The City Council slashed $57 million from its annual contribution to Memphis City Schools two years ago but put no money aside in case of unfavorable court rulings in its dispute with the school district. Instead, the council delivered a property-tax-rate reduction to citizens and increased city spending by more than $40 million. City employees [...]

Scattered air-conditioning outages at two of the largest city high schools required quick fixes Monday as the school year opened to temperatures that reached 97 by early afternoon. At the new $24.1 million Riverwood Elementary in Cordova, the air was cool and charged as 800 children found their places in classrooms furnished with computers, Wi-Fi [...]

Rebecca Panter (left) and Jasmyn Wright, who moved from out of state to teach at Evans Elementary School, set up for the first day of class. First-year Memphis City Schools teacher Jasmyn Wright, 21, grew up in South New Jersey, studied a semester in Africa and graduated a semester early from Spelman College with a [...]