School consolidation is dead in Leflore County, at least for another year.
The effort died in conference this week after lawmakers were unable to hammer out a compromise between two radically different versions for approaching consolidation.
The Senate’s version, passed in February, would have merged the Leflore County and Greenwood districts into a single district by July 1, 2016, under an all-elected board.
The House significantly amended Senate Bill 2448, though, calling for a mostly local 11-member committee to study the districts and make recommendations as to whether or how to join them.
The six-member legislative conference — with three members from each chamber — could not find common ground between the two proposals.
Instead, they tabled the bill, effectively killing it. That means the issue has been dropped at the state level, at least until next year’s session.
Even then, Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, said he wouldn’t count on a consolidation proposal coming back up.
“It’s a possibility, but I wouldn’t bet on it,” Jordan said. “I think we’ll let the (Leflore County) conservator do his work and then take a look at it.”
Conservator Robert Strebeck was appointed to run the Leflore County School District after it was taken over by the state in late October due to a widespread pattern of failing test scores.
Strebeck has described the problems facing the failing district — which include dilapidated buildings, bloated payrolls and high school students who struggle to read — as the worst he’s seen in the six districts in which he’s served as conservator.
Jordan said the problems in Leflore County were serious, but that was no reason to rush into consolidation.
“I know the school district is in a bad situation there, but let’s work it out and see what the conservator comes up with,” Jordan said. “The people of Leflore County have a right to keep their school district and elect somebody else to run it and not merge it with Greenwood.”
Jordan himself has wavered over the past two months about the issue. Initially a vocal opponent of consolidation, he eventually voted for the proposal in committee after hearing Strebeck’s testimony of the extensive problems within the Leflore County district. Jordan helped shape the Senate’s final version, although he voted against it on the Senate floor in what he described as a symbolic stand with fellow African-American legislators concerned about the impact of consolidation in general.
The bill’s original author, Senate Education Committee Chairman Gray Tollison, R-Oxford, has argued that consolidation would save districts money by reducing administrative overhead, allowing struggling districts to invest more in the classroom.
Tollison introduced a raft of bills this year to consolidate a number of districts throughout the state, none of which made it into law.
The Leflore County proposal has been sharply criticized by some local politicians, particularly Rep. Willie Perkins, D-Greenwood, who was the attorney for the Leflore County School Board prior to the state takeover. Perkins has since filed a lawsuit on behalf of the former school superintendent, Dr. Viola Williams McCaskill, and four of the former board members, challenging the legality of the takeover.
“I was against consolidation,” Perkins said this morning. “I did support a study commission, but I thought that to be the lesser of two evils. I certainly didn’t lose any sleep when the conference failed to come out with a bill.”
Perkins maintained that the problems in the Leflore County School District are rooted in underfunding from the state, a position he also maintains in the lawsuit.
“I don’t think we ought to be consolidating, closing and merging when we as a state have failed to do our job and fulfill our responsibilities,” he said.
Perkins said the spate of consolidation efforts in recent years have unfairly targeted poor and predominately black school systems.
Perkins’ opposition to consolidation wasn’t the only barrier standing in the way of the bill.
Local disagreements over how to govern a united Greenwood Leflore School District also made passing legislation this year challenging.
Tollison called for a five-member school board with disproportionate representation for the city of Greenwood, with three members appointed by the mayor and City Council and two members elected by county residents.
Jordan instead pushed for the proposed board to be entirely elected, amending the bill on the Senate floor to require all members be selected by voters in countywide elections.
The Greenwood School Board, meanwhile, had argued it should maintain at least initial control if the two districts were merged, since the city’s schools had not been taken over. The Greenwood district has a current state accountability rating of “D,” a grade above Leflore County’s “F.”
The city board hired a lobbyist, former Natchez state Sen. Bob Dearing, to advocate for its position in the Legislature.
Rep. Toby Barker, R-Hattiesburg, the chairman of the House education subcommittee in charge of consolidation, struck the language in the Senate’s version of the bill that established a timeline for a merger of the two districts.
Instead, Barker rewrote the bill to call for a committee of local stakeholders to study the issue, saying local disagreements made a legislative decision difficult.
At the time, Barker said the local community should reach a consensus on “if, when and how the two school districts should be consolidated administratively.”
This morning, Greenwood Superintendent Montrell Greene said the district was pleased to have “resolution” of the matter and some certainty going forward.
“I think that the board and myself were very involved and we tried to make sure that we advocated for the best interests of our students,” Greene said, adding that he was unaware of any plans to bring consolidation back up in future legislative sessions.
Although Jordan doesn’t expect to advocate for future consolidation plans, he said both districts couldn’t go back to “business as usual.”
“We are up against some tough situations. We’re going to have to burn the midnight oil and do better,” Jordan said. “This is a wake-up call that we have to do better in education.”
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
