Memphis activist Frank Johnson appointed to MSCS school board
The Shelby County Commission appointed Frank Johnson, a former educator and local environmental activist, to the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board for the District 7 seat. The district includes neighborhoods in southeast Memphis and Shelby County.
The commission voted Monday afternoon in a special meeting following a set of interviews. In addition to Johnson, applicants also included Terrell Mitchell Sr., a current educator, and Jason Sharif, and former educator and current community advocate.
"Today we're cheerleading," Johnson told reporters after the vote. "Tomorrow we got to get to work."
In his interview Monday, Johnson focused on family and parent engagement and proposed school success be measured by student growth. "How far have they come?" should be the guiding question that defines success, he said.
Longtime school board member Miska Clay Bibbs, now vice chair of the Shelby County Commission, vacated the District 7 seat in September upon her election to the commission. Clay Bibbs on Tuesday asked candidates how they would contribute to the upcoming superintendent search, address the sunset of federal stimulus funding in the coming years, and complete the budgetary and policy duties of the board.
Clay Bibbs cast her vote for Johnson with the majority of the body. Two commissioners voted for Sharif and two did not vote. Mitchell received no votes.
Related:Who else will join the MSCS board this month? Meet the applicants
Johnson will fill the vacancy through the August 2024, when the current District 7 term expires. He completes the nine-person MSCS board, as its third new member this fall, as the body begins its search for a new superintendent.
Interview questions focus on superintendent search, academic improvements
Applicants Johnson and Sharif responded to roughly 30 minutes of questioning apiece, facing a range of questions from how to measure MSCS' academic success to how they would address community needs and childhood trauma.
Mitchell was not interviewed Monday after the commission disqualified his application upon the advisement of the county's legal office. According to county ethics officer Michael Joiner, Mitchell's address is not within the district.
In a phone call with The Commercial Appeal, Mitchell said he reviewed the maps and was under the impression he was in the district. It is unclear if Mitchell, who lives in a home on the border of District 6 and 7, was impacted by last year's redistricting, which does not appear to be reflected in the maps on the MSCS board website.
During the interviews, both Johnson and Sharif advocated for better community engagement with schools and suggested the City of Memphis contribute regular funding to MSCS.
Johnson, the new board member, credits his knowledge of and interest in Memphis' issues with what he learned after stumbling into a teaching at LaRose Elementary School in 2016. He is the president of the Alcy-Ball Community Association and has previous experience on political campaigns.
"We attempted to not only help the student but help the family,” Johnson said of his recent experience teaching a LaRose, describing the school's programs for family food assistance and uniform assistance. A school should be a "nerve center for the entire community,” he said, focused on not only a student but the student's family, too.
As a board member, Johnson plans to reengage families with the school district. That also means being straightforward with families about the impacts of proposed state legislation, he said.
Facing the imminent superintendent search, Johnson said he will look for a candidate who doesn't lead from the top down but listens, as he plans to do, to teachers and families at the ground level, and nimbly respond to those concerns and interests. That includes teacher support, too: "If we don’t have teachers, we don’t have schools," Johnson said, and teachers need to be healthy and supported for the schools to be the same.
Sharif is a longtime youth advocate who has worked for the state, schools and community organizations over the last 20 years.
Had he received the appointment, he would have prioritized early literacy improvements. "How can you learn if you cannot read?” he posited to commissioners. Still, he thinks success should be focused on continued growth, rather than achievement alone.
While he believes parents should have school choice, he believes community schools should be part of that choice. A community school should incorporate neighborhood organizations, he said, and prioritize student voice in identifying problems and solutions, including community challenges that impact their potential at school.
“I’m working at the neighborhood and school level," Sharif said of what he would have contributed to the board duties of the superintendent search and district budget and policy. "I know the (district's) gaps and what the schools are facing.”
Laura Testino covers education and children's issues for the Commercial Appeal. Reach her at laura.testino@commercialappeal.com or 901-512-3763. Find her on Twitter: @LDTestino
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis activist Frank Johnson appointed to MSCS school board
