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MSCS is cutting 1.1K jobs. Here’s how the district got here, and why it happened

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On Tuesday, the Memphis-Shelby County Board of Education gave Superintendent Marie Feagins the greenlight to cut about 1,100 jobs, marking the end of a process that sowed frustration and confusion among many administrative employees.

The job cuts don’t necessarily translate to layoffs, as more than 500 of the positions are vacant, and affected staffers can remain with the district in other roles. But the move is expected to save MSCS $68 million annually, and it represents a significant realignment that will shift resources and personnel from the central office to classrooms, where they can better support students.

November: The looming end of ESSER

In the fall, MSCS had an issue. If it didn’t make adjustments, it could face a $150 million budget gap in fiscal year 2025.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, MSCS received $776 million from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund federal relief program for school districts. MSCS had pumped a lot of this money into resources and personnel that came with annual costs. For example, it had hired 750 special education assistants for K-2 classrooms to lower student-teacher ratios.

But with the pandemic waning, ESSER was nearing its end, which meant districts around the country were poised to lose a major funding source. MSCS leaders didn’t want to cut all their COVID-era programs and personnel ― but they did need to ensure the budget was balanced.

During a board retreat in November, then-interim Superintendent Toni Williams presented a plan to the board that could eliminate 675 positions.

“We’re going to have to make some hard decisions,” she said at the time. “And I’m going to set the stage and say that we agree to do what’s best for our kids… so that may not mean prioritizing adults first.”

Williams also emphasized, however, that nothing was set in stone, and the presented strategies were “only things we are pondering and thinking about.” And she said that job cuts wouldn’t lead to layoffs ― they would instead move central office staffers closer to schools, which had vacant positions.

“I’m not looking to send all these people home,” Williams told The Commercial Appeal. “I’m looking to ensure that they are serving the schools directly. There’s no point in having a school that has… vacancies in it when I have centralized support. That’s what we’re trying to do ― send the centralized support directly into the school.”

February: ‘Pretty bloated’

As MSCS staffers continued discussing this, the board pushed forward in its search for a permanent superintendent. On Dec. 15, it was presented with five top candidates, and it publicly interviewed each of them. One of these candidates was Feagins.

During her final interview on Feb. 2, Feagins addressed the district’s organizational structure. Portions of the central office, she said, were “pretty bloated,” and “some shifts have to take place, in order to make the work move as we need it to move.”

“I’m just thinking about how we redeploy some of the work, closer to our schools, and how we better organize that,” she said.

When Feagins started as superintendent on April 1, her sentiments hadn’t changed.

April and May: Different titles

Roughly a week after her first day, Feagins reiterated her point that the central office was bloated and explained that the district needed to move more resources and personnel directly into schools, where they could support struggling students.

“We recognize that there are some shifts that will take place,” she said. “Some of those conversations have taken place already with senior leaders about what that could look like.”

To determine what changes needed to be made, Feagins was looking closely at each administrative area, going “department by department,” and moving “deep into the layers.”

“I have asked the questions, ‘But what, what does this person do? And what do these people do?’” she said. “I really want to understand the duties of the role.”

A few weeks later, Feagins again alluded to the need for shifts when she presented MSCS’ proposed fiscal year 2025 budget to the Shelby County Commission, explaining that job duplication in the office had contributed to “a lot of the bottlenecks we have in our efforts.”

Feagins also discussed personnel changes about a week after the budget presentation, but she emphasized that layoffs wouldn’t be a necessity.

“Just to name that clearly, layoffs is not how we look at it. What we are doing is decentralizing a central office that has a nice load of personnel,” she said. “We have enough opportunities and jobs for every person who will be impacted by the shifts to have a job… It just may have a different title.”

June 1: The board retreat

That plan, however, was called into question during a MSCS board retreat on June 1.

Though there were employees poised to get a raise by accepting roles in schools, there were also some central office staffers set to experience significant pay cuts. The number $20,000 was tossed around several times during the retreat, and board members wondered whether salary reductions of this magnitude ― and major job changes ― could have an impact on performance.

“Was it the right call to say, ‘Here’s a lower salary, you’re making $130,000. Now, here’s $60,000,’” said board member Kevin Woods. “Or would the right call have been to cut those positions? … It’s not an easy decision.’”

Added board chair Althea Greene: “If you send a lot of disgruntled people, where they don’t want to be, I don’t care how much support you put into the building. It’s a building on fire. They’re not going to be effective, and they’re not going to work. But I will take the job, because I’ve got to pay my mortgage on my condo, and I’ve got a child in college, but I don’t want to be there.”

Feagins, however, reminded board members of the alternative to offering people alternate positions ― major layoffs.

