The Mississippi Department of Education’s Commission on School Accreditation will hold a meeting Tuesday to discuss whether a state of emergency exists in the Greenwood Public School District.
The Mississippi Department of Education announced the meeting today in a news release. The commission will meet in Jackson and via teleconference at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
“The Commission also will determine if an extreme emergency situation exists that jeopardizes the safety, security and educational interests of the children enrolled in the Greenwood School District,” the release says.
Also today, Greenwood Superintendent of Education Montrell Greene cancelled a meeting he had scheduled Friday to discuss a recently released Department of Education audit report on the district. Instead, the district plans to release a statement on the audit Friday.
The final results of the audit were delivered to the district and school board members Wednesday.
According to an email to Greenwood-Leflore County Chamber of Commerce members, “comments from the Mississippi Department of Education are very serious and could lead to the possibility of state takeover of the Greenwood Public Schools.”
Greene today clarified that a state takeover was a “possibility” but that it was not specifically threatened in the report.
“We don’t know for sure what the state’s intent is at this point,” Greene said. “All that we know is that we have the audit and intend to address it, finding by finding.”
If the commission and the state Board of Education ask Gov. Phil Bryant to declare a state of emergency in the district and he agrees, the state will take over the district. In that case, the state would appoint a conservator to run the district, and Greene and the Greenwood School Board would be removed from office.
The state took over the Leflore County School District last fall.
The Department of Education’s 46-page report contains the results of an extensive audit conducted by MDE during two separate visits in April and May.
The contents of the report have not yet been made public. The state Department of Education has not yet responded to a public records request for the report, filed Tuesday by the Commonwealth.
School Board President Bill Clay declined to address specific allegations contained in the report but said its contents were “serious.”
“It’s something we’re not taking lightly,” Clay said.
Greene said today that he would not be able to address the audit results at length until Monday.
Both Greene and Clay have been invited to respond at Tuesday’s meeting, said Patrice Guilfoyle, an MDE spokeswoman. The meeting will be open to the public, Guilfoyle said.
Greene questioned the short time frame — seven days — that the district was given to prepare its official response to the report.
“We are in a pretty challenging situation,” he said. “It’s quite curious that we’re being put in this type of time crunch to respond to 46 pages. That’s quite concerning, to say the least.”
For full coverage, see Friday’s Commonwealth.
