Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science Executive Director Donnie Cook was fired Friday, after only 15 months in his position.
The State Board of Education, which governs the public residential school for gifted juniors and seniors, held a special-call meeting Friday morning to consider a personnel matter, Mississippi Department of Education Public Information Officer Shanderia Minor told The Dispatch. While Minor did not say whether Cook’s contract was terminated in that meeting, she confirmed he is no longer employed at MSMS.
The state board appointed Associate Executive Director Ginger Tedder to serve as an interim replacement.
After Cook was notified of the firing, he sent an email to MSMS faculty, staff, parents and students to inform them of the decision. In it, he blamed negative reactions to his efforts to explore relocating MSMS from the campus of Mississippi University for Women to Mississippi State University.
“No reasons were given for this action aside from the fact that I presented our Advisory Board with our current facilities situation and several options for moving forward,” Cook wrote. “Three of those options involved staying at MUW, and the fourth was the discussion of relocation to MSU, which has already been discussed in the papers. I believed that the (MSMS) Advisory Board should be made aware of the details of each option, including survey data from students, staff, parents, and alumni.”
Cook told The Dispatch on Friday he presented the advisory board with those options and related costs of each in August. According to his email, though, this was months after Donna Boone, chief academic officer for MDE, told him to “cease and desist” the relocation discussions – after The Dispatch first reported them in April.
After Cook initially publicly dismissed relocation talk as “rumors,” The Dispatch obtained a memo he sent to MSMS faculty and staff outlining that the school was actively exploring “MSMS 2.0.” This included a possible move to MSU as a way to get new facilities. He later sent surveys to MSMS stakeholders and alumni their thoughts on several issues, relocation among them.
“At no time did anyone at MDE ask what prompted the questions,” Cook wrote in his Friday email. “No one there has seen the presentation and been equipped with the facts of the situation, most notably the current condition of our facilities.”
Minor did not comment to The Dispatch on the reasons for Cook’s termination.
MSMS was established in 1987. Relocation from MUW’s campus would require legislative approval, something several members of the local delegation have told The Dispatch they do not support.
Still, Cook told The Dispatch he “did not see this coming.”
Cook took over as MSMS executive director in June 2022, replacing Germain McConnell, who left for a job in Oxford.
Tedder on Friday afternoon sent her own email to MSMS faculty, staff, students and parents that Cook’s “stepping down” would not affect the campus.
“Although this is a sudden change, I would like to let you all know that this will not change the environment of our school,” she wrote. “We value the opportunity that MSMS presents, and we are determined to maintain our dedication to our students and their families.”
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