Tag: school consolidation

Categories
Opinion

County School Board Advised to Prepare for Merger

SCS_logo_new.jpg

An attorney who is an expert on school district mergers in Tennessee told the Shelby County Board of Education Thursday that consolidating with Memphis City Schools would be difficult but “may be inevitable.”

Chuck Cagle of Nashville met with the board for nearly two hours, answering questions on dozens of topics from funding to dress codes. He was methodical but did not appear partisan or scripted. His answers, he said, were designed to stand up in court, not please any constituency. He urged the board to put students first. He was given a loud ovation from board members when he finished.

“My admonition to you today is take the high road,” he said, and do what “grants the greatest good to the greatest number of people.”

Cagle said he has been through five previous school consolidations, including Knoxville and Chattanooga. He was introduced by board president David Pickler. Each of the seven board members took turns asking questions. Superintendent John Aitken was mostly an observer.

In his opening remarks, he said he would try to “stop the panic if we can and get to the hard business of what may be inevitable.”

He said the size of the two districts alone makes this unique and especially difficult.

“Things are just different here,” he said.

Some of Cagle’s observations:

On tax savings: There were none in Chattanooga or Knoxville. “There is no evidence at all out there that consolidation saves money.”

On costs: The biggest cost is equalizing pay and benefits, which account for 75-80 percent of most school system operating budgets.

On the current and potential future school board: Current county board members would serve out their terms. New districts would have to be drawn to cover all of Shelby County. A new board could have more than seven members.

How long it takes: Cagle estimated the transition would take a year to 18 months, based on the experience of other Tennessee cities. But that is only a guess because the potential merger would combine MCS, the 17th largest system in the country, with SCS, which is only the 7th largest system in Tennessee.

Superintendent contracts: They must be honored. Titles could change to “co-superintendent” or something else.

Teachers: “Teachers’ rights are not diminished.” The city’s contract with its teachers is valid and must be honored.
Pay differentials for other staff would have to be worked out.

Charter school contracts are “a looming question” to be looked at case by case.

Federal contracts: “The federal government is going to have to figure out how to revamp their contracts” for instructional services and food service.

The Gates Foundation grant to MCS: “That is up to Gates Foundation.”

Real property: Buildings do not transfer by statute. “Some delicate discussions have to be undertaken.” This “could be a serious impediment” to a smooth transfer.

Who’s in charge? It is the school board’s job, not the county commissions, to manage the transition.

Could the MCS charter be put to a referendum by a petition of 25 citizens? Yes. Procedurally, such a petition would be forwarded to the city school board which could not override it and would pass it along to the Shelby County Election Commission.

Who gets to vote in a referendum? The situation is unique, and “a good argument could be made” that non-Memphis residents of Shelby County get to vote.

Is Memphis a special school district? Yes. “We can’t get around that.”

Is this a precursor to general consolidation? No. They are two issues. Knoxville never consolidated after its school systems were consolidated.

Does the MCS board cease to exist? “Technically, yes,” if there were a referendum on Feb. 15 that approved shifting administration of schools to Shelby County. (NOTE: In a separate action Thursday, City Council Attorney Allan Wade said the referendum should say transfer administration, not surrender the charter.)

The fiscal year: From the point of view of state funding, the Memphis district would survive until June 30th then shift to Shelby County.

Building compliance with codes: They must be inspected and, if necessary, fixed out of capital funds. This is a likely source of lawsuits, Cagle said.

Transition team: Not required but “from my experience I would urge you to have one.” Cagle said “It will help you know what you need to know.”

Per-pupil spending: Could be reset somewhere between $8,000 and $10,000 or more.

Memphis taxes: “My experience has been there has been no reduction in city taxes when there has been consolidation.” County taxes could go up. In a reversal of the current situation, county residents outside Memphis could be taxed twice and Memphians once if the charter is surrendered and Shelby County Schools goes ahead and becomes a special district. In that case, MCS would become the Shelby County Schools, minus the old Shelby County Schools.

