Superintendent Feagins plans to increase student after school involvement but faces funding issues
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Getting kids involved in after school activities. It’s hard to do – with transportation issues and just simply getting kids to want to participate.
But now the Memphis Shelby County School superintendent has come up with a plan to make that happen. But of course, it’s going to cost money – money the school district does not have.
FOX13 learned that not all school board members support in the proposed investment.
Latasha Smith is a grandmother of a MSCS middle school student. And while her granddaughter loves to participate in after school activities such as dance, transportation is a major concern.
Superintendent Marie Feagins proposed to invest more than 14 million dollars to expand access to after school programs and increase the number of bus routes for after school activities.
“General, just programing in general. Just getting a student connected to an activity in school, but just one changes things for them, right? The school pride increases their morale, increases their general performance, increases, their attendance increases.” Feagins said.
However, Board member Mauricio Calvo said there are other things the district should tackle first.
“I don’t think right now with information that I have; I will be able to support this and not because I don’t care about after school just because there’s so many priorities and just putting $14 million into something that we have never tried and that we don’t know if it’s going to work,” Calvo said.
Superintendent Feagins also suggested that the proposed investment in after school activities could increase student achievement through access to tutoring and ACT Prep.
Board Chair Althea Greene said the board should look at the statistics and youth crime and consider the investment as a better path for students.
“I think it’s an investment that we need to make as a district because so many of our students don’t have anything to do, but they have to go home because they to ride the bus home,” Greene said.
Now, this 14-million dollar after-school investment is included in Superintendent Feagins’ proposed 2024-2025 budget. The board members’ deadline to pass the budget is June 30th.
However, Feagins told FOX13 that she believes the board will pass the budget by Thursday or Next Tuesday.