City leaders in Germantown unanimously backed an agreement Monday that would allow its municipal school district to take over two schools currently operated by Memphis-Shelby County Schools, the first in a series of votes needed to settle a long-running dispute between the two districts.If the Shelby County Commission votes for the deal Wednesday, and MSCS and the Germantown Municipal School District sign off on it Thursday, Germantown would pay MSCS $5 million for Germantown Elementary and Middle schools, which are both located in the Memphis suburb.

Last week’s Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board of Education meeting provided yet another example of how differently the state’s two largest school districts choose to work with their public charter schools.MSCS school board members unanimously rejected a proposal to shut down four public charter schools that have been designated as Priority Schools.  Arrow Academy of Excellence, Memphis Business Academy Hickory Hill Middle School, KIPP Memphis Academy Middle, and KIPP Memphis Collegiate Middle all made the Priority Schools List for the first time this year.

Beverly Davis, president of the Whitehaven Empowerment Zone PTSO, believes the next superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools should possess one main asset: Bluff City roots.Davis, who is also a member of the MSCS board’s superintendent search advisory committee, addressed a group of about 60 who gathered at Healing Cathedral Christian Church in Whitehaven Wednesday to share their thoughts on who should succeed Joris Ray.

Districts throughout Tennessee and the nation are working to help students recover from learning losses spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. But another respiratory illness is threatening to undermine that work.Last month, flu outbreaks sparked school closures in at least 10 districts. And while the spread of flu hasn’t prompted closures in any Shelby County schools, the area isn’t immune to the threat.

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board on Thursday announced a sped-up timeline for its superintendent search and launched a website to give the public more visibility into the process.The new timeline calls for the board to name the next leader of Tennessee’s largest school district by April 2023 — several months sooner than initially proposed last month. The new superintendent would start between May and July, at least a month before the start of the 2023-24 school year.

Two charter schools that have been at odds with Memphis-Shelby County Schools administrators won approval from the school board for their requests to expand.In a pair of 8-0 votes at a specially called meeting, the board allowed Memphis STEM Academy, a K-5 charter school in Frayser, to increase its enrollment, and gave Believe Memphis Academy, a South Memphis college preparatory charter school, permission to add four grade levels beyond its current 4-8.

John Barker, a Memphis-Shelby County Schools deputy superintendent who was on leave pending an investigation into a complaint against him, has retired from the district.Additionally, the official who made the complaint, district human resources chief Yolanda Martin, has resigned in the wake of an investigation of a separate complaint against her last month.

Alexa Guynes didn’t expect to win an award when she walked into her school gymnasium Thursday but that’s exactly happened.Surrounded by her 5th grade students at Germantown Municipal Schools' Dogwood Elementary, Guynes was surprised to hear her name read as the winner of the prestigious Milken Educator Award.  It’s one of the highest honors in education and has been referred to as the “Oscars of Teaching” by Teacher Magazine.

Homelessness among Memphis-Shelby County Schools students has hit its highest level in at least four years, more than doubling from the same time last year.New district data shows 1,504 students were identified as homeless as of Oct. 7, the end of the first quarter of the school year. That’s a nearly 180% increase from last fall, when the number of homeless students stood at 538.

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board wouldn’t select the next leader of Tennessee’s largest school district until July — a month before the 2023-24 school year begins — under a proposed superintendent search timeline.The timeline, presented to the MSCS board during committee meetings Monday afternoon, calls for the board to spend several months gathering community feedback through four public input sessions, a student input session, and a survey of stakeholders including parents, educators, and business and nonprofit leaders across Shelby County.

Althea Greene understands the assignment.Memphis-Shelby County Schools is in a moment of major transitions. The school board is preparing to embark on its first nationwide superintendent search in a decade — over two months after the school board cut ties with former Superintendent Joris Ray, who had been under investigation over claims he abused his power and violated district policies.

As the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board prepares to launch its first national superintendent search in a decade, Charles Lampkin has several thoughts on the qualities he wants to see in the next leader.Lampkin, the father of three MSCS students, thinks the next superintendent should prioritize transparency and be dedicated to rebuilding trust within the community. They should “keep a finger on the pulse” of the district, Lampkin said, and provide greater operations oversight.

The Memphis-Shelby County School Board will look nationwide for a replacement for its former scandal-plagued superintendent Joris Ray. The search will begin this month.“The MSCS Board will kick off a national search for a new superintendent this month with a vote to launch an RFP [Request for Proposals] to find a search firm,” board chair Althea Greene tweeted on Friday. “From there, we can hire a firm, engage the community and recruit candidates. We expect to name a new superintendent by the end of 2022-23.”

Despite promising scores in this year’s Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP), Tennessee students continue to show the same signs of learning loss as their peers across the country in national testing.Tennessee's National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores released today mirror a historic national drop in the first testing following the pandemic.  While students in the Volunteer state are roughly at the national average in math proficiency and just under that in reading, proficiency in both subjects dropped to their lowest levels since 2011 with significant drops for students of color, English learners, and students with disabilities.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools showed some of the country’s sharpest declines in math and reading scores on the test known as the “nation’s report card.”Results from the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, illustrate the pandemic’s devastating effect on learning in Tennessee’s largest school district, where most students are Black and come from low-income families who were hit hardest by the pandemic, and where waves of COVID infections led to prolonged stretches of remote learning.

For the second time in six weeks, a Memphis-Shelby County Schools official has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into an employee complaint.The nature of the complaint against Yolanda Martin, the district’s chief of human resources, was not immediately clear Friday afternoon. The district declined to comment on the investigation, but interim Superintendent Toni Williams said in a statement that the district “investigates all employee complaints as we continue our ongoing efforts to emphasize integrity in all MSCS functions.”

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission approved the Tennessee Nature Academy in a 5-3 vote, overturning MNPS's rejection. Several other charter school appeals were denied.