Suburbs Hear Report on New School Districts

Arlington, Tn - The consulting firm hired to assess the feasibility of new municipal school districts for several Memphis suburbs are reporting their findings.

Arlington and Bartlett heard a lot of the same on Wednesday as Germantown heard Tuesday.

The consultants say the municipalities have everything they need to move forward on separate school districts. All the suburbs used the same consultant, Southern Educational Strategies.

The biggest issue in creating the municipal school districts is the school buildings. The buildings are within the city limits of these towns, but were paid for by the county.

SES concluded that based on case law, the school buildings should be handed over to the municipalities free of charge and the debt on the buildings should stay with Shelby County.

But, that case law is based on annexations, not new municipal school districts.

As the law is right now, it's up to the Unified School District to decide what to do with the buildings. So, unless the board has the votes to hand over the schools, it's likely going to take a lawsuit or a change in state law to make it a reality.

This report goes on to assume the buildings would be free and instead of a property tax hike to pay for the new school systems, just a half cent sales tax increase.