Dress codes and corporal punishment: That is up to the policy manual. The controlling one would be the current SCS manual which does not have a dress code but does have corporal punishment.

What should SCS do? “My job is to give you options we can defend in court. You will make those decisions.”

Board member Diane George asked, “are we just making this up as we go along?” Cagle said, “Yes, pretty much.”

At the close of the meeting, Aitken asked the board to authorize litigation as a procedural process, which it did.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

In the Stretch

One of our senior eminences here at 460 Tennessee Street is fond of saying, at this or that historically significant moment, that “events are in the saddle.” The phrase surely describes the continuing state of flux regarding the school consolidation crisis (or “issue” if you are able to take a relaxed view of things).

The big question as Memphis and Shelby County turned into a New Year, though, was whether a dismount might be arranged. And various worthies — including, reportedly, both Memphis mayor A C Wharton and Shelby County mayor Mark Luttrell — were still working on achieving some kind of “compact” between Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools that might stave off a looming city referendum on surrender of the MCS charter.

One local official whose actions have been central to the disposition of the case is Bill Giannini, chairman of the Shelby County Election Commission (SCEC). It is the Election Commission which was charged with setting an election date once the MCS board voted 5-4 on December 20th to call such a referendum.

In some circles, Giannini became suspect of plotting a delay because of various procedural questions he made a point of referring to state election coordinator Mark Goins. But as of Monday, the SCEC chair was speaking in reasonably firm terms of February 15th as the date for a referendum on the surrender of the Memphis City Schools charter.

The Election Commission was scheduled to meet on Wednesday — the day, alas, on which our freshly printed issue first hits the streets — to resolve the matter.

Only three things could obstruct such a resolution, Giannini said: a rescinding by the MCS board of its December 20th vote to call for the referendum; a judicial intervention of some sort; or some action by Goins to stop or postpone the referendum.

Members of the MCS board — both pro and con on the charter surrender — made it clear they wouldn’t be acting, despite the swearing-in Monday of new member Sara Lewis, who has said she opposes the referendum. There has been no suggestion of court activity. And Giannini had, as of Tuesday, heard no word yet from Goins.

Perhaps the most controversial of the questions he had presented to the coordinator concerned the issue of whether Shelby County voters outside the Memphis city limits should be allowed to take part in the referendum.

As it happened, David Pickler, the Shelby County Schools board chairman whose call for special-school-district legislation for SCS precipitated the current crisis, was continuing to insist that “the 30 percent” of county residents outside Memphis should have a voice in the referendum.

Asked at a press conference Monday why outer-countians, who don’t vote for MCS board members, should be able to vote on the surrender of the city school charter, Pickler said residents of the outer county paid county taxes that were distributed to city schools (an ironic variation on Memphis residents’ contention some years ago that they should have a vote on selecting county school board members because their tax money also goes to county schools).

Besides, Pickler said, it was understood that the surrender of the charter would be “equivalent to consolidation,” and that fact entitled all county residents to vote.

Reminded of criticism at a December 15th “summit” meeting of local officials that he had not specified a reason for pursuing special-school-district status for SCS, Pickler said it was the threat of action like that which the MCS board has now taken which prompted his urgency. “We had no other recourse” for preserving the de facto independence of SCS, he said.

Asked afterward if that answer might be circular in the sense that it left unstated the reason for desiring independence, Pickler cited SCS’s relatively high level of academic achievement. He added, “We don’t mind saying that we have achieved results as a district that are worth preserving.”

Many of the reservations about merger of the two school systems that he and SCS superintendent John Aitken voiced at their Monday press conference had to do with the confusion and disruptions that short-order consolidation might incur.

Pickler noted that, unlike MCS, SCS had not been moved to establish charter or optional schools, suggesting that “our standards” were high enough system-wide so as not to require them.

He was candid when asked about possible loopholes in the aforesaid “compact” still being pursued by Mayors Wharton and Luttrell and by such other figures as MCS board member Jeff Warren.

