School district mergers eyed in Chickasaw and Perry counties

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Bills are moving ahead in the Senate that would require the merger of two sets of school districts in 2019.

Senate Bill 2463 would require the merger of the Houston and Chickasaw County school districts. However, unlike earlier proposals, it would not also combine the Okolona school district with those two. Senate Bill 2461 would merge the Perry County and Richton school districts.

The Senate Education Committee passed both measures Wednesday, sending them to the full Senate for more work.

The Houston superintendent would take over the Chickasaw County district in July 2018, a year before the merger, although the two would remain separate. Voters would choose a new school board in November 2018, selecting three members from the current territory of the 1,757-student Houston district and two from the current 507-student Chickasaw County district.

The omission of the 634-student Okolona could reduce political headaches. Okolona Superintendent Dexter Green, in a Nov. 8 letter, declared he would ask the U.S. Justice Department to block any merger based on the desegregation order that Okolona operates under. All three districts opposed consolidation in a study commission that met last year.

For 707-student Richton and 1,089-student Perry County, the state Board of Education would name an interim superintendent to oversee both beginning July 1, 2018. Voters would choose a new school board in November 2018, selecting three members from the current territory of the current Perry County school district and two from the current Richton school district.

Both boards would serve only one year, and then a new election would be held. Each combined district would get a two-year waiver from the state’s grading system.

The committee did not act Wednesday on two other consolidation proposals, one to merge the North Tippah and South Tippah districts, and a second to merge the Senatobia and Tate County districts.

Lawmakers who favor consolidations say they reduce administrative costs in small districts. In the past five years, lawmakers have voted to abolish two school districts and merge 17 others. Some of those actions have yet to take effect. When they will, it will cut the number of school districts by 12 overall. So far, four high schools have closed following mergers or abolitions: Drew, East Oktibbeha, West Oktibbeha and Hinds Agricultural.

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