The firing of former Memphis Shelby County School’s (MSCS) superintendent Marie Feagins will have a theatrical retelling from the students of Ladia Yates Entertainment (L.Y.E.) Academy.
Feagins’ termination sparked public interest from parents, students, and community members alike — prompting it to be the center of social media think-pieces and fodder.
Ladia Yates, owner of L.Y.E. Academy, says it all could make a good documentary, which inspired her to create School Board The Musical.
“It’s actually a very interesting story,” Yates said. “It’s a revolving door. Something just keeps unfolding [and] keeping people’s attention. I think it’s a learning lesson, and I think it shows there’s a lot of corruption within the city of Memphis, the school system, the local government, that’s holding people back. It’s holding the city of Memphis back.”
Yates said Feagins “took the lid off” these things, which likely caused the fiasco to unfold.
“Whatever they’re doing is being revealed through her [Feagins],” Yates said. “Even if she didn’t try to do that, that’s just what’s happening. That’s why it’s such a big controversy.”
Controversy and drama is what draws people in, Yates adds. It also invites room for social commentary, and parody, which comedian Latoya Polk took advantage of during the height of the ordeal. Polk added humor by reenacting various meetings and embodying different school board members — an approach Yates found inspiring. Now, Polk will channel that same theatricality as the musical’s host.
“She’s bringing some sort of light to the situation through comedy,” Yates said. “That’s like how I’m bringing light to the situation through dance.”
These themes of light and laughter are integral in not only bringing the production to light, but for people to digest the mess in general. Yates said people were ready to “crash out” over Feagins, as the debacle was not just about her, but the welfare of students.
Feagins recently visited Yates’ studio for a public speaking class and recalls her students being immediately drawn to her.
“She has an energy that will draw you to her, contrary to what the board is saying,” Yates said. “You see all the kids … they’re taking to her, she’s dancing with them. You see the photos and can see the camaraderie between her and the children and you can tell they naturally take to her.”
While it can be easy for Feagins’ termination to be marked by turmoil, Yates hopes the musical will represent resilience, and leave people inspired.
“It’ll be clean-cut. We’re not going to bash anyone, call out names, or use anyone’s likeness,” Yates said. “It’s more so for inspiration and just telling a story, and the moral of the story is don’t give up. Keep going no matter who stabs you in the back.”
School Board The Musical opens at 5 p.m. on April 13th at Crosstown Theater. Tickets can be purchased here.
Former MSCS Superintendent Marie Feagins engages with students during an April 2024 visit to Grandview Heights Elementary School. (Photo: Ariel Cobbert)
I’ve watched every school board meeting since Dr. Marie Feagins was elected superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools a year ago.
I’ve read the board’s resolution that terminated her contract last month, and the special counsel’s 209-page investigation of the board’s allegations against her.
I’ve read Feagins’ response to the allegations in her two-page email to board chair Joyce Dorse-Coleman on January 6th, and her 14-page “official response” to the board January 14th.
I’ve read Feagins’ startling allegations against the board in the 31-page lawsuit she filed in Shelby County Circuit Court earlier this month.
I’ve read every relevant public document and heard every public statement made by all parties involved in the latest disaster that has befallen our local public school system. And I’ve read news articles, opinion columns, politicians’ comments, and angry social media posts about the sordid mess.
I still don’t get it. I still don’t understand why Feagins was fired after less than a year on the job.
Michelle McKissack (Photo: Memphis Shelby County Schools)
The three examples of “professional misconduct” the board leveled against her might have justified a public reprimand, but not a public execution. At best, as six-year board member Michelle McKissack argued, they reflect “growing pains” for a superintendent who started working in April and a board with four members elected in August. At worst, well, we don’t know.
In her recently filed lawsuit, Feagins paints a picture of school board members bowing to local political and financial interests and conspiring behind the scenes — in violation of the state’s open meetings law — to find reasons to fire her.
But board members who voted to fire her, and the special counsel’s January 21st report they relied on to do so, paint a very different picture, one of a renegade superintendent running roughshod over the district and making “false and/or misleading” statements to the board about her intentions and actions.
The public record so far, to say the least, is inconclusive.
The special counsel’s report concluded that Feagins “violated her employment contract no less than eight times and deviated from Board policy on at least nine occasions.”
Six of the nine alleged policy “deviations” pertained to a single board policy — 1013, or the Superintendent Code of Ethics. That three-page policy, approved in 2017, contains 15 “statements of standards” the superintendent must follow, including: “I will endeavor to fulfill my professional responsibilities with honesty and integrity.” Vague enough for you?
