Throughout the week, citizens of the Shaw School District have been staging a protest outside the schools.
Their work started early Monday morning. They gathered at 7 a.m. outside Shaw High School.
Most came with signs. Though the wording was different, each sign shared a similar message — a call for change.
“We have no protesters out this morning,” said Superintendent Dr. Cederick Ellis. “We have been in constant contact with the state department (of education) regarding this issue.”
Ellis noted that he kept state Superintendent Dr. Tom Burnham and Rachel Reagan, a Mississippi Department of Education Office of School Improvement representative, informed about the protest.
In addition to physical protest, parents also kept their children from school.
On Monday, 96 of the 283 students at McEvans were absent. At Shaw High School, 55 of the 158 students were absent.
Tuesday, McEvans had 72 students out. Numbers for Tuesday’s absences at the high school were unavailable.
Wednesday, McEvans was missing 16 students and Shaw High School was down by 6.
“All are happy our attendance increased each day,” said Ellis. “We are very excited that we do have students back in school.”
Part of the discussions with officials at MDE concerned the state taking over the Shaw School District.
“I talked with Dr. (Larry) Drawdy (deputy state superintendent of school improvement, oversight and recovery) at length yesterday,” said Ellis. “One thing he indicated was that the state does not want to come in and take over the school at this point.”
MDE is already in control of several districts across the state, including the Sunflower County School District.
“There are about five or six districts already under conservatorship,” Ellis said. “The state does not have capacity to take over another district.”
Should the state be forced to come into the Shaw School District, the consequences could be incredibly severe.
“If the state comes in — that is not something that the community or the Shaw School District would want because (they) do not know what would happen,” said Ellis. “There is a strong possibility of abolishing the Shaw School District.”
Ellis explained that this would mean the end of the school district, which is one of the last remaining industries in the city.
“If the school district is abolished by the state, students will have to be bussed to other schools in the immediate area,” Ellis began. “All district employees would have to find employment somewhere else.
“The school is one of the highlights and driving forces of the community,” he continued. “We would like to keep school local. We don’t want students bussed to other districts.”
From his conversations with officials at MDE, there are other concerns with the state taking over the district.
“One of the things Dr. Drawdy indicated was that the state would never come in and take over a school district in the fashion they have in the past when adults are using kids as pawns,” Ellis explained of students being kept from school as a protest. “It is apparent that these individuals who are protesting see the need for students to be in school.
“We are very hopeful we can sit down around the table with those concerned citizens to see what issues we can resolve so that this does not occur again,” he continued.
Ellis is still looking to bring the community and school district back together to support each other.
“At the end of the day, we have to remember why we’re here,” said Ellis. “We’re here for students. It’s not about us as grown people, as adults — it’s about students.”
In order to do that, Ellis, school board members and community members will have to continue to sit down together and resolve issues.
“The distractions we have in the community affect our students,” said Ellis. “These distractions affect our teachers, affect the ability of the leaders in the (school) buildings.
“We want to make sure that as a local community we solve these issues without bringing in outside people to solve them,” he continued. “I think we can solve these issues.”
Ellis has already had several meetings with some of the community members behind this protest.
“I met with concerned citizens Monday and addressed every issue they have,” Ellis explained. “I met with one citizen this morning and the conversation we had was very positive.”
Ellis said the district would still be working hand in hand with MDE to help get the schools and the community back on track.
“We will still be in contact with the state department, getting advice from them on other steps we need to put in place to move forward, to heal as a community,” Ellis said. “The community needs to be supportive of the schools and the schools need to be supportive of the community.”