Senate OK's school lines freeze

Bill retaining boundaries awaits House votes

By Richard Locker and Tom Bailey Jr. for The Commercial Appeal

May 15, 2005

NASHVILLE -- State legislation allowing the Shelby County school system to freeze its boundaries against Memphis annexation won Senate approval last week and is set for House committee review Tuesday.

The bill would allow the Shelby County and Memphis City school systems to convert to special school districts under Tennessee law. Creation of new special districts has been prohibited since 1982.

Unlike regular city and county school districts, special school districts are not altered by municipal annexation and have greater financial autonomy. Memphis City Schools is a special school district but under a separate act of the legislature in the 1800s and not under the general law governing special districts.

Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, filed the bill at the start of the legislative session, partly in response to Mayor Willie Herenton's threat -- later rescinded -- to terminate the city's share of funding of city schools. The bill was originally intended to serve as a vehicle for working out longstanding problems of financing the two systems, including the legal requirement that the county send to the city schools double the amount it spends on county school construction.

That provision will have to be resolved later but Norris said the bill also would allow both districts to freeze their current boundaries, keeping suburban schools in the county district even if their areas are annexed into Memphis.

It passed the Senate 31-0 Wednesday and is set for review Tuesday in the House Education Committee's K-12 subcommittee. That is far more of a hurdle for the bill, sponsored in the House by Reps. Tre Hargett, R-Bartlett, and Paul Stanley, R-Germantown.

Hargett said Friday he hopes the subcommittee will report the bill out for a full vote in the House, and ultimately, approval.

Norris told the Senate the bill is backed by County Mayor A C Wharton and the Memphis and Shelby County school boards.

County school board members welcomed news of the Senate's vote. "It looks like we're going to do some positive things with special districts," Ron Lollar, the board's legislative liaison, told board members at their Thursday work session.

Leaders of both school systems "are in agreement on what we're trying to accomplish," county school board chairman David Pickler said. The main issue for proponents now is cementing the support of Wharton and the County Commission on how to fund the capital needs of the two districts, Pickler said.

If local and state approval occurs, the new systems could be created as early as July 1, 2006, he said.