MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Memphis Shelby County students and staff will be kicking off the school year without a new leader.
Nearly one year later, the superintendent search continues, and people have expressed mixed reviews about it.
After former superintendent Dr. Joris Ray resigned in a scandal last August, the school board hired a search firm and has met with the community about what they want to see in the next leader.
Parent Veronica Boyd said she is stopping at nothing to make sure her third grader and other MSCS students have the best in education.
“It’s not like we can just go and get someone and be like, ‘Come and lead this system.' They’ve done that in the past and it hasn’t worked,” Boyd explained.
She believes the next superintendent must be knowledgeable and prepared to lead the state’s largest school district.
“When we think about the system, we have to think about, you have roughly 90 elementary schools. Then you have 40 middle schools, and then you have about 40 high schools,” Boyd said.
The school board started its search process shortly after Ray resigned. In the last year, leaders held 5 community meetings with parents, teachers and staff to get feedback on their next hire.
Boyd said it is the most transparent superintendent search she has participated in; however, Damon Curry-Morris, a grandparent of an MSCS fourth grader, disagreed.
“We called it from the beginning that it was a sham…and it was politics being played. If they would have filed a policy in the beginning…instead of trying to change policy to get who they want…we would have had a superintendent by now,” Damon expressed.
In December, the school board hired Hazard Young, Attea and Associates. Their purpose was to create a job description and pick finalists for board members.
In April, the firm announced three finalists, but the school board paused the search telling HYA to find more options.
“The board updated the policy, got clear on what the profile of the superintendent was…in response to the community…the board should’ve done the work this spring in the fall or potentially last summer. The public was right in that we needed to do that work, and I’m thankful that we did, because we all feel really optimistic going into the fall,” District 8 School Board Member Amber Huett-Garcia stated.
So far, the job is listed on the school board’s website and will be open until November.
The board also asked HYA to bring 5 to 7 finalists to the table.
Garcia stated that the district spent at least $49,000 from the district’s general funds for the process and to reopen the applicant pool.