The ongoing state intervention saga in Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) is about to receive a new development.¶
A federal judge is scheduled to hear oral arguments for and against the state’s pending MSCS takeover on Sept. 24 in Nashville. U.S. District Court Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., who halted the action on July 1, after the MSCS School Board filed an 80-page lawsuit the month prior alleging the creation of a state oversight board was unconstitutional, is presiding over the case. The immediate question is not whether the intervention is constitutional, but who gets to run the district while the court decides that issue.¶
What Led to This?
Calls for the state to intervene in the Memphis-Shelby County Schools system began last year after the district fired former superintendent Marie Feagins, who had served less than a full year in the position. Feagins filed a lawsuit against the district and board member Towanna Murphy for alleged gender discrimination. Still, her Austin Law, P.C., attorney Johnathan F. Austin, filed a motion to withdraw as her counsel on Sept. 2 after Feagins told him that she no longer wanted him representing her.¶
MSCS has also long faced criticism for academic shortcomings and alleged corruption. The results of a Comptroller audit earlier this year revealed millions of dollars in mismanagement, including a $48.4 million custodial contract awarded to one vendor despite the district’s evaluation committee recommending several others, “numerous concerns” of project contract mismanagement, conflicts of interest in various other contracts the district awarded, and more.¶
Last April, the General Assembly passed a bill requiring state districts that meet four of six selected criteria to have an oversight board assigned to them. It also created an oversight board made up of nine members with sweeping authority to make changes, including firing and hiring board members or the superintendent, carrying out a comprehensive needs assessment and related transformation plan, and submitting an annual progress report to the governor and other state lawmakers.¶
New Developments
MSCS and Shelby County are attempting to preserve the court’s current halt while their constitutional challenge continues, but state attorneys argue the case belongs in state court. The outcome will likely determine who controls the district’s budget and superintendent.¶
Two education organizations, The Memphis Lift and Seeding Success, and several family members of MSCS students have filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the state. Contrastingly, the United Education Association of Shelby County has publicly supported the district’s fight to stave off the intervention.¶
If the intervention eventually occurs, the district could regain local control after four years if it is no longer eligible under four of the six criteria.¶
