Memphis City Schools (MCS) was the school district operating public schools in the city of Memphis, Tennessee. It was headquartered in the Francis E. Coe Administration Building. On March 8, 2011, residents voted to disband the city school district, effectively merging it with the Shelby County School District. The merger took effect July 1, 2013. After much legal maneuvering, all six incorporated municipalities (other than Memphis) planned to create separate school districts in 2014. Total enrollment, as of the 2010-2011 school year, was about 103,000 students, which made the district the largest in Tennessee.
MCS served the entire city of Memphis. Some areas of unincorporated Shelby County were zoned to Memphis City Schools from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Some unincorporated areas of Shelby County were zoned to schools in Shelby County Schools for elementary and middle school and Memphis City Schools for high school.
As of August 2014 there are six new municipal school districts. Collierville Schools, Bartlett City Schools, Millington Municipal Schools, Germantown Municipal Schools, Arlington Community Schools and Lakeland School System. Shelby County Schools serves the city of Memphis and unincorporated areas.
History
In the mid-1960s the district had about 130,000 students. The numbers of white students and black students were almost equal.
In the mid-1960s the district still segregated its schools. Daniel Kiel, a law professor at the University of Memphis who had authored publications about school integration in Memphis, said that the efforts to desegregate were, as paraphrased by Sam Dillon of The New York Times, "subterfuge and delay". Desegregation first began with the Memphis 13, a group of first graders. In 1973 the federal government ordered desegregation busing in Memphis. As a result, massive white flight occurred in Memphis City Schools. In 1973, the school district had 71,000 White students. In a period of four years, 40,000 of the White students left.
In July 2011, the Memphis City Schools Board of Commissioners voted to postpone opening Memphis City Schools indefinitely until the Memphis City Council provides money set aside for the school system. The incident was reported in national news.
In 2011 Marcus Pohlmann, a Rhodes College political science professor, wanted to study the Memphis schools to compare performances of schools with low income student bodies and schools with higher income student bodies. He concluded that he was unable to do so because "There are no middle-class black schools in Memphis. They’re all poor."
School uniforms
All MCS students were needed to wear school uniforms from the fall of 2002 until the district was dissolved in 2013. Students could wear oxford shirts, polo shirts, turtlenecks, and blouses with "Peter Pan" collars. Colors varied, depending upon the school. In general, all white shirts were acceptable. Sweatshirts had to be white, black, navy blue, tan or any other colors approved by the individual campus. Trousers, shorts, skirts, and jumpers had to be black, tan, or navy blue. Denim clothing was not allowed. When MCS and SCS merged in 2013, the former MCS schools kept this uniform policy while the existing SCS schools did not, since the suburbs plan to form their own districts and leave SCS within a year.
Schools
K-12 schools
Alternative
- Avon-Lenox School
Secondary schools
7-12 schools
Zoned
High schools
Zoned
Alternative
- Middle College High School
Middle schools
5-8
- Cordova Middle School
6-8
7-8
- Chickasaw Middle School
- Georgian Hills Middle School
K-8 schools
Zoned
- Lester School
- Snowden School
Alternative
- John P. Freeman Optional School
K-7 schools
Zoned
- Douglass School
Elementary schools
Zoned elementary schools
K-6
K-5
1-5
- Campus School
K-4
- Cordova Elementary School
Alternative elementary schools
K-6
- Delano Elementary school
Former schools
Former elementary schools
- Hollywood Elementary School (closed spring 2007) (Students reassigned to Springdale Elementary School)
- Lauderdale Elementary School (closed spring 2007) (Students reassigned to Larose Elementary School)
- Macon Elementary School (closed spring 2007) (Students reassigned to Berclair Elementary School)
- Ridgeway Elementary School was merged into Balmoral Elementary in spring 2007. The building underwent moderate renovations to accommodate what is currently Ridgeway High School's Ninth Grade Freshmen Academy.
- Graves Elementary School, closed in 2014.
Former secondary schools
- Longview Middle School (closed spring 2007)
Former high schools
- Humes High School
- Messick High School
- Memphis Technical High School
Blue Ribbon Schools
Seven Memphis City Schools have been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education's Blue Ribbon Schools Program, which honors schools that are academically superior or demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement. These schools are:
- 1982-83 â€" Snowden School
- 1985-86 â€" Grahamwood School
- 1992-93 â€" Craigmont Junior/Senior High School
- 1993-94 â€" Richland Elementary School
- 2004 â€" Keystone Elementary
- 2005 â€" Delano Elementary School
- 2008 â€" John P. Freeman Optional School
Other facilities
Memphis City Schools was headquartered in the Francis E. Coe Administration Building, It was shared with the pre-merger Shelby County Schools. The building has two wings, one for each district. As of 2013 the corridor linking the wings had a double-locked doors, and the glass panels had been covered by particle boards. Irving Hamer, the deputy superintendent of Memphis City Schools, described the barrier as "our Berlin Wall."
See also
- History of Memphis, Tennessee
- List of high schools in Tennessee
- List of school districts in Tennessee
- Shelby County Schools
- WQOX, a radio station owned by Memphis City Schools
References
Further reading
- Collins, Thomas W. and George W. Noblit. "Stratification and Resegregation: The Case of Crossover High School, Memphis, Tennessee." (Archive) - Info page. ERIC Number: ED157954.
- Noblit, George W. and Thomas W. Collins. School flight and school policy: Desegregation and resegregation in the Memphis City Schools. The Urban Review, Kluwer Academic Publishers. Fall 1978 (Cover date September 1, 1978), Volume 10, Issue 3, pp 203-212. DOI 10.1007/BF02174224. DOI 10.1007/BF02174224, Print ISSN 0042-0972, Online ISSN 1573-1960.
- Pohlmann, Marcus D. Opportunity Lost: Race and Poverty in the Memphis City Schools. University of Tennessee Press, 2008.
External links
- Memphis City Schools
- SCSK12.org - Official Shelby County Schools Website