The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board will revise its timeline to complete the superintendent search. The process is paused, and the board is unlikely to meet its initial deadlines. Ariel Cobbert for Chalkbea
The search for a new leader for Memphis-Shelby County Schools looks like it won’t be done anytime soon.
The school board, which met Tuesday amid sharp divisions over how to complete the selection of the district’s next superintendent, is scheduled to meet again on Friday to discuss a revised timeline for the search.
Board member Joyce Dorse-Coleman, who is now co-leading the search with Stephanie Love, said the continued pause through the final weeks of the school year would allow the board to focus on its budget, student testing, and graduations, and to address community concerns about the search process.
“I emphasize that we are not stopping the search for superintendent,” Dorse-Coleman said.
The board had once planned to have a successor to former Superintendent Joris Ray chosen by the spring and on the job this summer, before the start of the 2023-24 school year. But it is unlikely to meet those deadlines.
The search got derailed last month, when several board members raised objections about how the process was wrapping up, just as the outside search firm presented its initial slate of finalists. Board Chair Althea Greene decided to halt the process while board members ironed out their differences.
That decision led to a shuffling of the top contenders, but none of the remaining candidates have been publicly interviewed, and no interviews have been scheduled before the board and the public.
The process so far has left three top contenders remaining: Carlton Jenkins of Madison, Wisconsin; Angela Whitelaw, Memphis’ top academic official; and the district’s interim superintendent, Toni Williams. At least two other leading candidates withdrew from consideration and accepted other jobs.
The board was set to meet this week to try to forge agreement on how to restart the process and resolve other key questions, including whether Williams, the district’s former finance chief, meets the minimum qualifications for the superintendent job.
Those items are likely to be discussed during the retreat Friday, though no agenda has been posted.
Board member Michelle McKissack said Tuesday that she believed candidate interviews should go ahead, but that she supported the decision to focus on the district’s students at the end of the year.
No other board member spoke about the decision Tuesday, and the board did not hold a vote on pausing the search, even though a search update was listed as an action item on the board agenda. (Board members Amber Huett-Garcia and Kevin Woods did not attend the meeting.)
It’s the third time since the formation of the merged Memphis-Shelby County district that a superintendent search has been interrupted. The two previous superintendents, Ray and predecessor Dorsey Hopson, were elevated as internal appointments after national searches were quickly called off. The current process is the first time a national search has progressed so far for the combined district.
Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
The three remaining top contenders for Memphis’ new schools superintendent are Carlton Jenkins, superintendent in Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin; Angela Whitelaw, Memphis’ top academics official; and Toni Williams, Memphis’ interim superintendent. Courtesy Madison Metropolitan School District (left), Memphis-Shelby County Schools (center, right)
The search for Memphis’ next school superintendent attracted several Memphis-area educators as well as current and former district leaders from across the country, a Chalkbeat Tennessee review of candidates found. But several of the leading contenders have dropped out. And one applicant who withdrew has asked to be reconsidered.
Board members will determine the next step during an upcoming non-voting meeting. Greene, who had been leading the search, passed the torch to board members Stephanie Love and Joyce Dorse-Coleman after board member Amber Huett-Garcia called for a leadership change.
Among the candidates who have withdrawn from consideration are Brenda Cassellius, who was one of three initial finalists, and Keith Miles Jr., a proposed addition to the finalist slate who accepted another job. According to Max McGee, president of Hazard Young, only three of the seven people whom the firm considered top contenders were still pursuing the job a few days after the firm presented finalists.
But since then, one applicant, Marie Feagins, has asked to be reconsidered, according to an email obtained by Chalkbeat. The firm called her a “high scoring candidate” in an email to board members. But it is unclear if Feagins is part of the expanded top-candidate slate, or if she will be added to the finalist pool. Her application materials indicate she was among the top 12. (Read more about her below.)
“At this point, the board has not decided to expand the pool and allow additional candidates. That will be part of the discussion at the upcoming board retreat,” Love said in a statement through KQ Communications, which has assisted the board throughout the search.
Hazard Young publicly released a list of names — without resumes — for the remaining candidates. Other than the top contenders, it is unclear how these applicants scored. The district received applications from 34 people; 21 met the basic criteria, and 12 made the final round of interviews.
Here’s a look at what Chalkbeat has learned about the leading contenders, the ones who withdrew their names, and others who are still pursuing the job. Candidates in each category are listed in alphabetical order.
Carlton Jenkins announced plans to retire as superintendent of Wisconsin’s Madison Metropolitan School District in February. He assumed the role in August 2020 after a career in education that the Wisconsin State Journal wrote included a superintendency in suburban Minneapolis. In Madison, Jenkins was the district’s first Black superintendent, according to Lake Geneva Regional News, and has been the president of the African American Superintendents Association.
