Video: Oktibbeha County-Starkville School Consolidation Given OK To Resume

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Starkville, Miss. (WCBI) — The consolidation of the Oktibbeha County and Starkville school districts will move forward without protest from the Department of Justice.

The consolidation committee’s recommendations were just enough to get the approval needed to move forward.

The Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District and the D.O.J filed a joint motion, meaning the school district can move ahead with combining the districts.

The main D.O.J concerns that have not been resolved are teachers losing their jobs at East and West Oktibbeha and a lack of racial diversity at East Oktibbeha Elementary. The agency has now relaxed its stance to let the consolidation move forward.

With the agreement leading to the closing of all county middle and high schools, the new school district has a month before school starts to finalize preparation such as making sure they have enough teachers for the flood of new students.

“Our student to teacher ratio will remain the same as it has been…,” says Superintendent of school Dr. Lewis Holloway, “…we’ve hired I think about 15 teachers in the middle and high school to accommodate the students coming in.”

Holloway says the high school is short one math and one English teacher but he’s optimistic they’ll fill those positions before the start of the school year.

The Oktibbeha County elementary schools will also remain open.

However, one issue remains and it has to do with the amount of space the Starkville school district was given by the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors.

Holloway said they have been given nine offices on the first floor of the old Oktibbeha County Board of Education building and it is simply not enough.

“The law says that the Board of Supervisors provides the Superintendent of schools a office…”, explained Holloway, “…that building had roughly 7,400 square feet in it, upstairs and downstairs, and we’re now five times bigger and we’re getting half of that.”

Holloway says there’s still the possibility of building a new office for the superintendent and discussions continue about the office space.

Categories: Local News

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