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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 atmbrown@chalkbeat.org.
