Miss. Holmes County High School Jekiria Jefferson reached up to grab the oversized glittering jeweled crown that was slipping from her head as her maroon and white float rolled down the street beneath the shining sun one cool afternoon in October, a perfect day to celebrate homecoming. Dressed in a cream pantsuit—a change from the white gown with a crystal bodice, layered skirt and long train that she had worn for her coronation the night before—she turned and smiled at a photographer.
A crowd of parents and community members lined the streets where nearby children waited for a treat from the box filled with assorted candy that she had at her feet. She smiled brightly at the crowd as a line of cars with students seated on hoods and in sunroofs continued down the Homecoming parade route.
HCCSD has had a lot to celebrate lately. Three years after the Mississippi Department of Education took over the district, it achieved an overall B rating for the first time in school history, with 70% of the district’s schools earning a B rating, including all of its elementary schools.
“Those are tremendous gains, and in two areas, we have exceeded the state average,” Wilson said. “So we are moving the needle. We still got a lot of work to do.”
A History of Systemic Inequity
The Holmes County Consolidated School District, based in Lexington, Miss., now covers all of Holmes County, but it did not begin that way. In 2018, the Mississippi Legislature voted to consolidate the Durant School District and the Holmes County School District. Neither district was in favor of the move, which state lawmakers said was fiscally necessary. Holmes County Central is now the active high school in the county.
The Mississippi Department of Education audited the district from April 27, 2021, to July 23, 2021. MDE found the Holmes County Consolidated School District in violation of 26 of the 32 process standards in a nearly 400-page report. The 2019-2020 state report card showed that, of the district’s six schools, two had an F rating, and the other four were rated D. The schools had received the same ratings the previous school year.
In addition to academic failures, school buildings in the district faced structural problems. Of the six facilities evaluated during the consolidation study, four were between 40 and 50 years old. Schools in the district were plagued with plumbing problems and structural cracks. As late as 2020, buildings in the district leaked, and heavy rain resulted in flooded hallways in Holmes County Central High School.
Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency in the district on Aug 5, 2021, the first day of the school year, only hours after the district announced its intent to sue state officials to block a state takeover. The declaration dismantled the school board and removed then-superintendent Debra Powell. The Mississippi State Board of Education took over as the district’s governing body and named Jennifer Wilson as interim superintendent.
“This isn’t a decision I take lightly nor one I make with any delight. Maintaining local control when possible is a foundational principle of conservative governance; however, the serious violations of state and federal law and accreditation standards, serious financial concerns, lack of internal controls, inappropriate standards of governance, inappropriate oversight by the Board, and the continued poor academic performance (among many other factors) no longer make that possible in the HCCSD,” Gov. Tate Reeves wrote in a Facebook post at the time.
But the problems in the Holmes County educational system, like most complex issues in Mississippi, began decades ago.
Black students burdened with systemic inequities were long kept from receiving the education they deserved. A decade after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board ruling ordered schools to desegregate with “all deliberate speed,” Mississippi school districts remained largely segregated. School districts in the state operated under a “freedom of choice” policy in which each family chose the particular school their child would attend the following year.
In 1965, Black parents protested that the all-white school board spent more money on white students, leaving Black students with inadequate teachers, facilities and materials—leading to a federal lawsuit that changed education in the state.
On Oct. 28, 1969, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of the families, ordering Holmes County and 32 other Mississippi school districts to desegregate immediately. Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education, which came 15 years after Brown v. Board of Education, became one of the most significant desegregation rulings in the nation.
White Flight
The 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, however, still could not completely desegregate a state so deeply rooted in white supremacy and division. As Black families began to make use of the ruling to end segregated schools, white families removed their children from the public schools across the state. White flight all but eliminated the promise of school equality.
The Mississippi Encyclopedia notes, “At Durant Elementary in Holmes County, for example, 160 of 165 white students failed to show up for class after desegregation in 1965.” Some parents decided to homeschool their children while others opted to move them to new private segregation academies that were beginning to pop up across the state. Holmes County parents opened three: Cruger-Tchula Academy in Cruger, the first one opened in the state by segregationist leaders; East Holmes Academy in West; and Central Holmes Academy in Lexington.
In a 1989 Southern Journal article titled “An Insider’s Account of Race and Politics in the Delta,” Melany Neilson recalled her third-grade teacher telling the class that the next year, 1968, Black children would join them at school. Neilson, along with nearly every other white child in Lexington, enrolled in the newly formed Central Holmes Academy.
Another report stated that in Tchula, 43 Black children arrived to attend grades 1 through 4, and the 100 white students expected to attend did not show. Teachers from the previously white public schools came to teach at the hastily opened academies. The academies took books, resources and other support from the public schools. The Holmes County School Board also allowed the town of Durant, which was 51% White, to create its own school district, adding another layer of disinvestment.
