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

With a median home price of roughly $550,000 in the state, a new program aims to help public school employees buy their first homes and stay in the communities where they teach.

Philadelphia schools’ safety chief says conflict mediation, trusted adults, and safe corridors will remain core to the district’s violence prevention plan.

Current freshmen, sophomores, and juniors won’t have to pass Regents exams to graduate. But students still don’t know exactly what will replace them.

Higher-level algebra may be a trouble spot, data suggest, while most third and fourth graders miss the reading mark.

The state law that created Chicago’s elected school board also required the mayor to create a noncitizen advisory board meant to give a stronger voice to immigrant Chicagoans who cannot vote in school board elections.

Immigrant families in Queens face rising anxiety over ICE arrests near schools as deportations peak during the second Trump administration.