Jenkins is one of the initial three finalists whom Hazard Young presented to the MSCS board.
Angela Whitelaw is a longtime educator and administrator in the Memphis school district who was one of two acting superintendents for a month and a half this summer. She has since returned to her post as deputy superintendent overseeing academics. Whitelaw has held the role since February 2019, when she was one of Ray’s first two appointees to his cabinet. She was previously the chief of schools.
The search firm recommended that the MSCS board add Whitelaw to the finalist pool.
Williams is one of the initial three finalists whom Hazard Young presented to the MSCS board.
Brenda Cassellius was recently the superintendent at Boston Public Schools for three years, and was the statewide education commissioner in Minnesota for almost a decade before that. Cassellius wanted to stay longer in the Boston leadership position, The Boston Globe reported, but left the job last summer. Her departure was announced as a mutual decision, but Cassellius told the Globe that recently elected Boston Mayor Michelle Wu “should be able to pick her own team.”
Morcease Beasley is set to step down as superintendent of Metro Atlanta’s Clayton County Schools at the end of the school year, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported last fall. Beasley was elevated to the role from an internal position in 2017, the newspaper previously reported, after administrative roles at Metro Atlanta’s DeKalb County School district.
Tonya Biles was, in 2011, a top education administrator at Memphis Academy of Health Sciences, a local charter school.
Stephen Bournes is the top academic administrator for Chester Community Charter School in a town near Philadelphia. According to his biography, he was a top administrator of a suburban Chicago school before that and has 25 years of academic experience.
Lee Buddy, according to his LinkedIn profile, is a top administrator in Cleveland’s school district. He was elevated to the role in 2021 after several years as a teacher and school administrator in various districts.
Marie Feagins is a top academics official in Detroit’s public school district where she has overseen district leadership and high schools since 2021, according to application materials obtained by Chalkbeat. Before that, she was a principal and administrator in Cleveland and in Huntsville, Alabama. Her early career included counseling and teaching in Alabama schools in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa. She was recently among six applicants interviewed for the superintendency in Fayetteville, Arkansas, according to news reports.
Cynthia Gentry is a longtime education administrator who has sought top Memphis leadership positions before, including the Memphis superintendency in 2003, The Commercial Appeal archives show. Gentry narrowly lost a bid for an at-large Memphis school board seat in 2008, receiving more than 80,000 votes, the newspaper reported.
Derrick Jones Lopez is an education administrator in Detroit’s school district focused on high schools, according to his LinkedIn profile. Lopez was fired without cause from his position as superintendent of schools in Flint, Michigan. A subsequent settlement agreement voided a disciplinary memo alleging poor performance, MLive news reported.
Art Stellar was named vice president of the National Education Foundation in 2013 after a career as an educator and administrator, including tenures as superintendent. Test scores improved under Stellar’s leadership at a Massachusetts school district, the Taunton Daily Gazette reported, but disagreements with teachers led to his dismissal there and later from a North Carolina district.
Five other applicants were on the list Hazard Young provided: Donald Boyd, Eric Henderson, Tameka Henderson, Anson Smith, and Darrell Williams. Chalkbeat was unable to confirm their identities and professional backgrounds.
Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Charles Lampkin with parent group Memphis LIFT addresses school board members Monday with criticisms of its superintendent search process. He was supported by a coalition of others calling on the board to rebuild trust. credit: Laura Testino / Chalkbeat
Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members decided Monday to keep their search for a new superintendent on pause while they try to reach consensus on what they want for the district and its next leader.
The search came to an abrupt halt after an April 15th meeting where some board members signaled their dissatisfaction with the outside search firm that selected three finalists for the job. Board members sought to clarify future steps during a special called meeting on Monday.
The board dismissed a motion to fire the search firm, appearing instead to accept responsibility for regaining the community’s trust in the search process.
Rather than saying, “Oh well, let’s do something different,” the board should “stick our hands together … . come up with a better plan and move forward,” said board vice chair Sheleah Harris, who has emerged as a leading critic of the search process so far.
Members voted unanimously to reconvene at some point within two weeks for a nonvoting meeting. A key issue they’ll still have to resolve is how strictly to apply a board policy on the minimum requirements for a superintendent. The search firm that recruited candidates for the job, Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, said it didn’t enforce a board policy requiring 10 years of in-school experience when it screened applicants.
Harris wants the board to adhere to that policy in its final selection, which could be a deciding factor for finalist Toni Williams, the interim superintendent, whose public school experience is in finance, not academics.
