Leake County School Superintendent Will Russell (Photo from LCSD on Facebook)
- This is the second district in Mississippi to be released from a desegregation order this year.
After more than five decades, the Leake County School District in Mississippi has been released from a court desegregation order.
This is the second district to be released from a desegregation order this year in Mississippi, with Rankin County School District receiving a similar decision back in July.
Leake County School District Superintendent Will Russell said the school district has been under a desegregation order since 1969, a decision made by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi in response to a lawsuit filed by parents in 1963.
Desegregation orders mandate that school districts provide all students with equal access to effective education opportunities.
Earlier this month, the district received word that it had been released from the order due to recent advancements, in part due to the consolidation of students into one high school and one junior high. That process involved the closure of one of the district’s high schools.
As a district that has had five superintendents in the past six years, Russell said he came out of retirement to help the district achieve this goal.
“I was compelled to come here and provide stability and get the district to where I know I can get it to with the support of the community,” Russell told Magnolia Tribune.
This is not the first time the district has had to close schools. In 2011, Russell said a court order mandated the district close two schools, the Edinburg Attendance Center and the Thomastown Attendance Center, in response to declining student enrollment. Russell said those closures did not require community input.
When Russell came in as superintendent last year, he looked at the current student enrollment to see what would be required to reach unitary status under the court order.
“We decided when I came into the district to just not kick that can down the road any longer,” Russell explained. “I decided to do realignment of the school district.”
That involved closing one high school in the district and consolidating those students with other existing schools starting this year. It also included moving sixth graders from an existing elementary school to the junior high school.
At the time Russell took the helm, Leake County High School had 271 students attending 7-12th grades. His plan was to move the students attending 9-12th grades to Leake Central High School and the 7th and 8th grade students the Leake Central Junior High School, putting those students on one campus. Sixth graders attending an elementary school in the district were moved to Leake Central Junior High School.
“We are in week seven with this process,” Russell said. “And the students have done wonderful. A lot of people didn’t think they could come together and go to school together, but it has been phenomenal.”
Now all of the students attend classes with the district’s strongest teachers.
Russell added that the move did not negatively affect the student to teacher ratio.
“The numbers were low enough where I could still have a comfortable student teacher ratio in each class,” Russell described. “So the student teacher ratio is still not maxed out to the number that it could be, even with bringing the schools together.”
Closing the school also provided savings to the district with a declining student population.
“So you’re looking at saving money, and providing a quality teacher in every classroom, with better resources across the board,” Russell added.
Leake County School District, like many districts across the state of Mississippi, has seen a decrease in student enrollment over the past ten years. Russell said that from the 2015-2016 school year to the 2024-2025 school year, the district lost about 500 students. With the average cost per student equating to about $12,000 per student, the total loss in funding was about $6 million over that period.
“We just did what was right on behalf of the children,” Russell said. “They are unpopular decisions I had to make. Because you know how it is in a community with the history and the heritage of the community schools. It’s never easy to close a school in a community.”
As the district moves into the future, the next consideration is to update aging facilities.
“It’s at the point now that the community will need to make a decision whether we are going to upgrade and modernize the existing facilities or are we going to consider building a facility,” Russell said.
While a bond is one method to fund that effort, Russell said he would rather not put the entire burden on the local taxpayers, but discussions are still in their infancy.
