An overwhelming majority of public comments the Mississippi Department of Education received about the future of the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science favored leaving the school at Mississippi University for Women in Columbus.
Still, the State Board of Education voted unanimously March 20 to recommend relocating the campus to Mississippi State University in Starkville.
“I don’t think they were (considered) at all,” MUW President Nora Miller said Monday of the public comments.
The Dispatch obtained the public comments last week from Columbus City Attorney Jeff Turnage, who received them from the Mississippi Department of Education via a public records request.
Of the 213 comments submitted, 185 supported keeping the residential high school for gifted juniors and seniors at MUW, where it has been since it opened in 1987. Only three respondents supported relocating the school to MSU. Another 25 requested MDE, which the State Board of Education oversees, revisit the process.
MDE requested proposals in early February specifically from MSU and MUW for the future housing and expansion of MSMS, giving each institution less than three weeks to submit them. After MDE made the proposals public Feb. 27, a five-day public comment period followed.
MUW’s proposal included building a new $35 million residence hall for MSMS and expanding its academic offerings.
MSU’s proposal, with an estimated $85 million price tag, would put a MSMS campus off Highway 182 next to a planned Starkville High School build. MSMS would consist of a dormitory and an academic building. Other facilities used by MSMS students – a library, cafeteria and performing arts center – would be shared with SHS students, and there would be program/instructional partnerships between the two schools.
Though the board chose MSU’s proposal, the legislature must approve any relocation plan for MSMS. Lawmakers did not take up the matter in this year’s session.
Concerns about cost, safety, SOCSD
A significant number of respondents opposing relocation cited the cost difference between the two proposals, as well as perceived safety concerns related to moving high school students from a small university setting to a large Southeastern Conference campus with roughly 10 times the enrollment. The respondents were primarily MSMS stakeholders.
Overwhelmingly pro-MUW comments strongly opposed MSMS sharing space and programming with Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District students. Many – including current MSMS students and alumni, as well as parents of current and former students – wrote such a partnership with SOCSD would compromise MSMS’s identity as an independent residential high school.
Several, including those who asked MDE to revisit the matter, took issue with how quickly MDE moved through the proposal process, with some questioning why other universities weren’t invited to submit. They also hammered on facility and funding needs for MSMS, including better residence halls. The legislature is responsible for providing those funds.
By contrast, the three pro-relocation respondents touted greater access to resources and academic offerings at MSU, as well as extracurricular offerings available for MSMS students through SHS.
In an email Tuesday, Shanderia Minor, MDE’s public information officer, did not respond to The Dispatch’s questions about how much weight the public comments carried when reviewing the universities’ proposals. Her email also did not address criticisms respondents raised about MDE’s process and timeline in the matter.
“The State Board of Education (SBE) formed a subcommittee in December of 2024 to explore the future of MSMS. Under its discretion, the SBE established the process of receiving proposals from the Mississippi University for Women and Mississippi State University as well as public comments in order to form a recommendation before the legislative session ended,” Minor’s statement reads. “The SBE’s goal was to generate new ideas to strengthen MSMS operations and ensure its future growth. No changes to the location or operations of MSMS will occur without legislative action and appropriation of necessary funding.”
‘Nothing remotely scientific’ about public input
The public comments supporting The W’s proposal may not have swayed the State Board of Education, but Miller believes they can still impact the legislature.
“We are counting on it,” Miller told The Dispatch on Monday.
The key, she said, is for the support base to continue building energy and pounding home their talking points.
To help with that, Columbus and Lowndes County have committed up to $15,000, matched by the MUW Foundation, to hire a public relations firm to raise the profile of the MSMS issue from a regional issue to a statewide discussion.
If those efforts fall short, Miller said, there’s always the bottom line.
“I think the dollar signs are going to register with the legislature,” she said. “And I think finally they realize they need to invest in that school, wherever it is.”
Miller said she plans to bring “key legislators” for campus visits between now and the next legislative session, to show off MSMS’s “mission and culture” and how The W serves those. She also wants them to see firsthand the residential high school’s facility needs.
Investing in MSMS where it is, Miller said, will cause “less upheaval” for students and faculty.
“They are firmly rooted in Columbus,” Miller said. “… It’s going to be hard for (MSMS) to really take hold at Mississippi State. … I think it’s going to be hard to recruit. Everybody wants shiny new buildings, but I think, for parents, there’s some real questions about the location and mixing with Starkville-Oktibbeha (Consolidated School District).
“If you read MSU’s proposal, it was all about MSU and Starkville-Oktibbeha School District,” she added. “It wasn’t even about MSMS.”
She believes the dearth of pro-MSU public input to MDE speaks volumes.
“I think it’s the energy, and I think they don’t care,” Miller said. “It means a lot to us. It means a lot to Columbus.”
Sid Salter, vice president of strategic communications and director of public affairs at MSU, doesn’t take too much stock in the wide margin between pro-MUW and pro-MSU public comments.
“There’s nothing remotely scientific about this input that reflects an accurate measure of public opinion,” Salter wrote Monday in an email to The Dispatch. “It appears to be the result of an organized effort to generate the appearance of public support. … The issues that should matter are the quality of facilities and resources at the two universities and the expertise of science, technology, engineering and mathematics scholars to lead the students. MSU is the state’s leading research university and students there share in those research opportunities. What’s best for MSMS students should be the focus.”
To concerns brought forward in the public comments, Salter wrote MSU is responding with “facts.”
“We’re responding with facts about the quality of our facilities and our faculty, about the superior experiences and amenities that a comprehensive university offers in comparison with a fine regional university,” he wrote. “We aren’t on the defensive in any way because we have no reason to be.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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