Several of the two dozen public commenters at Monday’s meeting urged the board to enforce the policy as a way of restoring transparency to the search process. Others, though, said the district could benefit from a business-minded leader like Williams who looked to others for academic direction.
Kevin Woods reiterated Monday that the board controls the policy and the process, and ought to determine what type of leader it wants, whether that’s an experienced chief financial officer or a career educator.
“I think the candidates brought forth by the search firm allow you to make that decision through your up or down vote,” Woods said. “But if the community believes that it’s important for us to review our policy and clearly articulate what that looks like, then we can do that also. But it’s okay to own that.”
But Woods cautioned the board against becoming a “de facto search firm” that would adjudicate applicants itself, and argued for keeping Hazard Young.
Harris and board member Amber Huett-Garcia agreed that the firm did what it was asked, but said it did not act on input from all board members.
Still, Huett-Garcia said her constituents faulted the board, not the candidates, for the muddled outcome. “It is the way that we handled it,” Huett-Garcia said. “It feels, whether that’s true or not, that we did this in the dark.” Huett-Garcia called for new leadership in the search process, which has been led so far by board chair Althea Greene.
In its evaluation process, Hazard Young scored candidates who met the board’s minimum requirements — which include professional academic experiences — higher than those who did not. But it did not exclude candidates who didn’t meet them, search firm president Max McGee explained in a voice call to board members during the meeting.
Williams, the interim superintendent and former district CFO, said in a statement that she was proud of the “proven track record” of her interim superintendency. While she didn’t plan to seek the permanent role, she said, she did so after board members and other community leaders supported her application.
Williams is alongside two other top contenders, both career educators: Carlton Jenkins, superintendent of Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin, and Angela Whitelaw, Memphis’ top academic official. Four other high-scoring candidates have withdrawn from the process.
Said Harris after the meeting: “I would encourage all current applicants, if they look at board policy as it exists right now and they know that they qualify, I would strongly encourage them to stay in the race.”
Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Members of an advisory committee guiding the search for a new Memphis-Shelby County Schools superintendent said they want the firm picked to lead the search to gather more feedback from the community on what kind of candidate it should look for.
The panel, which includes representatives from the school board and local advocacy and nonprofit groups, resolved at a meeting Friday that once the search firm is chosen — likely by Jan. 31 — it will be asked to do additional surveys to capture additional input from students and businesspeople.
The committee said it believed that more time was needed to gauge the leanings of a wider swath of the community.
The decision responds to concerns that the results of the community survey, which was administered by KQ Communications, a public relations firm that’s working with the school board on the search, might not have fully captured responses from certain constituencies. Business leaders, for example, may have identified themselves as community members, or vice versa.
About 650 students responded to the KQ survey. Of the nearly 3,000 adults who responded, only about 6% identified themselves as businesspeople.
The committee’s decision also came amid concerns that the process was being rushed, and that the Jan. 31 deadline to select the search firm should be extended.
“Most of what I’m hearing from my colleagues, who are mostly clergy, is that it feels rushed,” said the Rev. Kenneth Whalum Jr., pastor of the New Olivet Worship Center and a former MSCS board member.
But school board Chair Althea Greene, who presided over the meeting, along with Sarah Carpenter, executive director of Memphis LIFT, reminded attendees that one reason the timeline for hiring a superintendent was moved up from July to April was concerns from the board and others that the process would be too slow.
“A lot of people already think it’s moving too slow, and you all have to realize that people are looking for superintendents all over the country,” Carpenter said.
At its meeting Friday, the advisory committee also discussed qualities they’d like to see in candidates for the superintendent job, in particular experience leading an urban district. They also talked about the importance of the search firm’s track record in placing candidates.
“If that firm has placed 25 superintendents, I would like to know how long those superintendents have remained on the job,” said Greene.
The previous superintendent, Joris Ray, served in the job for about three years before resigning in August under a cloud of scandal. Ray was under an investigation into claims that he abused his power and violated district policies by having adulterous affairs with subordinates.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
When Jairia Cathey switched from teaching elementary school to pre-kindergarten more than a decade ago, it was a tough adjustment. Some students didn’t know how to hold a pencil or a fork, she recalled. Some didn’t know their parents’ names, or even their own. And some didn’t know how to color.
“I was like ‘what did I get myself into?’” Cathey said. “I thought every child knew how to color.”
But those challenges didn’t come close to what she would experience trying to educate and engage with 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds during the depths of Covid-19 pandemic — or what it would take to try to get them caught up in the aftermath.
When schools closed abruptly in 2020, derailing education for students across Memphis and the country, Cathey, a teacher at Evans Elementary, scrambled to provide virtual learning any way she could think of. She sent parents pictures of worksheets and activities from her classroom. She searched Pinterest for other learning materials. At a certain point, she set up times to visit each of her students at their home, with a face mask on.
