Letter from Mayor Stan Joyner | Collierville IndependentCollierville Independent

During the past few weeks, there has been a lot of legislative activity related to our efforts to form a new municipal school district.
On April 15, the state legislature approved HB 1288 allowing us create new municipal school districts. On April 24, Gov. Bill Haslam signed the bill into law.
It is without a doubt that these are significant steps forward and I am pleased with the outcome. This is an affirmation that our plans and our approach have been based on solid well thought out strategies.
We have known from the beginning that this would be a long process and that there would be many challenges, but we had confidence in our plan, in our team and most importantly in our goal of securing a quality education system with local control.
Although these developments are very positive, in many ways our work is just beginning.
With the Governor’s approval the path is clear for us to schedule referendums on the question of creating a new municipal school district.
Collaborative discussions with my fellow municipal mayors and our legal team have projected a timeline that sets July 16 at the date for a referendum. To meet this timeline, the Collierville Board of Mayor and Aldermen will first have to adopt an ordinance authorizing the referendum.
This will require three readings of the ordinance which will take place in May. The schedule of the meetings will be posted on the town’s website as soon as the schedule is determined.
If the ordinance is approved by the Collierville BMA and the referendum on July 16 is approved, a similar ordinance process will be required to call for a November election of school board members.
I want to reassure the citizens of Collierville that the board is committed to our goal of creating a municipal school district that offers the best educational experience we can possibly provide. I want to express my thanks to our local legislators for their support and commitment and to Governor Haslam for his leadership.
As always, I sincerely appreciate the encouragement and support I receive from the citizens.
– Mayor Stan Joyner