Okolona Residents Continue To Question District’s Spending Priorities

OKOLONA, Miss. (WCBI)- Concerned parents and school leaders in Okolona are still at odds over $2 million earmarked for school improvements.

“The school had plenty of time,” said Juanita Abram, who has a grandchild that attends Okolona Elementary School. “You’re talking 2015 and this is 2018.”

Abram said it’s disheartening knowing the new school year is right around the corner, and repairs still haven’t been made to the school her grandchild will be attending.

“I cannot knowingly bring him back to these conditions when I have begged, pleaded, and asked for these conditions to be fixed,” she expressed.

Abram is one of a growing number in the community demanding to know why the Okolona School District hasn’t made these repairs.

“We don’t need to just settle for, well these projects won’t be completed by the time school starts, that’s not good enough for us, Abram explained. “If the projects are not going to be completed then we want a Plan B.”

Several parents and community members have pressed school board members trying to find answers.

On Friday, the school district issued an expenditure report detailing where $2 million for the school repairs went towards.

“I am saddened by that report because it appears that all of the critical needs, projects that are required to be done, we are not going to have enough money for those projects,” the concerned grandparent said.

The report shows all of the money spent has gone towards school projects.

The district spent roughly $40,000 on the football facility.

This leaves many parents upset because they believed roofing, air-conditioning, and restroom issues at the elementary school we’re supposed to have priority.

However superintendent Dexter Green said the football facility was a big need the community expressed they wanted.

“The community, they really wanted that project to be completed, but now that we are about completed with all bond projects, all of a sudden it has resurfaced that’s something that they did not want,” said Green.

“The football field should have been the last phase,” Abram explained. “If we we’re going to run out of money, let it be on the football field and not affecting the education of our children and the safety of our children.”

Out of the $2 million, only $160,000 remain.

That money will go towards fixing roofing, AC, and bathroom issues at Okolona Elementary School.

Green said construction on the roofing project will begin on Monday, and the bathroom, and plumbing repairs will begin on August 6th.

The superintendent also noted the repairs will likely bleed over into the start of the new school year.