“I just had to lay eyes on them, and I know they had to lay eyes on me,” Cathey said. “Even if it was just giving them a pencil or a coloring book or just a hug, I had to do it.”
Plummeting enrollment in MSCS early childhood programs during the pandemic left just a handful of students in her class. When classrooms reopened in the spring, the families of Cathey’s four students decided to keep them learning remotely. And by the time students returned to her classroom after 18 months of distance learning, the few students who came arrived with a severely disrupted preschool experience or having attended no school at all, at risk of falling behind academically, socially, and emotionally.
Now Cathey and co-teacher Lisa Patterson are part of a mobilization across Memphis-Shelby County Schools to get early childhood learning in the district back on track. The effort is focused on the classroom, but it’s also counting on community groups, advertising, family engagement specialists, and multiple offices within district headquarters, with the goal of getting more students enrolled in early childhood programs and making sure they are kindergarten-ready.
The task is daunting. After bottoming out at 4,430 in 2020-21, enrollment in MSCS’ pre-K programs has ticked back up to 4,776 this year. But it’s still far below pre-pandemic levels of above 6,000.
Meanwhile, just 32 percent of students starting kindergarten last school year were considered ready overall, as measured by early reading and math assessments. That’s down from 40 percent in 2020-21, and 46 percent before the pandemic.
A 2020 study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that children who are not adequately prepared for kindergarten are more likely to struggle for the rest of their academic career — in later elementary school, high school, and beyond.
“I’ve seen the results of when we get it wrong,” said Divalyn Gordon, a former kindergarten and first grade teacher who has also worked at alternative high schools and now heads MSCS’ early childhood office.
“Those students later drop out of school … they’re making tally marks and counting on their fingers because they don’t know any multiplication facts. They can’t read to learn or comprehend. Those foundational skills are vital for student success as they matriculate through high school,” Gordon said. “That’s why I push so hard for pre-K. We’ve got to get this right.”
District officials have made early childhood education a centerpiece of their strategy to improve the district’s academic performance and recover from the pandemic. Test score data helps explain the emphasis.
The April data shows that even amid steep declines in kindergarten readiness across the district, students who attended MSCS pre-K scored significantly higher in reading, math, and overall readiness compared with those who did not attend.
The same was true for students who are considered economically disadvantaged. And their higher performance followed them into third grade. Students from low-income families who attended a district pre-K program were slightly more likely to be proficient in English and language arts in third grade than those who did not participate in the program, according to the report.
The third-grade performance is critical, because a new state law that takes effect this year requires schools to hold back third-graders who aren’t considered proficient in reading. The law has added pressure on districts to intervene early.
MSCS prioritizes students who come from economically disadvantaged households for pre-K enrollment. But interest in the program dropped off dramatically after Covid hit and instruction went online. And persistent concerns about Covid led many parents to decide it was safer to keep their child at home than to send them to an optional program.
Because of that, Cathey said she is getting her students later, and they’re far behind — academically and otherwise. She has had to adjust her instruction accordingly.
Small group instruction has always been a critical piece of early childhood education, but given the delayed progress for some students, it’s more important than ever, Gordon said.
Gordon pointed to Cathey’s classroom as an example: Cathey’s 19 students were divided into four groups based on their skill levels, but named for different colors. On that December morning, Cathey and her co-teacher Patterson circulated through the room, giving individualized attention and instruction to students in each group, depending on what they were working on and what they needed.
At one point, Cathey sat cross-legged on the floor next to one girl, and they talked about a book she was paging through. In another corner of the room, Patterson helped two students completing a spelling puzzle.
“You have to make those real-life adjustments when students don’t get it or don’t have the necessary foundation,” Gordon said.
And if teachers don’t, she said, “those kids fall through the cracks.”
With pre-K enrollment across MSCS recovering slowly, Gordon said, the district is laser-focused on attracting more students to the program.
The district continues to work with the Salvation Army Purdue Residential Facility, a Memphis homeless shelter for women, and the Shelby County Division of Corrections to identify and enroll pre-K-age students who could particularly benefit from early academic intervention, Gordon said.
MSCS has also beefed up its advertising efforts, from billboards to social media ads, Gordon said. “The journey begins with pre-K,” the ads on Facebook and elsewhere in the community usually say. “Get your future scholar started early on their academic journey.”
Meanwhile, it has expanded its family engagement team to a staff of over 100 specialists who are charged with encouraging families who begin the online application process to finish it.
Family engagement specialists also help parents find another location if the school they requested is no longer available. Sometimes that means connecting families with other early childhood education providers in the community, Gordon said.
