Friday night, members of the community were able to attend a forum with the Marion County School Board and Superintendent Michael Day to discuss the bond issue, which is set for a special election on May 24. A large crowd gathered for the two and a half hour event.
Day said Monday that Friday night went as expected with some negative comments but also a lot of positive comments.
The $15.1 million bond is to upgrade the county schools’ facilities as steps are taken to consolidate the county high schools to become one high school, Marion County High School.
Day began Friday discussing the process of consolidation, including which buildings will be for what. East Marion Elementary and West Marion Primary and Elementary schools will operate as feeder schools. EME will go up to fifth grade, WMP will host Pre-K through second grade and WME will have third grade through fifth grade.
Sixth grade will begin the consolidation with the students attending the Marion County Sixth Grade Academy of Innovation situated on the West Marion campus. The academy will be its own separate school, complete with its own administrator. The Marion County Middle School for seventh and eighth grades will be located in the current West Marion High School.
Come ninth grade, all the students will begin to attend the current East Marion campus. Ninth grade will have its own building and become the Marion County Ninth Grade Academy of Innovation, and 10th through 12th grade will be Marion County High School.
Day said the students will be the ones to determine the new colors and mascot for the consolidated schools.
Each of the four levels will have their own sports and arts programs. He recognized how the schools have excelled in different sports this year and also the success of the show and gospel choirs.
The process of the consolidation and the bond came to be following a needs analysis.
“We started with a needs analysis. In that needs analysis, we started looking at what our facilities look like, what our financials look like, what our academic standings look like, and we started to put together a plan with lots of options on how we can tackle those issues,” Day said.
While things for the most part look good for the district, he said there were areas needing improvements. He credited the former superintendents for the work they have done in allowing the district to be in good shape.
One of the biggest issues the district is facing is a decline of student enrollment over the last 10 years, as well as the declining population of the county. Marion County schools have lost almost 600 students in the last 10 years, Day said. The county schools, though, were not the only ones to suffer. The Columbia School District also saw a decline of almost 400 students.
“Our community is dying. We are losing citizens,” he said.
The school board had experts come in to look at what was happening. The situation is not unique for just Marion County, but Pearl River, Jeff Davis and Covington counties are all facing the same situation. All of them are seeing a reduction in students and population.
The findings show that people are moving to Lamar County. The same study showing the decline in students showed that Lamar County had more than 2,000 students join their school system.
People have moved to Lamar County not only for better economic opportunity but also because of the perception that Lamar County has better schools. For years it seemed that the Oak Grove schools were the “Mecca” of all schools, according to Day. Then Sumrall enlarged to the point that Sumrall schools now have students being switched to Oak Grove and Purvis schools.
Day said there are currently three subdivisions being built in Purvis to accommodate the influx of people moving to the county.
He said he discussed with the county board of supervisors about Smart Growth, which involves using the schools to draw people to the county.
“I want my community to grow. This is about Marion County,” he said.
By combining the schools, Day said it will allow for the school system to be a stronger system and allow for more opportunity for the students. The quality grade point average for a Marion County student tends to be lower than students at larger schools simply because the larger schools have more programs to offer, including more AP classes and dual enrollment.
Day said by offering more programs, it will allow the students to improve academically and open the door for more scholarships for them.
Day knows there has been a division for quite a while that predates the consolidation plans.
“There is more in our community to unite us than there is to divide us. We have an imaginary divide called the Pearl River that we use to divide ourselves,” Day said.
Once Day finished speaking, the floor was opened for questions and comments. Someone asked if the consolidation will affect the classifications. Day responded said most likely the schools would become a 4A. He added that by allowing the schools to become larger, it will allow for more funding for the various programs.
Another expressed concerns about if adding stuff to attract students would really be financially feasible. A parent responded to the comment by saying something needs to be done to attract people to come to Marion County.
Former West Marion football coach Brad Duncan said he has gone to Oak Grove to watch his oldest grandson play and usually sees several families from Marion County. When he asked them why are they not in Marion County, the people usually tell him that they had to move to Lamar County in order to find work.
“I’m just an old retired football coach, but I think the education system could help draw people to Marion County,” Duncan said.
A question was asked about using sales tax for the schools. Currently, sales are collected by the state Department of Revenue, and a portion is distributed back to municipalities. Day said that car tags and ad valorem taxes are the ways the district receives money.
“Currently, we are the largest employer in Marion County; we don’t need to be.” Day said. “We need more businesses to come to Marion County.”
A comment was made about how Marion County is a dying county not only because of the population decline, but with no one moving in and citizens getting older, the tax burden is going to continue to get worse on the remaining citizens unless something is done to draw people in. Day responded that is why they are implementing Smart Growth to attract more students and businesses.
Someone inquired about why so much focus is on the different programs and not on academics and/or why adding programs was so important.
“This is all about scholarship opportunities. It is improving ACT scores. The more programs you have, the more scholarships are available,” Day said.
