By Jacinthia Jones; Alex Doniach Chafed over salary increases for Shelby County Schools' top administrators - including a $56,000 pay hike for the superintendent- Shelby County commissioners on Wednesday deferred approving the district's operating budget.

By Jacinthia Jones Shelby County School administrators presented school board members Thursday with a revised budget proposal that would reduce funding for school repairs this fall and hold the line on hiring new assistant principals, secretaries and teachers for gifted students.

By Lindsay Melvin If caught, students attending Shelby County Schools who live outside the district could be fined more than $7,000.

By ALLEN G. BREED Officials in Shelby County, Tenn., complain they'll have to spend millions to satisfy a federal judge's "arbitrary" desegregation order. It'll mean busing minority students up to an hour away and replacing hundreds of white teachers with black ones, they say.

By Lindsay Melvin In an effort to win over the most important ally in their long crusade for special school district status, the Shelby County school board and Supt. Bobby Webb agreed Thursday to ask Memphis City Schools to jointly fund a study on the measure.