Memphis-Shelby County Schools, Tennessee

Memphis-Shelby County Schools
Shelby County, Tennessee
District details
Superintendent: Tutonial ‘Toni’ Williams (interim)
# of school board members: 9
Website: Link

Memphis-Shelby County Schools is a school district in Tennessee.

Click on the links below to learn more about the school district's...

• Superintendent
• School board
• Elections
• Budget
• Teacher salaries
• Academic performance
• Student enrollment
• Demographics
• Contact information

Superintendent

This information is updated as we become aware of changes. Please contact us with any updates.

Tutonial ‘Toni’ Williams is the interim superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools. She was appointed interim superintendent on August 30, 2022.

Past superintendents

• Joris Ray was the superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools from December 12, 2018 until his resignation in August 2022. Ray's previous career experience includes working as the district's chief of academic operations and school support.

School board elections

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board consists of nine members elected by district to four-year terms. The board's composition changed from seven to nine members following a redistricting ruling in 2014.

Office	Name	Date assumed office
Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board, District 1	Michelle McKissack	January 25, 2022
Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board, District 2	Althea Greene	January 25, 2022
Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board, District 3	Stephanie Love	January 25, 2022
Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board, District 4	Kevin Woods	January 25, 2022
Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board, District 5	Mauricio Calvo	August 4, 2023
Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board, District 6	Keith Williams	September 1, 2022
Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board, District 7	Frank Johnson	October 17, 2022
Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board, District 8	Amber Huett-Garcia	September 1, 2022
Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board, District 9	Joyce Dorse-Coleman	January 25, 2022

This officeholder information was last updated on February 21, 2024. Please contact us with any updates.

Election dates

See also: Memphis-Shelby County Schools elections in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024

Members of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board are elected to four-year terms. Four or five seats are up for election on a staggered basis every even-numbered year in August.

Five seats on the board are up for general election on August 1, 2024.

Public participation in board meetings

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools school board maintains the following policy on public testimony during board meetings:

“

The Public Comment period is designed to gain input from the public and not for immediate responses by the Board to the public comments presented. While the Board cannot assure each speaker of a specific or individualized response, the Board will consider the public comments and any supporting materials provided by speakers. The Public Comment period will end after 30 minutes or when all speakers signing up to speak have been heard -- whichever occurs first. Tennessee law makes no specific provisions for the participation of the public at meetings of local boards of education. Public comment is not permitted at Board Work Sessions or Board Committee Meetings. Members of the public desiring to address the Board may do so at Regular Business and Special Called Meetings. Only those members of the public who sign up to speak on the citizen sign-in sheet, which is submitted to the Board Chairman following the approval of the board agenda, shall be permitted to address the Board. Public comments shall be taken in the order in which members of the public sign up to speak. Public comments shall be limited to up to 3 (three) minutes per person; no recognized speaker may yield his/her time to another speaker. At the discretion of the Chairman, limitations may be placed on the following: 1) a speaker's time to comment; 2) the number of speakers commenting on the same topic; and/or 3) the number of speakers representing the same group or organization. Speakers will be introduced by the Chairman of the Board at the appropriate time during the agenda. Speakers must state their name, home address, organization he/she is representing, if any, and subject of the presentation before they are permitted to proceed. Speakers may offer objective comments about school operations and programs that concern them. Speakers are asked to refrain from using names of personnel or names of persons connected with the school system, particularly when lodging a complaint. Speakers will not be permitted to engage in gossip, make defamatory comments, or use abusive or vulgar language. The Chairman shall have the authority to terminate the remarks of any individual who is disruptive or does not adhere to Board rules. All Business Meetings, Special Called Meetings and Work Sessions that are subject to the Tennessee Open Meetings law shall be broadcast live or tape-delayed via radio and/or television. Legal Reference: T.C.A. § 8-44-102 THE SIGN-UP PERIOD BEGINS THIRTY (30) MINUTES PRIOR TO EACH REGULAR BUSINESS AND/OR SPECIAL CALLED MEETING.

