Two school districts in Mississippi have completed their merger.
The Associated Press reports that the consoldiation of the Greenwood city schools and the Leflore County schools came about after Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a law in 2016 mandating the merger.
The new Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District now has a districtwide band, show choir and mass choir. Administrators have written an instructional management plan and a districtwide literacy plan, adjusted bus routes, adopted a student handbook, analyzed test data for all schools, produced calendars for testing and professional development for the coming school year and hired a school safety coordinator. Classes begin in August.
In 2018-19, Greenwood district reported an enrollment of 2,634 students; Leflore County district had 2,167.
No campuses have been closed, but grade configurations have been altered at two elementary schools.
Claudine Brown Elementary previously had kindergarten through fourth grade. It will now have pre-kindergarten through second grade. East Elementary previously had kindergarten through fifth grade. It will now have third through fifth.
The district's central office will be in the former Greenwood district’s headquarters. Superintendent Mary Brown and three assistant superintendents will work in the downtown building, along with other administrative officials. Some administrators will work in the building on U.S. 82 that formerly housed the central office for the Leflore County district.
The combining of Greenwood and Leflore County schools is one of 10 consolidation bills the MIssissippi legislature has enacted in the last five years, according to the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. Those bills affected 21 districts and by 2021 will result in 13 fewer school districts in the state.
Most consolidatios have involved involved the merger of two, or in some cases, three school systems in the same county that are struggling, the center says.
