The ongoing state intervention saga in Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) is about to receive a new development.
A federal judge is scheduled to hear oral arguments for and against the state’s pending MSCS takeover on Sept. 24 in Nashville. U.S. District Court Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., who halted the action on July 1, after the MSCS School Board filed an 80-page lawsuit the month prior alleging the creation of a state oversight board was unconstitutional, is presiding over the case. The immediate question is not whether the intervention is constitutional, but who gets to run the district while the court decides that issue.
What Led to This?
Calls for the state to intervene in the Memphis-Shelby County Schools system began last year after the district fired former superintendent Marie Feagins, who had served less than a full year in the position. Feagins filed a lawsuit against the district and board member Towanna Murphy for alleged gender discrimination. Still, her Austin Law, P.C., attorney Johnathan F. Austin, filed a motion to withdraw as her counsel on Sept. 2 after Feagins told him that she no longer wanted him representing her.
MSCS has also long faced criticism for academic shortcomings and alleged corruption. The results of a Comptroller audit earlier this year revealed millions of dollars in mismanagement, including a $48.4 million custodial contract awarded to one vendor despite the district’s evaluation committee recommending several others, “numerous concerns” of project contract mismanagement, conflicts of interest in various other contracts the district awarded, and more…