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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.
