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Former Memphis-Shelby County school board member and local businessman Billy Orgel has been appointed to the nine-person oversight board that will seize control of Memphis-Shelby County Schools in a state-led takeover.
On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Randy McNally appointed Orgel and Memphis attorney Dedrick Brittenum, Jr. to the board, joining five appointments Gov. Bill Lee made last week. Their official appointment letters state their terms on the board begin immediately.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton will make the two remaining appointments.
Orgel, the president and CEO of Tower Ventures, began serving on the newly merged Memphis-Shelby County school board in 2011, at one time chairing it. He held the East Memphis District 8 seat for more than a decade before deciding not to seek reelection in 2022.
Orgel’s time on the board overlapped with the tenure of then-Superintendent Dorsey Hopson. The governor appointed Hopson, who served as Memphis superintendent from 2013 to early 2019, last week to serve on the board. Hopson is a partner at the City Fund, an organization founded in 2018 to promote the portfolio model of running schools that promotes school choice and charter school expansion.
Brittenum has been a Memphis business and property lawyer for decades and opened his private practice in 2012. He served as the District 4 representative on the Memphis City Council from 2005-2007 and led the Memphis Light, Gas and Water board of commissioners in 2012. He was also the chair of Memphis’ Civil Service Commission.
The governor’s other four appointees are Shanea McKinney of Cigna, who is a member of the University of Tennessee’s board of trustees; Nisha Powers, who leads a Memphis civil engineering firm and has served on the Tennessee board of regents; Beverly Robertson, a marketing executive and former president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce; and Tyrone Burroughs, a Memphis CEO who sits on the Tennessee Lottery Commission and the Youth Villages board of directors.
Those oversight board members will control key district decisions until June 2030, when their terms are set to expire. Under the state takeover bill signed into law last week by Gov. Bill Lee, the GOP-appointed board will have final say over MSCS’ budget and contracts over $50,000, as well as the hiring and firing of the superintendent.
The school board has signaled it may sue over the politically appointed takeover board. But Rep. Mark White, a Republican from Memphis who sponsored the takeover bill, said he’s confident that legal action will fail.
One of the first responsibilities of the oversight board will be to conduct a comprehensive assessment of MSCS staff, students, and buildings to make a “transformation plan.” It’s unclear whether the new board will have any control over the 2026-27 budget, which is set for a final vote from the board on Tuesday night.
The oversight board can direct or prohibit the superintendent to take any action and can fire the school leader with cause if they refuse. It can require the same of local board members and act on behalf of the MSCS board if they refuse to follow instructions.
The state-appointed board can also fire any MSCS employee with or without cause, including tenured teachers and principals, without giving them proper due process.
The oversight board appointments come as Memphis voters are in the middle of a local board election, with incumbents Michelle McKissack and Joyce Dorse-Coleman winning their seats in a May 5 primary. The Democratic nominees for Districts 6 and 8, T.L. Harris and Tanya Frey respectively, will face an independent challenger in an Aug. 6 general election. Their terms begin Sept. 1.
Melissa Brown is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact Melissa at mbrown@chalkbeat.org.
