Amite County School District Superintendent Don Cuevas publicly apologized to the school board Thursday after the district failed to shake its F rating.
“I apologize to the board that you’re having to keep an F this year,” he said. “I apologize for that. I was dumbfounded when I saw it.”
Amite County High School received an F, as it did when the last time the MDE graded schools in 2019, prior to the COVID pandemic. The elementary school improved from an F to a C.
Amite County was the highest scoring of the five F districts in the state this year. The district’s 487 points was just shy of the 490 points scored by the lowest-ranking D district, East Tallahatchie.
Cuevas said Amite County was two points away from a D.
The superintendent presented a chart showing the improvements in Mississippi Academic Assessment Program test scores in English and math the past four years.
The chart showed 15.6% of third through eighth graders were proficient or advanced during the 2017-18 school year.
The score decreased to 15.1% in 2018-19, increased to 19.3% in 2020-21 and then to 29.7% in 2021-22. Cuevas said the goal is for two-thirds of the students to be proficient or advanced.
“You just keep growing the kids,” he said. “If they keep going that way, we eventually run into it.”
Cuevas said the academic improvements show the district is headed in the right direction, teachers are working hard and students are learning.
“I go straight by data. Data don’t lie. Data tells everything,” he said. “We are academically sound. We are very proud of what’s going on in this district.”
Cuevas said two of the biggest concerns at the high school level are the lack of students taking the ACT and the low graduation rate. He said the district lost 25 points on its score with the MDE because fewer than 95% of the juniors took the ACT.
“You have to test so many kids or you don’t get participation,” he said. “We didn’t test enough. We got none of the points for the ACT.”
Cuevas said the graduation rate was around 70%, which cost the district another 15 points in its grade.
“The dropout rate kills us,” he said. “We can’t control if someone lets someone drop out of school.”
Cuevas said new high school principal Warren Eyster is attempting to encourage kids to stay in school and take the ACT.
“We have a good principal that’s making connection with kids and doing the right thing academically,” Cuevas said.
“The numbers show that we’re educating kids and that’s what it’s all about,” Board President James Copeland said.
Board attorney Nathaniel Armistad said he was “crushed” when the district received an F. He said there is more parent involvement at the elementary than there is at the high school.
He said that was one reason the elementary school received a C and the high school failed.
“I’m not an educator and I may be wrong, but our missing link is 3:30 to 8 (in the evening),” he said. “Our kids have shown they want to learn and they are willing to invest in themselves.”
