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MSCS superintendent says there are enough openings to avoid layoffs as she shifts personnel

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MSCS superintendent says there are enough openings to avoid layoffs as she shifts personnel

In early April, Memphis-Shelby County Schools superintendent Marie Feagins, Ed.D., acknowledged that the district’s central office was “bloated” and that the organizational chart needed to be streamlined. Then, when she presented MSCS’ preliminary fiscal year 2025 budget to the Shelby County Commission on May 1, she explained that job duplication in the office had contributed to “a lot of the bottlenecks we have in our efforts.”

Often, this kind of talk can signal that layoffs are on the horizon. But Feagins doesn’t see it this way.

“A lot of questions have been asked; a lot of thoughts have been given about personnel,” she said Tuesday. “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.”

A different title

Rather than dismiss employees whose jobs aren’t necessary in a streamlined operation, Feagins wants to shift them to key, vacant positions in the district that they’re qualified for. If they don’t want to make the shift, they can leave the district. But staffers who want to stay employed by MSCS, Feagins asserted, should be able to.

“We have enough opportunities and jobs for every person who will be impacted by the shifts to have a job,” she said. “It just may have a different title.”

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But what could some title shifts be?

Giving examples, Feagins noted that an administrative assistant could become a truancy specialist, while an analyst could become a family engagement specialist. The goal is to place personnel closer to ― and in ― the classroom, where district leaders feel they can more effectively help students.

“Not a lot of work can be done well in the central office level,” Feagins said. “The magic that happens is happening in our schools… So, we want to be good about placing personnel in the right places.”

Her comments come as MSCS looks to further focus on the classroom, at a time when its chronic absenteeism rate is 28.1% and 77% of its third-12th graders aren’t scoring proficiently on the ELA portion of state tests.

During the budget presentation on May 1, Feagins noted plans to hire literacy coaches, graduation coaches, attendance agents, and family engagement specialists. And this came less than 24 hours after she had announced an injection of $28.4 million into teacher pay, which would bring the starting teacher salary to $50,000.

A long time coming

Personnel shifts are expected to officially take place on July 1, at the start of the fiscal year; and they’ll come months after MSCS leaders started discussing them. Even before Feagins took the reins as superintendent on April 1, a significant organizational realignment was a possibility.

During a retreat in November, as board members discussed how to deal with a potential $150 million budget gap due to the looming end of COVID-federal relief funds, then-interim Superintendent Toni Williams brought up eliminating positions and moving staffers into vacant ones that were closer to classrooms.

“I’m not looking to send all these people home,” Williams told The Commercial Appeal at the time. “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.”

John Klyce covers education and children’s issues for The Commercial Appeal. You can reach him at John.klyce@commercialappeal.com.

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