June 10: The email

On June 10, Feagins sent out an email to all district staff, detailing a proposal to cut 1,100 jobs. Nearly half of these positions were vacant, but hundreds of employees would still be impacted. Final days would be June 30, and last paychecks would come on Aug. 16, while benefits would remain in place until Aug. 31.

In the email, Feagins laid out the need to funnel more support into schools, citing severe challenges the district was facing.

She also noted the opportunities for employees to remain with the district in other roles and said the district had already made 363 alternate offers to people whose positions were being affected ― with more offers on the way.

But the email upset many central office staffers, who bombarded school board members with emails and calls. Board members, too, were frustrated. They understood the need for the personnel shifts. But they hadn’t known about the email, and they were unhappy with the way the changes were being implemented.

June 11: The resolution

The board held a special-called meeting, where its members could discuss the job cuts with Feagins, and employees could address her directly.

Not everyone at the meeting was angry. Teachers from the United Education Association of Shelby County praised Feagins for her effort to pump more resources into schools.

“If we’re going to save this city… we must save our children,” said Liz Marable, an MSCS teacher and incoming UEA president, during the public comment portion of the meeting. “I’m here to thank you for taking on this task.”

The reviews of administrative staffers, however, weren’t so glowing. Barbara Beloch, a parent liaison who has been with the district for 18 years, asserted that she and other parent liaisons have become family engagement specialists and that their salaries have been cut in half. And Jarvis Cook, an enterprise analyst in the HR department, maintained that Feagins wasn’t valuing the hard work of central office staffers, saying: “I am not an adversary to change, but I do know you can’t change what you have not taken the time to understand.”

Board members were also blunt with their criticism. Though they expressed support for the changes and stood by Feagins, they were frustrated with the way she was communicating and implementing the plan.

“The communication caused panic, chaos,” said board member Amber Huett-Garcia. “And when you mess with someone’s livelihood, that is traumatic. And I got nothing short of alarm with a district-wide email. So that was not done well.”

Added Woods: “We can make tough decisions and stand up for them. But it’s OK to inform them early and inform them often.”

At the end of the meeting, the board passed a resolution pausing any additional layoffs until it got more details.

June 14: ‘It was never my intention’

During a budget community engagement meeting on June 14, Feagins apologized to central office staffers who felt insulted by the alternate job offers they had received in schools.

Initially, the plan had been to provide everyone whose position was being cut with another job offer within the district, and the district, at the time of the community meeting, had made 423 offers and received 171 acceptances.

But going forward, Feagins said, impacted employees would be given the chance to apply for the more than 1,000 vacant school-based jobs MSCS had, rather than be offered a specific one.

June 17: 9:13 p.m.

The resolution passed by the board on June 11 didn’t prevent MSCS from continuing to inform staffers their positions could be eliminated, as the district was legally required to provide advance notice about potential job cuts to affected employees and the state.

On June 17, at 9:13 p.m., more MSCS staffers received notifications that their jobs would be eliminated, in emailed letters that started by saying, “Greetings Valued Employee.”

“You are receiving this notice because your position is included among the Planned Position Eliminations, which will take effect on June 30, 2024,” the letter read. “You are highly encouraged to apply for available positions to secure continued employment with the district.”

Notified staffers were frustrated.

“To receive an email at 9:13 p.m. last night, saying that I don’t have a job and that June 30th would be my last day? And in this letter that she provided, she says that she’s given us the opportunity to make a decision for us and our family,” impacted HR staffer Jarvis Cook told The CA. “How are you giving us an opportunity to make a decision for our family in that short of notice? … That’s not transparency.”

June 25: ‘I’ve shared since the beginning’

The letters, however, weren’t official letters of termination.

Feagins didn’t need approval to cut vacant positions, but during a board work session on June 18, MSCS general counsel Justin Bailey explained that she did need it to cut the positions held by employees.

As Feagins waited for that approval, MSCS officials continued to fill vacant positions in schools. When she sent her initial email on June 10, there were 552 classroom vacancies. By June 25, that number had been whittled down to 463. That day, MSCS held a hiring blitz, where district officials had conducted 252 job interviews, and made 107 on-the-spot hires or recommendations for hire. Many of the candidates were MSCS staffers who were being affected by the personnel shifts.

Then, that night, during a special-called meeting, the MSCS board approved Feagins’ proposed job cuts.

She hopes, however, that impacted staffers remain with the district.

“I’ve shared since the beginning, that everyone who wanted a job can have a job. It may have a different title, and it may be in a different location,” Feagins said after the meeting. “Now we are actually here, to what I shared two months ago. It has a different title, and it’s in a different location. And that location happens to be either directly in the classroom or closer to the classroom ― which is where the resources are necessary.”

Have a question about education in Shelby County? John Klyce covers education and children’s issues for The Commercial Appeal, and he’ll do his best to answer any questions you have in our education mailbag series. You can reach him at John.klyce@commercialappeal.com.

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