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Memphis voters have elected longtime lawyer Tanya Frey and anti-violence program leader T.L. Harris to serve on the Memphis-Shelby County school board, according to unofficial results from the August 6 election.
In the district’s first partisan school board election, Harris and Frey ran as Democrats in the Districts 6 and 8 races against independent challengers. Two Democratic incumbents — Michelle McKissack in District 1 and Joyce Dorse Coleman in District 9 — ran unopposed.
No Republicans were on the ballot.
New board members take office on Sept. 1 and will inherit a significant legal battle over control of the district. The local officers could be constrained by a nine-member oversight board that Tennessee Republicans appointed under a state takeover law passed this spring.
The state-appointed board is temporarily blocked by a federal court order pending a decision on a Memphis-Shelby County Schools lawsuit challenging the takeover law as unconstitutional.
If reinstated by the court, oversight board members would have final approval over MSCS budgets and vendor contracts. They could also choose a new superintendent and close local schools.
Harris won the District 6 Democratic primary in the spring by fewer than 200 votes. He’s lived in the Whitehaven neighborhood for more than 30 years and spent three years leading community centers for the Memphis Gun Down summer program.
Harris pleaded guilty to a federal drug charge in 2006 while working as a Memphis police officer. He served time in federal prison and later had his voting rights, and right to hold public office, restored. Harris said that background makes him more able to connect with local youth facing poverty and other hardships. Chalkbeat was unable to confirm his current place of employment.
Harris said literacy is the most important issue for the MSCS board to address, with less than a third of Memphis students passing state reading tests.
He will replace District 6 incumbent Keith Williams on the board.
Frey runs Terra Firma Consulting, an organization that advises nonprofits on leadership decisions. She worked as a lawyer for 21 years for companies including Autozone and ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
She said she’ll be focused on improving board governance during a year when the district has to respond to state audit findings that revealed ineffective operations and potential spending abuse.
Frey will replace current board member Amber Huett-Garcia, who was elected on Thursday to serve on the Shelby County Commission.
Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.
