'Our own legal counsel': MSCS board member poses bringing general counsel under board control

During the Memphis-Shelby County Board of Education’s Tuesday committee meeting, Commissioner Mauricio Calvo raised a point: the primary role of the board is governance.

It’s a policy-heavy, contract-heavy job, and one where sound legal advice expertise is beneficial. So, Calvo suggested that the board make the district's general counsel , Justin Bailey, its employee. Currently, the board’s sole employee is Superintendent Marie Feagins ; and Bailey reports to her as an employee of MSCS, while also serving the board.

Calvo wants this to be reversed. The general counsel can instead report directly to the board, while still serving Feagins and the district.

“I want the board to consider the original intent of the general counsel’s office, and this is agnostic to this general counsel and agnostic to this superintendent,” Calvo said. “Best practices will say that the general counsel should report to the board… This allows us to have our own legal counsel.”

Why board members are interested

There is precedent for Calvo’s proposal, as the general counsel was an employee of the board prior to the merger of Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools ― which formed what is now MSCS ― more than a decade ago.

Commissioner Kevin Woods, who served on the board when the general counsel was still under its purview, supported the idea and explained that it can be especially helpful when the board and superintendent disagree with each other.

There were times over the years when he could see the current structure putting general counsels in a delicate position. They would have to answer tough questions from the board regarding the superintendent’s proposals, while still bearing in mind that they worked for the superintendent.

The general counsel, Woods explained, “served with a great deal of integrity.” But that didn’t make it easy.

“I understood the box that that individual had to be in, knowing who they work for,” he said. “I look back at the uncomfortable questions that board members would often put at the general counsel and that awkward moment of having to answer that question… In many cases, [the superintendent is] rolling in the same direction with the board; we all want the same things. But when that's in conflict, we often are going to be raised with that question of, ‘Who can only fire the general counsel?’ And I don’t know. I like them being able to be fired by five (board commissioners) as opposed to one (superintendent).”

Calvo is currently working on a resolution that the board could vote on, which would make the general counsel an employee of the board.

'The commitment remains'

The proposition wasn’t the only thing discussed during Tuesday night’s committee meeting. There was discussion about the $2.3 million the district has yet to provide for the planned Whitehaven High School STEM building, which was also the source of conversation during the Shelby County Commission’s meeting on Monday .

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Then-interim Superintendent Toni Williams had committed funds for the project, but those funds haven’t been provided. There was back-and-forth during the meeting about when and how MSCS should provide the funds, but board members made it clear they were behind the project, and Feagins said the district would provide the $2.3 million.

“The commitment remains. We will reach the 2.3 million,” she said. “The 1.3 already exists. We'll add the commitment of the $1 million in the allocation. I will place that in writing as a commitment.”

John Klyce covers education and children's issues to The Commercial Appeal. You can reach him at John.klyce@commercialappeal.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: 'Our own legal counsel': MSCS board member poses bringing general counsel under board control