Tag: Chalkbeat TN

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Chalkbeat: Legislators Tackled Education Issues Big and Small

State Capitol (Photo: Tennessee State Government)

Tennessee lawmakers’ scrutiny of public education this year ran the gamut, from completely rewriting the state’s K-12 funding formula to authorizing teachers to confiscate students’ cell phones if they’re deemed a distraction in class.

The 65 or so education bills that ultimately passed during the 2022 session showed lawmakers were willing to not only undertake big, systemic reforms, but also to assert state power over issues traditionally handled at the local or school level. Among them: which books are OK for libraries and how to resolve a dispute between two cities over school properties.

All measures ultimately will affect students in pre-K through 12th grade, their educators, and schools — most beginning this fall.

They include several anticipated new laws aimed at addressing the state’s teacher shortage by loosening restrictions on licensing, plus another bill that expands Tennessee’s private school voucher program for students with disabilities to include those with dyslexia.

And one year after a 2021 law restricted how race and bias can be taught in schools, new legislation requires schools to infuse multiculturalism throughout the K-12 curriculum, with special attention to Black history in grades 5 through 8.

The legislature’s focus on culture war issues was notable, from scrutinizing content in school libraries to pulling state funding from schools that allow transgender youth to participate in girls sports.

Also notable were the proposals that didn’t pass.

Pushback from advocates of traditional public schools helped to sideline bills that likely would have led to significant expansion of the state’s charter school sector. One measure, which was resurrected after stalling last year, would have opened the door to for-profit charters in Tennessee. Another would have let charter organizations bypass local districts and apply for authorization directly to the state’s new charter commission.

Lawmakers struck down a perennial bill to allow school superintendents to be elected by voters instead of being appointed by school boards, albeit by a closer margin than in previous years.

Also scuttled were bills that would limit which supplemental materials that teachers can use, ban corporal punishment in schools, and require that state tests be given only during the last 20 days of the school year. 

Still, the GOP supermajority saw many of its bills head to Gov. Bill Lee for his signature.

After the final gavel fell on April 28, Lee touted the passage of his legislative agenda as “America at its best,” including the funding rewrite that he signed into law this week, a $500 million one-time investment in middle and high school career and technical education, and a $125 million increase toward teacher pay.

House Minority Leader Karen Camper, however, characterized this year’s session as one of “missed opportunities.” Citing the state’s historic revenue surplus and billions of dollars in one-time federal COVID relief funding, the Memphis Democrat said the state could have invested even more in education, as well as health care, housing, and other needs critical to the average Tennessean.

Here is a roundup of some of the 2022 bills that passed:

Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement (HB2143-SB2396): The so-called TISA formula will replace the state’s 30-year-old funding system. It sets a base funding rate of $6,860 per pupil, then distributes additional funding for students who are considered economically disadvantaged, have unique learning needs, or live in communities that are rural or have concentrated poverty. The governor, who is running for reelection, pledged to inject an extra $1 billion annually into the base and weights when the formula kicks in beginning in 2023-24. 

Budget (HB2882-SB2897): The state’s $53 billion spending plan includes a $125 million recurring funding increase toward teacher salaries and a one-time $500 million investment in career and technical education for middle and high schools. But legislative finance leaders stripped away $200 million that Lee wanted for relocating 14 Tennessee schools built in floodplains. The budget also sets aside $32 million to help charter schools pay for facilities. And it includes about $29 million to launch Tennessee’s paused school voucher program, just in case the Tennessee Supreme Court overrules a lower court’s 2020 ruling that it is unconstitutional.

Age-Appropriate Materials Act (HB2154-SB2407): The governor’s plan requires each school library to publish the list of materials in their collections and periodically review them to make sure they are “appropriate for the age and maturity levels of the students who may access the materials.” It also requires school boards to establish processes for receiving feedback and removing books that don’t meet that standard, which is to be defined by each district based on local community standards.

New appellate process (HB2666-SB2247): Tennessee’s textbook commission can overrule local school board decisions and ban certain school library books statewide if they are deemed “inappropriate for the age or maturity levels” of students who can access them. Under legislation approved on the final day of the session, which Lee has said he’ll sign, the politically appointed panel can hear appeals from parents, school employees, or other complainants on the decisions of locally elected officials over challenged materials.

Tennessee library coordinator (HB1667-SB1784): Creates a position at the state education department to strengthen school library programs and promote best practices among librarians and technology coordinators. The Tennessee Association of School Librarians lobbied for the position.

Black history (HB2106-SB2501): Requires, rather than recommends, instruction on Black history in schools. Schools must infuse multiculturalism throughout the K-12 curriculum, with special attention to Black history in grades five through eight. The bill takes effect in 2025-26 to align with a scheduled review of the state’s social studies standards.  

Virtues of capitalism (HB2742-SB2748): Requires instruction on the “virtues of capitalism and the constitutional republic form of government in the United States and Tennessee, as compared to other political and economic systems such as communism and socialism.”

Grading scale (HB0324-SB0388): Returns Tennessee to a 10-point grading scale for high school students instead of a seven-point scale for assigning A-F letter grades, to help with post-secondary financial assistance. So instead of a 93-100 average to receive an A, the range would be 91-100. The shift, which has been discussed in the legislature for several years, would align Tennessee’s high school grading scale with its colleges and universities. The primary goal is to put Tennessee students on an even playing field with their peers elsewhere, including eight bordering states.

Hope scholarships (HB2152-SB2405): Lawmakers approved the largest increase for HOPE scholarships for academic achievers at public four-year universities in Tennessee since the scholarships launched in 2004. Beginning with the 2022-23 academic year, the awards will increase from $3,500 to $4,500 for full-time eligible freshmen and sophomores and from $4,500 to $5,700 for juniors and seniors. Funded from the net proceeds of the Tennessee Lottery, the program aids students who graduate from a Tennessee high school with a 3.0 GPA or higher and score at least 21 on their ACT or 1060 on their SAT.

‘Divisive concepts’ in higher education (HB2670-SB2290): Gives public university students the right to sue professors if they believe they received low grades based on politics or ideology. 

Transgender athletes (HB1895-SB1861): Legislation signed by the governor requires the state education department to withhold funds from schools that don’t identify athletes’ genders assigned at birth or that allow transgender girls to play on girls’ sports teams. A second bill prohibits trans women from playing on women’s college sports teams. 

But legislation stalled that would have shielded schools from recourse if a teacher disregards the preferred pronouns of students. And lawmakers scuttled another bill that would have banned “textbooks and instructional materials or supplemental instructional materials that promote, normalize, support or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual or transgender issues or lifestyles.”

