Eleanor Boudreau

Credit Marci Lambert Photography
Reporter

I love living in Memphis, but I'm not from the city. I grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I spent many hours at a highly tender age listening to NPR as my parents crisscrossed that city in their car, running errands. I don't amuse myself by musing about the purity of destiny, but I have seriously wondered how different my life would be if my parents preferred classic rock instead of Car Talk.

I studied English at Harvard then spent a year dry-cleaning and writing poems. I went back to school because of my love for public radio journalism and got a master's in broadcast journalism from Columbia University.

I never seriously considered T.V. or print. I love conversation above images, or even words. I spent a summer working as an intern on NPR's opinions and editorials. When it came time to find a job, I mailed a slim envelop from D.C. to WKNO. Inside was a CD. I passed a breezy lunch break sitting in some grass, chatting with Candice and Dan on my cell-phone and when my internship was over, I drove halfway across the country. The rest, as they say, is history -- or, at the very least, it's archived on WKNO-FM's website.

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Mid-South News
2:24 pm
Tue April 3, 2012

New State-Run School District Is Facing An Old Problem

Pizza was served at a parent meeting at Westside Middle School.

 

Come August, the state will be calling the shots at Frayser Elementary, Corning Elementary, and Westside Middle. The schools are the first to be announced in Tennessee’s Achievement School District. The achievement district was created as a part of the state’s application to get federal “Race to the Top” money and it is a state-run district for low performing schools.

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Mid-South News
3:28 pm
Wed March 21, 2012

Attorney General Puts Brakes On Municipal School Districts In Shelby County

 

State attorney general Robert Cooper, Jr. issued his opinion Tuesday afternoon—the suburbs outside of Memphis can’t plan to create their own separate, municipal school districts until after Memphis City Schools and Shelby County Schools merge in August of 2013. 

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Mid-South News
6:00 am
Mon March 19, 2012

Plan For Merged School District To Respond To Conflicting Desires

Students attend a listening session held by the Transition Planning Commission at Colonial Middle School.

 

The Transition Planning Commission charged with planning the merger of Memphis and Shelby County Schools gathered ideas and inspiration for the new district through a grueling series of public listening sessions.

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Mid-South News
5:26 pm
Thu March 15, 2012

Replacement For Deputy Superintendent Irving Hamer One More Uncertainty For Memphis City Schools

Deputy Superintendent of the Memphis City Schools Irving Hamer resigned Monday after commenting on an employee’s breasts. The remarks happened at a party in February hosted by Hamer’s boss, Superintendent Kriner Cash. The party was at Cash’s house and many members of Memphis City Schools’ top brass were there.

The woman filed a complaint after Hamer further offended her in an email with the subject line: “Apology.” In that email Hamer said he could not blame his behavior on the two or three small drinks he’d had that night.

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Mid-South News
6:00 am
Mon March 12, 2012

KIPP Memphis To Expand To Almost 10 Times Current Size

Andrea Criollo (right) teaches 6th grade reading at the KIPP DIAMOND Academy in Memphis.

 

The Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP, is a national network of charter schools that have extended school days and a relentless focus on college. Currently, there are about 500 KIPP students in Memphis, but when the expansion is all done, in 2016, KIPP will have 4,500 students in every grade, kindergarten through 12. And 10 separate schools—five in North Memphis and five in South Memphis.

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