District officials will delay closing one Memphis school for at least a year despite the school board voting to shut it down in February.
Memphis-Shelby County Schools officials confirmed Wednesday that students and teachers from Ida B. Wells Academy will be moved into the Norris Achievement Academy building next year, and the original location will close. Chief Academic Officer Angela Whitelaw said that decision was motivated by an outpouring of community support for the K-8 alternative school during closure meetings this winter.
“The conversation was around (Ida B. Wells) being a level five school, and working with a very small student population,” Whitelaw said during an interview Wednesday. “Hearing that feedback and listening at both meetings, we wanted to lift up the programming that the school had.”…