(Bartlett, TN) The fight for suburban schools in Shelby County isn’t yet over.
A federal judge ruled suburban school districts unconstitutional, but the key players are meeting right now to see if they can come up with a plan of their own.
The suburbs and the county are meeting to negotiate the county’s lawsuit to stop municipal schools, but not all commissioners support the lawsuit.
“It’s a very frustrating feeling to be one of five people who voted against the lawsuit and to be a part of a group trying so hard to keep another set of citizens from having what they want,” said Commissioner Chris Thomas.
Thomas says voters in his district decided loud and clear to overwhelmingly approve suburban school districts.
But now he says there is no chance they will open in August because of the judge’s ruling.
“They’re trying to basically say OK we’ve heard from the judge now what can we do to bring this to a closure once and for all,” said Thomas.
Commissioner Thomas says one compromise that could come out of the negotiations would be charter school systems for municipalities like Bartlett.
Those charter school systems would give them a sense of autonomy but ultimately they would still report back to the unified school board.
Both sides have met three times recently and each time they meet county tax payers are funding both sides’ legal fees.
That’s millions of your dollars to reach a conclusion they just can’t see, to find