To ensure quality — the bigger challenge in Memphis, which does not have an acute shortage of child care services — the district requires those providers to follow the same bid process it uses for other services, and beginning this year, administrators visit the campus in person to confirm that best practices are being used in classrooms.
It’s part of a broader district effort, outlined in February by then-Superintendent Joris Ray, to increase community-wide collaboration in early childhood education.
The district has two representatives — Gordon and Angela Whitelaw, the district’s deputy superintendent of schools and academic support — in a community consortium dedicated to improving early literacy. The consortium includes prominent early childhood organizations and child care providers from across Memphis, including the Urban Child Institute, Porter-Leath, Literacy Mid-South, First 8, Next Memphis, and the Hyde Family Foundation, among others.
Since early childhood became a top priority for the entire district, collaboration with other departments across the massive district has also improved, said Detris Crane, director of MSCS Head Start programming.
“The district has realized that these pre-K families are the same ones who come in for K-12, and that the earlier we intervene, the more we can improve outcomes for both children and their families,” Crane said. “I collaborate with everybody in the district now, in every department.
“I used to be on a little island,” Crane said. “Now we’re on the mainland.”
Beyond the academic fallout, trauma related to Covid and poverty continues to loom large among MSCS students and families, several MSCS teachers said.
Ida Walker, a pre-K teacher at Douglass Head Start in northeast Memphis, said the social and emotional tolls of the pandemic have been the most noticeable among her students.
Many of them “have something going on at home,” said Walker, who’s been a Head Start teacher since 2018. Some lost family members or caregivers in the pandemic. Others’ families have yet to recover from the deep economic consequences of Covid.
Pre-literacy skills remain a large focus in Walker’s classroom. As she read aloud to one small group of students, her co-teacher Tequila Lockett helped two other groups of students draw koala bears as part of the class’ two focuses that week, the letter K and “awesome animals.”
But so are students’ social and emotional needs. Walker has rearranged her classroom to create a “cozy corner” where her students can take time away from whatever they’re doing to regulate their emotions and seek support from Walker or her co-teacher throughout the day.
Walker hopes her students learn how to express and process their feelings. If their social and emotional needs are met now, the rest will come later, Walker said.
“They pick it up fast,” she said with a smile.
Cathey takes a similar approach in her classroom — what she hopes is a “safe haven” from whatever children are dealing with at home. Beyond teaching them early literacy and math skills, she strives to build relationships with students and their families and ensure their social and emotional needs are met.
Cathey and Patterson also try to model caring for one another to their students, so that even if one of them isn’t nearby when a child is struggling, their classmates know to step in. Now, if a student falls or looks sad, Cathey said, their peers are quick to ask, “Are you OK? Can I help you?”
“It is a joy seeing students come in at the beginning of the year, complete blank slates. We introduce literacy. We promote language, math skills, teach them how to take care of themselves, and take care of others,” Cathey said. “When they leave, they’re writing sentences, they’re making words, they’re adding and subtracting, They learn how to work out their feelings, and it’s just so amazing to see them so independent.”
“It’s just so rewarding,” Cathey added. “We’re getting them ready for the rest of their lives.”
This story is the third and final installment of a Chalkbeat Tennessee deep dive into the role early childhood education can play in improving literacy in Memphis and across the Volunteer State. This effort is supported by the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship program. Check out the first and second stories of the series.
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.
Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ two teachers unions disagree over whether the district should sign the pending contract or start afresh. I Karen Pulfer Focht for Chalkbeat
The head of Tennessee’s largest school district wants the school board to vote next week on a labor agreement that has been stuck in negotiations for three years. Interim Superintendent Toni Williams’ proposal comes after the district rejected one teachers union’s attempt to restart the bargaining process from scratch.
Educators in Memphis-Shelby County Schools have been without a memorandum of understanding with the district since 2018, when the last agreement expired. The district’s two teachers unions last went to the bargaining table in 2019, but have not agreed on a new contract with the district to date.
That could change after the United Education Association of Shelby County, the smaller of the two unions, tried to kickstart a new round of negotiations, arguing that an entirely new contract is needed to address rising health care costs, stagnant salaries, and large class sizes.
“I’m a veteran teacher with over 25 years of exemplary experience, but right now, I am marking the days off the calendar for when I can retire because I am mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted,” said Fredericka Johnson, a UEA member, at a board meeting Tuesday.
Johnson signed a UEA petition that would force the district back to the bargaining table under a 2011 Tennessee law that requires a district to launch the bargaining process if unions can collect signatures from 15 percent of teachers.
On Tuesday, the district announced it was unable to verify the number of signatures on the petition because of discrepancies that included duplicate and ineligible signatures. With an insufficient number of signatures and the window for submitting a petition closed, MSCS says it cannot start the teachers union bargaining process.
