MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Former Kingsbury High principal Terry Ross received a salary for nearly a year without actually stepping foot into the school. Now, after nearly a year of investigation, he’s been assigned to a new job in the district.
SCS launched an investigation into Ross when we started asking questions last August about his files.
They were hundreds of pages long with complaints from teachers, staff, parents and more.
One complaint came from now-former teacher Alesia Harris.
“It a very tense environment. People are trying to leave that building quickly,” she told us back then.
We also found an email from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office alerting the district Ross had similar complaints at his last principal job in Buffalo, New York.
The email read, “Apparently there’s a pattern of feeling unsafe.”
WREG was told the scope of the investigation expanded as more teachers came forward after our story aired.
Weeks turned into months. The school year ended. Summer break started. We didn’t stop pressing for answers.
Email after email. We asked for an update.
Finally, Friday we got an answer from the district.
It said Ross is no longer a principal, but is back with the district. He’s been reassigned as a highly specialized adviser.
They explained he’ll be in a support role for the continuous improvement zone.
SCS wouldn’t provide any details though about the investigation. Officials told us we had to submit an open records request. We did that.
So now, we wait to find out if the district took any of the countless complaints seriously, if any were valid and if so, w hat consequences Ross is facing.
