MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Dr. Marie Feagins was fired Tuesday night as the superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) after an emotional, tense, hours-long public school board meeting.
Following the termination vote, Feagins went to FOX13 and said her fight wasn’t over.
“I think this is exactly the opposite of what you desire to see in any organization,” she said. “I think this is exactly the opposite of what we expect from our kids, from our staff. I think this is exactly the opposite of what an educational institution stands for. I believe that many members of the board chose chaos over children, and it looks like they chose litigation over leadership, so I’ll see them in court.”
Members of the public, teachers, former board members, and public officials, including state Rep. Justin J. Pearson (D-Memphis), addressed the board during the meeting, voicing their support for the superintendent.
“I don’t know why they were so hell-bent on doing this to Dr. Feagins, but what I do know is we have a responsibility as a community to respond,” Pearson said after the meeting. “So I’ll be signing on to (Rep. GA Hardaway’s) bill to ensure that we have recall elections as an option for our community to speak about — the need for elected officials to be held accountable. It doesn’t make any sense that these school board members are acting with impunity as if they don’t have to answer to us.”
RELATED: School board members would face recall under proposed Tennessee bill
On Tuesday, an outside counsel hired by the board presented a report in which it said the allegations the board had made against Dr. Feagins were all true. Following a presented substitution resolution and a brief debate, the board voted 6-3 to adopt the resolution to terminate Dr. Feagins’ contract. After the vote and calming the crowd, the board named Roderick Richmond as the interim superintendent.
A career educator, Richmond was named by Feagins in June as the district’s Transformation Officer — for a division of the district dedicated to improving the performance of failing schools.
RELATED: Who is Dr. Roderick Richmond, the interim MSCS superintendent?
“I think before we even get to the state issues, we need to talk about what locally is happening here,” Commissioner Britney Thorton said. “There’s something here governing these processes, kicking out our superintendent, that all these people become mute voices. How?”
Thornton continued: “The only solace for me is going to be getting these people up out of their seats. Because I’ve only been taught that my bosses are the citizens of Shelby County. So if you’re elected, and you don’t listen to your boss, you don’t need to serve.”
RELATED: Chaos erupts during meeting to fire MSCS Superintendent Marie Feagins
This was the second vote on Feagins’ future. The first vote happened Dec. 17, 2024. Despite being announced the day before, community members packed the room during the school board’s special-called meeting, vocally expressing their support for Feagins.
Board members decided to delay their vote until Tuesday, Jan. 21, giving Feagins a month to respond to the allegations against her in writing.
Those allegations included:
- Feagins misled the board about overtime cost and did not provide the board with evidence to back up her statement;
- Feagins accepted a $45,000 donation without the board’s approval;
- Feagins was dishonest about federal funding and missing grant deadlines;
- And Feagins engaged in conduct detrimental to the school district.
In her written response, Feagins addressed each allegation against her. Throughout the process, Feagins insisted that the claims against her were “meritless” and called them “extremely disappointing.”
“To directly speak to the meritless claims, I have never, under any circumstances, intentionally or unintentionally misled a board member or the board as a whole,” Feagins said. “Furthermore, I have not mismanaged district funds. The two transactions at issue adhered to the Tennessee Comptroller Internal Control and Compliance Manual, District Policy, Federal Law, and Tennessee State Law as written.”
In the month between meetings, the school board drama played out in Memphis classrooms, streets, and even spilled into the Shelby County Commission. Students at Bellevue Middle School organized a walkout a week before the second vote, showing their support for the superintendent.
RELATED: Memphis middle school students walk out of class in support of superintendent
“Dr. Feagins’s support has been very immense,” said one student. “Disturbingly, the threat to terminate Dr. Feagins’ contract threatens to destabilize our progress and disrupt our focus. In the short span of just nine months, I’ve never seen anybody accept a job and get in there 10 toes down just like that. Dr. Feagins has shown me what a true superintendent should be, which I like to call a ‘super superintendent.'”
RELATED: Shelby County Commission passes no-confidence vote on MSCS board
The day before that walkout, the Shelby County Commission passed a no-confidence vote on the school board. Part of the no-confidence resolution included a requirement that the board provide a governance plan in mid-April, which requires the district to make all its goals and resources public.
And just days before the school board’s second vote on Feagins’ future, community members organized a “Faith in Feagins” march. Participants marched to the Board of Education.
RELATED: Community to march in support of Superintendent Feagins ahead of MSCS termination vote
“This isn’t just about one leader,” organizer Porsha Tony said. “It’s about our students, our teachers, and the community standing together to support someone who has brought hope back to this district.”
RELATED: What MSCS’s superintendent saga could cost if Dr. Feagins is fired
Feagins was selected by the school board, at the time consisting of four different people, in April 2024. She took over for Dr. Joris Ray, who resigned amid an investigation. The findings of that investigation were never revealed, but Ray’s resignation led to an extensive search, one that eventually resulted in Feagins’ hiring. Though not required to by contract, the MSCS Board paid Ray $480,000 when he left the school district. Based on the initial superintendent search following Ray’s resignation and the cost of reopening that search when not pleased with their first round of candidates, MSCS may have paid up to $88,000 to find and hire Feagins, not to mention Feagins’ salary and other expenses incurred along the way.
After Tuesday’s meeting, MSCS board members said they expect a response from the state.
“The state has indicated that they have an obligation to respond to the chaos that we’ve experienced tonight and for the last six weeks,” MSCS board member Michelle McKissack said. “So that’s chapter two. I don’t welcome it.”
Board member Amber Huett-Garcia chimed in.
“The continued decision-making — and even suggestions that they have the discernment of what good leadership is — it shows me that we have a lot of work to do,” Huett-Garcia said.
“Now we see what happens,” County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. said, “whether it’s the state, or other action that local electeds do. We’ll see.”
Ford Jr. added: “If she wins, which I believe she would, this would be our third superintendent that we would still be paying. If you include the interim, that would be our fourth superintendent that we would be paying. We would have five superintendents in the last seven years. That’s not superintendent. It’s really not about the kids at the end of the day, so when I hear people say ‘it’s about the kids’ many times, that they don’t have anything objective to bring to the table.”
Feagins vowed that her fight wasn’t over.
“I do want everyone to stay encouraged, stay optimistic, keep using your voices, keep showing up,” she said. “This is not the end.”
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