That agreement would require solemn commitments from the two school boards and other officials, especially members of the Shelby County legislative delegation, to observe a three-year period of mutual consultation during which neither the city system’s charter surrender nor the county system’s wish for a special school district would be pursued.

But, when pressed on the point, Pickler acknowledged that it was possible — even likely — that, regardless of any go-slow understanding reached between MCS and SCS and between members of the county’s legislative delegation, the forthcoming General Assembly would pass legislation striking down a prohibition against creating new school districts.

The Tennessee School Boards Association will be seeking to get such a bill passed, which could be introduced by a legislator from elsewhere in the state.

And, though a “private act” affecting Shelby County specifically would be a necessary next step in creating a new special school district for the county, someone from outside the county could introduce that bill also, Pickler conceded. “It’s happened before,” he said, remembering a bill once introduced on another county’s behalf by Memphis state senator John Ford.

• Three declared candidates for the chairmanship of the Tennessee Democratic Party took turns in Nashville Monday night answering questions about the party’s future and what they might be able to do about it.

The exchange between Wade Munday, Chip Forrester, and Matt Kuhn was monitored by a statewide audience of sorts, though, thanks to a glitch in transmission, to both see it and hear it required a simultaneous telephone and online hook-up — a circumstance that often made following the conversation awkward.

The elaborate courtesy the three rivals showed each other (with an occasional zinger coming in between the lines) and the political vagueness of much of what was said made it difficult to sort out the responses.

Forrester’s position was unique, in that he is the current chairman seeking a second two-year term. Indeed, the need for continuity in following through with initiatives already begun was a note he struck more than once in his answers to questions relayed by the event’s two emcees.

Munday, the party’s former communications director, emphasized the need to create a party “infrastructure” and stressed his past experience as a fund-raiser.

Kuhn, a past Shelby County Democratic chairman and the only non-Nashvillian among the three, lobbied for a “40 under 40” initiative, whereby the party should actively recruit a new generation of candidates.

A striking feature of the discourse was the acknowledgement by all three candidates that Tennessee Democrats were now a “minority party” and had to deal forthrightly with that fact. All three agreed that the party should maintain a critical stance in regard to the Republicans as the party in power.

• At least one Tennessee Democrat, 9th District congressman Steve Cohen, is in no mood to back off his support of his party’s national agenda. Speaking at the annual New Year’s Day prayer breakfast hosted by city councilman Myron Lowery, Cohen made a point of referring to soon-to-be-former House speaker Nancy Pelosi as “an outstanding speaker of the House and a great human being.”

Cohen had some kind words also for the state’s incoming Republican governor, Knoxville mayor Bill Haslam, whom he characterized as a “moderate” and whom he said he expected some good things of — including an open mind toward increased funding for the Med.

The congressman repeated his opposition to the tax bill agreed upon by President Obama and the GOP’s congressional leadership and passed during the recent “lame duck” session. And he condemned the continuing Republican opposition to last year’s health-care legislation. “You can’t come to a prayer breakfast … without thinking, What would Jesus think about health care?” Cohen said.

But, like the candidates for the state Democratic chairmanship, Cohen was forced to acknowledge that, in his branch of Congress, at least, the Republicans would be in control and needed to be held to a standard. “They’re going to have to lead,” Cohen said. “They can’t just say no.”

Categories
Opinion

Hostile Surrender

What the city-county schools story needs is a new metaphor to replace the apt but overused “shotgun wedding” and “nuclear showdown.”

To have a shotgun wedding you need an angry father holding a shotgun on one or both parties. Short of a judge stepping into this drama, I don’t see anyone playing that role yet. As for the nuclear option, Memphis will always be Memphis, and in the eyes of some, we got nuked a long time ago.

