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Memphis state takeover board Chair Billy Orgel said in a court filing Tuesday that the politically appointed body is “ready, willing, and able” to assume control of Tennessee’s largest school district.
That comes days after the oversight board met for the first time in months. In Thursday’s virtual meeting, the nine board members fast-tracked approval of key policies and procedures developed largely by Tampa-based consulting firm MGT during the court-ordered pause this summer.
Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw temporarily blocked the oversight board in a late June ruling, an early win for Memphis-Shelby County Schools in its case against the state takeover. But Crenshaw said in the lawsuit’s first hearing early this month that he never intended for the pause to be long term.
After more than three months of legal delays, Crenshaw signaled that the state takeover could officially begin once oversight board members declared they were ready. Orgel made that the focus of last week’s meeting, asking a senior deputy with the attorney general’s office after each agenda item whether the move would signal readiness to the court.
In Tuesday’s court filing, Orgel said the Oct. 8 meeting proved the board was ready to seize control of MSCS. He cited several “organizational actions” taken at the meeting, including adopting a preliminary process to approve any MSCS contract over $50,000 and accepting MGT’s work on early research and development.
Dedrick Brittenum, a former Memphis city councilman and one of the oversight board appointees, questioned whether it was legal and ethical for the board to approve policies outlined by MGT outside of the public eye. He said the board should follow a formal procurement process before committing to a proposed $1 million agreement with the group moving forward.
But Orgel said local philanthropists, including longtime takeover advocate Seeding Success, paid for the services, which he said made the arrangement legal.
MSCS leaders also filed an amended complaint Monday after Crenshaw said their original complaint did not demonstrate harm to students. The new complaint contends that MSCS children have a constitutional right “not to be singled out by the State, because of their race.”
The complaint argues that only Memphis schools, where around 94% of students are racial minorities, are being subjected to the “uniquely burdensome legal regime” of a state takeover. The plaintiffs say this deprives the majority-Black student body of its right to a district governed by locally elected leaders accountable to the community.
Tennessee Republicans have branded MSCS and the broader community as “failing and unfit for self-governance,” the court document says.
Memphis leaders also argue that the state takeover creates instability in district operations that disrupts learning and forces MSCS to divert dollars to cover the oversight board’s salaries.
“Every dollar diverted to a duplicative, state appointed governance layer is a dollar that is not spent on the Student Plaintiffs’ teachers, classrooms, instructional materials, transportation, and support services,” the new complaint says.
It’s unclear how quickly Crenshaw will move to dissolve the temporary block now that both documents have been filed. No future hearing date has been set.
Last week, MSCS and Shelby County leaders filed a separate lawsuit challenging the state takeover in local chancery court, raising similar constitutional arguments. That case has yet to begin hearings.
Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org.