The Mississippi Department of Education issued the following statement.
The Mississippi State Board of Education today placed the Wilkinson County School District into a District of Transformation due to serious academic deficiencies that demonstrate the district’s inability to provide students with an adequate and stable education. As a District of Transformation, the Wilkinson County School District is now a state-led district under the supervision of the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) and the State Board of Education (SBE).
The SBE’s determination was made in accordance with state law and based on the district’s history of persistently poor academic performance. This includes the district being F-rated for two consecutive years, with 50% of its schools currently being F-rated. As the only district with an F-rating for two consecutive years, Wilkinson County is the state’s lowest-performing district.
Under the statutory authority established during the 2024 legislative session, the SBE has the authority to place a school district into a District of Transformation for serious academic deficiencies or serious financial impairments. Under the new statutory framework, only the SBE is required to make the determination, and the Governor need not declare a state of emergency for the board to place a district into a District of Transformation for academic or financial reasons.
In addition to its serious academic deficiencies, the Wilkinson County School District has not completed an annual financial audit since June 2022, has received a probation accreditation status for eight of the past 11 years, and was cited for test security violations in 2023, which resulted in the high school not receiving an accountability grade.
“Districts in crisis typically show multiple areas of distress,” said State Superintendent of Education Dr. Lance Evans. “Thankfully, the law allows the state to intervene when a local school district cannot provide students with an adequate and stable educational environment. The MDE and the State Board are committed to ensuring the students of Wilkinson County receive the quality education they deserve.”
The SBE has appointed Lee Coats to serve as Wilkinson County’s interim superintendent. He most recently served as Assistant Superintendent of the Holmes County Consolidated School District.
The state’s other Districts of Transformation include Noxubee County, Holmes County, Humphreys County, Yazoo City and the Okolona Separate School District. Okolona became a District of Transformation in November due to serious financial impairments, making it the first district to be taken over under the SBE’s new statutory authority.
25 comments:
If you saw the “edumacators” teaching the utes, you would understand.
Probably run by one of those DEI mail order PhD types, but drives a nice district luxury car.
Like the Wilkinson County School District has anything remotely to do with the Jackson area.
I was hoping KF would give us some scoop about Mayor-Senator Horhn giving Kamala a "key to the city"at her book signing.
@6:58
I’m not sure if you are joking or you also attended Florence High School in the late 1990s where the Vice Principal pronounced it that way.
Because of the "Peter Principle," the "culture" works its way to the top.
During the 90's, I worked for a state agency based in Natchez.
Once per week, we had to travel down Hwy 61 to Woodville (Wilkinson County) to "serve" to the locals. The Wilkinson County Board of Supervisors gave us a small area in their Headstart Center (a former building that looked to be a once nice High School).
Every week, we saw dozens of happy little 4/5 year old kids
bouncing around but only about two "teachers" with them.
There were always eight or more "teachers" in the break room doing nothing.
And that was only a Wilkinson County Headstart Center.
Lord knows what the Elementary/Middle/High Schools looked like.
So yeah ... I'm glad the State took over.
Thus the crux of the knock down drag out fights opposing school district consolidations. Too many employment agencies that must be protected.
“Once we get us some of this reform in school choice all them precious boys and girls flunking out in Wilkinson will mix in with those other precious boys and girls Cathedral. Going to be great!!” - Legislators Smarter Than You
Jeez. How dumb do you think we are?Conservatorship, Achievement School District, and now….District of Transformation? Educators are not turnaround gurus. All they do is pay a bunch of money to the businesses to do this. Just admit it for the love of all.
Y’all are missing the whole point of many school districts in Mississippi; they exist to support high administrative salaries, educating kids is an afterthought.
The United States spends more money per a pupil than any country in the world yet we have subpar schools
Kamala know she got that Key 🗝️ to Jacktown,cackle laughing all the way to Memphis.
Many teachers/staff/assistant principals are truly at a breaking point throughout the state. What they have to endure is unimaginable - constant gaslighting and a ever-present threat of losing their job if they don't toe the line, and keep their mouth shut. The Mississppi Department of Education is a cabal, meant to keep the funding flowing to the fatcats.....nothing more. There is zero discipline expected of children or their parents, so there is zero actual education happening - statewide. FACT.
Hasn’t completed an audit in almost 4 years. Unreal.
Notice the MDE/SBE rarely goes after large or influential districts, guess they learned their limits with the JPS takeover attempt. Oh, and let's give the takeover process a new name, that will certainly fix everything.
You mean changing the Flag didn't ix the education problem?...
6:48am no audit in 4 years who’s at fault MDE! MDE why wait to now, why not the first year of no audit! We give so much slack, then pounce! Tate what do you think, let’s do away with MDE!
@7:38 hahaha Mr. Mason was something wasn't he!
Watched the board meeting out of curiosity. What they know on paper is 10x worse on the ground. Enrollment at WCSD has dropped around 50% since 2019. State BOE doesn’t really have a clue, would not be surprised if some of them couldn’t find Wilkinson County on a map.
Indeed. Those were much better days though.
According to state law, MDE can't actually perform the annual financial audits on districts. They have to be performed by private audit firms approved by the State Auditor's Office. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer of those firms exist. If a district shows that they issued and RFP and made adequate outreach to approved firms and were unable to secure services, then there is nothing MDE can do about it UNTIL the district self-reports serious financial issues.
Putting an interim in charge who previously 'worked at Holmes' system makes about as much sense as Kosciusko's system, several years back, putting failed ex-superintendent from Canton Separate in charge.
Question: If a governor plays no role in this action, why did Phil Bryant either veto or fail to exercise the same fate for JPS?
My earlier comment was verboten. So I’ll come back with something more agreeable to KF’s censorious palate: point to your superstar schools here and there all you like, but public education in Mississippi (and, I’ll hazard, from the mountains to the prairie to the oceans white with foam and all across the fruited plain as well) is an abject failure.
Don’t worry, private school vouchers will fix this.
Isn’t that school district in B Thompson’s district? If so, is anyone surprised?
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