Expansion of vouchers for students with disabilities (HB0751-SB1158): Under a bill that the governor is expected to sign, nearly 35,000 students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia would be eligible to participate in Tennessee’s private school voucher program for students with disabilities. The legislation would almost double the number of students now eligible to receive state money to pay for private education services through the state’s 6-year-old Individualized Education Account program. Currently, that program serves 284 students with disabilities that include autism, hearing and vision impairments, and traumatic brain injury. State officials estimate the families of about 250 students would opt to participate and receive an average of $7,811 annually during the first year. Such an expansion would shift more than $2 million in state funding from public to private schools and vendors.

Temporary teaching permits (HB1901-SB1863): Extends for another two years temporary teaching permits to teach certain courses and subjects where vacancies are hard to fill.

Limited license pathway (HB1899-SB1864): Allows teachers holding a temporary teaching permit to apply to the state for a practitioner’s license before the permit expires. 

Retired teachers and bus drivers (HB2783-SB2702): Through 2025, retired teachers and bus drivers could be reemployed as a teacher, substitute teacher, or bus driver, without having their retirement benefits taken away or suspended. Currently, retired teachers can return to work, but only for 120 days maximum. The change would allow workers to return for an entire school year if there are no other qualified applicants. During reemployment in a school system, retirement benefits would be reduced to 70% of retirement allowance, and the existing salary cap would be removed.

Occupational teaching licenses (HB2455-SB2442): Amends qualifications necessary to receive an occupational teaching license to address the shortage of instructors for vocational and career and technical education programs. 

Transfer of schools to Germantown (HB2430-SB2315): Memphis school officials will have to transfer three suburban schools to neighboring Germantown under heavily amended legislation that gives both parties until next year to reach an agreement. Germantown officials have sought the expensive properties for a decade, but leaders of Memphis-Shelby County Schools countered that they offered no long-term plan for educating the 3,300 students who would be affected, most of whom live near Germantown in unincorporated parts of Shelby County. A federal judge approved the original 2013 agreement that transferred five of eight Germantown schools from the Memphis district to the Germantown school system. Memphis leaders have said they may take the matter back to court.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Governor Lee’s Education Funding Overhaul Passes Legislature

State Capitol (Credit: Tennessee State Government)

Gov. Bill Lee’s plan to change how Tennessee funds public education passed Thursday out of the legislature, setting the stage to replace the state’s 30-year-old funding formula next year with one that provides more money for students with higher needs.

The sweeping bill, which Lee’s administration unveiled nine weeks ago after a months-long review of the current funding system, easily cleared the GOP-controlled House and Senate Wednesday along mostly partisan lines. On Thursday, the House concurred with a slightly different Senate version. 

When signed into law, the new plan will dramatically affect nearly 1 million students, their teachers, and schools, with significant implications for local finances. Beginning with the 2023-24 fiscal year, it will set a base funding rate of $6,860 per pupil, then distribute additional funding for students who are considered economically disadvantaged, have unique learning needs, or live in communities that are rural or have concentrated poverty. 

Currently, 38 other states and the District of Columbia have some type of student-based funding model.

The rewrite, called the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement, or TISA, will replace the state’s Basic Education Program, created in 1992. The current funding system is a resource-based formula that distributes money to school systems based on student enrollment and assumptions about resources needed for staffing, textbooks, technology, transportation, and dozens of other education costs.

The Republican governor, who is running for reelection this fall, announced in late January that he wanted to pour $1 billion more into public schools annually. But he said Tennessee must first update its funding system to focus more on the needs of individual students than on school systems.

Democrats in opposition argued that the promise of $1 billion more in a new formula wasn’t enough to remedy Tennessee’s national ranking as 44th in funding adequacy, according to the Education Law Center, which also graded the state low for its public education investment as a share of its economy.

“At the end of the day, the most important part of a funding formula is the funding, and right now in Tennessee, we don’t do that well,” said Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro, a Nashville Democrat.

Last week, Yarbro proposed adding $1 billion this year to the current formula, but the Senate voted that down.

Instead, buoyed by another year of state revenue surpluses, the legislature passed a state budget that takes effect this July 1 with a $125 million increase toward teacher salaries — equivalent to a 3% raise — and a one-time $500 million investment in career and technical education in middle and high schools.

Democrats sought unsuccessfully Wednesday to amend the TISA bill to ensure that Tennessee follows through on Lee’s pledge and injects $1 billion next year into the new formula. They also failed to pass changes that would automatically address inflation in future years, increase transparency about what’s included in the per-pupil funding base, and remove additional investments in charter schools, among other things.

Many Democrats and a few Republicans said they supported establishing funding weights that reflect student needs, but wanted more time to vet legislation of such magnitude.

“We usually take two years to do this,” said Yarbro about significant funding changes, “and we’ve done this in two months.”

Sen. Joey Hensley, one of a few Republicans who voted against the bill, agreed. “I’m afraid that this formula is going to incentivize schools to put more labels on more students … so they can get more money,” said the Hohenwald Republican, referring to the funding weights for certain groups of students.

But Republican leaders hailed the formula as comprehensive and cited the input of thousands of Tennesseans based on public comments, 16 town halls, and dozens of meetings with education stakeholders.

“We have ripped this bill up and down,” said House Education Committee Chairman Mark White, a Republican from Memphis, about amendments to the bill.

“Change is hard. Even positive change is hard,” said Sen. Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican who chairs his chamber’s finance committee. “But this is transformational, and it’s time to transform education in Tennessee.” 

Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, who spearheaded the state’s funding review, said TISA’s base covers all the costs of the current formula and more, including enough money to get Tennessee schools to the nationally recommended ratios of school nurses and counselors, a dire staffing need highlighted by the pandemic.

Beyond the base and weights, the plan allocates funding of $500 per K-3 student to improve reading, as well as money to pay for literacy tutoring for struggling fourth-grade readers and to support career and technical education for older students. It also sets aside funding to help charter schools pay for their facilities and to help fast-growing districts with infrastructure needs.

The law creates several new panels charged with holding school systems accountable for how they spend state funds to improve academic performance, even as schools and districts are set to receive their first letter grades this fall as part of accountability measures under a 2015 federal education law. 

One new committee can order a corrective action plan or appoint an inspector general to oversee school programming or spending for districts or charters schools that get a D or F on the state report card. Another “progress review board” can recommend that district leaders complete training if they fail to make incremental improvements toward the state’s overall goal of getting 70% of third-graders proficient in reading, based on state test results. Currently, only a quarter of Tennessee students meet that threshold, down from a third before pandemic disruptions to schooling.

Watson, the Senate’s finance leader, called the literacy goal “one of the most critical pieces of this piece of legislation.”

Another late change adds state grants to help school districts offer competitive salaries to educators working in counties with a higher cost of living than the state average. Those currently include Anderson, Davidson, Shelby, and Williamson counties.

