A quality education

School district gets a boost from community agencies and residents.

BY SANDI P. BEASON


Daily Journal


OKOLONA - When Linda Loudermill moved here from Cleveland, Ohio, she was ready to enroll her first-grader, Matthew, in an out-of-district school.


"I have to admit that before moving here, I researched (Okolona schools) on the Internet and was disappointed at what I found and had planned to have our son, a first-grader, released from the district even though we wanted him to attend a neighborhood school," she said.


In Cleveland, she said, she had driven Matthew to a private school 30 minutes away and wasn't looking forward to a similar experience in Okolona.


"We knew when President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act' that schools are now being held accountable and had to follow certain guidelines, so I decided to sit down with (Superintendent Eddie Prather) to discuss the matter," she said.


After meeting with him and visiting Okolona Elementary School, she decided to enroll her son there.


"We believe Mr. Prather is working to improve the schools and are willing to give him a chance," she said. "We understand there were problems in the past, but we know things can change and it has to start somewhere."


Prather said since he became superintendent six years ago, he has tried to work with community agencies, pre-kindergarten agencies and child care providers to ensure a quality education for all students in the district.


"We're trying to help the kids be prepared for school when we get them," he said. "We can identify where all the children come from."





Addressing problems


Despite Prather's efforts, past problems continue to haunt the district.


"We did have some disturbance in the school and it caused some students to leave," he said. "Whatever happened in the past, we feel like we're on track to provide a quality education."


Some parents of white students gained school board approval to release the students from the district, and the students enrolled in out-of-area schools, he said. 


"In 1998 it started," he said. "There was controversy within the school district dealing with board members and the non-renewal of an employee. It caused a lot of distraction."


Coupled with that, the district's test scores also dropped that year, he said, and many parents used that as a reason to leave the district.


"We receive funding on the number of students," he said. "If the enrollment goes down, we may lose that funding."


Prather said efforts to keep in-district students - like the Loudermills' son - enrolled in Okolona schools will benefit the whole district, but instead of recruiting white students, he is seeking to "provide a good solid education for every child."


"Everybody wants the same thing for the children - a good quality education," Prather said. "We're trying to get everybody to stay on the same page."


Race still plays some part in it, he said. Currently, enrollment is roughly 98 percent minority students.


"I'm trying not to be controversial and draw a line in the sand," he said. "We want to come to a level where everybody will be happy with it and come forward with it."





Helping hand


Prather said the school district also works with community agencies to help students.


"Originally, we set up to be kind of a supplement to the public schools," said Sister Elizabeth Brown, founder of EXCEL, Inc. "No matter how good or bad the school is, it always needs resource services. We thought EXCEL could be that kind of support to the school system."


Brown said EXCEL, founded 15 years ago, holds summer and after school learning programs to "pick up the gaps" and provides families with basic resource skills for homework and study habit development. EXCEL also requires parental assistance, she said.


"With kids that have dropped out of school, we offer an alternative to them," she said. "It's so people who have fallen through the cracks of the system will have an opportunity for a second chance."


EXCEL serves nearly 900 people monthly with more than 50 percent school-aged participants, she said.


A more recent addition to the community support network is the CATCH Kids program, which opened a clinic at Okolona Elementary School in February.


"We're in a partnership to provide medical care to children with barriers to care," said Valerie Long, director. "Physicians or nurse practicioners from the community volunteer their time to go in and see the children at no cost. If they require medication, we have a partnership with a pharmacy in Okolona and pharmacies in Tupelo that will provide the medicine at no cost to the child and cost to the program."


CATCH Kids operates at no cost to the school district, she said, and on the first day it opened in Okolona, three children were treated. Students also receive oral hygiene products, she said.


"If we can catch three children that would not normally receive care, that's good," she said. "Our thought is that healthier children do better, learn better and tend to do better in school."


Okolona school district has also received two technology grants, a reading excellence grant for grades K-3, and grant funding to establish a parent center, Prather said.

For more information on EXCEL, Inc., call 447-2030, and for more information on CATCH Kids, call 377-2194.