For most of the 2025-26 academic year, students at Whitehaven High School have migrated between classes, passing by a shiny new facility aimed to bring out the sleeping mathematicians and scientists in Southwest Memphis.
But with the school year concluded, they’ll have to wait until at least next fall to take classes there — and maybe longer, depending on how much red tape will need to be snipped.
Months after the ceremonial opening of the James Herbert STEM Center at Whitehaven High School, the multimillion-dollar facility remains largely unused for instruction — even as a recently released state forensic audit raises questions about how the project was managed, funded and brought online.
“As of the date of this report, the Herbert STEM Center is not yet operational for instructional use, and no definitive utilization timeline has been established,” auditors wrote.
Context matters
The Whitehaven STEM facility will remain unused indefinitely. That’s the “what.”
The “why” is considerably more convoluted.
It’s no secret that the Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board spent much of 2025 dealing with one crisis or another. In January, the board controversially fired former superintendent Marie Feagins, who responded with a lawsuit of her own. The board appointed Dr. Roderick Richmond as interim superintendent, then removed the interim tag before re-attaching it earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the Tennessee General Assembly and state officials intensified scrutiny of the district amid growing concerns over finances, governance and academic outcomes. That scrutiny culminated in a sweeping forensic audit commissioned by the state and conducted by accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen LLP.
The resulting 329-page report examined a range of district operations — including the Herbert STEM Center project itself.
Auditors found that approximately $9.94 million had been raised for the project, roughly $9.05 million had been spent, and about $885,000 remained unexpended. The report also identified governance and communication gaps involving project partners, including SchoolSeed, which served as fiscal agent for the project.
Policy 2019 and the acceptance process
Under Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board Policy 2019, major gifts and donations must be fully evaluated before the district formally accepts them. The policy specifically states that donations must be assessed “prior to its acceptance/approval” to ensure audit compliance and avoid “speculation of fraud.”
The policy also requires district leaders to consider whether a donation could create “undesirable or hidden costs” related to staffing, maintenance, utilities or long-term operations. Gifts valued above $15,000 require formal Board approval. A whole STEM Center certainly qualifies.
That policy framework now hangs over the Herbert STEM Center debate because the district formally accepted the building in October 2025 as “a fully operational facility under its jurisdiction” — even though the state audit later found unresolved communication and operational-readiness concerns tied to the project.
Audit: No implication of wrongdoing
Importantly, the audit does not accuse anyone connected to the project of fraud or theft.
In fact, auditors noted that project expenditures were generally supported and related to construction and operations. But the report does paint a picture of a project whose operational details may not have been fully settled by the time the district formally accepted the building.
Among the audit’s findings:
- “The investigation identified concerns related to governance, communication, and operational readiness associated with the Herbert STEM Center project.”
- Auditors found “an apparent loss of trust” between the Whitehaven Empowerment Zone and Whitehaven STEM Building Inc.
- The report stated that delays in equipment purchases and readiness issues “were not clearly communicated to the District.”
Accepted — but not operating
Ironically, the Shelby County Board of Education formally accepted the Herbert STEM Center on Oct. 28, 2025 — weeks after the ribbon-cutting ceremony and more than a month after the building received its certificate of occupancy.
Board records reviewed by The Tri-State Defender show little substantive public discussion of the project in the days leading up to that vote.
Agendas from finance, procurement and policy committee meetings held Oct. 21, 2025 contain no visible discussion of the Herbert STEM Center, despite extensive conversations surrounding district finances, staffing shortages, infrastructure concerns and governance reforms.
At the same time, board members were debating temporary suspension of key governance policies related to budgeting and oversight while grappling with declining enrollment, legal expenditures and mounting operational pressures districtwide.
Still, the Board voted unanimously to accept the building as “a fully operational facility under its jurisdiction.”
District policy requires that major gifts and donations be fully evaluated before acceptance, including consideration of long-term operational and maintenance obligations – things like: How many additional teachers and staff are needed? How does the new facility impact energy usage? What ongoing costs are associated with running new chemistry and biology labs?
The Board’s acceptance remains valid. But the gap between the building’s formal acceptance and its continued lack of instructional use now raises broader questions about whether all operational conditions tied to the project had truly been resolved at the time of the vote.
Questions before the ribbon cutting
Questions surrounding the Herbert STEM Center did not begin with the audit.
During construction, community members and activists questioned the project’s changing footprint and reported costs. Early plans described a 25,000-square-foot STEM facility costing approximately $9.5 million. By the time the building opened, the facility footprint had shrunk to roughly 20,000 square feet, while city permit records listed construction costs at approximately $7.9 million.
At the ribbon cutting last fall, project leader Richard J. Meyer said the difference reflected the distinction between “hard” construction costs and “soft” costs associated with the overall project.
“The $7.9 million on the permit is just the hard cost — what you pay the contractor for the steel, the concrete, the bricks,” Meyer told TSD at the time. “Everything else — architecture, utilities, equipment — are soft costs that aren’t reflected on that permit.”
Vince McCaskill, president and CEO of SchoolSeed, also pointed to pandemic-era inflation and rising construction costs.
“The reality is, prior to the pandemic, to build any facility in Memphis, in Shelby County, it’s gonna cost you about $250 a square foot,” McCaskill said during the center’s opening ceremony. “Then the pandemic hit — COVID hit, inflation hit — and everybody felt it in the stores.
“So if you felt it in the stores, can you imagine what that cost would be with construction materials?” he continued. “So it went from $250 a square foot to $400 a square foot.”
The audit appears to support portions of those explanations while simultaneously raising new questions about communication, oversight and operational planning.
What happens now?
At this point, the Herbert STEM Center belongs to the district. The issue is no longer whether the building exists or whether it was formally accepted. The question now is what remains unfinished before students can fully use it.
In a statement released after publication of the forensic audit, MSCS acknowledged the findings broadly, saying the district “welcomes any information that can be used to strengthen MSCS” and is “working diligently to assess and make the necessary changes.”
The district did not specifically address the Herbert STEM Center or provide a timeline for when students might begin regularly taking classes inside the facility.
For now, one of the most ambitious education projects in recent Whitehaven history remains something students can admire mostly from the outside looking in — a gleaming symbol of possibility waiting for the systems around it to catch up.