As for the eight alleged contract violations, all pertained to a single paragraph in her contract. “Ethical conduct: The superintendent in all aspects of her interactions and transactions related to carrying out her duties of superintendent, agrees to represent, enforce, and adhere to the highest ethical standards.” Whose ethical standards? Which ethical standards?
“I will point out,” McKissack wrote in a January 13th letter to the board, “that Superintendent Feagins is not accused of theft, fraud, or any criminal misconduct.” What she mostly is accused of is making “false and/or misleading” statements to the board about three allegations of “professional misconduct.” That covers 13 of the 17 alleged contract violations.
The four other “violations” were attributed to Feagins’ failure to provide a document or report to the board in a timely manner. Feagins said those failures were unintentional and the result of “staff oversights.” The public record seems to support her version.
Photo: Ariel Cobbert
The Termination Resolution
First, the termination resolution claims that Feagins “misled the board” about “overtime abuse” she brought to the board’s attention last July. “Dr. Feagins never presented any evidence suggesting that her statement was true, and she did not correct or clarify her statement to the public,” the board’s first allegation reads. But Feagins told the board last July and again in December and January that she based her comments on “documented fiscal reports” of overtime pay records for 2022, 2023, and 2024.
“I provided at least three years of data to the board,” Feagins said after hearing the charges against her read aloud at the December 17th special called meeting.
There are no records that the board ever asked for or reviewed the data or tried to substantiate Feagins’ claims about overtime abuse.
Second, the termination resolution claims that Feagins accepted and deposited in the district’s account a $45,000 donation to the district from the SchoolSeed Foundation “without Board approval.”
“At a [November 19th] Board Work Session, Dr. Feagins misrepresented her knowledge of and involvement in depositing the unapproved donation check in violation of Board Policy,” the board’s second allegation reads.
Feagins said she didn’t learn about the donation until November 8th, the result of “a staff oversight,” and “promptly submitted the donation to the Board” at its next meeting, November 19th. The board approved the donation December 3rd. Two weeks later, five board members used it to charge her with “professional misconduct.”
The special counsel’s report cites two emails Feagins sent to staff in July that “irrefutably establish” that she knew then about the check. But neither email mentions a $45,000 SchoolSeed check, which records show wasn’t received by the district until August 13th.
Third, the termination resolution claims that Feagins “was dishonest with the board and public” about missing a deadline for a $300,000 federal grant to help homeless students. Feagins acknowledged that her staff failed to meet the September 30th deadline, but said the state subsequently allowed the district to use the funds for various expenses related to helping homeless students. “We missed the deadline,” she told the board December 17th.
The board’s allegations and investigation do not say how much — if any — of the $300,000 grant (leftover Covid-relief funds) was used or forfeited. The special counsel’s report to the board states that Feagins’ comments about the grant were “only accurate to a degree, but not completely.” That could sum up the board’s allegations against Feagins: only accurate to a degree, but not completely.
“Clerical errors,” McKissack called them at the December 17th special board meeting. At least five board members at that meeting were clearly determined to fire Feagins. They didn’t explain why Feagins or board members in her corner didn’t see the resolution to fire her until a few minutes before the meeting. They didn’t respond to questions that Feagins or four other board members raised about the specific allegations in the resolution.
Sable Otey (Photo: Memphis Shelby County Schools)
Missing Pieces
They did raise a slew of other issues that weren’t in the resolution or the special counsel’s report. Board member Sable Otey, elected August 1st, blamed Feagins for the suicidal thoughts of an educator in her district, and the firing of a teacher in her district. She also claimed teachers were texting her with complaints about the superintendent. She didn’t present any evidence of her claims, and they weren’t included in the resolution.
Towanna Murphy (Photo: Memphis Shelby County Schools)
Board member Towanna Murphy, elected August 1st, blamed Feagins for the injury of a special needs child in her district, and for putting other special needs students at risk. She didn’t present any evidence of her claims, and they weren’t included in the resolution.
Natalie McKinney (Photo: Memphis Shelby County Schools)
Board member Natalie McKinney, elected August 1st, accused Feagins of creating “a climate of fear and intimidation” in staff across the district. She didn’t present any evidence of her claims, and they weren’t included in the resolution.
Various board members blamed Feagins for the district’s problems receiving sufficient staff and materials for online learning, dual enrollment, remedial instruction, and student assessment. They didn’t present any evidence that Feagins was to blame for those problems, and those complaints weren’t included in the termination resolution.
