MSCS literacy director resigns
Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ top literacy official Jared Myracle has resigned, some nine months after joining the district in a new role created by former Superintendent Marie Feagins.
His last work day was Tuesday, Feb. 11, according to an email obtained by The Daily Memphian.
Although Myracle is the first top-level departure since Feagins’ controversial ouster last month, he told The Daily Memphian his decision was rooted in personal reasons.
Myracle commuted to the district more than an hour each way from Jackson, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife and two young daughters. By the fall, he said he found himself “missing a lot of suppers and bedtimes” to keep up with the long days as the top literacy official in Memphis.
Feagins had been sensitive to his experience, Myracle said. He said he had planned to step down at the end of the school year.
“Given the shift in the administration, it just only felt fair to Dr. (Roderick) Richmond to let him know as soon as possible who he could build around moving forward,” Myracle said.
Interim Superintendent Roderick Richmond told board members in an email sent Tuesday that he was considering and reviewing Myracle’s proposal to continue supporting the district in a more limited capacity via a contract. In that consultancy role, he would continue working on existing literacy initiatives, such as professional development about the best strategies for teaching students to learn to read.
It’s unclear how much Myracle’s proposed contract as a consultant would cost the district.
As the literacy director, Myracle spearheaded a “back to basics” approach, Chalkbeat Tennessee reported, in efforts to improve the district’s stubbornly low scores on Tennessee’s exams.
Making the literacy role a cabinet position helped offer consistency in that approach and with expectations for educators across the district’s 150 directly managed schools, Myracle told The Daily Memphian.
“I’ve offered my support, whether it’s in a contract or even on a pro bono basis, just via continued conversation,” Myracle said. “I’m a West Tennessean and want to see the district be successful.”
“As Memphis goes, so goes the state,” he added.
It was not immediately clear Thursday if Richmond would seek a replacement for Myracle’s role.
Myracle was one of a handful of Feagins’ top-level staff who wasn’t internal to the district when he was hired.
He came to MSCS from Impact Florida, an organization focused on educator development. He previously worked for the Tennessee Department of Education and was the top academic official for Jackson-Madison County Schools.
As interim superintendent, Richmond appears to have the school board’s support for a 100-day plan in the role, making him poised to continue leading the district through the end of the 2024-25 school year.
The board has not discussed next steps for seeking a permanent leader to replace Feagins.
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Memphis-Shelby County SchoolsLaura Testino
Laura Testino is an enterprise reporter on The Daily Memphian’s metro team who writes most often about how education policies shape the lives of children and families. She regularly contributes to coverage of breaking news events and actions of the Tennessee General Assembly. Testino’s journalism career in Memphis began six years ago at The Commercial Appeal, where she began chronicling learning disruptions associated with the pandemic, and continued with Chalkbeat, where she dug into education administration in Memphis. Her reporting has appeared in The New York Times, The Times-Picayune, The Tuscaloosa News and USA Today.
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