I rarely write about what’s going on in my neck of the woods. However, as a product of the Memphis City Schools System (Wooddale  Class of ’76), I want to catch y’all up to speed on the biggest kerfuffle since forced busing was implemented in 1972.

In February of 2011, I wrote:

After over 30 years of mismanagement, poor stewardship, and the downright dumbing-down of an excellent school system, the politicians of the city of Memphis, including the School Board, the City Council, and the Mayor, himself, have decided that they will surrender the charter of the Memphis City Schools System in order to merge with the Shelby County School System…by any means necessary.

After the citizens voted down consolidation of city and county services last November, the Memphis City School Board , in an attempt to save their failing school system and their phony baloney jobs, came up with the plan to surrender their charter, thereby forcing consolidation with the Shelby County Schools.

In the last few days, things have really come to a head in this scholastic soap opera:

• The Memphis City School Board voted Monday night, December 20th, 2010 to let City voters decide on March 8th whether to surrender its charter.
• On Thursday, February 10th, 2011, the Memphis City Council voted 10 – 0 to accept the decision by the Memphis City Schools Board of Education to surrender its charter, wiping out the city school board in one vote.
• On Friday, February 11th, 2011, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslan signed into law a measure designed to delay any merger between the two systems.

And, through all of this, the wishes of the Shelby County School Board and the citizens that it represents have been tossed aside, because…wait for it…it’s for the children.

Well, the merger is now under way and the unified system is supposed to be in place by 2014.

On June 14th, 2012, the Transition Planning Committee released the following report:

After more than eight months of research, discussions, and planning, the Transition Planning Commission is confident that the talent and resources in this community will enable the merged SCS to achieve the vision in this Plan. The merger presents a unique opportunity to build from the existing strengths and emerging success of both systems, of which there are many. The merger also prompts this community to step back and ask, “Why not here?”, and adopt best practices in education from around the world. Both districts employ talented leaders, who are true experts in their fields. This merger enables these leaders to join forces to build a district that improves upon both districts today.

And finally, this merger presents an opportunity for community, business, philanthropic, faith, and government leaders to unite to guarantee the success of this system, for the benefit of all of Shelby County’s children.

Well…The  other cities in Shelby County aren’t too keen about allowing the clowns who ruined the Memphis City Schools System to gain control of their schools.

The Commercial Appeal Reports:

Declaring they want no part of a unified countywide school system, voters in Shelby County’s six suburban municipalities gave landslide approval Thursday to referendums establishing their own districts and, in every town but one, agreed to raise sales taxes to pay for them.

Measures to create school districts sailed through with margins ranging from nearly 2 to 1 in Millington to 7 to 1 in Collierville. Even in Lakeland, where a former mayor led a political action committee opposing municipal schools, the referendum was favored by almost two-thirds of all voters.

By somewhat lower margins, voters in five of the suburbs also approved separate referendums to raise municipal sales taxes from 2.25 to 2.75 percent to fund the districts. The tally in Millington, however, showed the measure getting three more ‘no’ than ‘yes’ votes.

“How does it feel to win?” Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald asked a group of municipal-district supporters after the votes were counted showing a 4-to-1 approval margin. “It just shows what grass roots can do.”

In Germantown, cheers erupted at a watch party hosted by the My Germantown Schools group at Garibaldi’s pizza. With an 87 percent yes, vote, Mayor Sharon Goldsworthy called the citizen response a “mandate.”

But despite the resounding approval of the municipal school districts, the issue is far from settled. In a trial slated for Sept. 4, U.S. Dist. Judge Samuel “Hardy” Mays will rule on a suit filed by the County Commission charging that the state law allowing the referendums violates the Tennessee Constitution.

The battle over schools, which underscored urban-suburban and black-white rifts in Greater Memphis, began with the December 2010 vote by the Memphis City Schools board to surrender the system’s charter and force a merger with Shelby County Schools. Memphis voters endorsed that decision in a landslide of the their own in a March 2011 referendum.

The consolidation of the MCS and Shelby County systems takes effect in the 2013-14 school year

Suburban reaction to the pending merger has been overwhelmingly critical, with municipal leaders and citizens chafing at the prospect of joining a unified district they said would be dominated by Memphis. County Commissioners, however, have charged there was a racial component to the opposition, saying the mostly white suburbs are seeking to carve out districts segregated from predominantly black Memphis.

Turnout for the referendums ranged from less than 31 percent in Millington to about 42 percent in Germantown and Lakeland. About one-third of the ballots were cast during the early-voting period that ended Saturday.

Throughout the day Thursday, the turnout in Bartlett was at best steady as voters and campaign workers sought relief from the heat. Supporters sat under umbrellas or tents and waited in their cars, emerging if someone approached the polling location.

There were few Better Bartlett Schools signs supporting the municipal school signs at the various voting precincts. Derek Venckus, spokesman for the pro-schools citizen group, said the main reason was supporters already had the bulk of the 1,500 signs ordered by the group in their front yards.

“We held a few when we started running out, just so we would have some at the polling places,” he said.

While there were few pro-municipal school signs in Bartlett, there were no opposition signs at a random number of precincts checked in the suburbs.

Across the suburbs, the most visible opposition group was in Lakeland, led by former Mayor Jim Bomprezzi

Leaders of suburban groups favoring municipal schools said they expected to win.

“I’m not surprised. Pleased obviously,” said Phillip Walker, one of the leaders of Better Bartlett Schools. ” … We pretty much were expecting a wide majority to vote for it.”

By comparison, the sales-tax referendums received tepid support, trailing the approval levels for the district referendum by 10 to 20 percentage points.

Suburban leaders had avoided using references to schools in the wording in the referendums so that all of the money was not required to go to education. Bartlett Alderman Emily Elliott, who worked early voting, said many voters were unclear about where the revenues would go, leading to some confusion.

In each suburb, however, supporters’ euphoria over the referendum results was somewhat tempered by uncertainty over the legal wrangling in the schools issue.

“Now we take a big deep breath, get up in the morning and move on with the business at hand, which is litigation,” Goldsworthy said.

Collierville Mayor Stan Joyner said he’s pleased about Thursday night’s outcome but it’s just one obstacle the town has to clear.

“We are like Olympic runners — we get over one hurdle and there’s the next one we have to clear. I’m still guardedly optimistic.

But Portia Scurlock, a Germantown resident with two elementary-aged children, said she wasn’t worried that her vote would later be ruled unconstitutional.

“If all the other Podunk towns in Tennessee can have their own school systems, why keep a larger municipality from doing the same? It doesn’t make sense.”

Ms. Scurlock, do not put anything past the hack politicians in Memphis, Tennessee.

There’s a reason I moved across the state line to DeSoto County, Mississippi back in ’97.

A lot of y’all may soon be joining me.

You eeevil suburbanites.