The Department of Justice and Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District avoided a protracted court battle after Judge Michael P. Mills approved a permanent desegregation order Thursday that sets in stone school attendance zones agreed upon by both sides.
Mills’ order codifies a SOCSD proposal to bring East Elementary students to city campuses, thereby satisfying DOJ objections over operating East with a 94 percent African-American enrollment.
Specifically, the desegregation order sets the following attendance zones for elementary and middle schools in the 2016-2017 academic year: West Elementary shall, a county campus, will service kindergarten through fifth grade students residing in its current attendance zone; Sudduth Elementary will serve all kindergarten and first graders in Sudduth’s and East’s zones; Henderson Ward-Stewart Elementary will serve all grades 2-4 students residing in the Sudduth, Ward-Stewart and East Elementary zones; Overstreet School will service fifth graders residing in Henderson Elementary and East zones; and Armstrong Middle School will service all countywide grades 6-8 students.
All countywide grades 9-12 students will continue to attend Starkville High School under the desegregation order.
The student assignment plan is expected to change once funding is secured for a SOCSD-Mississippi State University partnership school, which will educate all countywide sixth and seventh graders.
Other provisions governing student transfers, advanced placement programs, extracurricular activities, transportation, school construction and staff issues are included in the report to prevent the creation of a dual school system.
The school district will report a slew of information to the court and DOJ annually, including the racial composition of its student body, staff, teachers and administrators; transfer requests; classroom enrollment; hirings and other staffing matters; proposed campus construction plans; district transportation information; and other targeted data points.
SOCSD Superintendent Lewis Holloway said he is relieved the school district and DOJ could reach a compromise and avoid a lengthy court fight.
“After working for a year and a half on this, we’re very glad to have conclusion and a resolution we can live with. I think it’s a good deal, and we can now turn our focus back to educating all Oktibbeha County school children,” he said.
Last year, Mills approved a temporary desegregation order and tasked both sides to develop a permanent plan this year.
The DOJ previously objected to operating East at the same 94 percent African-American enrollment previously allowed by the former Oktibbeha County School District. It also objected to separating county and city school district sixth graders at different campuses, while countywide high schoolers would join together at SHS.
The district solved the sixth grade issue by increasing capacity at AMS with mobile classrooms. Last month, administrators unveiled its plan to break up East by sending its students to city campuses.
Since then, Holloway, along with assistant superintendents and school board members, have met with constituents – parents, teachers and staff – of each elementary school impacted by the plan.
The school board also approved a third assistant superintendent position, which Holloway said should be filled during April’s SOCSD Board of Trustees meeting.
SOCSD was granted a third administrator under the original legislation consolidating OCSD with the Starkville School District. That position, Holloway said, will focus on personnel matters and secondary curriculum.
“We didn’t fill it immediately, not because we didn’t need it. It wasn’t the right time, economically, because of consolidation taking place then. We feel like we’re in a much better financial shape now,” he said.
The school district has formed a search committee and should proceed with interviews soon, Holloway said.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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