What to know about the MSCS, Shelby County budgets for next year

Good morning, Memphis!

This is Metro Editor Corinne Kennedy, and you're reading the Daily Briefing, our one-stop digital shop for the best Memphis stories from our award-winning Commercial Appeal team. And, as always, we're here to curate some of the best stories from some of the area's best journalists.

Budget season is in full swing and Memphis-Shelby County Schools representatives presented their budget to the Shelby County Commission Wednesday, as did Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris.

On the MSCS front, the preliminary budget stands at $1.88 billion, which is less than the budget of about $2.1 billion that the district has wielded this fiscal year. The final budget isn’t slated to be approved until late June, so the number could change. District staff said the actual budget to be closer to $2 billion, and that the district will have a better idea of what it will be in the middle of May ― when it knows the total number of grants it’s landed, John Klyce reports in this story .

Shelby County residents will not see a tax increase this year, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said during his budget presentation Wednesday. But they will see cuts to vacant county positions, Harris said. The county mayor is also proposing salary increases for all county employees, Brooke Muckerman reports in this story .

And if you missed it before, Memphis Mayor Paul Young recently presented his budget proposal to the Memphis City Council, which includes a tax hike, Brooke also reports in this story .

Teacher pay bump: During a meeting on Tuesday evening, the MSCS board unanimously approved the school district’s latest teacher memorandum of understanding, which is set to inject an additional $28.4 million into teacher salaries in the 2024-25 academic year.

The move will bring the starting annual teacher salary to $50,000, putting the district two years ahead of the state’s timeline for raising public school teachers’ pay to that mark. It will also increase the pay of teachers at a variety of experience levels, John Klyce reports in this story .

Home sales spike: Most Memphis neighborhoods saw an increase in the number of homes sold in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same period last year, according to data released by the Memphis Area Association of Realtors .

It was a big quarter for many neighborhoods: Six saw an increase of more than 21% in the number of units sold. But which neighborhoods have seen the most home sales so far this year? Jacob Wilt has the answer in this story .

Here are a few other stories to check out this morning:

• Maurice Miller has been hired by East High as its new boys basketball coach, and Jason Munz has all the details in this story .
• Memphis Mayor Paul Young and Memphis Police Department interim Chief C.J. Davis spoke to residents in Orange Mound after a recent mass shooting. Brooke Muckerman chronicled what they had to say in this story .
• The MSCS board approved a consulting contract for former interim Superintendent Toni Williams Tuesday. In this story , John Klyce has the details on what that position entails.
• Tennessee and five other states are suing the U.S. Department of Education to fight new Title IX rules that include protections for LGBTQ+ students, saying they upend women's rights and put students, families and schools in harm's way, Rachel Wegner reports in this story .

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This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: What to know about the MSCS, Shelby County budgets for next year