”

Budget

The table below displays the budget for Memphis-Shelby County Schools:

Expenditures by Category
School Year	Staff Expenses		Student Services		Operational Expenses		Debt Service		Other		Budget Total
	Total	% of Budget	Total	% of Budget	Total	% of Budget	Total	% of Budget	Total	% of Budget
2013-2014	$955,657,389	80.5%	$60,823,943	5.1%	$145,460,256	12.3%	$592,879	0%	$24,174,193	2%	$1,186,708,660
2014-2015	$728,167,870	76.3%	$89,268,427	9.4%	$135,831,635	14.2%	$658,940	0.1%	$0	0%	$953,926,872
Averages:	$841,912,629.5	79%	$75,046,185	7%	$140,645,945.5	13%	$625,909.5	0%	$12,087,096.5	1%	$1,070,317,766

Teacher salaries

The following salary information was pulled from the district's teacher salary schedule. A salary schedule is a list of expected compensations based on variables such as position, years employed, and education level. It may not reflect actual teacher salaries in the district.

Year	Minimum	Maximum
2023-2024	$47,000	$84,861
2020-2021	$40,873	$69,475

Academic performance

Proficiency assessments

Each year, state and local education agencies use tests and other standards to assess student proficiency. Although the data below was published by the U.S. Department of Education, proficiency measurements are established by the states. As a result, proficiency levels are not comparable between different states and year-over-year proficiency levels within a district may not be comparable because states may change their proficiency measurements.

Mathematics

The following table shows the percentage of district students who scored at or above the proficiency level each school year:

School year	All (%)	Asian/Pacific Islander (%)	Black (%)	Hispanic (%)	Native American (%)	Two or More Races (%)	White (%)
2018-2019	26	65	22	31	40-44	N/A	54
2017-2018	22	61	18	24	25-29	N/A	49
2016-2017	19	59	15	22	25-29	N/A	47
2015-2016	6	6-9	6	5	<50	N/A	12
2014-2015	42	76	39	46	35-39	N/A	65
2013-2014	42	78	33	43	40-44	N/A	68

Reading/language arts

The following table shows the percentage of district students who scored at or above the proficiency level each school year:

School year	All (%)	Asian/Pacific Islander (%)	Black (%)	Hispanic (%)	Native American (%)	Two or More Races (%)	White (%)
2018-2019	22	58	18	23	30-34	N/A	51
2017-2018	22	56	18	21	40-44	N/A	53
2016-2017	21	58	17	21	30-34	N/A	51
2015-2016	24	65-69	21	25	<50	N/A	55
2014-2015	35	74	31	34	30-34	N/A	66
2013-2014	43	75	33	38	45-49	N/A	74

Graduation rates

The following table shows the graduation rate of district students each school year:

School year	All (%)	Asian/Pacific Islander (%)	Black (%)	Hispanic (%)	Native American (%)	Two or More Races (%)	White (%)
2017-2018	79	85-89	81	71	≥50	N/A	75
2016-2017	80	90-94	81	72	≥50	N/A	78
2015-2016	79	85-89	79	70	60-79	N/A	79
2014-2015	75	85-89	75	67	≥50	N/A	75
2013-2014	75	90-94	72	68	≥50	N/A	85

Student enrollment

Year	Enrollment	Year-to-year change (%)
2018-2019	112,125	2.3
2017-2018	109,591	-1.6
2016-2017	111,403	-0.6
2015-2016	112,020	-3.4
2014-2015	115,912	-22.6
2013-2014	149,832	-

About the district

Memphis-Shelby County Schools is located in Shelby County, Tennessee.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools is located in Shelby County, Tennessee. It is classified as a large city school district by the National Center for Education Statistics. The district served 112,125 students during the 2018-2019 school year and comprised 219 schools.

During the 2018-2019 school year, 7.1% were English language learners and 11.1% of students had an Individual Education Plan (IEP).

