Sign up for monthly text updates on the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board

A wooden podium with a microphone on the top is in focus while people sit in chairs on the side and in the background.
October 24, 2023: MEMPHIS, TN - A Memphis Shelby County Schools school board meeting on October 24. Photo by Andrea Morales for Chalkbeat (Andrea Morales for Chalkbeat)

Want to stay up to date on the latest news from the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board while also having a way to text your school board questions to Chalkbeat’s journalists? Sign up for Chalkbeat Tennessee’s texting service.

Each month, Bri Hatch, who writes about MSCS for us, sifts through agendas and documents, attends board meetings, and interviews Memphis leaders, attendees, and others before and after the meetings. Hatch reports the decisions made by the school board and tells the stories of the people who will be affected by those decisions.

And with our texting service, you’ll stay in the loop on the latest Memphis-Shelby County Schools board news, regardless of whether you’re able to attend board meetings.

Here’s how it works:

Sign up by texting SCHOOL to 901-599-2745 or enter your phone number into the box below.

We hope the texting service will keep you informed, better able to hold district officials accountable, and more empowered to start community conversations about what public education should look like in Memphis.

We’ll text you twice a month, once before a board meeting to let you know it’s coming up, and once after with the biggest news.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools typically hosts its monthly board meetings at 5:30 p.m. the last Tuesday of each month at the Board of Education building. The meetings are also available for streaming on the district’s Facebook page. Find board meeting schedules and agendas here.

The Latest

New data shows the state’s chronic absenteeism rate was still significantly higher last year compared to 2018-19.

Elevated rates of absenteeism have bedeviled school districts across the country in the wake of the pandemic.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights wrote to the district that it has found its Black Student Success Plan and a policy on gender identity are discriminatory.

Debates about what teachers can say — and what they should say — have intensified as GOP officials seek consequences for some who’ve commented about Kirk’s death on social media.

"Esta detención injusta ha frustrado y paralizado mi educación y mis esfuerzos momentáneamente", dijo Dylan. "Pero no me hará renunciar a esforzarme por alcanzar mis metas educativas".

How many students are enrolled in Tennessee’s new voucher program? The state won’t say.