With extensive damage throughout Columbus from the EF-3 tornado that touched down on Feb. 23, more than 30 students have relocated and enrolled in schools outside of Columbus Municipal School District.
CMSD Superintendent Cherie Labat said district administrators reached out to students’ families and tallied about 70 students who have been displaced after February’s storm. She said 33 students total have departed, of which 20 have left the state entirely and only one stayed in the county.
If the students and their families have relocated indefinitely, Labat said, CMSD could lose at least $165,000 in state funds.
“I’m concerned about that,” Labat said. “Usually when people move out of state, the likelihood of them coming back is rare. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it is a lot of money.”
State funds, which are calculated primarily from student population and attendance, provide more than 40 percent of the district’s revenue.
Student enrollment decrease is not a new issue for the district though. During the budget hearing in July, Chief Financial Officer Tammie Holmes detailed the drop in student population and its effect on the district. Since the 2013-2014 school year, enrollment has dropped by 800 students, costing the district $4.1 million in that span.
School Board President Jason Spears chalked that loss up to “chaos throughout the district” and “problems in the board room.”
“I think that that environment pushed people to other options during that period,” he said. “It was one of those trying times for the district where we weren’t working as a unified board.”
He added that’s changed over the last couple of years.
“Prior to the storm, we were seeing a positive trend of more students coming into the district than leaving,” Spears said. “Certainly with this event occurring, that has set back that progress, but it doesn’t mean that is forever abandoned.”
In a typical year, the district can expect to lose 10 to 15 students, Labat said. By this point last year the district only lost 15 students. Having 33 students leave in a one-month span, she added, is alarming.
Spears shares the same worries as Labat, but said the district will remain financially stable even with the loss from state funds. He added the district has remained “financially sound” to offset these types of monetary cuts.
“Certainly we’ll have to account for this in our budget as we move forward,” Spears said. “If a student is displaced, Dr. Labat is making sure when a student’s family makes the decision to leave, we assist them to make sure they have all their academic records. We don’t want to lose any students. Operationally, from a financial standpoint we will adjust and move forward.”
According to Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, nearly 300 residences in Lowndes County sustained damage after the storm. Labat said there could be more students who have been displaced leading to more students vacating the district than just the 33 who have already left.
Although the district cannot change the storm’s effect on the community or CMSD, Labat said she is hoping to get relief from the Mississippi Department of Education.
“Decline in enrollment is a concern overall. We deal with that on year-to-year basis,” Labat said. “That coupled with the tornado is just a concern. I don’t know what the trend will be, but next month, we will know a lot more about where we are. Hopefully, if we get the federal declaration (of an emergency), we can ask for some exemptions from MDE to get some assistance with enrollment.”
Looking into the future, Spears added he expects enrollment to increase once the city and school district improves and recovers from the tornado’s damage.
“As we start improving, not just the rating of our schools, but the opportunities we offer, students will start to re-enroll,” Spears said. “We haven’t seen a big spike in transfers out. There’s really been no net losses or gains of students, except for the storm. Hopefully we will be able to bring back those individual families who have left as a result of the storm.”
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