Our world changes every day and hard decision have to be made as we adjust to those sometimes painful changes.
Clarksdale and Coahoma County have been hit by an 18-percent population decline over the last 10 years, as reported in the 2020 Census. That means Clarksdale Municipal School District – and Coahoma County School District, too – are looking at almost a 20-percent decrease in their student population.
And changes are having to be made.
The announcement this week that Clarksdale School District will be closing Heidelburg Elementary is not good news, but it is a reality for our community and our city schools.
Clarksdale Superintendent Joe Nelson and the five-member board of trustees cited “operational costs with declining enrollment, maximizing federal ESSER allocations, and optimal alignment for both student learning and school accountability,” as reasons for the move.
Your Clarksdale Press Register hopes this community will study the issues and realize this tough medicine will be good for our schools and our community.
No taxpayer in Clarksdale can honestly say there is not fat on the employment rolls of Clarksdale Municipal School District. A school system set up to handle 3,000 students at the turn of the century now handles 2,167 students from Pre-K to 12th Grade. And the annual budget has gone up and not down.
Education is the “elephant in the room” in this community. Our civic, business and elected leaders don’t want to touch it, but they realize the problem and honestly don’t know how to fix it.
Now is the time for Clarksdale Municipal School District – and Coahoma County, too – to make some big changes in the way they do business.
Everyone from principals and teachers to cooks and bus drivers need to realize the issues of educating our children have not been addressed and changes are being made. Rank-and-file employees took a paycheck and did little to improve the education our children received. These changes should come as a surprise to no one.
Clarksdale’s school board has taken the bull by the horns – or the elephant by the trunk – and they are looking to change our schools, make them better and give our children a better education.
Parents, community leaders and school employees need to get behind these changes. Let’s support our school leaders in this task.
bring about positive change.