Cruger-Tchula Academy closed in 2001 and East Holmes Academy in 2006. Central Holmes Academy became Central Holmes Christian School and remains open today. Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that private schools cannot limit enrollment by race, Central Holmes Christian School’s student population of 220 students remained overwhelmingly white as of 2022, with Black students accounting for just 13% of its student body; the public school district, meanwhile, was 83% Black, National Center for Education Statistics data show.
Even with the closure of two of the county’s academies, the public school district in Holmes County struggled and by 2021 had experienced years of academic and financial failure.
A Fresh Perspective
When Interim Superintendent Jennifer Wilson put down the first box in her new office at the Holmes County Consolidated District Office on Aug. 10, 2021, the school year had already begun. She knew immediately that she needed to put measures in place to ensure schools had strong leadership at the school and district level on top of building teacher capacity and incorporating high-quality instructional materials.
With school staff already in place, Wilson focused on professional development for administrators. Each Wednesday, she met with the district’s principals for two hours. In those sessions, they discussed the state’s professional growth rubric, teacher observations and feedback, and making student data-driven decisions. She also assigned each district administrator a school to visit at least once a week to assist principals and contracted with educational agencies for leadership development and support.
“I had to make sure I was building administrator capacity because the leadership is critical to improving schools,” Wilson told the Mississippi Free Press on Sept. 20. “We also provided support to our leaders. Many of our leaders were brand-spanking new in the field. You cannot expect a new leader to know everything.”
Wilson found that the district had a number of teachers who were not certified or who were holding only emergency licenses. She and district leaders evaluated teachers to ensure they were in classrooms aligned with their levels of expertise. The district partnered with the Mississippi Teacher Residency Program, Jackson State University and Mississippi State University to help teachers earn needed certifications and to increase the district’s percentage of highly qualified teachers.
“Those partnerships are continuing because we do know that if we can get them certified, that’s the first step in keeping them in the field and keeping them in Holmes County,” HCSD Assistant Superintendent for Academic Education Shimelle Mayers told the Mississippi Free Press on Sept. 20.
They held sessions instructing teachers and instructional coaches on how to evaluate curriculum standards to determine what students should be able to do once they master the skill and then plan lessons to cover those expectations.
“I had to improve the delivery of instruction,” Wilson said. “And in order to improve the delivery of instruction, I had to make sure the teachers that were providing the instruction had the content knowledge and the pedagogical skills.”
From 2021 to now, HCCSD middle schools have made a 31% gain in math proficiency and a 32% gain in science proficiency. At the high-school level, the district has made a 55% increase in algebra proficiency; a 39% increase in U.S. history proficiency; a 27% increase in biology proficiency; and a 12% point increase in English proficiency. The district exceeded the state’s high-school graduation rate average, increased the percentage of students passing the third-grade assessment on the first administration and exceeded the state average in the Kindergarten Readiness Benchmark.
The district credits partnerships with the Mississippi Delta GEAR UP initiative for much of its success. The seven-year initiative is a partnership with the Foundation for the Mid South to support schools in the Delta region and is designed to provide support unique to rural school districts. The initiative helped provide financial support for teacher professional development, student materials, technology and instructional support staff.
GEAR UP also provides resources to help students see college and career opportunities. Get2College, its parent organization, hosted parent presentations, financial-aid assistance sessions, and college-application workshops. It sponsors at least two college tours for students each year.
“We do credit a lot of our success to everything that has been provided,” HCCSD Federal Programs Director Shem Whigham told the Mississippi Free Press on Sept 20. “… We were really thankful for the resources and also more support through professional development that has taken place in gear up so, and we look forward to working with them this year.”
Wilson has also led the district in making needed infrastructure improvements. HCCSD has replaced HVAC units throughout the district; replaced intercom systems; purchased new school buses; replaced roofs at school buildings; and purchased new library, cafeteria and classroom furniture. All students have access to a Chromebook to aid in their studies. The district has also hired three additional nurses, an additional school resource officer, and more instructional support staff and interventionists.
Looking Toward the Future
Wilson realizes that she still has work to do. The district is continuing its partnership with GEAR UP to ensure students have high-quality materials and that teachers receive professional development. The district is also continuing to work with Teach for America and other alternate-route programs to keep qualified teachers in the classrooms. The district is expanding its extracurricular activities by implementing archery and e-sports programs.
The superintendent believes the district’s success should be placed on the shoulders of all teachers, not just those in tested-area classrooms. Every teacher, including those in elective classes, will have targets tied to academic performance, and they must track student progress.
“The district leaders and my principals are committed to moving Holmes County (forward),” Wilson said. “We work until the work is done—not based upon the clock—and that’s what it takes to move the needle: people who are passionate about what they do and passionate about moving the needle for students in Holmes County, and that’s what I have. That’s the team that is working with me.”