School Building Battle Turns Against Suburbs

Memphis, Tn - A committee meeting of the Unified School Board revealed what could be a new obstacle for the emerging Municipal School Districts. It has to do with the school buildings.

The suburbs want the buildings within their borders for their own municipal districts.

Right now, the policy the Unified Board is following is this: if a school is deemed "surplus," it can be sold, leased, or given away.

The suburbs are banking on free schools. But, as we saw in Wednesday's meeting, that might not be so easy.

For a school to be called surplus, it has to be empty of students or under capacity.

The thought is, when municipal districts are created, the schools will automatically be empty because the schools will no longer be in the Shelby County school district.

But, a map of the district shows the majority of schools are near borders of Memphis and suburbs or unincorporated area.

Schools in Germantown, Bartlett, and some unincorporated areas are just a few miles from Memphis schools that are over crowded.

Staff said it would be easy to fill suburban schools near the Memphis border with Memphis kids.

But, the Board directed the staff to come up with which schools could be considered surplus anyway.

Commissioner Martavius Jones says unification could actually help with overcrowding issues in schools near city borders.

Since, many of these schools are unlikely to be declared surplus, the other option is an agreement. For example, when Memphis annexed areas of the county, the schools followed the kids as part of the annexation agreement.

The Board also voted tonight to ask state legislators to stay out of the mix when it comes to schools. Senator Mark Norris says he's ready to get involved on the side of municipal schools if needed.