Covington County School Desegregation Case

[lamarrebel]

I wanted to get some feedback from you on the Covington County School Desegregation Case pending in Covington County. In case you have missed it, the community high school concept in Covington County is about to go by the wayside, solely in the name of desegregation. Forget that both the Seminary and Mount Olive communities have derived a lot of pride from their schools and atheletic teams (Steve McNair, Seminary's football and baseball teams in recent years, Seminary's Level 5 designation, etc).

The problem is this: Mount Olive's and Collins' schools are over 70 percent black, but Seminary is 90 percent white. The Feds plan is to create a "Covington Central high School in Collins" and close Seminary and Mount Olive highs. The lower grades will be redrawn to send more blacks to Seminary and (austensibly) more whites to Collins and Mount Olive.

The make-up of the schools, IMO has more to do with residential patterns than it has to do with an outward design to segregate. I believe the costs (in gas, buses, etc) to bus kids from all over the county to Collins (or have new 16/17 year old drivers coming from every direction), outweighs any benefit from this plan. Furthermore, I believe the biggest result will be the destruction of the Seminary community and its schools -- people with kids in the system will simply flee to Lamar or Jones County.

[justme]

I have family in Mt. Olive who have been home schooling their children becuase the Mt. Olive school district is so bad. They just don't get any money. I also have to admit that it is due to race relations also. There is only so much a child should have to be exposed to. It is my understanding that being a minority at Mt. Olive is not pleasant. I currently have two nephews in school there, and they were great students at thier prior school, and have turned into very poor students at Mt. Olive. I have to belive that these children did not loose motivation overnight and that it has to do with the teachers and other students. I would never move to Mt. Olive if my only choice were to send my child to the Mt. Olive schools. I thinkthe closest private schools are in North Simpson county- Simpson Academy or a school in Prentiss, unless you drive all the way to Hattiesburg every day. I don't know that bussing is the right answer, but there is a better solution than the current system.

[lamarrebel]

Honestly, the smartest thing the parents in Seminary could have done is started a drive to form a separate school district for Seminary years ago. Had that happened, it would have been much more difficult to go forward with this legalized slaughter of one of Mississippi's top notch public schools.

[justme]

I totally agree. A seperate school district would have been the way to go.

[tempatv]

as soon as i saw that i started thinking about the schools in my home town.

Hazlehurst - http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/other/ms/336

I was one of only two white kids in my graduating class of 95 people.

Everybody else goes to private schools around town or send em to private schools in Jackson, a good 30 minutes away.

[antiglovedone]

sounds like the public schools in Jackson.....I remember Forrest Hill being solidly majority white as recent as the early 90s...now its 90 percent black. Wonder if they've dumped the Rebels nickname yet?