|
Welcome to About Town, where we take a deeper dive into one neighborhood each week while also highlighting the latest news, developments and back stories from Memphis’ neighborhoods. This week’s focus: Shelby County Schools’ jurisdiction.
It has been a busy few weeks for Shelby County Schools with the closing of one charter school and the potential closure of four others throughout the city. To top if off, the district may soon vote on a potential name change to include Memphis in its nomenclature.
The potential changes in the Shelby County Schools system could affect students in various Memphis neighborhoods, including South Memphis, North Memphis, Nutbush, East Memphis and Cordova.
Last week, the SCS Board of Education voted to revoke the charter for Memphis Academy of Health Sciences in Nutbush due to a scandal involving a misappropriation of funds.
Next week, the board will decide whether they want to close four other schools. Two KIPP charter network schools — KIPP Memphis Collegiate Elementary and KIPP Memphis Academy Middle — could close because they are underperforming academically. Two public schools — Shady Grove and Alton Elementary Schools — are being considered for closings due to low enrollment and large deferred maintenance bills.
Enrollment has been a problem since the pandemic started, likely because of people’s dissatisfaction with virtual learning, said Daja Henry, education reporter for The Daily Memphian.
“This is the second year in a row that enrollment has declined, but it’s also happening all across the nation,” Henry said. “So it’s not just in Memphis, not just Shelby County Schools, that public school enrollment is declining.”
Alton Elementary’s 289 students will be rezoned to A.B. Hill Elementary. Some Shady Grove’s 368 students will be rezoned to nearby White Station Elementary. But a majority of the students, many of whom live in Cordova, will join Dexter K-8 in the 2022-2023 school year, its first year of operation after operating as a separate elementary and middle school.
For each student living outside the 1.5-mile radius, the district will continue to offer transportation.
“What this means for all the students is that there will be a disruption in their learning,” Henry said. “And even though some of these schools, like Alton and A.B. Hill, are only two miles away, it’s still a disruption as far as having to go to a different school with new teachers and a whole bunch of other students that you’re not familiar with.”
For now, SCS hopes these changes are merely growing pains as they look at the big picture: by consolidating elementary and middle schools, students will receive fewer disruptions to learning. These plans to right-size the district have been in the works since former superintendent Dorsey Hopson was in charge.
The school board will vote on school closures next week.
“I think it’s likely that the public schools, Shady Grove and Alton, will be closed,” Henry said. “I haven’t heard any opposition from the school board members on that. Now, the KIPP schools, I think that it seems that they may stay open and get on an action plan.”
More About Town:
 Students at Ira Samelson Jr. Boys & Girls Club learn teamwork through a game of tug of war. (Courtesy of by Boys & Girls Club of Greater Memphis)
Students in these clubs will learn life skills to help them reach their full potential, learning about healthy choices, character development, education and leadership, athletics and the arts.
 The Downtown Memphis Commission’s staff made its final recommendation to its affiliate Downtown Mobility Authority Wednesday, Jan. 19, selecting 100 N. Main Development Partners. (Courtesy 100 North Main Development Partners) Orgel has had success in recent years with similar adaptive reuse projects like the Tennessee Brewery on South Bluffs and the American Snuff building in Uptown.
The elaborately designed convenience store with gas pumps and retail bays would have been built at 2977 Broad Ave. at Tillman Street and Sam Cooper Boulevard.
..... |