As an alternative, I propose “hostile surrender,” a twist on a familiar phrase from the world of big business. In a hostile takeover, a big company takes over a smaller company against its will, either buying it outright or buying controlling shares of its publicly traded stock. Sometimes the attempt is thwarted by a “poison pill” provision that makes the targeted company unattractive or unaffordable.

In a hostile surrender, Memphis City Schools could give up its charter and be forcibly merged with Shelby County Schools, which would rather be left alone. Memphians get to vote on it. Shelby County residents outside of Memphis don’t, unless a judge says otherwise. “Hostile” fairly describes the attitude toward Memphis of those county residents who voted four-to-one against consolidation last year.

As for the poison pill, in this case it’s Shelby County Schools threatening to swallow one via legislation in Nashville to make itself immune to a merger. But it might not work, and SCS leaders know it. They showed some fear, and they spread some fear at their press conference on Monday.

First they appealed to the Memphis school board to reconsider its 5-4 decision, which is not likely to happen. Then they appealed to Memphis voters to oppose a merger by playing on their fears of losing jobs, public funding, grants, optional schools, charter schools, transportation, 7:20 a.m. start times, labor agreements, even food service. With a hostile surrender, SCS board president David Pickler said, the explosive issue of closing at least six and possibly as many as 20 low-enrollment city schools would be in the hands of the current county school board, which would stay in place until three of the seven members’ terms expire August 31, 2012.

“This is not an issue about race,” said Pickler, standing shoulder to shoulder with five other white males.

In a way he is right. SCS has approximately 20,000 minority students in its 47,000-student population. In the eyes of the federal courts and the NAACP, it is certifiably desegregated.

And in a way he is wrong. The county school board is all-white, and a few county schools slated to become city schools by annexation are nearly all-black. Voting majorities, self-segregation, and school boundaries are responsible.

Race is even more of an issue in Memphis. The school system is 90 percent black, and the number of white students, clustered in a half-dozen or so schools, goes down steadily. Shelby County didn’t invent secession. Memphians have been fleeing city schools for county and private and parochial schools for 50 years. As the school system goes, so goes the city and its tax base.

So be it, say some MCS board members and churchmen opposed to charter surrender. Their duty, they believe, is to the 100,000 students who come, not the ones who left.

“You elected me to serve the children, not surrender them,” said board member Rev. Kenneth Whalum Jr. to cheers at his swearing-in ceremony on Monday.

On the other side are board members Martavius Jones, Tomeka Hart, Patrice Robinson, and Stephanie Gatewood, along with state representative G.A. Hardaway and Shelby County commissioner Sidney Chism.

Hardaway says the pro-surrender campaign will have to keep it simple: one tax for schools, lower taxes for Memphians, control of our own destiny. The mayors, he believes, should stay above the fray and concentrate on a conditional transition plan.

He thinks the referendum is a go, despite “delaying tactics” by the Shelby County Election Commission. If there is a legal challenge to the Memphis-only referendum, he said he will go to court and argue that Memphis residents don’t get to vote for Shelby County school board members.

“I’m loving the fact that we’ve got some serious conversation going from top to bottom,” he said. “We’ve always had it at the top, but I am hearing from folks in barber shops and restaurants and gyms. Everyone is finally engaged in trying to figure things out. No matter what happens in the vote, that is positive.”

Categories
Opinion

On Taking a Position

glenn-beck.jpg

News bulletin: mayors Wharton and Luttrell are not taking a position on school charter surrender.

This is shocking and Un-American. Like Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann and any self-respecting columnist, blogger, or commenter, we are all supposed to have a position on everything from school consolidation to the European debt crisis, the designated hitter, Jay Leno, and True Grit. I know this because I watch television, read comment strings, and am on the receiving end of urgent messages from friends, colleagues, and strangers who are wound up about lots of things I know and care nothing about.

As a card-carrying columnist, my standard position is “take a position.” Like the Wall Street Journal says, who needs “on the one hand, on the other hand editorials?”

But in this case the mayors are right for the time being, which could change today, tomorrow, or the next day.