Memphis-Shelby County school leaders are attributing a number of key issues raised by last week’s state forensic audit to previous superintendents, including the controversially ousted Marie Feagins.
A new website launched Monday says MSCS has made significant progress in the past year to correct missteps made during the tenures of four superintendents in the past five years.
The district referenced Feagins as contributing to the loss of institutional knowledge and weaknesses in internal audit systems, two key findings from the state forensic report, and failing to report educator misconduct to the state board of education in a timely manner.
“The district underwent a massive layoff during the prior superintendent’s tenure — more than 1,000 positions were eliminated,” the MSCS website says. “We have aggressively worked to rebuild the internal structure and historical knowledge, including the redevelopment of structures and processes proven effective.”
Republican lawmakers are using results from the early audit to push forward more aggressive plans for a state takeover of Memphis schools. The preliminary report identified $1.1 million in MSCS spending from July 2021 to June 2024 that meets the definition for waste and abuse. That represents less than 1% of MSCS’ total budget in those years and predates Richmond’s appointment as district leader.
The district’s Monday response doesn’t explicitly name Feagins, but says the “prior superintendent” declined to sign required forms for the state board of education and hindered the internal audit team by significantly changing the department’s structure. In an emailed statement Monday, MSCS added that Feagins’ changes caused two audit department leaders to quit.
Richmond said in a social media video Monday that district leaders “were aware of the vast majority of issues outlined” in the preliminary audit and “have already implemented guardrails and processes for improvement.”
“However, the audit also exposed a few critical blind spots that we can now collaboratively work to repair,” he said.
Richmond says he will be meeting with state lawmakers in the coming weeks to discuss audit findings. The district already presented a plan to upgrade out-of-date documentation and financial systems on March 10, before the audit was released. According to a real-time tracking site, the district says 27 of 38 projects are currently in progress or completed, though leaders haven’t given a deadline for the full plan to be in effect.
The state audit also pointed to inefficiencies and discrepancies in MSCS vendor contracts, such as missing invoice signatures and payment without proper renewal authorization. Audit firm CliftonLarsonAllen said MSCS failed to find 40 percent of employee I-9 records due to a significantly disorganized paper system.
According to the MSCS progress website, district leaders are currently auditing all staff positions for proper documents with an expected completion date of July 31. MSCS plans to conduct a review of I-9 inventory by May 31.
In the past year, the district has also made new rules about assigning “owners” to every contract. And after the audit release, MSCS started completing a separate review of all vendors to correct contract inaccuracies, including making sure each one has a proper conflict of interest disclosure.
Memphis school board members unanimously adopted a plan to increase local accountability last Tuesday in attempts to ward off a state takeover. They also passed a resolution to fast-track corrective action plans for state audit findings from Richmond in the next two months.
But the final audit results aren’t expected until late June, the preliminary report said, due to significant delays in obtaining documents from MSCS.
Bri Hatch covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Bri at bhatch@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.