Germantown metropolis leaders approve ‘three G’s’ pact with county and MSCS

Metropolis leaders in Germantown unanimously backed an settlement Monday that will enable its municipal faculty district to take over two colleges at the moment operated by Memphis-Shelby County Faculties, the primary in a sequence of votes wanted to settle a long-running dispute between the 2 districts. 

If the Shelby County Fee votes for the deal Wednesday, and MSCS and the Germantown Municipal College District log off on it Thursday, Germantown would pay MSCS $5 million for Germantown Elementary and Center colleges, that are each situated within the Memphis suburb. 

The deal additionally requires Germantown to assist promote the Germantown Excessive College constructing, and for the county to subsidize development of a brand new $100 million MSCS highschool in Cordova.

In response to a joint assertion from the fee, the town of Germantown, the Germantown Municipal College District and MSCS, proceeds from the sale of the highschool can be added to the $72 million that the county would supply for the brand new faculty.

“It simply marked the fruits of a variety of compromise and negotiation to convey ahead one thing that could possibly be labored by means of,” mentioned Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo.

“There’s an awkwardness in that the town of Germantown doesn’t handle colleges which are named after Germantown,” Palazzolo added. “However this can be a resolution that will get everybody complete and takes care of a number of constituencies directly.”

The brand new highschool can be the primary one constructed within the MSCS district in additional than a decade. And the switch settlement would resolve a dispute that goes again to 2013, when Germantown and 5 different Memphis suburbs created their very own faculty districts in response to the merger of the Memphis and Shelby County districts.

Germantown Elementary, Center and Excessive colleges — identified collectively because the “three G’s” — remained beneath the governance of Memphis-Shelby County Faculties. However this yr, Tennessee lawmakers handed a legislation that bars county faculty techniques from working colleges inside the geographic boundaries of a municipal faculty system, successfully forcing MSCS to cede the three colleges to Germantown by yr finish.

The legislation sparked considerations that round 4,000 college students who attend these colleges, most of whom are Black and who reside outdoors of Germantown, could possibly be displaced.

The proposed settlement that the Germantown Board of Mayor and Aldermen backed Tuesday addresses that concern by creating a protracted transition interval: It permits MSCS to proceed working the three G’s for 9 extra years. 

That would give present college students an opportunity to finish their training in these colleges throughout preparations for the highschool sale and the development of the Cordova highschool, in line with a Germantown metropolis press launch.

“This comes with a treatment the place college students can proceed their academic journey within the constructing they began in,” Palazzolo mentioned.

Bureau Chief Tonyaa Weathersbee oversees Chalkbeat Tennessee’s training protection. Contact her at tweathersbee@chalklbeat.org.