Proposed Treadwell school project in question
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris participates in the Shelby County government’s fiscal year 2027 budget retreat at the Memphis Zoo’s Teton Trek exhibit March 7. (Brad Vest/Special to The Daily Memphian)
The idea of a new Treadwell K-8 school may be the most prominent casualty of the Shelby County government’s budget season.
County commissioners are questioning the $11.9 million line item in the county capital budget for the new fiscal year starting July 1 to start preliminary work on what would be the third new school planned for the city in recent years.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris featured the call for the new Treadwell school prominently in his May 13 budget presentation and has been promoting the project as recently as this week on social media.
The FY27 budget includes an initial $11.9 million investment to begin construction of a new Treadwell K–8 school in the Highland Heights community. This project reflects Shelby County’s commitment to addressing critical school infrastructure needs in partnership with @mscsk12 and… pic.twitter.com/89yh3ZkjCT
— Mayor Lee Harris (@MayorLeeHarris) June 3, 2026
But in Wednesday, June 10, committee sessions, commissioners questioned whether Memphis-Shelby County Schools leaders want the funding for new school construction or would prefer spend it on deferred maintenance at several existing schools.
“The challenge I have with us allocating any funds for a new build rather than deferred maintenance is it costs more than $12 million to build a school,” Shelby County Board of Commissioners Chairwoman Shante Avant. “You cannot rob Peter to pay Paul.”
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2026 budget season Memphis-Shelby County Schools Lee Harris Subscriber OnlyThank you for reading The Daily Memphian. Your support is critical.
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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