School boards reach several agreements

by Drew Harris for The Bartlett Express On Line
June 16, 2005

Appling Middle students who just finished the seventh and eighth grades will matriculate to Cordova High, unless they currently have a sibling at Bartlett High and choose to stay in the county system.

Shelby County board members unanimously approved an agreement to accept the students June 14 at a special called school board meeting. Memphis City board of commissioners voted unanimously June 6 to approve the boundary change.

In the past, students in the Hillshire annexation area attended Bartlett High School as part of an agreement between Shelby County and Memphis City school systems. Since the annexation was completed late last year, city school board commissioners voted to include the Hillshire area in the MCS attendance boundary for Cordova High School, causing some families concern because they possibly could have a student attending Bartlett High and another going to Cordova High.

SCS board member Ron Lollar, who represents the Bartlett area, said it was never the board's intention to divide families between two school districts.

"It has never been the desire of this board to make siblings attend different schools," he said. "It would not be our desire, when we could help it, to separate siblings and keep them from attending the same schools."

Hillshire students could attend Bartlett High only if they just finished the seventh or eighth grade this year and if they will attend Bartlett High simultaneously with their siblings. However, once the transfer is granted, the student would be allowed to finish at Bartlett High.

Also at the meeting, the board approved two joint agreements and an addendum that would signal cooperation between the county and city school districts in the distribution of capital improvement funds from the Shelby County Commission. The agreements were approved by the Memphis school board during a June 13 meeting.

Under the agreement, SCS would receive $50 million in "immediate capital funds during the 2006 fiscal year" for the construction of a new high school in southeast Shelby County and to replace the roof at Chimneyrock Elementary. MCS would then receive $50 million for repairs and renovations at its schools.

The agreement between the schools would circumvent the ADA (average daily attendance) formula, for the $100 million, that usually allocates funds between the schools at a 3 to 1 ratio, favoring MCS.

The two school systems also agreed to divide $180 million between themselves during fiscal years 2007-2009 using the ADA formula. While the agreement between the school systems is contingent on the county commission granting the funds, Board Chairman David Pickler said he hoped the county commission would approve the funding because of the cooperation between the two school systems.

"The (Shelby County) mayor has made a commitment and said he would go out on a limb for the $100 million," Pickler said. "Furthermore, he has said that he would support the $60 million for three years. I believe if we choose not to support this, we will be back to square one, and it will be very difficult to get the funding for the new school."

Supt. Bobby Webb agreed, saying he believed the school boards had the support to get the funding.

"I think we have the support from the majority of the commissioners, and they are waiting for us to present this to them," Webb said.

Other than funding allocations, the joint agreement also addresses the county board's goal to support legislation allowing it to form a special school district. Under the agreement, "The City School Board and its contract lobbyists will also actively and publicly support and lobby for passage of legislation (SB 2062 introduced by Senator Mark Norris) that will permit the County School Board to convert to a special district."

Addressing some board members questions, Pickler said the agreement, while not perfect, does work to accomplish two of the board's main goals.

"To this point, the strategic plan of this board is to fund the Southeast high school and to gain special school district status," he said. "This agreement takes a giant step in that direction."