State lawmakers removed all language specifically appointing Starkville School District Superintendent Lewis Holloway as the county school district’s conservator on July 1 with new legislation this week.
As originally filed, both HB 833 and SB 2818 called for Holloway’s early appointment and gave him the power to issue notes that would finance school repairs in both districts before state-mandated consolidation in 2015. Now, the substitutes’ language states Oktibbeha County School District shall remain under Mississippi Department of Education control until June 30, 2015, without explicitly calling for a new conservator.
Margie Pulley currently serves as OCSD’s conservator, and Holloway will guide the unified system once state-mandated consolidation occurs in 2015.
Neither the local merger committee, nor SSD made strong overtures last year for Holloway to take over early as the county school district’s leader. The idea first appeared publically when Parents for Public Schools Starkville members suggested the idea during a fall merger hearing. Later, members again suggested the idea, this time in passing to lawmakers during their lobbying efforts, said PPS Starkville President Michelle Jones.
“We thought it would offer the best opportunity for children to have a seamless education (during the transition to consolidation,” Jones said.
“From the first meeting a year ago with Toby Barker, our board and Tyrone Ellis (Starkville’s Democratic House of Representatives member), we offered to take over the county district’s administration,” Holloway said after the two original bills were filed last week. “We weren’t talking about merging but at least helping out by managing payroll, technology and special education functions. I’m willing to do that (lead OCSD), but I’m not the one promoting it. However, it makes good sense because it makes getting the merger done easier.”
The House substitute moved from the Education Committee to Ways and Means on Jan. 31 and was referred back to Education Monday. The other substitute entered the Senate system Tuesday.
Due to the varying language of each bill, a conference committee is expected to form and hammer out differences if both chambers pass their respective substitutes as written.
Language preserving prior Commission on Starkville Consolidated School District Structure requests — calls for future Miss. Attorney General representation cases involving the two systems’ desegregation orders and the extension of an expiring 2016 school board seat into 2017 — is present in both bills, but the Senate version maintains lines allowing reverse referendum mechanisms for bond issuances that the House version drops.
The Senate substitute also varies from the House’s version as it directs Pulley to issue notes for repairs and renovations to both systems’ campuses “as soon as practicable after passage” of the act and allows her to issue bonds for similar upgrades from July 1 to June 30, 2015. Holloway will then have the ability to issue bonds through 2024.
Original legislation would have allowed Holloway to immediately issue a county millage levy for up to $2.2 million to be used toward county elementary renovations, while long-term efforts were covered with a clause permitting him to issue up to $10 million in bonds across a 10-year period.
Language surrounding future staffing was also changed after original legislation would have given Holloway, as OCSD’s conservator, the power to renew and non-renew county school district employees’ contracts. The Senate substitute states the Starkville School District Board of Trustees “shall be responsible for establishing the contracts” of teachers, principals and administrative staff for the 2015-2016 school year — the first year of operations under the unified system. OCSD’s conservator shall consult with the school board about county employees’ contracts, the legislation states.
The Senate’s substitute added: “In order to prepare for the efficient staffing of the Starkville Consolidated School District, the conservator … and the superintendent … shall have full authority to non-renew the employment of any teacher, principal, clerical or administrative staff located within their respective school districts for the 2015-2016 school year.”
Calls placed to Rep. Toby Barker, R-Hattiesburg, Rep. Gary Chism, R-Columbus, and Sen. Gary Jackson, R-French Camp, went unreturned. Ellis was unavailable for comment Tuesday but is expected meet with key figures of both House and Senate Education Committees.
Barker originally filed HB 833 and HB 716, last year’s Starkville-Oktibbeha school merger bill. Both he and Chism serve on the House Education Committee. Chism, Ellis and Jackson represent portions of Oktibbeha County.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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