Parents And School Leaders Are At Odds Over $2 Million That Was Supposed To Go Towards School Repairs

OKOLONA, Miss. (WCBI)- Parents went searching for answers regarding school safety during Thursday night’s school board meeting in Okolona .

Dozens of parents pressed school leaders about repairs at Okolona Elementary School that still haven’t been fixed.

In 2014 the Okolona School District was allotted $2 million to fix repairs at the high school and elementary school.

Four years later, some of the repairs have yet to be made.

Caved in ceilings, a leaking roof, no AC, toilets without a lid, these are number of safety concerns parents have with the school.

“Our kids deserve better,” said Marsha Gates, who has a child in the school district. “When a child has to hold their BM (bowel movement) in all during school time something is wrong.”

Gates was one of the many parents pressing school board members on why these repairs haven’t been made, repairs she thought should’ve been made years ago.

She said some parents are threatening to transfer their children to another school due to the school’s condition.

“We were told the $2 million school bond was to upgrade the school facility, and here it is 2018, elementary, part of it has been upgraded and part of it hasn’t been such as the bathroom and that concerns us.”

Many parents believe the $2 million wasn’t used appropriately.

However, according to District Superintendent Dexter Green that’s not the case.

“We spent that money wisely,” Green expressed. “The architect shared with the community tonight that he has never seen a school district stretch $2 million as much as we have as a school district. The school board, we all collaborated and we made the best possible decision with the boys and girls in our school district, and I feel good about how we spent the money.”

Green said the money was used for other projects that needed to be taken care of first such as the football field.

“We’re trying to help save tax payer dollars, said Green. “We’re trying to spend those dollars very very wisely as we upgrade facilities’s here in our school district.”

“When you spend so much amount of money on a football field and that wasn’t even in the plan when you gave it out to the community, you deceived the community because you said $2 million will go towards upgrading the school facility,” said Gates. “Well the bathroom in the elementary school hasn’t been upgraded but you put all of his money towards the football field, that’s not acceptable.”

After pressing school leaders on this issues, parents are hoping their message will get through to school leaders and that the repairs will be made before the start of the upcoming school.

However, Green said that timetable may not be feasible.

“Not quite, in talking to the architect some of the repairs such as the bathrooms may go over into the month of August,” said Green.

“If the projects are not updated, if the bathrooms are not updated, we are asking the school board to delay the school, the start of school.”

Out of the $2 million Green said only $160,000 remain and that money has already been obligated towards other projects.

On Friday from 11AM-12PM, the superintendent said an expenditure report will be made available for parents at Okolona Elementary School detailing how the money was spent and where it went.