The Mississippi State Board of Education voted Friday to declare the Okolona Separate School District a District of Transformation.
“What that means is they now are under the supervision of the Mississippi Department of Education, and so the board there, as well as the superintendent, are no longer part of that district,” said Lance Evans, State Superintendent.
Shamira Muhammad
Okolona Separate School District is taken over by the state
Although the district achieved a B grade for the 2025 Mississippi Accountability Report, the state moved to dissolve the district’s local board and select an interim superintendent.
“We were trying to keep it from a point where it would be considered catastrophic, if you will,” Evans said. “That's why we ended up having to intervene on the department's behalf, to ensure that they could obviously make payroll, to ensure they could provide an adequate and safe education for their educational environment, for their students, and also make sure that we were taking care of their teachers.”
Evans declined to provide an exact figure for the district’s budget shortfall, but says his department is conducting an audit.
“The district was absolutely to the point financially where we had no choice but to intervene,” he said.
The three-school district educates roughly 517 students and has been supplied with operational resources to cover immediate expenses.
“The state has an emergency fund for these situations where districts are struggling financially,” Evans said. “It is considered a loan that does have to be paid back.”
“There are only certain aspects of the operational process that MDE can intervene with, those being primarily financial, academic, and safety issues,” Evans said. “Here, it was like we said earlier, we all know it was financial. That is why you're seeing that forensic counting of all the dollars to ensure that we know where every dollar is, where every dollar is spent.”
Evans says MDE and the State Board of Education plan to create a financial roadmap for the new superintendent from the results of the audit.
“In that audit, what will happen is, we'll create a plan to ensure financial stability,” he said.
Okolona Mayor Sherman Carouthers says he’s still taken aback with the decision, which he says he only learned after being called by a reporter.
“It's still fresh news,” he said. “I do not have any pertinent information, I don't have paperwork in my hand detailing the cause and effect that has transpired. Other than seeing a YouTube video of a special call board meeting, that was it.”
As to what impact the takeover may have on the district, Carouthers says he’s unsure.
“It very well could have some positives and negatives,” he said. “Without knowing all the pertinent information, it would be more of a speculation, and I don't work in the realm of speculation. I like to deal in the realm of facts, so until more pertinent information is released to my office or to the city of Okolona, everything would be a speculation.”
The Okolona school district was previously declared a District of Transformation between 2010 to 2012 due to financial and accreditation concerns, according to data from the Mississippi Department of Education. Superintendent Evans says he expects an interim superintendent to be chosen Thursday.