Shelby County Schools is poised to contract with teacher training consultant Educational Epiphany for the 2021-2022 school year after previously dropping a more substantial contract proposal with the company in February.
For $750,000, the company will host at least 81 days of professional development for the district's teachers and teacher leadership staff. The contract is an increase of $100,000 and 25 learning sessions from last year, documents show.
Different from the contract proposed in February, the latest agreement does not include literacy materials for students, but is instead only for teacher training.
In February, district officials proposed a $14.5 million, five-year contract with the company, owned by Donyall Dickey, but pulled the contract from a board vote ahead of several public comments critical of the literacy programming and following a report about the district's work with the company by The Commercial Appeal and Chalkbeat, as well as another report by the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis.