The governor has approved the bill that would dissolve the Mississippi Achievement School District in the summer of 2025. The MASD will no longer exist effective July 1, 2025. But direct local leadership remains in limbo as a variety of criteria must be met first.
After passing through the House and the Senate, the Mississippi House Bill 1696 was approved by Gov. Tate Reeves. The bill sets the pathway for the State Board of Education to take corrective actions with the local district first being placed into a District of Transformation.
The bill states that both the Yazoo City Municipal School District and the Humphreys County School District will be transferred into two separate Districts of Transformation with the transition being completed by July 1, 2025.
“From and after July 1, 2024, no local school district shall be placed into the Mississippi Achievement School District and effective July 1, 2025, the Mississippi Achievement School District shall be dissolved,” the bill states.
The bill also states that the state board of education would then assign an interim superintendent to the Districts of Transformation.
When the district has maintained a “C” accountability rating for three consecutive years, “the State Board of Education may appoint a new five-member board for the administration of the school district,” the bill states.
“The new local school district board members shall be residents of the school district,” the bill states. “The new local school board members appointed by the State Board of Education may serve in an advisory capacity to the interim superintendent for its first year of service and thereafter shall have full responsibility to administer the school district.”
“The interim superintendent would remain in place for two years once the local school board has been put in charge of district administration,” according to the bill. “Once the new school board has been responsible for district administration for one year, it could appoint a new superintendent. This new superintendent would serve as deputy to the interim superintendent for a year before taking over their role.”
The Yazoo City Municipal School District was taken over by the state department of education in April of 2019 with leadership falling under the state board of education. The city schools have maintained a “F” rating since the state takeover in 2019.
Following public comments by city resident Cynthia Johnson Walker, the matter was discussed during Monday’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting with Mayor David Starling stating that he hopes the public will understand the dissolving of the MASD does not mean immediate local governance.
“I studied this bill carefully, and I was just as enthusiastic as everybody else,” Starling said. “Yes, in July of 2025, the Mississippi Achievement School District will be dissolved. However, there is a caveat that is what we really need to pay attention to. It still does not revert back to us as a city.”
Starling reminded the public that the city schools must meet at least a “C” rating for three years.
“A Transformation District means that we will still be appointed a superintendent by the state board of education,” he said. “If we can maintain this ‘C’ rating for a period of three years, that is when, towards the end of that last year, we will get into us actually having some leverage to say who we would want to put on the board. I don’t want us to think that we will have the district back to ourselves on July 1, 2025. It is important that we all encourage our young people to give it their best. They are going to have to make that rating.”
