Memphis Votes to Merge City and Suburban Schools

Memphis school board members Tomeka Hart and Martavius Jones get excited by early results from the merger vote, while City Council member Shea Flinn, right, checks his mobile device.

—Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal/Landov

Now haggling begins over timing and shape of a new school board

By Christina A. Samuels and Mary Ann Zehr

Memphis residents have voted for a merger between the 105,000-student city school system and the much smaller neighboring suburban district of Shelby County, but leaders of the two school systems say conflicting laws make it unclear how to proceed.

Sixty-seven percent of voters said “yes” to consolidating the two school districts into one 150,000-student system, which would become one of the 20 largest in the nation. But the turnout for the March 8 referendum represented only 17 percent of registered voters.

Residents of the part of Shelby County who send their children to the suburban district weren’t allowed to vote on the matter, so people both for and against the merger acknowledge that relationships need to be forged for...