Shelby County Commissioners have the power to term limit Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members under a new law the Tennessee General Assembly passed this year.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Torrey Harris, D-Memphis, and Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Eads, allows local governments in Shelby and Knox counties to vote to sync school board elections with existing county elections. 

But the version that both the Tennessee House of Representatives and Senate agreed upon appears to allow commissioners to shorten the terms of some elected school board members in order to bring them all on the same ballot in 2026. 

MSCS avoids state takeover this year

“This will save counties money, and it will also ensure that increased voter participation will occur,” Taylor said during Tuesday, April 22, debate on the Senate floor.

Should the Shelby County Board of Commissioners vote to sync the elections with the county ballot, they would place all of the nine MSCS seats on a hefty 2026 ballot. Voters will elect a new Shelby County mayor and sheriff, 13 commissioners and other county offices next August.

But the five MSCS board members elected in 2024 would have their terms cut in half: 

• Natalie McKinney of District 2, representing Berclair and parts of North Memphis
• Stephanie Love of District 3, representing Frayser and Raleigh
• Tamarques Porter of District 4, representing southeast Shelby County
• Sable Otey of District 5, representing Cordova
• Towanna Murphy of District 7, representing Oakhaven and parts of South Memphis and Hickory Hill

Four of the board members were new to their seats in 2024, meaning a resolution from the commission would limit their tenure on the board to a total of two years. Love, who was the only incumbent reelected last August, is the longest tenured board member and has served more than two terms. 

Shelby County Commission goes deep on school, xAI actions

A vote from the commission to adopt the new legislation for Shelby County limits future MSCS board members to two consecutive terms on the board, which are the same parameters on commission seats. 

It’s unclear if any school board members would mount a legal challenge to the bill. 

Taylor said he understood the bill to be constitutional because it was not a private act, but a statewide bill. 

“Folks went to the polls to vote for school board members on four-year terms. So those folks whose terms would be cut short, isn’t there some sort of issues?” said Sen. London Lamar, D-Memphis, who questioned the constitutionality. 

Both Democrat and Republican lawmakers pursued legislation to place more accountability on the MSCS school board after outcry from some constituents exasperated by the elected board’s move to oust Superintendent Marie Feagins. 

MSCS takeover bill would give power to Shelby County leaders

The measure from Taylor and Harris was the only board-centric proposal to earn passage this year. Most of the six votes to oust Feagins in January came from MSCS board members who were elected in 2024. (Murphy, Love McKinney and Otey voted to remove her while Porter voted no.) 

A takeover proposal initiated by Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, and sponsored in the Senate by Taylor lost steam in the final hours of the session. The two chambers couldn’t agree on the powers that an appointed advisory board should have over MSCS. 

Legislation from Rep. G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, that would have allowed voters to recall elected school board members also stalled in the legislature. 

Harris, who sponsored the term-limiting legislation in the House, told The Daily Memphian in March that he wasn’t supporting the legislation as a response to Feagins’ ouster. Rather, he said, Memphians should control the fates of their elected officials, and not the state.

He also saw the measure as a path toward improving voter turnout by reducing the number of elections and boosting the number of offices on a ballot. 

An earlier House version of the bill called for syncing the elections, but would have prevented elected board members from losing time in their current terms. In the negotiations to match the House and Senate versions, that stipulation was cut.