Kenneth Walker II, the district’s general counsel and chief legal officer, said Tuesday that an MOU from the 2019 bargaining session was drawn up, but disagreements over compensation and fringe benefits prevented it from being signed.
That contract would allow teachers to select the members who serve on district professional committees, boosting the district’s contribution to medical insurance premiums from 66 percent to 70 percent, and include a pledge to increase compensation during upcoming fiscal planning for the 2023 budget.
Separate from the bargaining process, Williams also proposed forming a teacher advisory council focused on improving teacher compensation, one of her top priorities as interim superintendent.
In a presentation to the board, Williams said the council will serve as a “platform to elevate the voices of teachers throughout the district on compensation and other issues,” and would give teachers “direct access” to her office and other district leaders. The district has already opened up nominations for teachers to participate.
Danette Stokes, president of the United Education Association, supports the idea of creating a teacher advisory council, but said it’s no replacement for the bargaining process.
“Teacher voices are important. We should be at the table every time decisions are being made about us,” Stokes said. “But a teacher advisory council cannot engage in collaborative conferencing with the district.”
The district’s unions disagree over whether the district should sign the pending contract or start afresh.
Several members of the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association, the district’s larger teachers union led by recently elected board member Keith Williams, urged the board to sign the existing MOU.
Charlotte Fields, an MSCS educator for over 26 years and a member of MSCEA, said the MOU “represents what is best for all educators.”
But other public commenters on behalf of UEA disagreed. Many shared concerns about teachers’ existing working conditions and pay and advocated for restarting the collaborative conferencing process, a bargaining procedure laid out in Tennessee law.
When MSCS hired Johnson 19 years ago, she was ecstatic. She’s no longer happy with her job, the veteran teacher told the board Tuesday.
Over the last nearly two decades, Johnson said the cost of district-provided health care plans have increased, while her salary has stayed virtually stagnant. Her planning time is “constantly interrupted” because she’s asked to cover other classrooms because the district does not have enough substitute teachers. Class sizes have increased, despite administrators’ promises of reprieve. And Johnson says she has occasionally had to lay a bag of ice over the thermostat in her room for the heat to turn on.
“District leaders are constantly stating that teachers are doing the ‘hard and heart work’ for our students,” Johnson said. “Now is the time for you to show you’re doing the same for us.”
Stokes said her union is not ready to give up on restarting negotiations. Stokes said Wednesday that the union submitted the required amount of signatures by law, and she’s consulting with union lawyers to determine her next steps.
Lisa Jorgensen, another UEA teacher, called on the board to act quickly to begin a new round of negotiations.
“Educators are drowning with work overload,” Jorgensen said. “Our working conditions are unsustainable and becoming more so.”
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.
Yolanda Martin (left) and John Barker (right) both left their posts. Credit: Chalkbeat Tennessee, Memphis Shelby County Schools
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.
The district announced the two moves in a press release late Friday. According to the release, the investigations found no evidence of wrongdoing by Barker or Martin. It said both were eligible to return to their jobs, but opted not to.
Barker, deputy superintendent for strategic operations and finance, “decided instead to retire from MSCS and pursue other opportunities,” the release read. “We accept his decision yet share our appreciation for his longstanding service to our school community in various roles, including Director of Research and Evaluation, Chief of Staff, and his position as Deputy Superintendent.”
Martin, the district said, “elected to pursue other professional endeavors,” noting her service as a teacher, assistant principal, instructional leadership director and human resources leader.
“Her support and leadership will not soon be forgotten, and we wish her well with her next opportunity and beyond,” it said.
Barker was placed on paid leave in September as the district investigated an employee complaint against him. The employee turned out to be Martin, who, according to a letter obtained by The Commercial Appeal, said that she was subjected to ongoing harassment based on race and sex from Barker, whom she directly reported to.
The investigation into Martin began a month later. Martin told Chalkbeat she believed the nature of the complaint was retaliatory, but MSCS board chair Althea Greene said it wasn’t related to its probe of Barker
Another member of MSCS’ executive cabinet will take on Barker’s duties, according to the release, while MSCS has hired a new chief of human resources, Quintin Robinson, who is set to start on Nov. 28.
The investigations followed the departure in August of former Superintendent Joris Ray, who was himself under investigation into allegations that he abused his power and violated the district’s code of conduct.
The departure of two more district leaders comes in the midst of big challenges for MSCS, including academic recovery from the COVID pandemic, declining enrollment, teacher shortages, rising gun violence, and the search for Ray’s successor. The search is expected to run into next summer.