Lee’s funding plan faced an uphill political battle at the outset of the legislative session in January, with GOP leaders calling it a heavy lift during an election year when lawmakers are anxious to recess early to begin their campaigns. 

Professional organizations representing school superintendents, school boards, and teachers never signed off on the plan. But as the legislation changed, momentum grew, including an endorsement last week by a statewide alliance of more than 40 civil rights, social justice, and education advocacy groups. While the groups still had questions, they ultimately concluded that TISA would be an improvement over the current formula.

Significant concerns remain. Local governments are constitutionally required in Tennessee to contribute funding for schools, and the average split is 70% from the state and 30% from locals. 

An analysis by The Tennessean showed that, while nearly every school district will receive more funding under TISA, nearly two-thirds will receive a lower percentage of the state funding pie than under the previous formula because of how local contributions will be calculated.

Lee’s administration has assured local officials that they’ll have three years at the same local funding level to adjust to the new formula, but many are concerned they’ll have to significantly raise local sales or property taxes in the 2027 fiscal year.

Student-centered funding, also known as “backpack funding” because the dollars follow the student, has been called a gateway to private school vouchers by public school advocacy groups wary of the model drafted in 2010 by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council.

“Student-based funding formula is not necessarily a bad concept inherently,” said Sen. Heidi Campbell, a Nashville Democrat. But “I have really grave concerns about how this formula is going to accelerate defunding the public school districts.”

She cited the growth in Tennessee of charter schools, virtual schools, and private school vouchers for students with special needs. 

Lee, who has tried to expand both charter schools and private school vouchers, has denied that privatization is a goal behind his funding plan. The state’s 2019 school voucher law, which Lee pushed for but was overturned by a judge in 2020 for applying only to students in Memphis and Nashville, is awaiting a ruling on the state’s appeal to the Tennessee Supreme Court.

This developing story will be updated.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Lawmakers Scrap Governor’s $200M Relocation Plan for Flood-Prone Schools

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

Two key legislative committees voted Wednesday to strip away $200 million proposed by Gov. Bill Lee to relocate 14 Tennessee schools built in floodplains, including three in Shelby County.

The amended spending bill, which will soon head to the full House and Senate, appears to shift that money instead into the state’s rainy day fund, which would grow to a record $1.8 billion.

The Republican governor had trumpeted his school relocation plan during his January state address, but in voting it down, GOP leaders in both the House and Senate pointed to confusion over the list of schools identified as being at high risk of flooding.

“At the end of the day, the two chambers negotiating with each other decided that we would not get into that kind of policy of building schools locally,” said Sen. Bo Watson, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

The change to the state’s 2022-23 budget plan comes as hundreds of students in Humphreys County attend school in a repurposed warehouse after surging floodwaters destroyed their elementary and middle schools last August near Waverly, a rural town west of Nashville. The disaster, which killed 20 people and destroyed hundreds of homes, was the impetus for the governor’s proposal “to ensure that no student in Tennessee attends a public school located in a flood zone.”

Lee’s press secretary, Casey Black, said the governor was “aware and monitoring” legislative changes to his spending plan but she declined to comment further.

Flood control advocates expressed shock.

“We can only imagine how many more lives would have been lost in Waverly if the flooding had happened during school hours instead of on the weekend,” said Dwain Land, the former mayor of Dunlap, who spoke with Chalkbeat on behalf of Flood Ready Tennessee, a coalition of local officials, homeowners, and first responders.

“This investment is important because we know this kind of thing will happen again and again, and it’s not worth losing more lives,” Land said. “We can’t predict where a tornado is going to hit, but we can predict where it’s going to flood.”

Some legislators and local officials were confused by the list of 14 schools the governor identified.

For one thing, the two Humphreys County schools wrecked in August weren’t on the list, frustrating officials trying to rebuild after the flooding, said Rep. Jay Reedy, a Republican whose district includes the Waverly area. (The amended budget provides up to $20 million to help Humphreys County Schools if insurance and federal disaster relief funds don’t cover the full cost.)

Multiple different lists of flood-prone schools have also floated around, including one that showed 25 Tennessee schools at risk of flooding.

In Memphis, where Wooddale Middle School was slated for relocation under the governor’s plan, administrators said they did not realize the state-run school was in a flood plain and have yet to be contacted by the governor’s office.

“This has all been news to us,” said Jocquell Rodgers, chief external affairs officer for Green Dot Public Schools, a charter network that operates Wooddale on a campus owned by Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

“We also didn’t understand how Wooddale Middle is in the flood zone but Wooddale High is not, because they’re essentially on the same block,” Rodgers said.

Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, who chairs the House Finance Committee, called the list of schools a “moving target” and said “there were just a lot of questions about that.”

GOP leaders didn’t specify where the $200 million removed for school relocation would go, but the budget amendment showed a $200 million addition to the rainy day fund, an emergency account the state can use to keep the government operating in case of a revenue shortfall.

“There were a few things we moved around in order to provide funding for non-recurring (expenses.)” Watson told the Senate panel.

That decision left other lawmakers questioning the state’s priorities.

“If your school’s in a flood plain, you’d probably prefer spending money to move before the next big rain rather than pumping money into the rainy day fund,” Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro, a Nashville Democrat, said after the committee votes.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Transgender Athlete Bill Heads to Governor’s Desk

(Credit: Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash)

Tennessee moved a step closer Monday to pulling state funding from K-12 public schools if they allow transgender youth to participate in girls sports.

A bill that cleared the state Senate by a vote of 26-5 attaches financial penalties to a 2021 law that prohibited trans athletes from competing on middle and high school teams based on their gender identity. The legislation passed the House last month.

Republican Gov. Bill Lee, who called last year’s law a step “to preserve women’s athletics and ensure fair competition,” is expected to sign the funding measure into law.

Several civil rights groups have since challenged the 2021 ban in court in a case that is tentatively set for trial next year.

A similar bill that would ban transgender athletes at the college level from participating in women’s sports in Tennessee also cleared the Senate on Monday. That measure is awaiting action before a House finance subcommittee.

Rules governing transgender athletes returned to the spotlight this year when University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a trans woman, began smashing records.

In January, in line with the U.S. and international Olympic committees, the NCAA adopted a sport-by-sport approach for determining participation by transgender athletes.

Sponsors of both bills in Tennessee’s GOP-controlled legislature argued transgender females — because their assigned sex at birth was male — are naturally stronger, faster, and bigger than those assigned female at birth, giving them an unfair advantage in sports.

“This legislation is all about setting a level playing field for all of our female athletes so they have fair competition,” said Sen. Joey Hensley, a Hohenwald Republican who co-sponsored the K-12 bill with Rep. John Ragan, a Republican from Oak Ridge.

