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MSCS Board, Community Members Prepare for Superintendent’s Vote

MSCS Board, Community Members Prepare for Superintendent’s Vote

On By Littum

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – We are now less than 24 hours away from finding out if the Memphis-Shelby County School Board fires Superintendent Dr. Marie Feagins.

Just nine months into her first superintendent role, Dr. Feagin’s overwhelming support from the local community, but is it enough to save her job?

Parents, teachers and school advocacy groups desperately wanted a change agent for MSCS, someone who would invest in the classroom while rooting out corruption and cronyism in the administration.

But critics of Dr. Feagins said she made too many unilateral decisions without consulting veteran leaders in the district or her bosses on the school board.

“In a democracy we have checks and balances. Unchecked power is not healthy,” former school board member Mauricio Calvo told Action News 5.

Former MSCS board member Mauricio Calvo
Former MSCS board member Mauricio Calvo(Action News 5)

Calvo was on the board that elected Dr. Feagins after a nearly two-year search that included a do-over when the first attempt went sideways due to board disagreements and commissioners had to start the national search from scratch.

School board vice chair Sheleah Harris resigned during this time, calling the superintendent search “the highest level of ignorance.”

The Shelby County Commission then appointed Calvo, who is also executive director and executive director of Latino Memphis, to Harris’ District 5 seat. He said his first vote was for another candidate, but he switched to Feagins on the final vote to show solidarity with those on the school board who supported her.

He has since lost his bid for re-election, as has board chairman Dr. Althea Greene. Both wrote letters late last year to the nine members of the school board expressing concern about Dr. Feagins’ qualifications, and with Greene calling for her outright firing.

Calvo wrote his own letter to Dr. Feagins, where he encouraged her to work more with the board and with members of the administration. He believes Feagins stepped on too many toes by cutting too much, too quickly when she arrived and without advice from veteran educators in the state’s largest school system.

“Did some of those people have to go? Absolutely,” Calvo said. “Were they the right people to go? I don’t know. And was it the right time right before school started? Do you have to cut back on HR and enrollment when you start school?”

In his first 90 days, Superintendent Feagins cut 1,100 jobs and canceled dozens of contracts, affecting services across the district, including digital lessons, virtual learning and mentoring programs.

Southwind High Principal John Bush is the head of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools Principal Association.

He warned the board that all was not well at MSCS at the first chaotic meeting in December, where board members tried to oust Feagins.

“As principals, we are on the front lines,” he told commissioners, “and our focus remains clear on making sure our schools have the resources, support and guidance they need to serve our students effectively. But we are shocked on challenges that make this work harder than it needs to be.”

The main union recently sent members a survey that gauged their satisfaction with the current inner workings of the district and asked if they would like to see an interim superintendent if Feagins is fired.

Signs outside MSCS headquarters in support of Superintendent Dr. Marie Feagins, Monday,...
Signs outside MSCS headquarters in support of Superintendent Dr. Marie Feagins, Monday 20 January 2025

Meanwhile, the residents of Memphis and Shelby County continue to show appreciation for Dr. Feagin’s. They held a march Saturday to show solidarity with her, and late Monday, some posted signs outside district headquarters urging the board to keep Dr. Feagin’s.

She told the board and the community last year, “I have said time and time again that if I am ever the barrier, I would leave,” and she responded in writing and verbally to the allegations against her in the decision to fire her.

The December 17 resolution to remove Dr. Feagins claims she declared that district employees were paid $1 million in overtime for time not worked without providing evidence. She is also accused of accepting a donation of more than $45,000 without board approval and missing a deadline for a federal grant.

Feagins has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Teachers and the two teacher unions, the Memphis-Shelby County Education Association and the United Education Association of Shelby County, have been fans of Feagins since she arrived.

One of her first major moves was to give teachers a raise, and she promised parents that her main goal was to improve student achievement.

Sarah Carpenter, executive director of the education advocacy group Memphis Lift, isn’t worried that Dr. Feagins terminates contracts or shakes up business as usual.

Sarah Caprenter, CEO of Memphis Lift
Sarah Caprenter, CEO of Memphis Lift(Action News 5)

“I’m not worried because I trust her,” Carpenter told Action News 5. “They hired her to do the job. This lady just got here and they didn’t give her a fair shake.”

Carpenter cheered a new bill introduced at the start of the legislative session in Nashville that, if passed, would give the public a chance to recall school board members (or any elected local officials) if local governments pass the law.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. GA Hardaway of Memphis, is reserving his thoughts on the drama at MSCS. Like most of Memphis, he awaits the school board’s decision on Tuesday.

“I’ve been to enough meetings in my life to know that what makes the headlines isn’t the whole story,” said Rep. Hardaway. “I know enough to know that I don’t know everything.”

The Memphis-Shelby County School Board calendar shows the board will meet in executive session at 16.00 Tuesday, followed by a business meeting at 5:30 p.m. The board will then hold a specially called meeting at 19.00.

If the MSCS board fires Dr. Feagins without cause, according to her contract, her buyout would be more than $487,000.

Her annual salary is $325,000, making the former Detroit public school administrator the highest-paid public employee in Memphis and Shelby County.

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