The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board unanimously approved $2.3 million for the Whitehaven High STEM lab in a special called meeting Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 20, which officials hope will allow construction on the long-awaited facility to soon begin.

The board voted 8-0 — to loud cheering from the dozens of Whitehaven supporters in attendance — to disburse a previously approved $1.3 million in MSCS funds, while adding $1,041,243 to cover the cost for a storm shelter required by building codes. District 1 board member Michelle McKissack was not present for the vote.

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With Tuesday’s vote, organizers will now seek the final permits needed so construction can begin shortly after Labor Day, said Richard Myers, an attorney and one of the main drivers of the project. The $9 million STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) lab is expected to take 13 months to complete, putting the opening date in fall 2025.

“I feel so great that this is over, given the years of raising these funds and to finally get this over the goal line,” said Eddie Jones, a former Shelby County commissioner who has been heavily involved in the STEM lab. “It’s much relief.”

Tuesday’s vote would seem to end a kerfuffle that has inflamed Whitehaven High supporters over the last few weeks, causing some to doubt that the project would ever be finished.

After officials held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the project in April, it was expected that real work would begin soon afterward. But, before work could begin, the project had to be fully funded, and the MSCS money had not been entirely committed. While the first $1.3 million had already been allotted, the money for the storm shelter was missing. Former Interim MSCS Superintendent Toni Williams had agreed to pay for the storm shelter, Myers said, but the documentation regarding that was apparently informal, consisting of emails and text exchanges.

“In May, when I started communicating with the (MSCS) administration, that’s when we found out they weren’t going to fund it,” Myers said. “The word that I was getting back was that they had no proof about the $1 million.”

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In an email regarding the lab, current MSCS Superintendent Marie Feagins raised that exact question.

“As it relates to the storm shelter, I do not show where the board approved additional funding beyond the $1,300,000. The team did not have knowledge of, or possession of board-approved documents reflecting funding for the storm shelter,” she wrote.

Myers submitted his documentation, and Feagins said at an MSCS board committee meeting Aug. 13 she supported the payment, setting up Tuesday’s unanimous vote.

That months-long delay was just the latest obstacle in a project that had already been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic and soaring inflation.

Myers, an attorney at the Glankler Brown firm, originally conceived the project after spearheading a similar facility at White Station High. He created the Whitehaven STEM Building nonprofit in 2018 and, with others, began raising private funds for the facility, which was then estimated to cost about $6.2 million. By late 2019, he had received approval from the Whitehaven principal and had plans drawn up by an architect.

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Then, the pandemic hit, followed by inflation and the change to the building code, which went into effect in 2021. All that conspired to increase the project cost to $9 million.

“Inflation and that d--- storm shelter just blew us out of the water,” Myers said.

But they regrouped and eventually raised about $5 million in private donations in addition to governmental contributions. Tuesday’s vote should provide the remaining funds to finish the project.

“I think what you saw tonight was the board’s will to honor a commitment that was made prior to me,” Feagins said after the meeting, adding that she hopes the Whitehaven facility can be a model for other schools in the district.

It was happy news for Cheyenne Collins, a Whitehaven parent who came to Tuesday’s meeting. Her 15-year-old daughter Riley is a junior at Whitehaven High who is looking for a career in medicine, so Collins is hoping the construction finishes on schedule.

“I want to see my daughter (get) to use this facility,” Collins said. “She wants to go into the medical field. That is all science. This could spark something else that she likes. All of this is just providing expectations that our children need to have.”