Tennessee Governor Bill Lee officially signed a bill into law on Friday that creates a new state-appointed oversight board for Memphis-Shelby County Schools and announces five of the nine members who will serve on the panel.
The legislation, sponsored in the Tennessee General Assembly by State Representative Mark White (R-Memphis) and State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis), establishes an oversight structure for school districts that meet specific academic and operational benchmarks, including persistently low performance, chronic absenteeism, and repeated placement on the state’s priority school list.
Under the law, the nine-member board must be in place by July 1 and will hold authority over major financial and operational decisions involving Memphis-Shelby County Schools, the state’s largest school district, which serves approximately 100,000 students.
Lee named the following five Memphians to the board:
- Tyrone Burroughs, founder of The Burroughs Foundation;
- Dorsey Hopson, former MSCS superintendent and current partner at City Fund;
- Shanea McKinney, senior advisor at Cigna Group and University of Tennessee trustee;
- Nisha Powers, founder and president of Powers Hill Design; and
- Beverly Robertson, former president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber and former head of the National Civil Rights Museum.
The remaining four appointments will be made by Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) and House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville), who each will appoint two members.
The new oversight board will review district operations, budgets, contracts, personnel evaluations, facilities, curriculum materials, and academic performance. The board will also have authority to review contracts valued at $50,000 or more and to participate in recommendations involving district leadership.
The legislation comes after the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office released an interim forensic audit earlier this year identifying nearly 175 deficiencies in district operations.
According to the audit, investigators identified more than $1.14 million in disbursements considered indicative of waste or abuse, and an additional $1.73 million in spending that did not comply with district policy.
Director of Local Government Audit Bryan Burklin called the results of the audit at the time “staggering” and “some of the worst I’ve seen in my 45-year career,” citing breakdowns at nearly every level of MSCS’s business and operational management.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Gov. Bill Lee” by Gov. Bill Lee.
