Columbus Municipal School District sees improvement in school rating

School Districts around the area recently received their district ratings, and many of them are thrilled at the improvement

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- School Districts around the area recently received their district ratings, and many of them are thrilled at the improvement in local schools.

Columbus Municipal School district had been at a D rating since 2016 but this year they went up to C. Since 2016 C.M.S.D has held a consistent D average, but this year that grade climbed to a C.

Interim Superintendent Dennis Dupree credits some of the success to past leadership and said grades can continue to improve.

“Data is going to tell you where to go and what to do to help your students so I’m trying to make sure that teachers and students everybody understand what the data is saying and how to use it,” said Dupree.

Fairview Elementary and Columbus Middle School kept the same grade as 2021, and Stokes-Beard Elementary and Columbus High School both went down a grade this year; while Franklin Academy, Sale Elementary, and Cook Elementary all improved.

“One of the points of success for Cook is that they were able to keep most of their staff so they have a veteran staff which is what you try to do when you’re a building level administrator; if you have a veteran staff that is being successful then you’re going to have a successful school,” said Dupree.

Dupree said he and all of the educators at the central office are thankful for the increase but it doesn’t stop there.

While he’s taking over the superintendent seat, he plans to help as much as he can, hoping the rating continues to go up next year.

“You try to make sure your class sizes are small if you can but right now with the shortage of teachers it’s pretty hard to do. We’re trying to make sure that we focus on all the indicators of success when it comes to teaching and we feel that we’re giving support from the central office to our building-level administrators,” said Dupree.

School ratings are expected to be rereleased in September of 2023.

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