Voters who live in Leflore County Districts 4 and 5 will choose new members of the Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School Board in Tuesday’s general election.
School board elections are nonpartisan, so the candidates are running without party associations. Members of the board receive approximately $300 per month in compensation.
Two experienced educators are on the ballot for District 4’s seat on the Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School Board. For the past four years, Dr. Ro’Shaun Bailey, the current board president, has occupied that seat, but he is not running for reelection.
Dr. Viola Williams McCaskill, former superintendent of the Leflore County School District, is one of the candidates. She addressed the Greenwood Voters League recently.
“Having been a teacher, a principal and as superintendent, I know all too well how important it is to provide our children with a top-notch education that they so well deserve and will need to compete in a global world and be successful,” she said at the Voters League meeting.
She said she would like to provide financial resources, a safe environment and a fair and correct implementation of rules and regulations.
McCaskill, 73, describes herself as a Golden Girl, referring to her age and the fact that her children are now of age and living throughout the country. “I am a woman full of wisdom and knowledge and experience,” she explained.
All of her children went to school in the Leflore County district, she said, adding, “This is where we got our start.”
She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Mississippi Valley State University and her master’s, specialist’s and doctoral degrees from Jackson State University, where she studied educational leadership.
McCaskill began her career as a teacher at Moorhead Middle School, and she later was the principal of Ruleville Middle School.
McCaskill was elected superintendent of Leflore County Schools in 2011 and continued in the position until 2013, when the school district was taken over by the state. Her position was eliminated, and the Leflore County School Board was disbanded at that time.
The Leflore district had received a grade of “F” on state accountability ratings for two years in a row. It remained in conservatorship until the Leflore County and Greenwood districts were consolidated six years later.
McCaskill said she continues to offer her skills and knowledge. “As a board member, I will be committed to this endeavor. I am a product of the Leflore County school system and so are my children. I have a vested interest in the success of the GLCSD for all students. My experience, not only as a superintendent, but also as a classroom teacher and principal, will be an asset on the board.”
Hilliard is a Leflore County native and active grandmother and great-grandmother who returned to Itta Bena in 2006 following 27 years as a history teacher in St. Charles, Missouri, which is near St. Louis.
After graduating from Amanda Elzy High School in 1970, she earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Kentucky State University and then a master’s in European history from St. Louis University.
In St. Charles, she taught grades 9-12 and taught evening classes in American studies to adults starting at age 22. She said her oldest student in the evening program, which was associated with St. Louis University, was 85.
Family is important to Hilliard, as is education. Her parents, as a couple, were educators for 60 years. Hilliard said she and her sister together taught for 52 years.
The 71-year-old is still employed in education, this time at MVSU. “I work with Upward Bound I as a counselor and educational coordinator,” Hilliard said.
This puts her in touch with students in the Greenwood Leflore district’s three high schools as well as those from five other high schools. They participate in Upward Bound activities on the university campus on Saturdays and for five weeks during the summer. The students represent the first generation in their families who will be going to college.
One goal of the Upward Bound program is to produce students who score at least an 18 on the ACT, Hilliard said.
She is associated with Les Douze Femmes Elite, a civic club, and frequently volunteers as a tutor for whoever needs help. “I love this community, and I love the children,” Hilliard said.
“I want people to know that I am approachable and that I am not doing it for a salary. I want them to know that my concern is for everybody,” Hilliard said. “I want to be able to reach down and reach out to everyone. I want to listen to their concerns and be able to provide a reasonable solution to the problem.”
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Running for a second term representing District 5 on the Greenwood Leflore board is Jackie Cooper Lewis, 58, who has served four years on the board, which was created in 2019.
Another candidate is Niqua Graham, 51, who unsuccessfully ran against Lewis in 2019 and now is making her second bid for the seat.
Graham, a former assistant administrator at J.C. Gilliam Head Start Center, is employed as an assistant payroll clerk in the Leflore County Administrator’s Office.
“I am a two-time alumna from the educational oasis of the Mississippi Delta, Mississippi Valley State University,” Graham said.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in public administration and a master’s in rural public policy and planning, and she minored in early childhood education while studying at MVSU. She now is pursuing a doctorate in urban and regional planning at Jackson State University.
Both of her parents worked in education. They had “a profound impact on my life,” she said, and they helped to launch her on her own educational journey. “I have and will always advocate for the betterment of communities, families and children,” Graham said.
Therefore, she has so sought positions where she could do so while working “collaboratively with colleagues” and being “a vital part of the decision-making process.”
“I want to be a part of an entity whose members are productive, influential, impactful — and play vital roles in every facet of the community and the Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District.”
Jackie Lewis is a wife, mother and grandmother with working experience that started when, at age 16, she was employed by Wendy’s restaurant in Greenwood.
She is a graduate of Greenwood High School who earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Mississippi Valley State and then two degrees from Delta State University: a master’s in community and school counseling and a specialist’s in school administration.
Lewis was a school attendance officer for the Mississippi Department of Education and also was a principal at East Elementary School and Amanda Elzy High School. She then became the principal of St. Francis of Assisi School, which was a parochial school associated with St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church. She also had a career in banking, mostly with Planters Bank. She started as a part-time teller, became a full-time teller and then worked as a customer-service representative.
“I am a people person, and I have established many working relationships with people since my working career began,” Lewis explained.
She said serving on the school board, which has been confronted with issues ranging from the consolidation of two school districts to its current dilemmas about building a new consolidated high school, has been enlightening.
Sometimes her votes have been contrary to those of the majority. “If I feel the way I am voting is correct, legal and ethical and in the best interest of the students, parents and community, then it doesn’t matter.”
Lewis said the school board will have to address the consolidation of various schools because of a decline in the student population. State financial support for teachers and districts is determined by the number of students being served. If the number drops, so does revenue.
“We have to become financially responsible for taxpayers’ money,” she said. “We have to look at ways where we can save money.
“It doesn’t help to lose students to other schools outside the district,” Lewis said. Instead, the district should try to attract and keep students and ask itself, “We need to be looking at what we are not doing well and what we can do better.”
- Contact Susan Montgomery at 662-581-7241 or smontgomery@gwcommonwealth.com.
