Six Memphis suburbs have been officially cleared to hold separate school board elections in November.
The Memphis Commercial Appeal reports the Shelby County Election Commission has unanimously certified results of a July referendum vote in six suburbs to avoid a merger with Memphis City Schools.
In July, a large majority of voters in Germantown, Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Lakeland and Millington approved separate suburban school systems.
The new Shelby County and Memphis City Schools unified school system begins operations this month for the 2013-14 school year with 150,000 students. While the new Memphis Unified School district opens this month; suburban districts would likely not open until 2014.