Amber Huett-Garcia (Photo: Memphis Shelby County Schools)
Board member Amber Huett-Garcia, who voted not to fire Feagins, said many of the complaints were “highlighting the woes of a district that is under-resourced [with] generational challenges” that began decades before Feagins arrived.
McKinney pushed back. “Our [board] seats have given us a bird’s-eye view of the working of the district,” McKinney said. “We see things the general public does not see.”
The general public still is not seeing those things. The superintendent works for the board, but the board works for the public. The board owes the public — not to mention Feagins, her staff, teachers and parents, and other public officials — a thorough, clear, compelling, and public explanation for why she was fired.
There was a fourth and final accusation in the termination resolution: “The board has also become aware of certain patterns of behavior by Dr. Feagins that are not conducive to the effective operation of the District in the best interests of students, including but not limited to her refusal to communicate and/or cooperate with valued District partners.”
That accusation was not included in the 209-page investigation, nor in the list of 17 alleged contract or policy violations. But I suspect it probably comes closest to explaining what went wrong. Feagins could be prickly, curt, and dismissive, even in public board meetings, in stark contrast to her predecessor Joris Ray, who resigned under a cloud in 2022.
A Direct Approach
At board meetings, Ray was unfailingly polite and solicitous, usually thanking board members profusely and formally by title and name for every question. His staff members did the same. Ray began meetings by asking his staff to join him in reciting the district’s motto: “Together we must believe. Together we can achieve. Together we are reimagining 901.”
Feagins didn’t have a motto or lead a cheer. Her responses to board members’ questions were more direct and could include a cold stare or a disdainful “for the record” or “let the record show.”
I suspect that Feagins was fired because a majority of board members didn’t like her, didn’t like how she was managing the district, and were getting complaints from central staff administrators, principals, local nonprofit leaders, and favored local contractors.
They were being told that Feagins was moving too fast and going too far and stepping on too many toes in her efforts to restructure the top-heavy district to address the loss of Covid funding and to give classroom teachers more support and more authority. But that’s just speculation. Just about everything you’ve read or heard about why Feagins was fired is speculation.
Feagins has called the allegations against her “meritless and baseless.” Earlier this month, she sued the school board and asked the court to void the board’s 6-3 vote to fire her.
In the lawsuit, Feagins claims that Althea Greene, Dorse-Coleman, and several other board members violated the state’s open meetings law by meeting secretly beginning in August to plan ways to terminate her contract.
It’s likely the litigation will end with a quiet, off-the-record settlement much like Ray’s agreement to resign in 2022. Which means the public may never know exactly why Feagins was fired.
What’s Next?
So now the school board is at odds and searching for its sixth superintendent since the 2013 merger upended the entire system. The Shelby County Commission has ordered a forensic audit of the school district’s budget. The state is threatening to take over the school board. State Representative Mark White (R-Memphis) plans to introduce legislation to create a new nine-member board that would oversee the local board. “This would be a management intervention,” White told Chalkbeat Tennessee.
Public education is under duress. The governor plans to spend nearly half a billion dollars a year offering private school vouchers to high-income parents. The Trump administration is prioritizing private “school choice” funding and gutting the U.S. Department of Education. Public schools are preparing for massive safety net cuts and immigration raids and conducting regular “active shooter drills.”
Meanwhile, schools and teachers continue to try to address the academic, social, and emotional needs of students traumatized by poverty, community violence, school shootings, and the pandemic. And constant political turmoil.
David Waters, a veteran journalist, has covered public education in Memphis and Tennessee off and on for 30 years. He is associate director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis.
Incoming Superintendent Marie Feagins has started working with Memphis-Shelby County Schools under a per diem agreement, allowing her to begin a transition to the superintendent role while the school board hammers out her contract.
Feagins’ temporary employment took effect March 1, according to a press release from school board Chair Althea Greene. Greene said she expects Feagins, a Detroit public school district administrator, to begin officially as MSCS superintendent on April 1, months ahead of the July 1 start that board members had targeted during the search process.
“Dr. Feagins is excited to be here now to start making Memphis and Shelby County her home,” Greene said.
Since the board selected Feagins on Feb. 9, she has been in Memphis for several meetings, including a lunch Friday co-hosted in part by former Memphis schools Superintendent Carol Johnson-Dean.
“Everybody wants to welcome her, and they want her to be successful,” Johnson-Dean told Chalkbeat, adding that several community leaders attended, including both the city and county mayors. She said school board members did not attend.
