The conservator of the Leflore County School District told an audience of parents, district employees and community members on Wednesday night that she was “beginning to get traction” improving the district.
Dr. Ilean Richards spoke at a meeting of the Greenwood Voters League.
Richards has served as conservator of the 2,200-student district since January, shortly after the resignation of Robert Strebeck. The Leflore County district has remained under conservatorship since the state declared a state of emergency there in 2013.
The Belzoni native emphasized her local roots and credentials as a teacher.
“I’m a child of the civil rights movement,” said Richards, who has been teaching since 1967. “I know the struggle. I lived through the struggle.”
Richards told parents that she maintained an open-door policy and that they “wouldn’t need an appointment to see Ilean Richards.”
Short-term goals for improving the district include making schools safer by cutting down on fighting and bullying, Richards said.
She said she has been creating student leadership teams at each school to foster a sense of community and shared responsibility among students. She said the teams will meet for the first time after spring break.
What they will actually do was not made clear, although she said students in the teams would learn how to be “active leaders.”
A major issue facing the district, according to Richards, is the high number of teachers certified on one-year emergency licenses. She estimated that there are about 27 such teachers currently in the system. To remedy that situation, Richards said, she has already increased the amount of professional development training that teachers undergo throughout the year and will begin a series of online weekend “webinars” so that they can participate in professional development remotely.
Other pressing concerns include capacity issues and problems with school infrastructure. East Elementary has more students than the 300 it is approved for, said Richards. She did not say by how much.
Richards also said that her administration is working on repairing leaky roofs in school buildings but that the recent spate of bad weather has slowed the project somewhat.
Richards said that the bulk of her work will begin in earnest with the next school year and that she spent much of January trying to find her feet as conservator.
Next year she said she expects to make more Advanced Placement courses, which can be taken for college credit, available to students.
Charles Brooks and Margie Pulley, respectively interim and former superintendent of the Greenwood district, were present at the meeting and made statements in support of Richards.
Pulley said both districts are “in good hands.”
Dr. Jennifer Wilson has been chosen to succeed Brooks as Greenwood superintendent, effective July 1.
In other business, state Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, president of the Voters League, said he had met with Sen. Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, chair of the Senate Education Committee, to discuss legislation that would merge the Greenwood and Leflore County school districts.
The bill, which passed in the House last week, would consolidate the districts on July 1, 2017.
Jordan said the meeting had produced some tentative agreements. Jordan said that he is pursuing a change to the legislation so that if were to pass in the Senate, the districts would have a grace period of perhaps three years before consolidation would take effect. In that case, the merger would not occur until July 2019.
• Contact Nick Rogers at 581-7235 or nrogers@gwcommonwealth.com.
