MEMPHIS, TN (abc24.com) - The Shelby County Commission is moving forward with plans to require all teachers in a new Unified Memphis/Shelby County School System live in Shelby County.
On Monday, the Commission voted 9-4 to extend residency rules to Memphis City Schools teachers once they become county employees. Currently, MCS teachers don't have any residency requirements. An estimated 1,400 MCS teachers live outside Shelby County.
"To try and sell a home in this soft market would really,… I would really take a financial hit," said Derrick McIntosh, a teacher at Whitehaven High School.
McIntosh currently lives in Southaven, a quick commute to school.
Brian Davis also teaches at Whitehaven. Like McIntosh, he lives in Southaven.
"It has been a great place to live," Davis said. "It is less then a 5-minute drive from here to Whitehaven where I work."
Davis and McIntosh joined fellow teachers in asking Shelby County Commissioners to relax residence requirements on new SCS teachers.
"All we are asking is to be fair, we are not saying the residency is unfair, we are just saying be fair to us," McIntosh said.
Commissioners voted Monday to give new teachers five years to meet residency requirements.
Teachers who joined MCS before September 1, 1986 would be grandfathered in.
"It has been a battle for us, we have been praying about it a lot, and we're hopeful common sense will prevail," said Davis.