Racial Demographics, 2018-2019
Race	Shelby County Schools (%)	Tennessee K-12 students (%)
American Indian/Alaska Native	N/A	0.2
Asian or Asian/Pacific Islander	N/A	2.0
Black	74.9	21.9
Hispanic	14.2	10.9
Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander	N/A	0.1
Two or More Races	2.4	3.2
White	7.2	62.0

Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Noteworthy events

2022: School district name change

On January 25, 2022, the Shelby County Board of Education approved a recommendation to change the school district's doing business as (DBA) name from Shelby County Schools to Memphis-Shelby County Schools.

2016: Federal investigation of the district over migrant students

The U.S. Department of Education announced on July 20, 2016, that Shelby County Schools was being investigated by the department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The investigation involved "issues affecting English learners and limited English proficiency parental communication, under Title VI,” according to OCR spokeswoman Dorie Nolt. Title VI prohibits any organization or program that receives federal funding from discriminating based on race or national origin, according to Chalkbeat Tennessee.

An Associated Press report in May 2016 found that a number of migrant children who lived in the Shelby County school district had been kept from enrolling in school by district officials due to lack of transcripts or the age of the students.

The OCR saw 51% more complaints related to Title VI from 2009 to 2015. Overall, Title VI complaints represented 21% of complaints brought to the OCR in 2015, according to Education Dive.

Memphis City Schools, now part of Shelby County Schools, underwent an OCR probe in 2012. The OCR investigated allegations of discrimination against students with disabilities, and the district agreed to resolve the issue by better communicating about the rights of students with district parents.

2016: State response to district's lawsuit

See also: Education reform: State funding battles and local responses (2016)

Shelby County Schools filed a lawsuit against the state of Tennessee in 2015. The lawsuit said that the state's lack of funding had disproportionately hurt the district's poorer students and that the state's funding model failed "to take into account the actual costs of funding an education."

The state did not respond to Shelby County's lawsuit until July 2016, when officials submitted a 25-page response that denied that the state's funding model was the cause of the school district's financial problems. The response also detailed that the funding model meets the state's responsibilities to maintain a public school system “that affords substantially equal educational opportunities to all students in Tennessee."

Shelby County Schools was not alone in suing the state over education funding. The Metropolitan Nashville school district voted to join its lawsuit in October 2017. Metropolitan Nashville also sued the state over funding for teaching English as a second language in 2016, but it lost that case. The Hamilton County School District, along with six surrounding county school districts, also filed a lawsuit against the state that stated it had not provided sufficient funding for schools. Hamilton County's lawsuit was denied class-action status in 2016, but a judge also ruled against the state's motion to dismiss it.

At issue in the three lawsuits was the state's funding formula, known as the Basic Education Program (BEP). Shelby County, Metro Nashville, and Hamilton County said they did not receive the funding due to them under BEP. The 2016 budget that was signed into law by Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) marked the second year for "substantial increases" to the state's public education funding, according to The Tennesseean. It added $261 million to the Basic Education Program, $104.6 million of which was dedicated to raising teacher salaries. What the budget did not do, however, was set up BEP 2.0, a program that changed the funding formula to help larger school districts.

In September 2018, Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman, appointed by Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) in 2003, upheld a previous decision denying the state's motion to dismiss the lawsuit. In January 2019, the Tennessee Court of Appeals refused a motion to dismiss the case, which had since been reassigned to Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle. The trial began on October 18, 2021.

2016: State's Achievement School District halts school takeovers for one year

Following the cancellation of the state's TNReady tests, officials of the state's Achievement School District (ASD) announced they would not seek to take over any additional schools for the 2017-2018 school year. Education Commissioner Candice McQueen announced in a statement on April 15, 2016, that, “Extending flexibility to priority schools during this transition mirrors the flexibility we have offered to teachers and students."

