WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): Tuesday's decision by members of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board to fire superintendent Marie Feagins is still a big headline in Memphis. With us again to talk about the fallout is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris, always good to be with you.
BLANK: Over the past week we've been out in public, you and I both, and people keep coming up to us talking about this issue. You know, in Memphis, not a whole lot of people, generally, pay attention to school board meetings. Why has this issue become such a big, I guess, conversation piece citywide?
SANFORD: The general reason is: for some reason Memphians just like to talk about controversy. They love friction. They love to talk about it. But in a specific way, schools are a conversation piece in this community. People feel like they didn't know what was going on here, and the next thing you know you're trying to fire a superintendent who has only been there nine months. And so, that's why people are still so exercised about this whole matter.
BLANK: Otis, you were in the chorus of folks hoping that the board would figure out a path forward without firing the superintendent. And that was a rare bipartisan chorus. But it did seem obvious, at least to me at Tuesday's meeting, that six members had already made up their minds. What did this decision tell you about this school board as a political body?
SANFORD: They make decisions and then get the evidence to buttress their decisions. That's what it sounds like to me. And maybe I'm being a little facetious with that. I just think that this board, for many reasons, got so disgusted, really, with the superintendent -- the lack of communication they had with her -- and they took a personal offense.
BLANK: There was bipartisan pressure on the board to keep Feagins. Democrat Justin Pearson showed up at the school board meeting to tell them to keep Feagins. And then the House Education chair Republican Mark White said he's proposing a state takeover of the district now. So given this political rancor, I was kind of struck at Thursday's press conference at how unconcerned, maybe, the members are about these repercussions. And I wonder, do you think this group is going to be able to just get back to business without facing some consequences for this?
SANFORD: Yes, I do think that there was a level of tone deafness here because the legislature is dead serious. And I do think that there's going to be a bill passed that will call for some kind of takeover or some kind of state monitoring of Memphis-Shelby County Schools. Plus, I do think that that recall legislation that GA Hardaway is proposing, that's going to pass with ease. And it could very well be that some of these board members won't serve out their entire term.
BLANK: Right, when the state legislature says they're going to do something, especially to Shelby County, there's usually not a whole lot of bluffing that takes place. They tend to do it.
SANFORD: They mean, what they say and they say what they mean about Memphis and Shelby County because they don't like us anyway. But in this case, there's bipartisan support for this, Chris.
BLANK: And, of course, and we haven't really even talked about whether or not we think Feagins has done anything wrong. There may actually be some evidence to show that she did inappropriate things as superintendent.
SANFORD: We wouldn't have gotten this far if there was not some fire with the smoke here. Whether you want to believe Robert Spence's report, or whether you want to criticize it for coming at the last minute, that's a valid criticism. But it does seem that there were a level of untruthfulness, dishonesty, covering up some mistakes on the part of the superintendent that did raise some questions. My opinion about it, though, is that there should have been a step short of dismissal for the school board to address with this superintendent. That was not done. And that's why a lot of people in the community are upset.
BLANK: Well, finally, there's Roderick Richmond. He's the new superintendent and he has been a candidate for this job before and he could be again, but Otis, he's not really starting on a solid ground here. What's his immediate goal here?
SANFORD: Generally, I think his goal is to lower the temperature and try to show, first, inside the administration and on the school board that he's able to steady things. And then he needs to take it out into the community and show that he is trying to make the best out of a bad situation. And what I would caution him to do is to be accessible to the news media. Something that I don't think Dr. Feagins was -- certainly, not shortly after she got here. She sort of went in hiding where the media were concerned. Interim Superintendent Richmond needs to be just the opposite. He needs to be public, but he needs to be before the media. He needs to be
explaining what he's doing to try to steady the ship, try to keep the focus on academics -- it's all about the students -- and just make the best of a bad situation because somebody had to be the superintendent. And he accepted it.
