Settlements with Memphis-area suburbs on the agenda at Shelby County Board meeting

Shelby County’s school board will vote on whether to approve agreements deeding buildings to three of the six suburban municipalities hoping to create their own school districts at tomorrow’s board meeting.

The settlements with Collierville, Millington, and Bartlett and quitclaim deeds would transfer school buildings from the merged Shelby County school district to the municipalities. The documents are available to be viewed by the public on the Shelby County website.

The agreement with Bartlett transfers 11 schools to the town and requires the Bartlett board of education to pay $608,193 per year for 12 years, or $7.3 million in all. The agreement with Collierville transfers eight schools to the town and requires the Collierville board to pay $507,819 per year for 12 years, or $6.1 million in all. The agreement with Millington transfers four schools to the town and requires Millington to pay $230,219 per year for 12 years, or $2.8 million in all.

That brings the total amount of money Shelby County Schools will receive from the municipalities up to approximately $20.9 million. The board reached agreements worth $4.7 million with Arlington and Lakeland last week. Those agreements weren’t available to the public before the vote. They served as template settlements for the agreements with the other municipalities, board members and administrators said. Shelby County’s commission approved those agreements and dropped its suit against Lakeland and Arlington last Friday.

If these settlements are all approved, Germantown will be the only remaining municipality without an agreement with the merged school district. The fate of several buildings there has been debated heatedly in recent weeks.

The district’s contract with GCA, which cleans Shelby County’s schools, will also likely be a topic of discussion at tomorrow’s meeting. Shelby County Schools chose GCA, which had cleaned legacy Shelby County’s schools, rather than sticking with legacy Memphis City’s unionized custodial services during the merger process. But the cleanliness of schools has been the subject of complaints this school year.

A proposal to create a student congress and the district’s contracts with the Memphis Teacher Residency and Teach For America are also on the agenda. Here’s the full agenda.

Shelby County’s school board meets tomorrow, Nov. 26, 2013, at 5:30 p..m. in the Frances E. Coe Auditorium at 160 S. Hollywood.