By Eleanor Boudreau
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkno/local-wkno-944102.mp3
Memphis, TN – Nashville attorney Chuck Cagle was the special guest at the Shelby County school board meeting today. Cagle says he has worked on five school consolidations in Tennessee, including the merger of Chattanooga and Hamilton County. That may--or may not--make his advise worth something in Shelby County.
At the outset of his talk Cagle said, "Every situation in Tennessee where there has been consolidation has been where the larger school system has assumed control of a smaller school system, in some cases a very small school system." Memphis City Schools is three times larger than Shelby County Schools.
"I often say when I work on the hill in Nashville with the legislature--this works everywhere, now let's see what happens in Shelby County and Memphis," Cagle said.
During the talk, county school board member Joseph Clayton said it would be simpler if things remain as they are--with Shelby County Schools separate from Memphis City Schools, but Cagle talked to the board as if school consolidation were a given.
"We need to start planning for the inevitable," Cagle said.
It's Cagle's opinion that if the citizens of Memphis vote to give up their schools' charter there is no way to avoid school consolidation--even if Shelby County Schools gets a special district dispensation from the state first.
Now, this is a new opinion. The belief that a special district dispensation would permanently separate Shelby County Schools from Memphis City Schools is what got this whole school-brouhaha started in the first place. When Memphis City Schools Board members voted to give up their charter, they believed special district status would forever separate the two school systems. Shelby County Schools Board Chairman David Pickler seemed surprised and asked Cagle if that were really true.
Cagle responded, "Yes." Cagle said he represented Humboldt City Schools in a lawsuit. Gibson County schools were the other party in that suit. "It was determined that if Humboldt actually did vote to go out of business, they've just recreated Gibson County School District," Cagle said.
Cagle bookended his remarks with this single theme. "This is about students," he said. "We have to perform in a manner that grants the greatest good to the greatest number of people here."
School board member Diane George asked Cagle if there was any evidence that merging improved education. Cagle said he hadn't looked at that. George also asked Cagle if he could provide legal instruction for a smooth and "friendly" school consolidation. Cagle said there were no such guidelines.
"This is just folks wandering around in the dark. It happens and it is foisted upon you and you have to deal with it."
The meeting ended with county Superintendent John Aiken asking the board to give its attorneys the power to commence litigation on behalf of Shelby County Schools. Board member David Reaves asked.
"What's the litigation?"
Aiken said, "There is no litigation at this time." He added his motion was an in-case request, "If we determine that there is a need to file anything," Aiken said.
The measure passed unanimously.