Opponents said the legislation is about discrimination, not fairness, and is unnecessary and even dangerous.

“There’s no indication this is a problem in Tennessee schools, but … there are kids who feel targeted by this legislature,” said Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro, a Democrat from Nashville. “And these are oftentimes kids who are struggling with a lot that most of us don’t understand and oftentimes are more likely to be at risk of committing suicide than anybody else.”

According to an analysis by The Associated Press, Tennessee passed more laws last year aimed at transgender people than any other state in the nation. One law, for instance, puts public schools at risk of losing lawsuits if they let transgender students or employees use multiperson bathrooms or locker rooms that do not reflect their assigned sex at birth.

Marta W. Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Official: No ‘Skullduggery’ In School Board Race

Credit: Memphis-Shelby County Schools

Longtime Memphis-Shelby County Schools board member Billy Orgel has chosen not to seek reelection for his District 8 seat, a last-minute announcement that prompted Shelby County’s top election official to seek legal advice on whether to invoke an election reform law called the Anti-Skullduggery Act. 

The law, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen when he was a state legislator, says the deadline for candidates to qualify for an election must be extended if an incumbent withdraws from the race too close to the filing deadline. The law is meant to keep incumbents who are not interested in reelection from entering a race and then withdrawing, using their influence to discourage other candidates from competing.

Linda Phillips, the administrator of elections for the Shelby County Election Commission, said she consulted with four or five lawyers who “were unanimous in their beliefs” that the Anti-Skullduggery Act did not apply. Although Orgel requested a petition to run, he never submitted it, Phillips told Chalkbeat Thursday evening.

“Since no petition was filed, he was not a candidate; therefore, that law does not kick in,” she said, and the commission did not vote on extending the deadline.

Skullduggery, meaning dishonest or dishonorable behavior, is a term used in Tennessee politics to describe unethical election procedures.  In recent years, the law was invoked to question the process in a county commission race in Sumner County. 

Orgel said he pulled a petition to be a candidate in February, filled it out and had it in his car to turn in this week. But when he saw at least one other candidate had filed a petition for his seat, he said, he decided not to run for re-election. Orgel said it’s been an honor representing District 8 in East Memphis for 11 years, but he felt it was “just time” to resign.

“I think we made some great strides and we’ve done some wonderful things, from Superintendent [John] Aitkin, to [Dorsey] Hopson, and now Dr. [Joris] Ray, and I’ve enjoyed serving with them,” Orgel said Thursday. “None of these jobs are forever.”

Orgel, a Memphis native and East Memphis businessman, has served on the board since 2011 and currently chairs the board’s capital needs and facilities committee. 

Last year, the University of Memphis announced that it was naming its affiliated middle and high school for Orgel and his wife, Robin Orgel, who donated to the project. Last year’s vote approving the opening of the new University of Memphis high school was one of the most contentious votes in recent months with some board members voicing concern that the proposal had been fast-tracked, bypassing typical procedures.

With Orgel’s decision not to proceed, Amber Huett-Garcia is the only candidate running for District 8. Huett-Garcia requested a petition for candidacy on Tuesday and returned it Wednesday with enough signatures to qualify. 

Huett-Garcia is the senior director of student and family support for comprehensive planning at the Tennessee Department of Education.

An Illinois native, Huett-Garcia started her career working in Illinois’ state government and state Senate, then moved to Memphis in 2011 to teach at Ross Elementary, her personal website says. She previously served as director of corporate and foundation fundraising at Teach for America, and has served on the boards of several nonprofit education organizations in Memphis, including First 8 Memphis and the Higher Learning Project, according to her LinkedIn profile.

On Thursday, Orgel called Huett-Garcia “a great choice for the voters.”

“I think that my job’s done. There’s somebody else that’s interested in doing it and they’re passionate about education and Shelby County and students,” Orgel said. “I would welcome having that new person in District 8 and taking my place on the school board.” 

In addition to Huett-Garcia, 11 Memphians are competing for four open seats on the board in the August election.

As of the Shelby County Election Commission’s filing deadline on Thursday, 12 of the 15 petitions pulled for the Aug. 4 school board contest had been approved. One candidate who filed for District 9 did not receive enough signatures, according to commission documents. Orgel and another school board hopeful in District 6 ultimately never submitted a petition.

Among the candidates vying to represent school board districts 1, 6, 8, and 9 are two incumbents; a temporary school board member appointed by the County Commission after member Shante Avant’s resignation; and several others who applied for the spot.

Here is a full list of approved school board contenders as of Thursday’s filing deadline, in alphabetical order, sorted by district. Incumbents and the recent appointee are shown in bold.

District 1 (Downtown and Midtown):

  • Christopher Caldwell
  • Michelle McKissack
  • Rachael G. Spriggs

District 6 (South Memphis, Riverside, Westwood, and Whitehaven):

  • Charles Everett
  • Timothy Green
  • Kenneth Lee
  • David Page, Jr.
  • Tiffani Perry
  • Keith Williams

District 8 (East Memphis): 

  • Amber Huett-Garcia

District 9 (Southeast Memphis):

  • Joyce Dorse-Coleman
  • Rebecca J. Edwards

Bureau Chief Cathryn Stout, Ph.D. oversees Chalkbeat Tennessee’s coverage. Contact Cathryn at cstout@chalkbeat.org. Samantha West is a reporter for Chalkbeat Tennessee, where she covers K-12 education in Memphis. Connect with Samantha at swest@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Lawmakers Review Governor’s “Age Appropriate” Library Bill

Photo by Redd on Unsplash

Gov. Bill Lee wants a new school library law in Tennessee to ensure parents know what materials are available to students, but school librarians say parents already have access to that information.

Some critics worry such a law could be abused to purge books about certain topics that some parents and students find uncomfortable.

The governor’s proposal, dubbed the “Age-Appropriate Materials Act of 2022,” is scheduled to debut in two legislative committees this week at the state Capitol. 

The discussions come after several Tennessee districts removed books they considered controversial from reading lists — and amid a nationwide surge in book challenges by parents, activists, and others.

Last fall, Republican governors in Texas and South Carolina ordered systematic reviews of school library materials in those states. And the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom has reported an “unprecedented” number of book challenges nationwide in 2021. Many of the 10 most challenged books deal with race.

In his annual state address to Tennesseans, Lee, a Republican, called for a school library law “to create greater accountability at the local level so parents are empowered to make sure content is age-appropriate.”

His bill, sponsored by GOP majority leaders Rep. William Lamberth of Portland and Sen. Jack Johnson of Franklin, would require each public school to publish on its website the full list of books, magazines, newspapers, films, and other materials in the library. They also would have to adopt policies to hear feedback about content and to periodically review their libraries to ensure materials are “appropriate for the age and maturity levels” of students who can access them.

