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Interim head is breaking MSCS into regions. Here’s what they are.

By , Daily Memphian Updated: July 31, 2025 8:04 AM CT | Published: July 31, 2025 4:00 AM CT

Interim Memphis schools superintendent Roderick Richmond has started to implement his plan for restructuring the school system into four geographic regions, he told school board members Tuesday, July 29. He’s also reviving a program for the district’s lowest-performing schools to make up a fifth region. 

Sorting schools in this way offers a “decentralized approach” that prioritizes “localized decision-making,” he said Tuesday during a deep-dive presentation into the structure one week before students return to their classrooms for the 2025-26 school year. 

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Memphis-Shelby County Schools Roderick Richmond Subscriber Only

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Laura Testino

Laura 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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