November 12, 2024 • 14 mins
We're talking with the Superintendent of the Memphis Shelby County Schools Dr. Marie Feagins on The BevJohnson Show on WDIA Radio.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Memphis probably possessed the Johnson Show.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Let me say, Beth donempi, don't get me first, let
me you say she's gone camphis don't gain a no
(00:37):
matter of the problem, she can help me solve all
the phone and the moments on your mind. She understand
to be ding.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
In the hair my challing you to just keep the thing.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
When arid picking up Miss Johnsy show, you bell got
here something heavy foa in here every day.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Indeed I hate my bell.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Got me a mistking gay.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Good morning, good morning, good morning, and.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Welcome in tod I a the BEV Johnson Show.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
It is in a deed a pleasure to.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Have you with us once again on this Monday, November eleventh,
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Enjoy this fabulous day to day.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Get ready to put your ears on as we have
guests today on this Veteran's Day. We'll start off with
the Superintendent of the Memphis Shelby County Schools, doctor Marie Fagins,
will be in the house to talk with us. Second,
I we'll talk with our Cairo Practois doctor Bobby Myers,
(02:40):
as he gives us the good health news as always,
so stick and stay for that.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
When it's your turn to talk.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
You know you can. All you need to do is
dial these numbers nine zero one, five, three, five, nine
three four to two nine zero one, five three, five,
nine three four two eight hundred five zero three nine
three four two eight hundred five zero three, nine three
(03:11):
four two eight three three five three five nine three
four two will get you in to me. And if
this day, this day, Monday, November eleventh, twenty twenty four,
(03:36):
is your birthday. Happy birthday to each and every one
of y'all out there who may be celebrating a birthday
on this day, I want to say.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Happy belated birthday.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Over the weekend was my third Supreme, my niece Tiffany Michelle,
who had her birthday on a Saturday. My niece, one
of the Supremes, and so Randy Hodges had a birthday
on Saturday, the birthday Randy, Happy birthday, Tiffany. Hope you
(04:07):
all had a fabulous day, and if you're celebrating today,
hope your day will be as fabulous as well.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Go out and celebrate your life.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
When we come back, we'll talk with our very special guests.
The superintendent of the Memphis Shelby County Schools doctor Marie
Faggins and me Bev Johnson on the BEV Johnson Show
only on w d IA. Good morning and welcome back
(05:04):
to WDIA.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Yeah, my guy, mister Boney James for our jazz lovers
twenty five.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Or six to four. Yeah, I hope you enjoyed that.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Good morning, and welcome in and welcome to wdi A.
It's a Monday, a beautiful fall Monday in Memphis, Tennessee,
November eleventh, twenty twenty four. Wherever you are, I hope
it is just as fabulous. Let me say Happy Veterans
Day to all the veterans out there.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
We thank you, we thank you, we thank you for
your service. So enjoy your day today.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Well, I am so happy to have this sister in
the house. Finally, finally, y'all, she's here on the Bev
Johnson Joe here at wdi A.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Let me welcome in.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
And another thing I'm is my sorority sister as well.
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. Please welcome in to w
di IA and the Bev Johnson Show. The Superintendent of
the Memphis Shelby County Schools, doctor Marie Fagan's doctor Fakans,
good morning and welcome.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Well, great morning, graazy to be here with you.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Good to have me, Louis.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
You say you don't have to call me out like that,
but I got to call Yeah, they know me, right,
I said, Finally, y'all, she made it to my show,
but you made.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
It, Yes, I made it. Good to be here, Good
to have you here, doctor Fagan's.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I was thinking, you're now into seven months, yes, ma'am, Wow,
Superintendent of the Shelby County Schools and sister, I have
to say this, did you know what you will walking into?
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Absolutely? Okay, absolutely to be transparent and honest, absolutely took
a lot of prayer to get here, right. You don't
make a decision like this and take a step and
a leap like this lightly. A lot is on the line,
A lot of lives are on the line and depending
on us, and so absolutely imagine all the things that
could be and then many of the things that may
not have known. And then certainly it has been everything
(07:09):
and a little bit more in a positive way.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And I was thinking that of the things you've done
and one of the things I loved when I saw
on one of the news stories, doctor Fagan. You said
I'll stay here if you take away my salary, And
I like that about you because that showed me that
you are interested in the children of Shelby County Schools.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Oh, that's right.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
I none of us do this work as educators for
the money, right, yeah, And I always share with the
team with teachers, for sure. I'm not certain that I
can place a value on what you do right. And
then for all of us what we do. No one
can place a value on who you are, Miss Bev.
Nobody can do what you do like you do it right.