Those policies are already “standard practice” in most, if not all, public schools across Tennessee, according to Lindsey Kimery, recent president of the Tennessee Association of School Librarians.

“What we’re concerned about is how this legislation could play out if it leads to policies and actions over and above what’s considered best practices,” said Kimery, who is also library coordinator for Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. “For instance, a principal might feel the need on the front end to go through the collection line by line and purge books unnecessarily to head off any potential complaints.”

Representatives of the school librarians group have met twice with officials in Lee’s administration to discuss their concerns. 

“We felt heard,” Kimery said late last week.

In Tennessee, book debates have simmered for more than a year and contributed to passage of a 2021 law limiting what teachers can say in the classroom about racial bias and systemic racism. But the focus has been mainly on controlling curriculum and instruction, not library books.

Most recently in East Tennessee, McMinn County’s school board voted to remove “Maus,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, from its required reading list for eighth-graders. Minutes of the Jan. 10 meeting cited “inappropriate language” and an illustration of a nude woman.

In Williamson County, south of Nashville, a committee formed to review curriculum complaints, including many from the local chapter of Moms for Liberty, agreed to remove one book from its fourth-grade curriculum and restrict instruction on seven others. Gone is the Newbery Award-winning “Walk Two Moons,” about the journey of a 13-year-old girl with a Native American heritage to process her grief about losing her mother.

Lee’s library bill zeroes in on “age-appropriateness” but doesn’t define what that is. It doesn’t suggest that Tennessee school libraries could be peddling “obscene materials,” as does another bill filed last month by Republican Rep. Scott Cepicky of Culleoka and Sen. Joey Hensley of Hohenwald to remove books that are deemed unwholesome. 

The governor’s bill is scheduled to go before a House education subcommittee on Tuesday and the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.  The legislation’s goal is to make sure Tennessee has statewide standards to regularly review school library collections, said Luke Gustafson, a senior policy adviser to Johnson, the Senate co-sponsor.

“Some districts already adhere very well to those best practices, and there are some that could do better. The point is to set a baseline,” Gustafson said.

But Sen. Raumesh Akbari, who is the lone Democrat on the Senate’s education committee, called the bill “an unnecessary intrusion.”

“As a child, I viewed the library as a magical place where I could read books to go places that I couldn’t physically go and to learn about all kinds of people and places and things,” said the Memphis lawmaker. “To make it a political issue is a disservice to our students and an insult to our school librarians who are highly trained and have expertise on what’s age-appropriate. They don’t need to be micromanaged.”

Media experts suggest school libraries should be the last worry for parents and government officials. Social media makes it relatively easy for kids and teens to access inappropriate content — from misinformation to cyberbullying to outright pornography — through YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.

The nonprofit Common Sense Media, which helps educators and families navigate today’s media landscape, doesn’t think censorship is the answer to today’s book battles.

“There’s plenty of online content out there now that’s much more visually explicit than books in our school libraries,” said Christine Elgersma, the organization’s senior editor of learning content. 

“It’s also important to keep in mind that our schools are places where ideas can be introduced in a controlled environment and where there can be a rich discussion moderated by an adult and witnessed by a whole group of students,” she said. “Compare that to a child or teen being alone in their bedroom with a computer or cell phone and trying to process a lot of iffy content all by themselves.”

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Memphis High School to Offer AP African-American History

Photo by Unseen Histories on Unsplash

Memphis schools have offered elective African American history and literature classes for nearly three decades. But next school year, White Station High School will offer a more rigorous, comprehensive, and collaborative version of the course shaped by professors from colleges and universities throughout the country.

White Station is one of about 60 schools across the U.S. to be selected to pilot a new Advanced Placement African American studies course over the next two academic years. The Memphis-Shelby County school board late last month approved the district’s participation in the pilot, which is expected to cost the district $600.

Calling the new AP African American studies course a unique opportunity, district officials said the pilot will expand on their longtime efforts to provide culturally relevant and diverse instruction to its more than 100,000 students, the majority of whom identify as Black. The course will only be available at White Station to start, but officials hope it eventually will expand to all the district’s high schools.

“Any time we can further enrich the historical study portion of our curriculum, it’s a great opportunity for our students,” said James Smith, manager of the district’s AP programming. 

Paraphrasing George Santayana’s famous quote, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” Smith added, “this is a great opportunity for us to learn at a deeper level — a wider level — about our current political circumstances and our past history and the relationship between the two.”

Following the lead of urban school systems across the country in the early 1990s, legacy Memphis City Schools launched its first multicultural curriculum in 1993. The program infused more instruction about African, Asian, and other non-European cultures into required high school social studies classes, and also added elective African American history and literature courses — as currently offered at White Station and the district’s other high schools.

Now, Smith said, offering a more expansive view of African history, expanding the AP course offerings, and giving more students the chance to earn college credit all are exciting.

The curriculum for the pilot course is not yet set in stone, Smith said, but it will center on the  migration of people of African descent to the U.S., the Caribbean, and Central and South America. The class will start with the medieval kingdoms of Africa, and progress through enslavement, the abolition movement, eventual freedom, and Black people’s continued battles for civil rights and equality.

The new AP class is an important step toward teaching children a more accurate version of history, said Chris Tinson, an associate professor of history and the department chair of African American studies at Saint Louis University. Tinson is among about 20 college professors who have advised the College Board in crafting the course curriculum.

When he was growing up in the 1990s, Tinson recalls few, if any, references to African American history in AP classes or exams. An AP U.S. History course may have briefly referenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., specifically his relationship with President Lyndon B. Johnson and the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Today, it’s not much better, Tinson said. Many of his first-year college students cannot tell him much about the Civil Rights Act, or the 13th, 14th, or 15th amendments. 

Tinson noted that the College Board’s expansion comes at a time when states across the country are passing legislation limiting how race can be taught in school — the latest movement, he said, in a longer history of denial in fully recounting American history. 

“It’s a battle over who can tell the story of America. And what happens when you let African people, Brown people, Asian folks, Native American folk tell their history of being an American?” he said, “What happens is that students are well, way more informed. They’re way more appreciative of their neighbors in the classroom. There’s less drama, there’s less Halloween costumes where people are in blackface.”

Tinson added that K-12 schools are doing a “great disservice” if their graduates get to college without a broad perspective. 

“We’re trying to do something really comprehensive and as current as we possibly can with this lesson plan,” he said. “This is really the first time that we can think and teach broadly about the African experience in the United States and the Western Hemisphere at this level.”

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

School Board Renames District, Approves Closures and Mergers

Credit: Shelby County Schools/Facebook

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

The board of the newly-branded Memphis-Shelby County School District on Tuesday endorsed a sweeping facilities plan that includes closing two schools, merging another two schools, and relocating several schools and programs, among other changes.  

