‘Nervous and excited': MSCS students embark on new school year
Interim Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Roderick Richmond, center, greets students at Belle Forest Community School on their first day Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. (Courtesy Belle Forest Community School)
This first day of school, Memphis-Shelby County Schools third grader Willie Perry felt “nervous and excited at the same time.” Adults interested in the school system have reasons to feel the same about the new academic year.
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Memphis-Shelby County Schools Roderick RichmondLaura 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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