And so when we think about the money and we
think about the impact, the impact is what is important
(08:00):
for me. And so if you take away the money,
which is what I shared, I'll be here tomorrow to
do the same work the same way, with the same
passion and interest. There are one hundred and eleven thousand
lives who depend on us and the hopes and dreams
that are within their eyes.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I believe that they.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Deserve a good shot, a fair shot of being able
to realize them. And that comes with leaders who are
prepared to do the right things, those things that are
perceptually tough, but get to get it right. More than
we don't, and so I would do this for free.
I have done it for free. And so it is
about our youngest leaders and the impact that we can
(08:38):
have on a community, on a city, and then naturally
a state and the country.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Since you've been here, doctor Fagans, what has been that
you have seen going around the school district? That is
one of the biggest challenges for our students here in
this city.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
The biggest challenge, you know, and this is in general,
just been in the field for about twenty years now,
and so just in general, it's the competing priorities, right,
It's being in tune with social media, It's staying you know.
It's not even about being popular, it's just being in
the know. It is trying to find your voice in
(09:20):
a space that is otherwise so noisy and so loud,
and being able to be your authentic self. And I
probably that's not what anybody thought I would say. They
probably thought I would say literacy in the end.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
And I thought you were going to say that. I
thought you were going to say that.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
And so it's about the things, the distractions that take
away from what our students and our kids need to
be focused on. I'd also say just the general value
of education. I talk about this with my team and
with my family all the time. You know, there was
never a day that I woke up and said, hey,
I wonder if I should go to school today. I wonder, Mama,
do you think it's okay if I stay home? Like
that was just that was never a conversation, you know,
(09:58):
that was had. And so now it is an option.
It's a choice. If you don't, you know, feel like going,
then you don't really have to go. And so it
is about making education being important again, making it be
significant again, making the connection you know to who it
is you desire to be, the type of impact you
(10:20):
desire to have on the world, and understanding that the
skills you need, the access to the social capital meaning
friends and a network that you need. It's in a school,
you know, it's beyond the building, but it's the connections
that you have through your educational journey. I want school
to be cool again for the youngest leaders, right. I
want them to have their say and how they believe
(10:41):
it should go and feel. I want them to be
able to contribute to the innovation that is necessary because
kids aren't. Right, school is boring, right, But there are
some boring things. Just like you can't eat hamburgers and
pizza and fries all the time. You need your broccoli
and your peace. There's a delicate balance. And so I
would say for our youngest leaders right now, in addition
to the just competing priorities, certainly you know just the
(11:06):
value of education, we cannot overlook just the impact of
a heavily impoverished space. Poverty is real, Abject poverty is real,
and so when you're talking about generational cycles of poverty,
that's tough to fight against. And so asking a young
leader to see something that they can't see, to be
(11:28):
able to do something that family hasn't done just yet,
to be the first, it sounds exciting until it's you, right,
And so as a first generation college alumna, you know
you don't have anybody to go before you and share,
and so you are doing it on your own, jumping
over the hurdles on your own. But certainly it is
not impossible. So it's probably those three things that I
(11:49):
would say, you know, are really standing against our young people.
But you know, together those of us who really want
to see them shine, they stand a fair chance.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I love how you when you talk about the students.
I love you saying young leaders because that's what they are.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Absolutely it is. Are they kids, sure, sure, are they babies?
They're somebody's but I'm still my mama's baby. But they
are our youngest leaders. They already have the capacity to
make decisions. They do it every day. We're just helping
them to make the best decisions. They already have phenomenal ideas.
They just need the resources and the folks to say, hey,
(12:27):
you know, this is the next best step for you.
And so they are young leaders. I'm not even saying
that they're rising. They are leaders today, and so when
I have conversations with them, much of what we have
decided to do as an administration came from what our
young leaders shared. They gave us ideas. They named products
that they wanted to see in programs and platforms and
(12:48):
opportunities that they wanted to have more access to. We
got about the business of building it into the budget
and then figuring out right alongside them, how do we
stand up a program, how do we bring in what.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
It is that we need.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
While we work on facilities and things that take a
little more time, we can fix the nutrition. They said
the food didn't taste good. They want to have some
better options, and so we had a tasting with them
and they chose the menu. And so you know, things
like that are our youngest leaders and contribute to right now.