District officials said many of the changes are designed to better use schools with declining enrollment, address overcrowding at other schools, and move students out of buildings with millions of dollars in deferred maintenance.

The board agreed Tuesday night to close Alton and Shady Grove elementary schools after this school year. Alton students will instead attend A.B. Hill Elementary, and Shady Grove students will attend either Dexter K-8 School or White Station Elementary.

Dexter elementary and middle schools will merge to form Dexter K-8 School, and Mt. Pisgah Middle School will expand to include ninth grade.

In addition, three schools will relocate:  

  • Maxine Smith STEAM Academy, a middle school, will move and share the East High School campus.
  • Northwest Prep Academy and the district’s Adolescent Parenting Program will move to the building formerly occupied by Airways Middle School.
  • Airways Achievement Academy, a K-8 school, will move to the building formerly occupied by Norris Elementary.

The changes are part of the district’s “Reimagining 901” initiative, which the board unanimously endorsed Tuesday.

The plan also calls for rezoning high school students in Memphis’ Riverwood neighborhood from Ridgeway High School to White Station High School, and for refocusing academic programming at Bolton High School on what the district calls “agristem” — agriculture, automotive, science, technology, engineering, and math careers.

Superintendent Joris Ray called the wide-ranging facilities plan the “first step to a new day” intended to revolutionize public education in Memphis. 

Ray’s initial “Reimagining 901” proposal, presented last year, included constructing five schools, expanding 13 existing schools, and closing 13 to 15 schools by 2031. Ray responded to critics who said the district is rushing the changes.

“Parents, I hear you. Community, I hear you. But we can’t wait on doing what’s right for children,” Ray said in an impassioned speech before the board’s vote. “I’m committed to doing everything in my power to ensure all of our students have a world-class education, because this work is personal to me, because I was once one of those kids.”

Minutes later, the board unanimously passed the facilities plan, with no discussion, among 30-some other action items. The vote covered the district’s initiative to change its name from Shelby County Schools to Memphis-Shelby County Schools. 

In a separate vote, the board approved renewing the charter contracts of several schools, including KIPP Memphis Academy Middle and KIPP Memphis Collegiate Elementary, two schools administrators had recommended for closure due to low test scores.

Before the votes Tuesday, 21 people addressed the board, most expressing either excitement or dismay about Maxine Smith STEAM Academy’s move from Middle College High School to East High School.

Andy Rambo, the father of an eighth grader at Maxine Smith STEAM Academy and of a junior at East High School who also attended Maxine Smith, commended the district for the move, and said it will make it much easier for parents like him.

Rambo also said he’s confident that combining two schools will lead to better educational opportunities for “all of Memphis’ babies,” including his 18-month-old son.

“It is a scary thing as a parent to trust a significant part of the social-emotional development of your child to someone,” Rambo said. “We cannot be more happy and confident in the decisions we’ve made.”

Conversely, Stephanie Ferreira, the mother of two East High School students, pleaded with the board to hold off on moving Maxine Smith to East and asked for “due diligence and investment” in working with parents and answering their questions.

“The position that we’re in as parents is one of confusion regarding a plan that many of us have just learned about over the past several weeks,” Ferreira said, adding many “walked away from the [district’s community] meetings with unanswered questions about a plan that was vague.”

Ray later defended the district’s plan as well-founded in extensive research, and also disagreed with complaints from some people that they weren’t well-informed about the proposed facilities plans.

“We don’t make haphazard decisions. We don’t just act without consulting the community, without asking the right questions, without garnering feedback,” Ray said. 

While board member Althea Greene acknowledged some parents and community members are concerned about the changes, she said she is happy with the plan and the board’s decision. 

“As we ‘Reimagine 901,’ we realize that things will have to change,” she said.

Asked after the meeting about the board’s lack of discussion before voting, Greene said members asked questions and discussed the proposal at previous committee meetings, and it was good they didn’t have to “waste time” at Tuesday’s business meeting.

Board Chair Michelle McKissack echoed Greene’s comments, saying the proposals approved Tuesday are not just about facilities, but also about the district “firing all of its cylinders” at its mission.

“It’s going to be difficult and not everyone is going to fully agree with it, but you have to look at the big picture and that’s what ‘Reimagining 901’ is all about,” she said. “It’s all about not just approving our school buildings, but what’s happening in the buildings.” 

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Categories
News Blog News Feature Uncategorized

Tennessee Lawmakers Advance School Voucher Bill Targeting Remote Education

Credit: state of Tennessee

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters.

A key Senate panel approved legislation Wednesday that would provide public money for private school tuition for Tennessee students whose school systems do not offer in-person learning all year.

However, lawmakers amended the bill first to remove a provision that also would have extended vouchers to students whose parents disagree with school mask mandates in their district.

The 6-2 vote in the Senate Education Committee came after only 30 minutes of discussion about a controversial voucher policy that has been debated for years in Tennessee’s legislature and is currently being challenged in court.

Unlike Tennessee’s 2019 voucher law that was promoted as helping low-income students who attend low-performing schools in a few districts, the new legislation seeks to incentivize all 147 of the state’s school systems to keep students learning in person amid COVID-19.

“We’re doing this because we know that in-person learning is the most effective way to educate a child,” said Sen. Mike Bell of Riceville, noting that last year’s test scores showed a dramatic drop following a year of learning disruptions that leaned on remote instruction. 

The Republican lawmaker, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Rep. Michael Curcio of Dickson, said he wants public school systems to “take that job seriously” and keep brick-and-mortar classrooms open. He made references to large districts in Memphis and Nashville that provided mostly online learning last school year and saw their students’ scores decline beyond average statewide declines.

The bill would extend voucher eligibility to students in any district that does not offer 180 days of in-person learning because of the coronavirus pandemic for the three upcoming school years beginning Sept. 1, 2022. 

Other eligibility requirements under the 2019 law would remain in place for students in districts that have a high concentration of low-performing “priority schools,” or have schools in the state’s school turnaround district program known as the Achievement School District. That criteria applies to Memphis and Nashville, where leaders didn’t want vouchers introduced and challenged the law in court.

Tennessee’s voucher program was halted by a judge in 2020 because it applied only to students in Memphis and Nashville. The case is under appeal, with arguments scheduled before the Tennessee Supreme Court on Feb. 24. 

In the Senate panel, lawmakers questioned whether the new proposal could trigger voucher eligibility in districts receiving state-approved waivers to switch temporarily to remote learning. Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn launched the waiver process last fall after the COVID delta variant spread made it hard to keep schools staffed.

