New Memphis Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Superintendent Dr. Marie Feagins says too many of the 110,000-plus students in the MSCS System are missing school, and she wants to know why, according to a report on WREG.
“Hey Neighbor,” a program Feagins started, consists of searching for students not at school and providing participants with support necessary to enroll them on the spot and start on day one.
Feagins has been going door to door asking parents why their child is not in school, according to a video posted on the school’s Facebook page.
“Come on and open the door for me. It’s your superintendent. I want to make sure you are okay,” Feagins says as she knocked on a student’s door.
Once again as a new school year starts, plenty of kids are truant. In May, MSCS’s truancy rate was 40 percent.
“This the first program I’ve ever seen reaching out trying to see why kids are not in school. And it’s a big thing, it’s getting better and she’s trying to do something,” Shanita Steveson, a Memphis resident, told WREG.
Some leaders believe the superintendent’s efforts can help with the city’s crime problem. “If young people are not in school, then they are likely out in the community doing things we wouldn’t want them to do,” one resident told WREG.
Feagins says this is what it’s going to take to have a successful year and that 1,600 more students have returned to school as of Friday compared to this time last year.
WREG