Samantha West contributed to this story.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board discussed a proposed superintendent search timeline during Monday committee meetings. It comes over two months after the board cut ties with former Superintendent Joris Ray. (Ariel Cobbert for Chalkbeat)
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.
MSCS board Chair Althea Greene also pitched the formation of a community search committee largely composed of representatives of local education advocacy groups and nonprofits.
“This group will work to help us capture the voices of the community,” Greene said Monday.
Though not yet set in stone, the proposed timeline offers a first glimpse of what the superintendent search will look like. It comes more than two months after the MSCS board approved a separation agreement with former Superintendent Joris Ray, who had been under investigation over allegations that he abused his power and violated district policies by engaging in sexual relationships with subordinates.
It also comes days after the Greater Memphis Chamber, the local economic development group, called on the MSCS board to establish a “rigorous” search process to attract “high caliber” candidates and to ensure that local candidates don’t get an unfair advantage.
“We cannot overstate how important the success and management of MSCS is to the future of our community,” six representatives of the chamber wrote in a Nov. 11 letter to the board, a copy of which was obtained by Chalkbeat. “The students of today are the employees of tomorrow.”
Some school board members wondered whether the process should be sped up in order to attract the best candidates and allow the next superintendent more time to transition into the role.
Under the current timeline, the search firm ultimately hired by the board wouldn’t begin accepting applications until Feb. 16, 2023, and the search wouldn’t end until April 30. After that, the board would have a month to review the applications and select three finalists, who would be interviewed throughout June.
Current board policy says the interview process should include at least two public meetings “to allow members of the community and employees to meet with and submit questions to the finalists.”
“I would like for us to be much more aggressive,” said board member Michelle McKissack, who was chair of the board when Ray resigned and is currently considering a run for Memphis mayor. “There are a pool of candidates that are out there, and they’ll be getting a lot of attention from a lot of school districts, so we want to make sure we have the opportunity to attract as many as we can.”
Board member Kevin Woods also advocated for an accelerated search that would launch the bidding process to find a national search firm as quickly as possible. The proposed timeline says the board will start the process Dec. 1.
Greene expressed willingness to adjust the timeline as needed, saying it will have to be flexible depending on how the search progresses.
She also emphasized her intent to involve the community throughout the process.
The last time the board was about to embark on a nationwide superintendent search, members changed course and hired Ray in April 2019. At the time, board members said they thought Ray, a longtime district employee who had been serving as interim superintendent for months, was an “exceedingly qualified candidate” and deemed a national search unnecessary given the cost and time it would take.
Some Memphians disagreed with that decision, feeling the board should’ve widened its search before determining that Ray was the most qualified candidate. Memphis LIFT, a parent advocacy organization, led the charge against Ray’s appointment, and last week launched its own parent task force to give the board feedback on the next leader of MSCS.
Another prominent Memphis advocacy organization, MICAH, has publicly asked the board to hold at least two community input sessions. Greene said she decided the district needed to have four. The sessions are scheduled for:
• December 8th, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Snowden School, hosted by school board members for Districts 1-3.
• December 15th, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Southwind High School, hosted by board members from Districts 4-6.
• January 12th, 2023, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Parkway Village Elementary, hosted by board members from Districts 7-9.
• January 21st, from noon to 2 p.m. at the district offices.
A student input session is slated for December 6th, from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. A location was not specified.
Greene also touted the community search committee, which will include her and Woods representing the board; a veteran MSCS teacher; and local advocacy groups and nonprofits including Memphis LIFT, Bridges, Literacy Mid-South, Whitehaven Empowerment Zone, MICAH, Memphis Education Fund, and Stand for Children.
“I thought long and hard about members to serve on our community group,” Greene said. “I tried to touch every community group, because some of you have been doing this work for years — you’ve had your boots on the ground.”
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.
The Memphis LIFT’s new Blue Ribbon parent task force gathers Monday at the parent advocacy organization’s North Memphis office to discuss what they’d like to see in the next superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Samantha West / Chalkbeat
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.
And most importantly, he says, the next person at the helm of Tennessee’s largest school district should be someone who wants to see all of the district’s more than 110,000 students grow and thrive and wants to support the teachers and school staff.
Lampkin was one of a dozen parents and grandparents who gathered Monday evening at the Memphis LIFT office for the first meeting of a Blue Ribbon task force that will draft a leadership profile describing the qualities and experiences they would like to see in the next superintendent, according to a news release.
The task force plans to share its findings to the MSCS board in hopes that the district’s next leader will “lift every student’s performance and move the district away from decades of chronically failing schools, poor facilities, and mismanagement,” the release says.
“The people in this room, we’re going to drive this bus,” Sarah Carpenter, executive director of Memphis LIFT, a parent advocacy organization based in North Memphis, told meeting attendees.
