Education
15 Memphis schools could close as part of plan to improve buildings
Interim MSCS Superintendent Roderick Richmond speaks on possibly closing 15 schools, improving buildings and blight.
Laura Testino
There are 272 articles by Laura Testino :
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December 2025
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EducationMSCS gets better report card in third year of state letter grades
About one in three local schools improved their letter grade, and one in five scored worse.
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Education Feagins brings in new attorney in fight over MSCS ouster
Discovery has stalled in former Memphis-Shelby County Schools’ Superintendent Marie Feagins’ lawsuit over her ouster, which began one year ago. A judge expects the case to pick back up in the new year as Feagins’ new attorney gets up to speed.
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Education MSCS board sues Election Commission over shortened terms
“This case presents a stark example of legislative punishment masquerading as election reform,” attorneys wrote in the lawsuit filed in Shelby County Chancery Court on Monday, Dec. 15.
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EducationMSCS spent millions on safety center with AI-assisted cameras, active-shooter simulator
After years of planning, renovations and security-equipment purchases, Memphis-Shelby County Schools debuted its “Real Time Safety Center” on Thursday. “We know seconds matter” during threats, the district’s interim safety and security chief said.
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Shelby CountyAttorney splits with Feagins in suit against MSCS
An attorney representing former Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins in a lawsuit challenging her ouster from the district has withdrawn from the case, court documents show.
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EducationMSCS downsizes as suburb wants to grow. One school is in the middle.
Families at Lucy Elementary have known a change was coming. But MSCS officials recently proposed giving the school to Millington this summer, a year early.
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Public Safety Overton High student shot in park near school
The Memphis teenager was shot and injured during the school day in a park adjacent to Overton High School in East Memphis, according to police and the school system.
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State Government Marsha Blackburn targets cargo theft in Memphis with new federal legislation
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, the Tennessee Republican running for governor, is proposing bipartisan legislation that would give Memphis additional law enforcement resources and funding for technology to combat cargo theft.
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Education Memphis effort to expand school bus access falls flat, for now
MSCS board members directed the district to expand bus access to immigrant students who may be staying home from school to avoid interactions with the Memphis Safe Task Force.
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Education New Frayser high school means families may get assigned to different schools
The changes could be an example of what’s to come for other families as Memphis-Shelby County Schools makes plans to close, consolidate, repurpose and build new campuses.
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Behind The Headlines Richmond wants to stay in charge at Memphis-Shelby County Schools
“I’d love to have the permanent superintendent role,” interim Memphis school Superintendent Roderick Richmond said during a recent interview on WKNO-TV Channel 10’s “Behind The Headlines.”
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November 2025
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EducationFor 35 low-performing Memphis schools, Tennessee has new rules about academic improvement
They are among about 100 identified as “priority schools” by the Tennessee State Board of Education. Possible interventions can include state-mandated closure, conversion to a charter school, or firing and rehiring staff.
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EducationSt. Mary’s trio designs, builds, programs ‘Turkeybot’
Lauren Rogers, head of the Upper School at St. Mary’s said the school has a “moral obligation” to staunch the widening gender gap in STEM education.
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Public SafetyMemphis 7-year-old illegally handcuffed, pushed into school bookcase, lawsuit claims
“I heard my son scream,” a Memphis mother said in an interview with The Daily Memphian. School staff told her that they handcuffed her child for their own safety: “I was like, ‘Over a 7-year-old?’”
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EducationTennessee voucher application will track public school attendance as part of new award guidelines
The change to the 2026-27 applications will offer insight about the new vouchers that the state awards.
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EducationThese Shelby County schools are among best in Tennessee
Tennessee awarded dozens of Shelby County schools “reward” status, a credential for top academic performance. See if your school made the list.
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Education Lawsuit claims Tennessee voucher expansion is unconstitutional
A group in Tennessee, including two parents in Shelby County, allege that the state’s education voucher expansion “diverts state funding to private schools statewide that are by definition not part of the system of free public schools.”
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Education MSCS board, employees asked to grade Richmond as superintendent
Richmond is just over halfway through his 18-month interim superintendent contract, which ends July 31. Absent from the school board’s discussions about his evaluation, however, were comments about future permanent leadership of the district.
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Education MSCS board votes to move toward lawsuit about 2026 elections
The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board is formally mulling a lawsuit about the “threat to the lawful function and democratic integrity” caused by new state and county actions that cut short terms for five members.
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Education 5 MSCS board members could be voted out early. The board may sue.
Shelby County Commissioners’ enactment of the new state law is an “imminent threat to the lawful function and democratic integrity” of the board and district, according to a resolution sponsored by board Vice Chair Joyce Dorse Coleman.
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Education U of M school district launches preschool program at Le Bonheur
The new, one-year pilot program is effective this school year and open to certain 3- and 4-year-old patients at the Memphis children’s hospital.
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Education $750M in new public money suggested for school buildings plan
MSCS campuses need more than $1 billion in the next decade. A committee suggested funding and other ideas on how to approach closing, repurposing or consolidating buildings.
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Public SafetyMemphis kids suffering gunshot wounds doubled in 2023. A real decline is happening in 2025, doctor says
As child-gunshot wounds make a meaningful decline in Memphis, students are learning about gun safety at school.
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Education MSCS says it’s on track to improve chronic absenteeism
If the district hits this year’s chronic absenteeism goal, it would mark the first reduction in the rate of chronically absent students since the pandemic, according to state data and district estimates.
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