Charlie Bufalino, assistant commissioner of policy and legislative affairs for the Tennessee Department of Education, said the short answer is yes. However, it’s uncertain whether remote waivers will be offered beginning next school year when the proposed voucher legislation would kick in, he added.

If remote waivers are still available, Bufalino said districts could consider offering an in-person option while also providing temporary remote learning — or they could just use their 13 days stockpiled for closing schools due to inclement weather, illness, or other widespread challenges.

Sen. Raumesh Akbari, a Memphis Democrat who voted against the bill, said districts could quickly exhaust their stockpiled days and be forced to extend their school year into summertime. 

Akbari also pointed out that many private schools continue to toggle back and forth between in-person and remote learning to adjust to the changing pandemic.

“What happens if a parent tries to use this [voucher] just because they want to get their kid in a private school, and that private school is doing virtual learning?” she asked. “Then we’re taking state dollars to go to this private school, and they’re doing the same thing that’s being done by [public schools.]”

“That’s the beauty about this piece of legislation,” Bell responded. “That’s up to the parent. It’s a parent’s responsibility to choose a school that is going to meet their child’s needs.”

“My concern with that is it’s still state dollars,” Akbari reiterated, “and they’re taking state dollars to a private school that’s potentially doing the same thing that the public school is doing. So it’s not helping something that’s been identified as a problem. It is just giving the parents a state fund to take their child to a private school.”

Voucher critics have long argued that voucher advocates have an agenda beyond giving more education choices to families, many of whom already have multiple options such as public charter schools, magnet schools, online schools, and specialized optional schools, as well as homeschooling and private schools. They say the goal is to privatize education, especially for more affluent families who can most afford to cover the full cost of private school tuition beyond the $7,000 or so that a Tennessee voucher would provide.

The leader of Tennessee school superintendents said his organization opposes the bill, as it has all voucher legislation.

“We’re opposed to public funds leaving our public schools,” said executive director Dale Lynch. “Decisions are difficult enough at the local level, especially during this pandemic. Putting in this extra layer just adds to the challenges we face while trying to do what’s best for all students.” 

On a related note, Gov. Bill Lee, who championed the 2019 law, is seeking to rewrite Tennessee’s 30-year-old system for funding schools to a student-based approach instead of the current resource-based approach. 

The change could force the state to do student-by-student calculations that would make it easier for Tennessee to expand a private school voucher program, although Lee has denied that’s the reason he’s pushing for an overhaul.

You can track the voucher legislation here.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Categories
News News Blog

Navigating Life During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Your Questions Asked and Answered.

It’s been more than three months since the city and county mayors declared a state of emergency in response to the coronavirus, and we’re still figuring out how to live through this global pandemic.

While the spread of the virus slowed enough in May for local officials to begin reopening businesses, a recent spike in cases and hospitalizations delayed a move into the next reopening phase. On Saturday, the Shelby County Health Department reported the highest one-day increase in COVID-19 cases.

Over the last several weeks, the Memphis Media Collaborative (Chalkbeat Tennessee, High Ground News, the Memphis Flyer, and MLK50: Justice Through Journalism) sent a COVID-19 information needs survey by text message to residents across Memphis.

Dozens of you responded, with questions about everything from summer school to bill payment assistance to coworkers who won’t practice social distancing.

Below are answers to some of your questions and links to resources you may need.

Coronavirus Protections for Customers and Employees

As businesses reopen, are there any assurances that workers will wear masks and properly social distance?

Are there county guidelines that mandate this? Yes. Is enforcement robust? No.

The Shelby County Health Department’s latest health directive outlines the specific measures businesses must take to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

For example, employers must make sure customers maintain six feet of distance and that employees who work with the public wear masks that cover the nose and the mouth.

If you notice a business that isn’t following these guidelines, there are three ways to file a complaint: call the Shelby County Mayor’s Action Line at  901-222-2300; call the Shelby County Health Department’s COVID-19 Hotline at 833-943-1658 or email shelbytnhealth@shelbycountytn.gov.

You can remain anonymous, but the more details you can provide, the better.

I am unsure how my employer is going to follow socially distant guidelines in the workplace. What are my rights if I don’t feel protected as I return to work?

Employers are required by federal law to provide a safe working environment. Under the county health department’s COVID-19 guidelines that includes providing workers with face coverings, performing temperature and health screenings, allowing for social distancing at the workplace and providing places for workers to wash their hands and/or supplying hand sanitizer.

Whether employees can successfully petition bosses to implement and enforce these mandatory precautions or go further than the law requires is a different matter.

If you’re represented by a labor union, such as the Kroger warehouse workers represented by the Teamsters, the union can take workers’ concerns to management, which could protect individual employees from retaliation.

If you’re not represented by a union – and most employees in the Memphis area aren’t – you can file a complaint with the Shelby County Health Department, which investigates workplace safety issues. You can also file a complaint with the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but TOSHA is unlikely to investigate if the complaint does not allege an immediate risk.

The more specific your complaint is, the better. You can remain anonymous, but doing so may limit TOSHA’s ability to follow up. To file a complaint, call the Memphis TOSHA office at 901-543-7259 or submit a complaint online here.

It’s fine to file a report both with the state and the county, which can be reached via the Shelby County Mayor’s Action Line at  901-222-2300, the Shelby County Health Department’s COVID-19 Hotline at 833-943-1658 or by email at shelbytnhealth@shelbycountytn.gov.

– MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

Children and Education

What will happen over the summer? Will there be summer school and in-person camps?

Memphis summer learning will be online and smaller than usual this year.

Memphis students who did not earn passing grades before buildings closed in March because of the coronavirus pandemic will have the opportunity to advance to the next grade, through online summer school that also will provide them laptops and hotspots for internet access. Online classes are scheduled for June 8th through July 16th.

This year, the district plans to limit its summer learning academy to reading lessons for Kindergarten and first grade students. The district had hoped to expand the academy to all elementary school students and eighth-grade students transitioning to high school, but the county commission declined the district’s request to fund it.

Summer camps’ plans are a bit of a mish-mash. Many camps are open and operating under COVID-19 protocols, with daily temperature checks for campers, no parents past the doors, and in some cases, campers wearing masks. Other camps made the decision not to open this summer. In some cases, camps’ application windows have closed. Memphis Parent offers a Camp Guide here; calling camps individually may be the best way to learn how they are responding and if they are still accepting new campers.

Where can I find free meals for my child this summer?

To ramp up food distribution for children who need it this summer, Shelby County Schools is resuming meal preparation with help from the YMCA of Memphis and the Mid-South.

Shelby County Schools will resume food preparation starting July 1st and YMCA will help the district add new distribution sites and recruit volunteers to meet the heightened demand. You can go here to find the current food distribution site closest to you.

