Rural communities push back on school consolidation efforts: ‘They’re just looking at numbers on the paper’

By Leonardo Bevilacqua and Devna Bose | Originally published by Mississippi Today

Mississippi has lost thousands of public school students over the past decade, leaving fewer children enrolled in the state’s 138 school districts and less money to go around. 

State leaders think they’ve found a solution: School consolidation. 

House Speaker Jason White has formed a select committee to examine how merging districts in Mississippi could benefit students. Lawmakers say the state has too many small, underperforming school districts that spend too much on administration.

Representatives have identified several counties as potential candidates for consolidation, including Tallahatchie, Copiah, Washington and Bolivar. But state leaders are struggling to articulate a cohesive vision. It’s not clear if their intent is to merge staff, close schools or both.

House Education Chairman Rob Roberson, a Republican from Starkville, says the push is primarily about improving education while acknowledging that saving money is another factor. 

“It’s unfortunate, and it makes me sound like a bad guy, but I’ve got to look at it realistically,” he said, admitting that administrators’ jobs may be on the chopping block. “Adults matter to me, but the kids matter more.”

But people in communities across Mississippi worry that state leaders are only concerned about saving money without considering how school closures will affect their small towns.

In Tallahatchie, locals fear consolidation will stall progress while Copiah residents fret about deeper dysfunction.

“I don’t think it’s about the kids,” said Bernard Berryhill, a former West Tallahatchie teacher. “I think it’s about dollar bills.”

Shrinking populations, shrinking budgets

The stakes are different for school districts that may be forced to merge. In Copiah County, consolidation could bring Wesson schools in closer proximity with communities with a history of low academic performance and administrative turnover. Hazlehurst schools would lose local control, including the ability to direct their spending and hire school staff. 

“They’re just looking at numbers on the paper,” said Hazlehurst school board President Paul Rhodes. “And there’s going to be some other costs that may go along with it that they’re not even considering.”

The move comes as Hazlehurst schools face a possible state takeover. School leadership has made the kind of progress in recent months that might put off a state takeover, but a key question they still face is: Are your dysfunctional days behind you?

In some ways, the consolidation makes financial sense. 

The Copiah County School District’s central office is less than a mile away from Hazlehurst City Schools’ in downtown Hazlehurst. Both districts’ bus barns are in the county seat. 

But for local communities, the possible savings seem meager compared to losing representation on the school board and mixing district finances and instructional planning for student populations with different needs.

“We want what’s best for the kids,” said Barbara Higgins, whose nonprofit Empowering Doves helps connect Hazlehurst seniors with scholarships. “If they’re afraid of progress, make sure the students have what they need first. We want the chance to grow. And we have been.”

‘The raw end of the deal’

The eastern side of Tallahatchie County is anchored by Charleston, a town of about 1,900 people with a bustling downtown square. The other end of the county is a constellation of four-way stops, rural communities with little more than town halls and gas stations. 

There’s already a sense of inequity between the two ends of the county, said Stephanie Kassem, leader of the Boys & Girls Club in Tutwiler.

The east side has “a stronger tax base, so of course they get more money,” she said. “That’s led to this feeling that they get better things than they would over here.”

Berryhill, the former teacher, said he’s concerned that funds would not be fairly divided between the county’s two districts, East Tallahatchie and West Tallahatchie, after a consolidation. 

Superintendent Tony Young’s perspective, West Tallahatchie School District is doing well on its own, financially and academically. He is already concerned about losing money next year because of a new school funding formula that’s tied more closely to student enrollment. A clause that protects districts from losing funding because of declining enrollment expires next summer.

Almost 70,000 students have left Mississippi public schools since 2013. In that time, West Tallahatchie schools have lost more than 300 students, nearly half of its student body. East Tallahatchie has lost a third.

Opposition to consolidation in Copiah County is centered in Wesson and Hazlehurst, where parents and community leaders fear the change would provide few benefits while deepening disparities in resources.

Crystal Morgan, whose three children attend Wesson schools, fears consolidation will overwhelm teachers and crowd classrooms. The consolidation proposed by the legislature last session redrew boundaries to coincide with board of supervisor lines, which would mean some Hazlehurst students would be zoned into Wesson schools. 

She said she hopes her kids don’t end up getting “the raw end of the deal with extra students in their already small classroom,” and worries about adding poorly-performing schools to the district.

“Wesson thrives because it’s a small and tight knit community,” she said. 

Tanya Marsaw, a mother of a Crystal Springs High senior, said the district’s students learn and play in subpar facilities. She’s not sure if that would change in a consolidation, but wonders if new leadership after a merger could pave the way for some improvements. 

“My daughter plays volleyball,” she said. “She goes into the Wesson locker room… It’s like going somewhere else. They don’t have rats, they don’t have roaches, they don’t have paint chipping off the wall, none of those things.”

Fears of violence

For many Tallahatchie County locals, who are proud of the academic growth of both districts, the first question about consolidation is, “Why?” The immediate second question is, “How?”

Lorenzo Pimpton, a West Tallahatchie teacher and coach, said busing a student from Tutwiler, in the western part of the county, to Charleston in the east could take hours if there are multiple stops. 

The idea, a possible reality of consolidation, is “outlandish” unless lawmakers find the funding for the community to build a centralized school, said Rep. Tracey Rosebud, a West Tallahatchie graduate who now represents the whole county.

“Otherwise, it’s going to be ugly to transfer kids across the region like that,” he said. 

And those long bus rides could lead to fights, he said. Rosebud is particularly concerned about violence between older students if they’re forced together unexpectedly. The two schools have long had a friendly rivalry that sometimes turns hostile, he said.

From her work at the Boys & Girls Club, Kassem worries a merger could destabilize already-struggling students. She knows the trauma many Tallahatchie students are living with: unable to depend on regular meals at home, unreliable transportation and other issues.

“You’re in that kind of awkward age and then you are self-conscious, and this is a huge change to be going through,” she said. “I think it would be too much … and would add to some of their trauma.”

A seat at the table

Whatever lawmakers decide on an administrative or school consolidation, Berryhill hopes they consider locals’ voices and make slow, intentional changes.

“If the state is going to make a change, I’d prefer it’s gradual,” he said. “Where can we meet in the middle? A new campus or a new building, maybe.”

When Hazlehurst students exited their buses on the first day of school in August, they were met with landscaped lawns and planters outfitted with red mulch, repainted buildings and glossy gym floors.

The upgrades were the brainchild of Nonya Thrasher, the superintendent appointed in September. She fielded donations and volunteers from local businesses as part of a beautification project. Thrasher brought local leaders into the schools, and cleared the majority of outstanding accreditation violations that kept the district on the state’s radar. 

To many in the community, she has brought something that has eluded the district in recent years: hope. 

For Higgins, a girl scout leader in Hazlehurst for over 30 years, her support for consolidation hinged on the school board’s decision to hire Thrasher, who she says is the most qualified and effective superintendent the district has had in years.

As they discuss consolidating Hazlehurst and Copiah County schools, state lawmakers may also be lingering on a painful and chaotic state takeover of the city district that lasted from 2008 to 2014. The district was out of compliance with nearly every accreditation standard and has struggled to run a functional special education department. 

For now, Thrasher is part of the conversation. She is expected to address the subcommittee on school consolidation in October.

Roberson wants the communities to be involved in the discussion, he said, which also requires admitting there’s a problem.

“Leadership shows up trying to protect what they have,” he said. “What you currently have will not exist over the course of the next few years, because it’s not working. If it was, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article