Memphis school leaders have extra money to invest for first time in years. Here’s how one student thinks they should spend it.

Superintendent Dorsey Hopson unveiled a $945 million spending plan this week that focuses largely on boosting teacher pay, classroom supports and struggling schools.

It’s a big deal, as the proposal marks the first time since the 2013 merger of city and county schools that Shelby County Schools hasn’t faced major cuts to balance its budget. Hopson’s administration projects having enough money to strategically invest in schools by adding counselors, assistant principals, instructional coaches and interventionists for literacy and math.

Chalkbeat spoke recently about the proposed investments with Amal Altareb, 16, a junior at Central High School and student leader with Facing History and Ourselves. In preparation, Amal polled about 30 classmates about what they would do if they held the district’s purse strings.

Here are the highlights of our Q&A:

What are the biggest needs at your school?

Central is an old school, and you can really tell sometimes. I know there are a lot of older schools in Memphis. How a school looks may not seem like a big deal, but we’re in the buildings all day. If the bathrooms don’t work or a school looks really rundown, that matters to the students who spend so many hours there.

Many students (that I polled) also talked about restorative justice. (Disciplinary) options shouldn’t be just (in-school suspension), suspension or even expulsion if a student acts out. It should be about why the student acted out. There needs to be more help and support for teachers and principals, so they’re not responsible for handling discipline. Or everyone needs training in what restorative justice means.

What do you want district leaders to know about your school?

There are so many great things going on at Central. We have a group that meets every week called Warriors Unite. Here, we talk about what’s going on at our school and in our community, and what we can do about it. Students are actively thinking about a lot of the problems that people in charge of our schools are thinking about, and we should all be around the same table much more often.

I also want district leaders to talk more about why students have to spend so much time testing. Teachers shouldn’t have to teach students to a test, but I think that’s often what teachers have to do. One student told me that tests take away from instructional time and falsely represent the work of teachers, which I really agree with. I’m definitely for holding students accountable for our work and making sure that we’re learning what we need to be successful. But it seems like there’s much more emphasis on “how can students do better on this test so our schools rank better?” rather than “are students learning what they need to be successful after high school?”

What do you think about the district’s proposed spending priorities for next school year?

I think raises for teachers is really amazing. They work hard and deserve to be rewarded for that. I was also really excited to hear about the increases in counselors and behavior specialists. That goes back to what I was saying earlier with restorative justice — teachers can’t be expected to do it all. They need more help.


You can read more details about the spending plan here.