Families can also apply by June 29th for about $5.70 per child per day through the state’s Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer program.

How is Shelby County Schools preparing for the fall and the new school year? What will school look like?

There are still a lot of unknowns, but Shelby County Schools is endeavoring to give every student a laptop or tablet by November, with distribution starting in August.

District officials have said that instruction in the fall could be in-person, online, or a combination of both. More details are expected in early July after a community task force submits recommendations to Superintendent Joris Ray. Classes are scheduled to start Aug. 10th – though even that start date is tentative.

How could social distancing occur in crowded classrooms? Will masks be provided for students and staff?

The short answer is: no one knows yet.  The coronavirus has forced school districts across the nation to address a host of pandemic-related needs to ensure the safety of students and teachers when classes resume in the fall while also trying to address the loss of instructional time due to school closures this year.

Shelby County Schools officials gave a first look into some of the options being discussed during a budget presentation in May before county commissioners.

“For safety, we’re thinking about digital thermometers, PPEs or personal protective equipment, handwashing, sanitizing supplies, training,” said Toni Williams, finance director.

She noted that the needs change every day “as we’re learning more and more and becoming educated about how everyone is addressing this pandemic.”

– Chalkbeat

Reopening

What is the current time frame for reopening businesses in Memphis? What framework are the city and county using?

There is no set-in-stone time frame and the framework to advance is a colored-coded matrix that includes case predictions, capacity of our healthcare systems, and testing capabilities.

The plan is a three-phased approach with a minimum two-week wait before re-evaluating and moving to the next phase. Each category has specific metrics that get a green, yellow, or red rating. Some things can pass on yellow, some only on green. For example, hospital capacity is one category. It’s based on the percentage of ICU beds currently in-use. As long as capacity stays at 95% or lower, the category gets a passing score.  

Phase II started on May 18th. Officials have delayed Phase III twice. To move to Phase III, the metro area must have a flat or negative growth rate in new cases for the previous 14 days. The number of confirmed cases has risen since Phase II began. The Shelby County Health Department reported the highest single-day increase on June 20th with 385 new cases.

Find a full explanation, decision matrix, and the general recommendations for each phase here. Find the full list of rules for businesses and public spaces in each phase here.

What volunteer opportunities are available to help front line workers and families or individuals who are remaining isolated?

There are tons! Volunteer Odyssey says the best strategies are to 1) look around your neighborhood and 2) reach out to your favorite organization directly and ask what they need based on your needs.

Virtually every community group, business, and nonprofit in the city has big and small needs right now, too. There are monetary needs and needs for in-person volunteering, but there are plenty of opportunities that are low- or no-cost and can be done virtually. Find Volunteer Odyssey’s citywide list of high-priority needs here.

– High Ground News

Healthcare

What doctors and clinics are now accepting patients for non-coronavirus related health issues? Is elective surgery available again?

Generally, checking in with your healthcare provider is the best first step. Hospitals have begun certain elective procedures again, but it depends on the procedure and the particular doctor/clinic. Dentists are to be able to reopen for non-emergency appointments in Phase III, which has been pushed back.

Are homemade masks or bandanas adequate protection?

Wearing homemade masks can help stem the spread of coronavirus. They offer a barrier to viral droplets being released into the air by people who may be infected but asymptomatic. They do not provide the level of protection of CDC-approved N95 respirator masks but can be crucial in reducing infection levels by protecting family, friends, and the community from exposure. The CDC has in-depth information on face coverings and their benefits.

– The Memphis Flyer

Making Ends Meet

What other bill assistance programs or aid is available for unemployed workers during this time?

This is a hard one. There are a lot of programs or aid funds coming and going and a lot of existing programs are at capacity, but there are some trusted resources. Find MLGW’s residential resources page here. The Shelby County Community Services Agency offers utility, rent, prescription cost assistance to those who qualify. Click here or call 901-222-4200. LINC 2-1-1 has the most comprehensive database of assistance resources in the area. Access LINC here or dial 2-1-1 on any phone.

– High Ground News

I need to figure out how to keep my utility bill paid because I am out of work. What is MLGW’s policy right now? How will I be protected from a mounting bill?

During the pandemic, MLGW enacted their pandemic protection plan, temporarily suspending all disconnect notices; disconnects will resume on Aug. 3rd. Bills have continued to accrue while disconnections are suspended between April 3rd and Aug. 3rd. MLGW says it is unable to offer discounts or suspend billing, but have ensured users that they will work with them during the coronavirus pandemic. For more information check MLGW’s COVID resources page.

A number of community resources are offering utility assistance during this time. The Department of Human Services is providing emergency cash assistance; Shelby County’s Community Services Agency offers a Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program; the State of Tennessee is offering emergency cash assistance to those who have lost jobs due to COVID-19.

Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA), Society of St. Vincent de Paul (901-722-4703 or 901-274-2137), Millington Crisis Center Ministry (901-872-4357), and United Way of the Mid-South’s COVID-19 Economic Relief Fund (888-709-0630) are providing direct economic relief to those affected by the pandemic.

The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society Emergency Financial Assistance program (901-874-7350) is providing utility and other assistance for active duty and retired military personnel, their widows, and spouses with power of attorney. The Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee is offering assistance for sickle cell patients.

– Memphis Flyer

For Seniors

How will I really know if it’s safe to start leaving my house again, especially if I am over 65?

This is a difficult question to answer. Ultimately this decision must be made by each individual (or family). Many health professionals believe that the virus will continue to spread through communities at some level until a vaccine is created, tested, and made available to the public. That might not happen for a year or more.

Shelby County updates its COVID-19 Health Directive frequently (including guidance specifically for individuals), based on the most recent data and input from experts at the Shelby County Health Department. Currently, the guidance is still to stay at home when possible, limit unnecessary activity, practice social distancing, and wear a mask whenever leaving the home.

Older adults continue to be at higher risk. The Centers for Disease Control has some information about specific precautions seniors can take.

Will programs for seniors at city community centers continue in some form? What is available to seniors to aid with physical, social, and mental health right now?

According to the Mayor’s Citizen’s Service Center (311), community and senior centers will begin opening in Phase III of the city’s reopening plan. The date for Phase III has not been announced yet. There is not any more information at this time about how programs will be phased in. Most senior centers are offering meals and other resources ‘to-go’ in the meantime.

The Aging Commission of the Mid-South provides information about other resources available for seniors;901-222-4111 or 866-836-6678

– High Ground News

Resource Hubs:

These organizations can connect many different people, needs, and services across multiple assistance categories.

LINC 2-1-1: Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Access LINC here or dial 2-1-1 on any phone.

United Way’s Relief Call Center: Open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. at 1-888-709-0630. After hours intake form can be found here.

Regional One Health’s One Health Connect: Find it here.