County's noconfidence vote on MSCS may undergo changes
Jan 08, 2025
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A proposed no-confidence vote against the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board was sent to the full county commission with no recommendation, after a committee vote Wednesday.
The saga of the school board has been ongoing for weeks now, as some school board members are pushing to terminate the district's superintendent Dr. Marie Feagins after less than a year on the job.
Late last year, there was a tense and raucous meeting about the issue where the board received strong, overwhelming pushback from those in attendance supporting Feagins.
Come Monday when the full commission votes, the resolution is expected to look much different.
County Commissioner Amber Mills presented the resolution citing no confidence in the school board.
County leader plans no-confidence vote against MSCS board, may hold funds for new Frayser school
But some aren't for it.
"This is not about the children, it's not," Commissioner Henri Brooks said. "This is about politics, that's all it is, and we are opening a door that we should not open."
Mills pushed back, saying she was asked about the process of recalling board members but after research, discovered only one county in the state can.
"So I wanted the parents, the people, the community to be heard and this was the option that I came up with," she said. "This is not a power play, this is not anything that I want to do."
Wednesday, Commissioner Michael Whaley said he is looking to add amendments to the resolution, taking out the "no confidence" language.
"I think our focus as a county commission should be to ensure that we're focusing on what we want to see from the school board going forward. I think that's what's most important and that's what's really going to help build trust in the school system," Whaley said.
"And so instead of saying, well, here's what we didn't like and what we thought was not good, that I think that our opportunity here is to say what we expect to see," he said.
He's re-centering the conversation on student outcomes and how goals, operational, financial and academic are set by the school board and management of the superintendent.
"I think we'd want to see what is the process for giving feedback, for coaching, for evaluating the superintendent, not just at the end of the year, but over the course of the year. Like what does that actually look like and when does it happen? And I think we want to see how do you ensure that we're building a strong collaborative working relationship between the board and the superintendent that has its best interests of students at heart," Whaley said.
The full county commission is expected to vote on the resolution this Monday afternoon.
New Frayser High School could be caught in MSCS crossfire
Also in the midst of the school district drama, another committee also gave an unfavorable recommendation to place a 90-day moratorium on millions of dollars for a new Frayser High School. That will also be voted on Monday.