State suing Nashville schools to force turnover of student data, but probably not Memphis schools
While the state Department of Education has filed a lawsuit to force Metro Nashville schools to turn over student information to charter school operators, the Memphis school system has taken a different approach to data release and may avoid a lawsuit, according to Chalkbeat Tennessee.
Leaders of Nashville’s school district have repeatedly defied an order from Tennessee’s Education Commissioner Candice McQueen to share student addresses, phone numbers, and other information with the state’s controversial turnaround district, as required by a new state law. The state filed a lawsuit this week in Davidson County Chancery Court to force release of the information.
Meanwhile, leaders of the Memphis district have spoken out about the rule — but are preparing to comply. The district has given parents until Sunday, Oct. 22 to opt out of sharing their contact information with charter schools.
Nashville school board votes to join Shelby County in school funding lawsuit
The Metro Nashville Public Schools board voted Tuesday night to join Shelby County’s schools in a lawsuit seeking more state education funds, reports The Tennessean.
The motion to join Shelby County Schools in the district’s ongoing litigation for increased education funds passed with a 7-0 vote by the Nashville school board. Two board members were absent — Sharon Gentry and Mary Pierce.
Senate Democratic Leader running for Shelby County mayor
State Senate Minority Leader Lee Harris is running for Shelby County mayor and will not seek re-election to the Senate District 29 seat, reports the Memphis Daily News.
“On the campaign trail, I plan to force a real conversation about creating more meaningful opportunities for our students and reducing poverty,” Harris said Wednesday, Oct. 4, in a written statement announcing his candidacy. “It’ll be one of the first times that this has happened in this community.”
Harris, who is also a former Memphis City Council member, was elected to the state Senate in 2014 from the council seat.
He joins former Shelby County Commissioner Sidney Chism in the May (Democratic) primary… And in the process has started a scramble for his state Senate seat which is on the ballot in the August state and federal primaries.
The Republican primary for mayor, so far, is a contest among Shelby County Trustee David Lenoir, Shelby County Juvenile Court Clerk Joy Touliatos and Shelby County Commissioner Terry Roland.
Contenders in the 2018 county elections cannot begin pulling qualifying petitions for the ballot until Nov. 17.
“I’m not in this for layups,” Harris told The Daily News. “I’m in this for real serious challenges.”
Governor names new Shelby County judge
News release from the governor’s office
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam today appointed David M. Rudolph Circuit Court Judge for the 30th Judicial District, which serves Shelby County. The vacancy was created by the retirement of Judge Robert L. Childers on June 30.
McQueen sides with charter school company in dispute with Shelby County schools
Tennessee’s education commissioner has sided with a charter school operator in its ongoing dispute with the Shelby County Schools system and the state’s Achievement School District over student contact information, reports Chalkbeat Tennessee.
Reorganized Shelby County Democrats elect new chairman
A restructured Shelby County Democratic Party elected Naval Reserve officer and lawyer Corey Strong as chairman on Saturday, reports the Commercial Appeal.
Strong, 36, became the party’s first chairman since it was forcibly disbanded by the Tennessee Democratic Party a year ago.
“My goal is to have a unified message across various interest groups and people of different backgrounds,” Strong said. “The values that we share are the values we want represented in our government, our communities and our neighborhood.”
Strong, a graduate of White Station High and the U.S. Naval Academy, served eight years on active duty in the Navy. He received a law degree from the University of Memphis in 2014 and is a special project manager in the Shelby County Schools finance department under a foundation residency program.
Shelby County Mayor Luttrell backs Boyd for governor
Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell on Wednesday endorsed Randy Boyd in the Tennessee gubernatorial Republican primary election.
Standing next to Boyd at Evolve Bank & Trust on Poplar in East Memphis, Luttrell emphasized Boyd’s business background, emphasis on education and heritage in West Tennessee. Boyd, who formerly headed up state economic development efforts under Gov. Bill Haslam, was born in Knoxville but has family on this side of the state.
Luttrell said he and Boyd became friends as they worked together on development and education initiatives for Shelby County. Boyd, who resigned as commissioner of Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development to run for governor earlier this year, managed Haslam’s “Drive to 55” and Tennessee Promise education initiatives as an un-paid adviser.
“Randy Boyd is an entrepreneur who has a passion for education,” Luttrell said before quipping that they were probably the only two people in the room who knew the location of Fruitvale, a small town northwest of Jackson.
From the Boyd campaign
Report bashes Shelby County DA Amy Weirich for ‘misconduct;’ She bashes ‘grossly inaccurate’ report
A Harvard Law School project has ranked Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich highest in Tennessee for prosecutorial misconduct, reports the Commercial Appeal.
Researchers with the Fair Punishment Project reviewed court opinions involving allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in California, Louisiana, Missouri and Tennessee from Jan. 1, 2010 to Dec. 31, 2015.
“In the time period we reviewed, the Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office had the highest number of misconduct findings—with more than a dozen—and the most reversals in Tennessee,” according to the report. (Note: The document is HERE.)
…Weirich disputed the report’s finding.
“This is a grossly inaccurate and incomplete account of these cases as seen through the eyes of a defense advocacy group,” Weirich said in a statement released by her office Thursday. “I became a prosecutor to hold the guilty accountable and to protect the innocent in every case, and that is what I have tried to do throughout my career. I will never apologize for trying to seek justice for victims of crime.”
… The Fair Punishment Project is a project of Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice and Criminal Justice Institute, The Bronx Defenders and the Accountable Justice Collaborative at The Advocacy Fund.
Republican Vaughan wins House District 95 special election
Republican Kevin Vaughan defeated Democrat Julie Byrd Ashworth with 62 percent of the vote to win a special election Thursday for state House District 95, vacated by former Republican Rep. Mark Lovell after he was accused of sexual harassment.
Vaughan, a business owner and member of the Collierville school board, had 3,099 votes to 1,737 for Ashworth, an attorney, according to the Shelby County Election Commission.
There were two independent as well. Robert Schutt got 143 votes and Jim Tomasik 25. And there were three write-in votes.
Since Vaughan replaces fellow Republican Lovell, who resigned in February, the state House’s partisan alignment remains the same as it was at the outset of the 110th General Assembly – 74 Republicans, 25 Democrats.
Collierville school board member wins GOP nomination in House District 95
Collierville Schools board member Kevin Vaughan won the Republican primary election for state House District 95 by 49 votes over former Germantown alderman Frank Uhlhorn, reports the Memphis Daily News.
The unofficial results show Collierville alderman Bill Patton running third in the seven candidate contest. (Vaughan had 1,066 votes; Uhlhorn 1,017. Full results on Shelby County Election Commission website, HERE.)