Feagins also attended part of the Memphis school board’s February business meeting on Tuesday and received a standing ovation. A separate press release at the time said she was working on a plan for her first 100 days on the job.
But the school board has not otherwise discussed her employment in a public meeting, and board members have taken no votes on a contract.
Board members Mauricio Calvo and Stephanie Love said Friday afternoon that they had not seen the per diem contract.
Board policy allows the district to enter contracts for some services that cost less than $75,000 without seeking a board vote. The press release did not provide details about Feagins’ pay. Chalkbeat has requested public records about the short-term contract.
Chalkbeat’s attempts to reach Feagins for comment Friday were unsuccessful.
Greene said she expects the board to take action on Feagins’ superintendent contract at a meeting scheduled for March 26.
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.
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A Tennessee lawmaker said he plans to introduce legislation giving Gov. Bill Lee’s administration the power to appoint up to six new members to the board of Memphis-Shelby County Schools.
Rep. Mark White of Memphis cited prolonged frustration with the board’s locally elected leadership when explaining his plans to Chalkbeat on Tuesday.
The nine members currently on the board of the state’s largest school district would remain in office under the proposal.
And the additional members would be appointed later this year based on recommendations from local officials and stakeholders, said White, a Republican who represents parts of East Memphis and the suburb of Germantown.
“I’m very concerned about the district’s direction, and I just can’t sit back any longer. I think we’re at a critical juncture,” said White, who chairs a powerful education committee in the House.
In a statement Tuesday, board Chair Althea Greene said White’s proposal is unnecessary.
“We may have had some challenges, but more interference from the General Assembly is not warranted at this time,” she said. “We have to stop experimenting with our children.”
White said he is unhappy with the board’s handling of the superintendent search for a district where strong, stable, and timely leadership is especially critical. Most MSCS students are considered economically disadvantaged and continue to significantly trail state benchmarks in reading and math following devastating pandemic-related academic declines.
“I’m concerned about the three people they’ve whittled it down to, and I’m just not impressed,” said White, who did not specify the candidates’ shortcomings.
There are “highly qualified people in Memphis who know how to improve the system,” White added.
His criticisms echo recent frustrations from some local educators and community members at the prospect of an out-of-state candidate leading Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Some have called for a local candidate or for the board to permanently hire interim Superintendent Toni Williams, the district’s former finance chief.
Board member Michelle McKissack expressed surprise about White’s plan and his comments about the finalists. She praised their qualifications.
“This has been an extraordinarily robust search, and we have listened to all members of the community every way we know how to,” McKissack said.
Adding board members — particularly appointed candidates who don’t have constituents to answer to — would only complicate board governance, she said.
“It’s not going to make board operations any easier when you have a 15-person board,” McKissack said, pointing to the challenges of the previous 23-member body that oversaw the historic merger of the city and county school districts and created Memphis-Shelby County Schools a decade ago.
She added: “They think they have a problem now? Well then get ready.”
White and Sen. Brent Taylor, a Memphis Republican, expect to file their legislation this month and have been working with the state attorney general’s office “to get the language right,” White said.
The legislation could affect upcoming nonpartisan school board elections in which five seats are up for grabs. Greene is the only incumbent to have pulled a petition for the August election since the filing opened on Monday, according to Shelby County Election Commission officials.
White drew a distinction between his proposal and a 12-year-old state initiative to take over low-performing schools, mostly in Memphis, to place them with charter school operators under the oversight of the Tennessee Achievement School District.
“This is not about taking over schools. It’s about putting in place stronger governance over the elected bodies for low-performing districts,” he said.
The Memphis school board is responsible for hiring the superintendent, but also charting the direction for the district, often by prioritizing how to use the $1.2 billion it receives each year, plus the additional hundreds of millions in one-time federal funds. Board members also play a role in addressing issues of their community and educator constituents.
The board’s second search last fall generated 22 applicants, according to the search firm the board hired to oversee the process. Just one local candidate, Angela Whitelaw, the district’s top academics chief, was among the five finalists. Following the guidance of their own evaluations and the community’s input, the board selected three finalists:
It’s not the first time that White has introduced bills to give the state the power to intercede in local matters.
He successfully sponsored legislation in 2022 that forced the Memphis district to cede four schools to several nearby suburban districts, including in Germantown, which serves mostly white and affluent students. The move reignited persistent criticisms that the decade-long tug-of-war over the valuable school properties was essentially about race and class. Ultimately, Shelby County commissioners increased taxes, in part to help pay for a new high school for the urban district’s mostly Black students from low-income families.
