LIBERTY — Of the five schools to consistently receive a failing grade from the Mississippi Department of Education, Amite County has been showing greater improvement than the others, Interim State Superintendent Dr. Kim Benton said recently.
Clarksdale, Humphreys County, Wilkinson County and Yazoo City are the other four districts on the routinely failing list.
Benton visited the Amite County School District in November and met with Superintendent Don Cuevas.
“Dr. Benton recently told the Amite County School District superintendent the district was an anomaly among the persistently F-rated school districts because its performance data from 2021-22 showed student achievement was improving,” MDE communications director Jean Cook said.
Cuevas talked about his recent meeting with Benton at last Thursday’s board meeting and believed her comments meant the district was headed in the right direction.
“She said Amite County is an anomaly,” he said. “I’m proud of that. I really am. That was their words. You’re an anomaly.”
Cuevas mentioned how Amite County Elementary School received a certificate for its improvement when Benton visited.
The elementary received a C letter grade in this year’s school ratings, while the high school received an F, making the district’s overall letter grade an F.
“We’re going to keep on,” he said. “Everything’s positive from here on out.”
Cuevas said attendance is at a respectable 89.9%, but the goal is for 95%.
“That’s what we’re shooting for,” he said. “We’re putting our heads together.”
He did not have numbers for the attendance in recent years, but he said it has been an issue since the COVID pandemic began.
Cuevas said 866 students are enrolled in the school district.
“That’s down probably about 60 kids from a couple years ago and 40 from a year ago,” he said. “We’re just getting lower enrollments on that lower end when they’re coming in. We’re not having 75 kids (per grade) anymore. It’s around 55 to 65.”
Cuevas could not pinpoint the reason for the lower enrollment.
“I wouldn’t even try. It just might be the age level of folks right now. I can’t answer it. I don’t know,” he said.
Cuevas said there have been 317 disciplinary referrals at the high school this semester, which is lower than the 553 referrals at this time last year.
He said there have been 113 referrals at the elementary school, which is lower than the 227 at this time last year.
“So, we’re cutting them down and things are going well,” he said.
Cuevas said he will have reports on the second Benchmark exam of the school year at the January board meeting.
State testing is underway for the schools.
“We’ve got state testing going on in the high school,” Cuevas said. “As of right now, they’ve taken the biology. They have taken English 2, the writing and the reading comprehension part.”
Cuevas said students would take the algebra state test this week.
Prior to state testing, the school held a “boot camp” for the students with teachers and consultants.
“For state tests, we prep our kids,” he said. “We try to have a boot camp one or two days where we just kind of come in and do a cram session.”
