109 articles by Laura Faith Kebede :
Some Shelby County Schools educators recorded their lessons from home facing a computer screen, while others recorded from someone else’s classroom facing a TV camera. At Middle College High School, one classroom has been transformed into a makeshift studio.
The meeting behind (virtual) closed doors appears to violate a state statute governing how public business should be conducted, according to a letter sent to the Shelby County Schools district from a lawyer representing Chalkbeat.
So far, the Shelby County Schools district only has 30,000 to 40,000 take-home devices for 95,000 students. Students living in poverty are less likely to have a computer at home, Ray said.
“We were told there was going to be some thorough cleaning,” said Jake Pritchard, a fourth-grade teacher at Treadwell Elementary. “That does not appear to have happened.”
Lori Gilbert, the president of Treadwell Elementary’s parent group, said some Spanish-speaking parents did not get the district’s robocall about a quarantined employee in Spanish until after school started.
Though Superintendent Joris Ray decided to exclude union leadership to “give other people an opportunity to lead too,” at least 10 schools voted for a union leader to represent them on the council anyway.
Brad Leon is the seventh SCS leader to resign since Joris Ray took the district helm last January.
If all the schools are approved, they eventually would enroll about 2,100 students, which would make a small dent in the district’s need for 44,000 more “high-quality” seats in various neighborhoods, according to the Shelby County Schools’ analysis.
Shelby County Schools started universal screening this year as a more equitable way to select students for its gifted programs. In the first round of testing, 600 students were newly identified as gifted.
The Shelby County Commission initially appointed Kevin Woods to the school board in 2011 as plans for merging city and county school systems got underway.
The decision by the Shelby County School board means about 2,800 students will not have to find another school to attend in the fall.
Shelby County Schools board members heard arguments from district staff and from Memphis Business Academy Middle, Memphis College Preparatory Elementary and Veritas College Preparatory ahead of a Jan. 28 vote to renew their 10-year contracts.
Student enrollment at the district’s 57 charter schools is up nearly 14%, to about 18,250 students. That means the share of Shelby County Schools students attending a charter school rose to 16%.
District staff recommended against re-upping operating agreements for Veritas College Preparatory, Memphis College Preparatory Elementary and Memphis Business Academy Middle.
Across Shelby County Schools district, 600 more students in kindergarten through second grade are starting in the district’s gifted education program, known as CLUE, which stands for Creative Learning in a Unique Environment. Another 600 older students are waiting for additional state testing to see if they qualify.
Eve Carney, the state’s chief districts and schools officer, said the state would consider more than just test scores and academic growth when placing schools on three "tiers," or levels of intervention. “Just to be frank, we will be in your schools, we will be in your business,” Carney said.
The new charter school policy the school board approved over the summer was the first update in eight years and significantly increased accountability.
Based on 1969 news reports, almost 67,000 students did not attend school at the height of the protest as black leaders advocated for seats on the all-white school board.
Teli White was suspended three years ago for his part in a grade-changing scandal after a district investigation, but was fired a year later for the same offense following an investigation by independent law firms.
The proposal would raise teachers' starting salary to $45,000. Those with master’s degrees ultimately could make a salary as high as $74,000, and teachers with doctorates almost $84,000.
Corey Johnson was placed on suspension with pay last month and fired on Dec. 3, according to Ricky Wilkins, the charter school network’s lawyer.
The schools had enrolled more students than their contracts with the district allowed.
Superintendent Joris Ray believes Shelby County Schools will be able to more effectively control the behavior of officers if they report directly to the district.
The Shelby County Schools board included the request to state lawmakers to hold off on charter approvals until the state evaluates how they are doing.
About 20,000 students in the Memphis district come from households where English is not the language spoken at home, or about one in five students. Most of those students come from Spanish-speaking homes.
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