White also asked the Tennessee attorney general to weigh in last year about potential conflicts of interest for Keith Williams, the executive director of a local teacher union in Memphis who was elected to the board in 2022.
Memphians have long been wary of Tennessee lawmakers who have repeatedly singled out Memphis on education matters. For instance, a controversial 2019 law created a private school voucher program that only applied to Memphis and Nashville, even though local officials overwhelmingly opposed it.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach her at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
The five finalists for Memphis-Shelby County Schools superintendent interviewed with the board on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. Clockwise from top, they are: Angela Whitelaw, Carlton Jenkins, Marie Feagins, Yolonda Brown, and Cheryl Proctor. (Screen capture of Memphis-Shelby County Schools)
The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board interviewed five finalists for superintendent Friday — including one candidate from the district — as it tries to wrap up a tortuous search that began more than a year ago.
The start of the interview process is a significant step toward hiring a new leader for Tennessee’s largest school district, which has been operating with interim Superintendent Toni Williams in charge since August 2022, when Joris Ray resigned under a cloud of scandal.
The search for Ray’s successor appeared to be nearing an end in the spring, only to collapse as some board members balked at an initial slate of finalists selected by search firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates — and the process that produced them.
The five finalists who interviewed with the board Friday emerged from a group of 22 applicants who sought the job this time around, down from 34 applicants in the previous search attempt. Max McGee, president of Hazard Young, said the search drew candidates from outside Tennessee but also included “strong local interest.”
“I am especially impressed with the breadth and depth of the applicant pool,” McGee said in a statement released by MSCS in November.
If the interviews ultimately lead to the selection of a candidate who wins board approval, it will be the first successfully completed national superintendent search since the district was formed in the merger with Shelby County Schools just over a decade ago. The two previous leaders were internal candidates who got promoted: Dorsey Hopson in 2013, and Ray, who took over for Hopson in late 2018.
The board is expected to choose a permanent superintendent early in 2024, and that person would start the job by July 1.
The first attempt to find Ray’s successor unraveled in April amid a board dispute, partly over whether Williams, the district’s former finance chief, was qualified to take the superintendent job. The board agreed to restart the process.
Williams’ contract spells out the ways she could stay with the district when her term as interim chief ends: The next superintendent or the board could reassign her to her previous role as chief financial officer, or give her a chance to stay on as a consultant.
Tomeka Hart Wigginton, a former school board member who helped the board get the search back on track this summer, is expected to play a role in the next phase of the search as well, said board member Joyce Dorse-Coleman, co-chair of the search.
Hart Wigginton will tally the board’s scorecards after this first round of interviews, and announce the results at a public meeting next Tuesday. At that point, the board will narrow the slate to three finalists, using their own evaluations and evaluations from community members to guide their decision.
Those three candidates are expected to be in Memphis in the new year for more extensive interviews in a process that will include more community engagement.
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 Memphis-Shelby County Schools board is rebooting its superintendent search, with plans to solicit community input, invite new candidates, and select a leader in early 2024. Laura Testino / Chalkbeat
The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board is rebooting its superintendent search, with plans to solicit fresh community input, invite new candidates, and hire a permanent leader in early 2024.
The move to restart the search could entice qualified candidates who experts say may have been repelled by a process that got derailed by discord among board members.
The new leader would start on or before July 1st, potentially with a transition period concurrent with interim Superintendent Toni Williams, who received a contract extension Tuesday. Based on that timeline, the process to find a permanent successor to Joris Ray — who departed in August 2022 amid an investigation into alleged misconduct — will have taken nearly two years.
It’s the first time that the merged Memphis-Shelby County district has resolved to complete a national search since it was formed a decade ago. Ray and his predecessor, Dorsey Hopson, were both elevated from the interim post. Williams, who was named a finalist in April, withdrew from consideration as a condition of her contract extension.
Board members met on Wednesday with Max McGee, president of search firm Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates, to discuss how to proceed.
McGee commended the board’s “extraordinary” efforts to get the search back on track.
The board expects to relaunch a community engagement effort for the search, too, as a step toward mending strained relationships with community advocates who have grown frustrated with the board’s actions.
When they launched the national search in late 2022, board members promised a process that would help restore trust in district leadership. But the board began to fracture after the initial three finalists were named in April, and it paused the search for two months. Only recently did board members agree on a set of qualifications and nail down their policy on minimum requirements for the job.
