Consolidation remains a slippery word for the Greenwood and Leflore County school districts weeks after the county school board rebuffed its city counterpart's latest call for conversations on the issue.
In years past, the Greenwood School Board has raised the idea of joining the two districts under the same administration as a possible cost-saving measure.
The closest the two bodies have come to public discussion was two years ago during a Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce meeting. A chamber committee had invited them for a state official's presentation of the pros and cons of consolidation. The meeting failed to spark further exploration.
This time, the school boards didn't even get in the same room. The Greenwood district's latest overture came in the form of a short letter after its Feb. 11 school board meeting. A response was sent the next month.
"In response, what we got was they didn't want to meet at this particular time," said John Johnson, the Greenwood board chairman.
Johnson said the city board's letter did not take any definite stance on consolidation. "It would have just been a general meeting, just to chit chat a little bit. I think the idea was at some point down the road, we would have some really meaningful discussions, but it was nothing that was really imminent."
Although the letter expresses interest in exploring consolidation, Johnson isn't sure the idea would work in Greenwood and Leflore County.
But the county board isn't interested in talking about consolidation at all, says its chairman, Claiborne Davis.
"That probably wouldn't work," he said.
Davis argues that combining the districts would require tangling with the U.S. Department of Justice's desegregation orders, which have set rigid restrictions on school lines since 1972.
But another reason he gave suggests that even talking about the issue might carry possible political consequences. "You know, the county school board members and the county superintendent are elected positions," he said.
Any discussion on the issue would most likely have to start with the voters, he explained.
"If it can be put in the lap of the patrons and parents of Leflore County Schools and they have a referendum on it, then the School Board would probably be interested in consolidation," Davis said.
The impact of consolidation varies with each school district, according to Dr. Mike Waldrop, associate executive director for the Mississippi School Board Association.
"Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, depending on how spread out the schools are," he said.
While a consolidated district can save money by cutting personnel and reducing duplicated services, it can also end up paying more for longer bus routes and support services, Waldrop said. He said predictable resistance from residents who would lose access to their local schools is understandable.
"You lose a lot of local control when you consolidate," he said. The district "definitely would become bigger, and it would add layers of bureaucracy if it were consolidated."
That happened for a while in the Vicksburg-Warren Consolidated School District after the city and county systems merged there in 1987, says its Superintendent Donald Oakes. Only one superintendent emerged from the deal, but so did five assistant principals. The savings, a potential motive for the Greenwood district, didn't come like they were promised, he said.
"There weren't any massive layoffs or anything," Oakes said.
After the district lines were redrawn, he recalled, there was opposition among some residents who wanted their children to attend their alma mater. Athletic affiliations were skewed as well, he said.
But gradually, through attrition and after a barrage of complaints from upset students and concerned parents, the district has become more efficient, he explained. Nearly 16 years after consolidation, Oakes believes the district has worked out the initial kinks.
"You just have to outlive those problems," he said.
Johnson, the Greenwood board chairman, still isn't sold on the idea.
"Over a period of time, there would be some savings, but I don't see any immediate savings after you get through building buildings and rearranging students with transportation and all that," he said.
Still, he said, he would like to see more research on what consolidation would mean for Greenwood and Leflore County school children before ruling it out completely.
There was a three-year process of studies, negotiation and compromise for the Vicksburg-Warren district, Oakes said. He cautioned that consolidation must be considered carefully.
"Unless everybody's committed to making it work, it's going to be a lot of pain," he said.
