the right person as executive director. The job will require hiring a staff of up to 10 people and engaging with local charter and district leaders as well as state lawmakers and the governor’s office. In June, the commission relaunched and widened the search for a leader after being disappointed with the first round of candidates.

Another matter to be addressed quickly will be setting budget priorities. The governor has directed all state agencies to identify spending cuts because of the economic slowdown sparked by the coronavirus pandemic.

Commission Chairman Tom Griscom said he wants to bring Stovall into that process as soon as next week.