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In its first meeting in months, the Memphis state takeover board unanimously approved key contract processes and staffing decisions in an effort to demonstrate to a federal court that it is ready to seize control of Tennessee’s largest school district.
But the politically appointed body hit a snag when deciding whether to adopt work done by an outside consulting firm while the takeover was temporarily blocked this summer. Tense debate about that consulting firm, MGT, delayed the rest of Thursday’s meeting by an hour.
The oversight board faces pressure to prove its ability to assume control of Memphis-Shelby County Schools in the coming days. On Monday, Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw signaled in an order that the MSCS state takeover could begin as soon as the board figured out key operational processes.
The oversight board was supposed to start its tenure on July 1, but Crenshaw blocked its work in a temporary order he said Friday was never meant to be long term.
Chair Billy Orgel said he scheduled Thursday’s meeting in direct response to that order.
“We need infrastructure in place, which in the simplest is emails, websites, and points of contact,” Orgel said. “We’ve got a large task in front of us, and this affects the whole community.”
Oversight board members unanimously approved rules for their own operations, including a requirement to appoint a point person to communicate with the elected MSCS board. They also unanimously adopted committee names and a contract and expenditure approval process submitted by national consulting firm MGT.
Under state law, the oversight board is responsible for approving all MSCS contracts above $50,000. It will also have final say on the annual budget and charter school applications, neither of which the board discussed on Thursday. The board has not yet set a standing meeting location or time.
Tennessee Republicans pushed to establish the state appointed board in Memphis as a way to improve academic performance and district governance, which they said is largely dysfunctional. A forensic audit revealed $54 million of potential spending abuse from 2021-24, mostly from one custodial contract.
Board member Dedrick Brittenum harkened to those audit findings while questioning the ethics of using work from MGT. He said the board should go through a proper procurement process before committing to a drafted $1 million memorandum of understanding with the group.
“It just seems like we’re barreling through on something that hasn’t had the proper thought and deliberation,” Brittenum said. “It seems to me we need to develop processes and procedures before going headlong into this type of situation.”
Orgel scolded Brittenum during the debate over MGT, saying board members are not to “challenge people that are our guests here today and treat them with any amount of disrespect.”
Rajeev Baljaj, an MGT senior advisor, said the group began gathering research and drafting bylaws for the oversight board in July. That work was all above board, Orgel said, because local philanthropy paid for it – not the oversight board itself.
While no one officially confirmed who paid for MGT, Orgel mentioned local philanthropy as a source – including Seeding Success, a Memphis education nonprofit that has been advocating for the state takeover for over a year.
MGT also worked as a consultant during the state takeover of Houston public schools, which Tennessee Republicans say they hope to use as a model for MSCS.
All board members excluding Brittenum voted to accept the work done by MGT at no cost to the body. That included drafting the board’s bylaws and the contract approval processes, both approved by the board Thursday.
The oversight board also unanimously approved the job description for an executive director, which will be posted in the coming days, and opened the legal counsel position for applications amid two ongoing lawsuits against the takeover.
MSCS and Shelby County leaders filed another lawsuit in the local chancery court Wednesday, using similar arguments to their ongoing federal case that the takeover law is unconstitutional and violates voter and elected officials’ rights.
The lawsuit calls for a permanent injunction that prohibits the state from “implementing, enforcing, or giving any effect to” the takeover.
State board members voted to start drafting a grant application to fund the legal counsel and executive director positions using $1 million in funding already set aside for the board by the Tennessee Department of Education.
Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.