And who better to do this journey with than those
(13:21):
who are impacted the most by it and those who
you want to turn around and leave something for the
next generation. This is generational impact we're talking about. And
so yes, I do see them as leaders always have.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Well, when we talk about the leaders and the Memphis
Shelby County school system and you coming from the Detroit
public schools that and I think about up north, the
school system is so different. I know, I grew up
doctor Fakin. I graduated from Anniber Pioneer High School. So yes,
(13:56):
I did, and I think I said, oh my goodness,
Memphis probably possessed the Johnson Show.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Let me say, Beth donempi, don't get me first, let
me you say she's gone camphis don't gain a no
(00:37):
matter of the problem, she can help me solve all
the phone and the moments on your mind. She understand
to be ding.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
In the hair my challing you to just keep the thing.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
When arid picking up Miss Johnsy show, you bell got
here something heavy foa in here every day.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Indeed I hate my bell.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Got me a mistking gay.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Good morning, good morning, good morning, and.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Welcome in tod I a the BEV Johnson Show.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
It is in a deed a pleasure to.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
Have you with us once again on this Monday, November eleventh,
twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Enjoy this fabulous day to day.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Get ready to put your ears on as we have
guests today on this Veteran's Day. We'll start off with
the Superintendent of the Memphis Shelby County Schools, doctor Marie Fagins,
will be in the house to talk with us. Second,
I we'll talk with our Cairo Practois doctor Bobby Myers,
(02:40):
as he gives us the good health news as always,
so stick and stay for that.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
When it's your turn to talk.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
You know you can. All you need to do is
dial these numbers nine zero one, five, three, five, nine
three four to two nine zero one, five three, five,
nine three four two eight hundred five zero three nine
three four two eight hundred five zero three, nine three
(03:11):
four two eight three three five three five nine three
four two will get you in to me. And if
this day, this day, Monday, November eleventh, twenty twenty four,
(03:36):
is your birthday. Happy birthday to each and every one
of y'all out there who may be celebrating a birthday
on this day, I want to say.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Happy belated birthday.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Over the weekend was my third Supreme, my niece Tiffany Michelle,
who had her birthday on a Saturday. My niece, one
of the Supremes, and so Randy Hodges had a birthday
on Saturday, the birthday Randy, Happy birthday, Tiffany. Hope you
(04:07):
all had a fabulous day, and if you're celebrating today,
hope your day will be as fabulous as well.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
Go out and celebrate your life.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
When we come back, we'll talk with our very special guests.
The superintendent of the Memphis Shelby County Schools doctor Marie
Faggins and me Bev Johnson on the BEV Johnson Show
only on w d IA. Good morning and welcome back
(05:04):
to WDIA.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Yeah, my guy, mister Boney James for our jazz lovers
twenty five.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Or six to four. Yeah, I hope you enjoyed that.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Good morning, and welcome in and welcome to wdi A.
It's a Monday, a beautiful fall Monday in Memphis, Tennessee,
November eleventh, twenty twenty four. Wherever you are, I hope
it is just as fabulous. Let me say Happy Veterans
Day to all the veterans out there.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
We thank you, we thank you, we thank you for
your service. So enjoy your day today.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Well, I am so happy to have this sister in
the house. Finally, finally, y'all, she's here on the Bev
Johnson Joe here at wdi A.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Let me welcome in.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
And another thing I'm is my sorority sister as well.
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. Please welcome in to w
di IA and the Bev Johnson Show. The Superintendent of
the Memphis Shelby County Schools, doctor Marie Fagan's doctor Fakans,
good morning and welcome.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Well, great morning, graazy to be here with you.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Good to have me, Louis.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
You say you don't have to call me out like that,
but I got to call Yeah, they know me, right,
I said, Finally, y'all, she made it to my show,
but you made.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
It, Yes, I made it. Good to be here, Good
to have you here, doctor Fagan's.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I was thinking, you're now into seven months, yes, ma'am, Wow,
Superintendent of the Shelby County Schools and sister, I have
to say this, did you know what you will walking into?
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Absolutely? Okay, absolutely to be transparent and honest, absolutely took
a lot of prayer to get here, right. You don't
make a decision like this and take a step and
a leap like this lightly. A lot is on the line,
A lot of lives are on the line and depending
on us, and so absolutely imagine all the things that
could be and then many of the things that may
not have known. And then certainly it has been everything
(07:09):
and a little bit more in a positive way.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
And I was thinking that of the things you've done
and one of the things I loved when I saw
on one of the news stories, doctor Fagan. You said
I'll stay here if you take away my salary, And
I like that about you because that showed me that
you are interested in the children of Shelby County Schools.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Oh, that's right.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
I none of us do this work as educators for
the money, right, yeah, And I always share with the
team with teachers, for sure. I'm not certain that I
can place a value on what you do right. And
then for all of us what we do. No one
can place a value on who you are, Miss Bev.
Nobody can do what you do like you do it right.
And so when we think about the money and we
think about the impact, the impact is what is important
(08:00):
for me. And so if you take away the money,
which is what I shared, I'll be here tomorrow to
do the same work the same way, with the same
passion and interest. There are one hundred and eleven thousand
lives who depend on us and the hopes and dreams
that are within their eyes.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
I believe that they.
