MEMPHIS, Tenn. — WREG Investigators have uncovered new information about the grant to help Memphis Shelby County homeless students at the center of Dr. Marie Feagins’ termination.
It was one of the alleged misdeeds listed on Feagins’ termination resolution presented at a special meeting in December.
“Grant mismanagement. Some clear examples include not being honest with us about a United States Department of Education award,” said MSCS Board Chair Joyce Dorse-Coleman at that meeting.
Dorse-Coleman claimed under Feagins’ leadership, $300,000 in federal funds were squandered that would have helped homeless students and their families, and stated Feagins was “dishonest” when she said the funds were still available.
“Contrary to the information we have received from state officials, she continues to convince the board the grant can be saved,” Dorse-Coleman went on to announce.
According to an agenda from a board committee meeting in October, the grant was supposed to be discussed and a short presentation was supposed to be given. It noted the funds would help the district identify “homeless families and students” and provide them with “emergency shelter, transportation, food and other essential supports.”
It seems it wasn’t brought up in that committee meeting. We didn’t see it on another agenda either.
It was mentioned at a meeting on December 3 during the public comment.
“I’m about serving the vulnerable population,” Vincent McCaskill said. “On September 25, I received a letter of intent in your Homeless Identification and Support work.”
He is in charge of School Seed, a non-profit that helps the district fulfill its needs and often times raises private funds. He said they won the contract to help with the work connected to the grant funds, but they never heard anything else.
“And it is my understanding from the State now, the district will have to forfeit that money,” he added.
That was reiterated again by the board chair two weeks later at the special called meeting.
“The state has now informed us due to missed deadlines and incomplete paperwork under Dr. Feagins’ administration, the funds must be returned,” Dorse-Coleman said.
Feagins countered. She admitted they missed the deadline, but she said her team figured out a way to fix it. She said the grant was for a reimbursable expense for anything connected to homelessness.
“What we asked the state to do is still allocate the funds in a different way that did not require a contract. The state honored that,” Feagins said.
The back and forth only created more confusion. Many of you asked — what really happened?
WREG Investigators we went straight to the source. The Tennessee Department of Education distributes the federal grant to the districts.
We got a hold of their records.
We found out MSCS submitted its final expenditure report pertaining to this homeless grant in July. It shows $430,000 in unspent funds. Those funds carried over to this fiscal year.
The district was supposed to submit an application by September 30, and the state stressed in a statement they distribute “monthly newsletters that cover grant time frames and deadlines.”
MSCS didn’t submit its spending plan until December. The state confirmed that MSCS still received the unspent funds, and the district liquidated those funds, or used all of it.
They went on to say no funds were released to the TDOE, meaning no funding was returned.
The state also confirmed the district received all that it could and wouldn’t have received anything more had they submitted the application prior to the deadline.
Feagins’ attorney gave a statement. It read in part this is “just one example of the blatant lies levied by the board against Dr. Feagins in its sham resolution.” He went on to say the “actions taken by the Board were unfounded, unjust and illegal, and we will continue to pursue all necessary legal remedies available to right this egregious wrong and any others.”
We reached out to the outside PR firm the school board hired for a response from the board, but as of Tuesday afternoon, we have yet to hear back.
The school board also hired an outside law firm to look into the allegations against Feagins. The firm’s report claimed the district lost the funding because it couldn’t use the funds for the intended recipients and could only use it for expenses and salaries.
The district’s spending plan submitted in December shows the funding would cover two positions plus student transportation, school supplies, after-care services and a long-term stay hotel.
Click here to watch the full special.
MSCS Board Chair Joyce Dorse Coleman sent a statement in response to our story, nearly a week after it ran. The statement is below.
