Former Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins plans to sue over her termination, she told reporters after being ousted on Tuesday, Jan. 21. 

School board members voted 6-3 to fire her during a tense meeting that for a second time included exchanges with a frustrated crowd there in support of Feagins’ leadership. 

“I think this is exactly the opposite of what you desire to see in any organization. I think this is exactly the opposite of what we expect from our kids, and from our staff. I think this is exactly the opposite of what an educational institution stands for,” Feagins said. 

Marie Feagins ousted as MSCS superintendent

“I believe that many members of the board chose chaos over children, and it looks like they’ve chosen litigation over leadership,” she continued. “And so I’ll see them in court.” 

Tennessee Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, expects to file legislation to allow state intervention in Memphis-Shelby County Schools. 

White told The Daily Memphian late Tuesday, Jan. 21, that the school board’s vote to oust Superintendent Marie Feagins, who was on the job for less than 10 months, showed “too much dysfunction.” 

Marie Feagins ousted as MSCS superintendent

White said he is exploring options for state intervention in Tennessee’s largest school district.

“We’ve got several pathways,” he told The Daily Memphian. 

Career education administrator Roderick Richmond is the new interim superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools. 

MSCS board members voted on Tuesday, Jan. 21, to place Richmond in the post moments after terminating former Superintendent Marie Feagins. 

During the board’s debate, Richmond appeared to have tense exchanges with audience members who were frustrated by his appointment. 

Deputy Superintendent Angela Whitelaw received a nomination but declined it.

Marie Feagins’ tenure as superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools is over. 

Overflow crowds packed the Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board of Education building, with many arriving well before the scheduled start times for both the 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. sessions.

Activist says community will hold ‘Furious Six’ accountable

10:12 p.m. — Danica Wilks, a community activist, expressed her disappointment after the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board voted to terminate Superintendent Marie Feagins.

Wilks criticized the board for ignoring the voices of the community, calling the decision a betrayal of a “revolutionary leader” who was on the brink of effecting meaningful change in the district.

“The Furious Six,” as Wilks referred to the board members who voted in favor of Feagins’ dismissal, failed to consider the overwhelming support for the superintendent, she argued.

It was December of 2023 when Marie Feagins made her first public appeal to Memphians and school board members that she was the woman for the job. 

“What I know for sure is that the right leader, at the right place, at the right time changes everything,” Feagins said. She wanted to be the next superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools. 

The Alabama native, then an education administrator in Detroit’s public school system, acknowledged then that she didn’t have the resume of some of her competitors. But in her pursuit of the leadership role, an endeavor that lasted at least 10 months, Feagins absorbed Memphis’ culture and education landscape in a way that helped her make a successful appeal.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins was a newcomer less than a year ago.

Now, her name is well known, even adored, by many community members and stakeholders. Yet Feagins faces a removal vote by MSCS board members Tuesday, Jan. 21, about 10 months after she started the job.

Here’s a timeline of Feagins’ short tenure, with links to The Daily Memphian’s key stories about her leadership.

April 2023: After withdrawing her name from the candidate pool when the board halted its first search effort, Feagins asks to be reconsidered for the superintendent role in the restarted search. 

Marie Feagins’ future as superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools is set to be decided on Tuesday, Jan. 21.

The school board has called a special meeting for 7 p.m. to take up the termination resolution it delayed one month ago.

A report by unnamed “outside counsel” is set to precede the vote. No additional information about the report is offered in agenda documents.

Play by play: What was said during MSCS’ superintendent evaluation committee

Board Chair Joyce Dorse Coleman retained attorney Robert Spence for the board. Attorney Alan Crone is representing Feagins in the employment dispute.

Let us ponder the statement delivered by Memphis-Shelby County Schools board member Natalie McKinney.

She read the statement out loud during the board’s Tuesday, Jan. 14, committee meeting. It outlined the reasons MSCS Superintendent Marie Feagins should be fired.

McKinney said Feagins was responsible for the “dismantling of critical student support systems.”

Feagins and MSCS: Superintendent calls charges false, divisive

She said the superintendent’s “delays in approving student contracts left principals and teachers without the resources to effectively deliver instruction.”