Those qualifications will be reflected in the new rubric for candidates that McGee refined with board members on Wednesday. Existing candidates in the pool will have to reapply, including the two remaining top contenders. McGee suggested that the job be posted by Aug. 1.
“Today it is about us, united as a board, moving forward with HYA as we continue this journey to get the best leaders for the students of Memphis-Shelby County Schools,” said board Chair Althea Greene.
The new qualifications include:
• Strategic leadership on budget and finance
• Governance and board leadership
• Community advocate and politically savvy
• Courageous decision maker
• Attract, retain, and build capacity of a strong team
• Ability to positively impact culture and climate
• Dynamic, visionary, adaptive leader
• Proven track record of success
• Effective change management
• Strong academic visionary
Candidates will also have to meet the minimum job requirements set by board policy. The board relaxed those requirements this month to allow candidates with 10 years of work experience and an advanced degree in any of several fields, rather than just education.
Some board members raised concerns about the $19,000 price tag and longer timeline associated with restarting the search.
In a letter dated June 23rd, Hazard Young told board members it had developed a new finalist list after evaluating current candidates against the new criteria and would present it Wednesday. Amber Huett-Garcia asked at Wednesday’s meeting if the slate would be shared. But no new finalists were presented.
“We’re not using any names today,” said newly elected Vice Chair Joyce Dorse-Coleman.
Board member Kevin Woods, citing a vote made in mid-June, said, “We stated very publicly that we were going to open the search up for new candidates.”
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.
SCS board Vice Chair Sheleah Harris said she was resigning from her seat, denouncing the board’s decision to relax minimum requirements for the superintendent role. Ariel Cobbert for Chalkbeat
The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board relaxed its minimum requirements for the district’s superintendent role, allowing interim Superintendent Toni Williams to remain a candidate for the permanent leadership job, even though she lacks classroom experience.
But despite months of discussions aimed at forging consensus about what they want in a leader and how to proceed with the search, board members nearly put off making a decision on the policy, and ultimately fell short of presenting a united front.
Eight of the board members voted for the change in the job requirements. The ninth, Vice Chair Sheleah Harris, abstained from the vote and denounced the board’s decision. Then she announced she would quit her elected seat.
Before the amendments approved Tuesday, board policy required candidates to have a certain amount of in-school experience and training in education. Under the new requirements, the board could consider a candidate who has 10 years of work experience and advanced degrees in any of several fields, rather than just education. Board member Amber Huett-Garcia suggested the updates to the existing policies.
Board members also voted to reopen the application for the superintendent role, hoping to solicit more candidates. Those who apply will have to meet the updated requirements, plus a revised set of desired qualifications the board also approved.
The decisions Tuesday reactivate a search that has been suspended for nearly two months, as board members tried to resolve differences and misunderstandings about the search process.
“We’ve been hanging this over the heads of the public for far too long,” board member Frank Johnson said of the policy vote.
Some board and community members, including Harris, raised concerns about the disconnect, putting a spotlight on perceived lapses in the board’s stewardship of the search. Board members have spent the past two months reexamining those lapses and seeking closer alignment on their priorities in the search.
But they couldn’t reach a unanimous decision. Harris consistently opposed relaxing the minimum requirements, right up to Tuesday’s vote. She declined media interviews after the meeting but said she was serious about quitting the board. If she formally resigns, the Shelby County Commission would begin a process to appoint a replacement.
This is the first time the merged Memphis-Shelby County district has conducted a search since it was formed a decade ago, and the first time since 2008 that Memphis has sought to choose a superintendent through a search rather than internal appointment.
The board is expected to share its new guidelines for the search with Hazard Young, which then could advise the board on a new timeline. The additional qualifications the board agreed upon include:
Tomeka Hart Wigginton, a former board member who has facilitated board discussions about the search, has suggested that by the end of the month, the board create plans for implementing and communicating the changes and continuing community engagement.
Speaking with media after Tuesday’s meeting, Chair Althea Greene said the board should meet with a Hazard Young representative in person to discuss the timeline. But the timeline won’t affect a planned vote for next Tuesday on possible amendments to Williams’ interim superintendent contract, which expires in August.
“We know that we have to have someone to continue to lead us until we get a permanent superintendent … So if it is the will of this board for interim superintendent to continue to lead us, that’s a vote that we will make next week,” Greene said.
The board has yet to complete a required evaluation of Williams’ leadership, which was due May 1.
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 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.
