Missing funds halt construction on Whitehaven STEM lab
Many city and county government officials were on hand for a groundbreaking ceremony for a new STEM lab at Whitehaven High School April 3, 2024. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)
During a groundbreaking ceremony in April, Whitehaven community members celebrated a new $9.5 million STEM lab, and all the possibilities it would hold for students once it was complete the next year.
But the building, spearheaded over the last several years by funders outside of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools district, is now on hold. Money that the school district promised to pitch in, they say, is missing.
A tangle of undelivered funds and local policies has put the project in limbo and snarled its progress. Local code requires certain school buildings, including the new STEM center, to have a storm shelter. But MSCS’ commitment to funding that storm shelter is in question. And the school district’s own policy prevents building projects from moving forward until all of the funds are secured.
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Memphis-Shelby County Schools Shelby County Commission Whitehaven Whitehaven High School Free with sign-upLaura 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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