MEMPHIS, Tenn — There’s a possible new twist in the Memphis-Shelby County Schools controversy as questions remain about what would happen if the state took over the school board.

After the special legislative session ended, the Tennessee General Assembly could begin setting its sights on the future of the MSCS board after it fired former superintendent Dr. Marie Feagins.

“We will start moving the bills to subcommittee next week. We are still drafting the language on the Memphis Shelby County Schools issue,” said Chair of the House Education Committee Mark White.

“And I just think we need to right-size this,” White said. “We’ve heard of complaints for too many years, and I think now, with the will of the majority of the communities behind us, that they want us to intervene.”

State intervention has gotten the attention of MSCS board members like Michelle McKissack, who opposed the firing of Dr. Feagins.

“This is too serious. We have the state making its assertions of how the board is in a state of dysfunction, so they feel they have to step in,” McKissack said. “I (don’t) want to see our board lose its local control.”

Representative White says his proposed bill would be modeled after legislation used to take over the Houston Independent School district in Texas.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton says the state could put in place a different board of various individuals in Shelby County to overlook the schools or hire a new director. A new director, some county commissioners speculate, could be Feagins hired back to lead the district.

“I would welcome Dr. Feagins coming back. She was doing the work and a lot of people looking in, we saw changes that needed to be changed and got in there making those changes and we wanted that,” said Shelby County Commissioner Amber Mills. “A lot of us just having our hope ripped away from us, we’d like to see that come back and have our hope again.”

“If the state is going to do it that way I’d be very skeptical of it,” Shelby County Commissioner Charlie Caswell. “I appreciate some of the things Dr. Feagins has done and tried to put in place, but I would be skeptical on what is the intention of the state in making a move like that.”

The Shelby County Commission now plans to examine how the MSCS board handles its finances as the school district debate continues to heat up.

“On the County Commission, we have a resolution coming up this week for forensics audit of the Memphis Shelby County School Board,” said Mills. “So, we’re trying to do what we can locally, and the state is kind of working, I think we’re going to come to a conclusion to help the school system.”

WREG did ask Representative Mark White if his bills would be the Feagins possibility. But he hasn’t gotten back to us yet on that issue.