The ASD is a statewide school district designed to take control of struggling schools. The schools are assigned to charter school networks and taken out of the control of the county school district. According to its website, the ASD "was created to catapult the bottom 5% of schools in Tennessee straight to the top 25% in the state."

State Rep. Antonio Parkinson (D-98)

The ASD opened its first school in 2012. As of the 2015-2016 school year, the ASD operated 29 schools. Though the ASD's goals were to turn around its schools within five years, five of the six schools that were opened in 2012 were still in the state's bottom 5% in performance in 2016. ASD Superintendent Malika Anderson admitted that the goals had been "overly ambitious," according to Chalkbeat Tennessee.

The move to suspend ASD takeovers was approved by both critics and supporters of the district. An open critic of the ASD, State Rep. Antonio Parkinson (D-98) said, “The fact that the ASD/DOE is listening and holding their 17-18 school year as a ‘hold harmless’ year is a positive step in the right direction.”

Mendell Grinter, the state director of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, a group that has advocated for the ASD, said, "Students need adequate time to prepare for and adjust to the new TNReady assessment, and this decision will allow for that."

2016: Testing suspended in wake of state terminating TNReady contract

After the Tennessee Department of Education terminated the contract with the provider of the state's new TNReady test assessments on April 27, 2016, Shelby County Schools halted its assessments for students in grades three through eight. Education Commissioner Candice McQueen said the contract was terminated with North Carolina-based Measurement Inc. after it failed to deliver all of the testing materials.

Education Commissioner Candice McQueen

McQueen called Measurement Inc.'s performance "deeply disappointing" after months of delivery delays and a failure to roll out the assessment online in February 2016. "We’ve exhausted every option in problem solving with this vendor to assist them in getting these tests delivered. Districts have exceeded their responsibility and obligation to wait for grade 3-8 materials, and we will not ask districts to continue waiting on a vendor that has repeatedly failed us," said McQueen.

Measurement Inc. President Henry Scherich said the contract termination was a disappointment. "It has been a very difficult job, and we were within a couple days or so of having all the tests in the state," said Scherich.

Scherich said that the company had been put in a "difficult, and even impossible, situation" after they were required to switch to a paper test in response to the failed online assessment, according to Chalkbeat Tennessee. McQueen said the state's contract had included provisions for paper tests in the case of technical difficulties. As of the termination, the state had paid $1.6 million toward the $108 million contract.

The state decided to continue testing high school students, as those materials had been received, but it suspended the tests for younger students. School districts that received the needed materials for testing younger grades were allowed to choose between continuing the assessments or suspending them. When district officials announced they would be suspending tests, Shelby County Schools released the following statement:

“	The constant changes with regard to this year's TNReady testing have been challenging, but we applaud the Tennessee Department of Education for keeping us updated along the way. SCS has elected, per the State's option, to suspend testing for all students in Grades 3-8 due to Measurement Inc.'s failed delivery of testing materials. Although this testing period has been tumultuous, we are pleased that the State is providing districts, teachers and students with flexibility in performance and evaluation as they continue to work to provide us with a quality annual assessment.	”
—Shelby County Schools (2016)

Due to the suspension, accountability measures related to test scores, such as teacher evaluations, were also delayed for one year. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) said that despite the delay, the state was still moving forward.

“	The failure of the testing vendor to deliver the tests and meet its own obligations does not take away from the fact that Tennessee has created our own, higher standards, we have an improved assessment fully aligned with those standards, and we remain committed going forward to measuring student performance fairly and ensuring accountability for those results.	”
—Gov. Bill Haslam (R)

Contact information

Memphis-Shelby County Schools
160 S. Hollywood St.
Memphis, TN 38112
Phone: 901-416-5300

See also

Tennessee	School Board Elections	News and Analysis
List of school districts in Tennessee School board elections in Tennessee Public education in Tennessee	Tennessee school board elections, 2024	United States school shootings, 1990-present

External links

• Search Google News for this topic
• Shelby County Schools
• Tennessee Department of Education
• Tennessee School Boards Association