Speaker 4 (08:15):
Deserve a good shot, a fair shot of being able
to realize them. And that comes with leaders who are
prepared to do the right things, those things that are
perceptually tough, but get to get it right. More than
we don't, and so I would do this for free.
I have done it for free. And so it is
about our youngest leaders and the impact that we can
(08:38):
have on a community, on a city, and then naturally
a state and the country.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Since you've been here, doctor Fagans, what has been that
you have seen going around the school district? That is
one of the biggest challenges for our students here in
this city.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
The biggest challenge, you know, and this is in general,
just been in the field for about twenty years now,
and so just in general, it's the competing priorities, right,
It's being in tune with social media, It's staying you know.
It's not even about being popular, it's just being in
the know. It is trying to find your voice in
(09:20):
a space that is otherwise so noisy and so loud,
and being able to be your authentic self. And I
probably that's not what anybody thought I would say. They
probably thought I would say literacy in the end.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
And I thought you were going to say that. I
thought you were going to say that.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
And so it's about the things, the distractions that take
away from what our students and our kids need to
be focused on. I'd also say just the general value
of education. I talk about this with my team and
with my family all the time. You know, there was
never a day that I woke up and said, hey,
I wonder if I should go to school today. I wonder, Mama,
do you think it's okay if I stay home? Like
that was just that was never a conversation, you know,
(09:58):
that was had. And so now it is an option.
It's a choice. If you don't, you know, feel like going,
then you don't really have to go. And so it
is about making education being important again, making it be
significant again, making the connection you know to who it
is you desire to be, the type of impact you
(10:20):
desire to have on the world, and understanding that the
skills you need, the access to the social capital meaning
friends and a network that you need. It's in a school,
you know, it's beyond the building, but it's the connections
that you have through your educational journey. I want school
to be cool again for the youngest leaders, right. I
want them to have their say and how they believe
(10:41):
it should go and feel. I want them to be
able to contribute to the innovation that is necessary because
kids aren't. Right, school is boring, right, But there are
some boring things. Just like you can't eat hamburgers and
pizza and fries all the time. You need your broccoli
and your peace. There's a delicate balance. And so I
would say for our youngest leaders right now, in addition
to the just competing priorities, certainly you know just the
(11:06):
value of education, we cannot overlook just the impact of
a heavily impoverished space. Poverty is real, Abject poverty is real,
and so when you're talking about generational cycles of poverty,
that's tough to fight against. And so asking a young
leader to see something that they can't see, to be
(11:28):
able to do something that family hasn't done just yet,
to be the first, it sounds exciting until it's you, right,
And so as a first generation college alumna, you know
you don't have anybody to go before you and share,
and so you are doing it on your own, jumping
over the hurdles on your own. But certainly it is
not impossible. So it's probably those three things that I
(11:49):
would say, you know, are really standing against our young people.
But you know, together those of us who really want
to see them shine, they stand a fair chance.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
I love how you when you talk about the students.
I love you saying young leaders because that's what they are.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Absolutely it is. Are they kids, sure, sure, are they babies?
They're somebody's but I'm still my mama's baby. But they
are our youngest leaders. They already have the capacity to
make decisions. They do it every day. We're just helping
them to make the best decisions. They already have phenomenal ideas.
They just need the resources and the folks to say, hey,
(12:27):
you know, this is the next best step for you.
And so they are young leaders. I'm not even saying
that they're rising. They are leaders today, and so when
I have conversations with them, much of what we have
decided to do as an administration came from what our
young leaders shared. They gave us ideas. They named products
that they wanted to see in programs and platforms and
(12:48):
opportunities that they wanted to have more access to. We
got about the business of building it into the budget
and then figuring out right alongside them, how do we
stand up a program, how do we bring in what.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
It is that we need.
Speaker 4 (13:00):
While we work on facilities and things that take a
little more time, we can fix the nutrition. They said
the food didn't taste good. They want to have some
better options, and so we had a tasting with them
and they chose the menu. And so you know, things
like that are our youngest leaders and contribute to right now.
And who better to do this journey with than those
(13:21):
who are impacted the most by it and those who
you want to turn around and leave something for the
next generation. This is generational impact we're talking about. And
so yes, I do see them as leaders always have.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
Well, when we talk about the leaders and the Memphis
Shelby County school system and you coming from the Detroit
public schools that and I think about up north, the
school system is so different. I know, I grew up
doctor Fakin. I graduated from Anniber Pioneer High School. So yes,
(13:56):
I did, and I think I said, oh my goodness,
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