The meeting comes days after MSCS board Chair Althea Greene announced on Twitter that the board will begin the national superintendent search later this month, when members will vote on whether they should begin the process of hiring a search firm.
Greene added that the board expects to name a new leader by the end of the 2022-23 school year.
Over two months ago, the board approved a separation agreement with former Superintendent Joris Ray, who had been under investigation for accusations that he abused his power and violated district policies by engaging in sexual relationships with subordinates. The agreement gave Ray a severance package of about $480,000 plus some benefits, and neither Ray nor the board admitted any wrongdoing.
Ray was appointed to the district’s top job in April 2019, after the board decided against a national search. Board members said they thought Ray, a career district employee who had been serving as interim superintendent for months, was an “exceedingly qualified candidate” and ruled a national search unnecessary given the time and cost it would take.
But some Memphians questioned whether Ray was the most qualified candidate for the job and felt the board should’ve widened its search. Memphis LIFT led the charge against Ray’s appointment.
That’s why the group decided to take charge and speak up on this search, Carpenter said Monday, calling the task force “huge” for the city. In addition to the parent task force, the organization also plans to assemble a student committee.
“We can’t have a superintendent that goes business as usual,” she said. “This system has been failing Black and brown children for decades and decades and I don’t want to hear any more excuses. We’ve got to do better and we can do better, starting with involving our parents.”
The task force will spend the next two months interviewing some of the nation’s top education officials, plus business and philanthropic leaders from other large cities.
Carpenter said Monday she has already begun efforts to set up interviews with local leaders such as Elliot Perry of the Poplar Foundation and Terrence Patterson of the Memphis Education Fund, as well as nationally known figures like Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City who has championed charter schools. New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks has already agreed to meet with them, Carpenter said.
The task force wants to gain insight into what makes leaders effective and innovative and weigh it against what MSCS finalists say in their interviews later this school year, Ashlyn Sparks, co-chief of staff of Memphis LIFT, said Monday.
“We’re not looking for things that can be given from lip service,” Sparks said. “We’re not looking for them to say ‘literacy is important.’ We’re not looking for them to say ‘we need to clean house.’ Anybody can get up there and say all these things. We want to hear what actions and steps should these people be taking?”
The MSCS board is expected to continue discussions of the superintendent search during committee meetings scheduled for Nov. 15.
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.
Yolanda Martin. (Credit: Memphis Shelby County Schools)
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 unclear as of Tuesday morning. The district declined to comment on the investigation on Friday, and in a statement, interim Superintendent Toni Williams said the district “investigates all employee complaints as we continue our ongoing efforts to emphasize integrity in all MSCS functions.”
Weeks earlier, the district put John Barker, deputy superintendent for strategic operations and finance, on leave following an employee complaint. The Commercial Appeal reported last month that Martin complained of ongoing race- and sex-based harrassment, intimidation, and discrimination by Barker, her direct supervisor.
“Dr. Barker makes me feel as though my voice does not matter and my thoughts are irrelevant as a black woman,” Martin wrote in an eight-page complaint obtained by Chalkbeat.
Martin, who has been on family and medical leave since Sept. 13, said Monday that the complaint and investigation “blindsided” her. When a district employee informed her she was under investigation last week, Martin said they didn’t give her any information about the complaint or an update on the status of her complaint against Barker.
Martin says the investigation of her may be retaliation. In an email dated Sept. 13 that Martin provided to Chalkbeat, she told several administrators she heard from “reliable sources” that Barker was “attempting to galvanize former employees to write statements/file false complaints” against her.
Martin said several principals and other district employees have reached out to her since word got out about her being placed on leave, saying they were “concerned and scared” that they will be retaliated against if they also file harassment complaints.
Board Chair Althea Greene said Friday that Martin’s leave is not related to her complaint against Barker. She declined to comment further. The district did not respond to questions about Martin’s allegations as of Tuesday morning. On Friday, the district confirmed Barker remains on leave.
Barker and fellow Deputy Superintendent Angela Whitelaw recently served as co-acting superintendents while Joris Ray was on paid administrative leave over claims that he abused his power and violated district policies. Ray resigned in late August under a severance agreement with the board.
The absence of two key district leaders comes in the midst of an already tumultuous school year for MSCS, as the district faces challenges such as an upcoming national superintendent search, academic recovery from the COVID pandemic, declining enrollment, teacher shortages, rising gun violence, and concerns about student mental health.
Asked about how the suspensions might affect the district’s response to its personnel challenges, Sarah Carpenter, executive director of the parent advocacy group Memphis LIFT, said: “I trust this interim superintendent and the school board to do what’s right.”
This story has been updated with new information.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.
