Transportation plan submitted to judge
Representatives from the Tate County School District were in federal court in Greenville, Miss., on Thursday, Nov. 17, for the latest update on the future of Coldwater High School.
“We presented our case on transportation,” said TCSD Superintendent Alee’ Dixon. “The judge said she would review the information and get back with us.”
That same federal judge granted a petition in July for the conditional closure of grades seven through 12 at Coldwater High School contingent on the district’s ability to provide adequate information to the court regarding the transportation burden for different student demographics, including the average length of commute under the current attendance zones and proposed redistricting plan.
A Federal Court opinion stated a majority of students at Coldwater are African American and closing the high school might result in a 15-20 minute longer commute compared to students at Independence and Strayhorn. It expressed concerns regarding an inequitable transportation burden on Coldwater students and required the school district to provide additional information to show that Coldwater's closure will not result in an unfair transportation hardship.
Tate County School Superintendent Alee Dixon said two transportation plans, complete with bus routes to Independence and Strayhorn High Schools, were originally submitted by the district in September 2021.
“Basically, we were told to provide more information on what the bus routes would look like compared to what they look like now,” Dixon told the Tate Record in August.
Dixon said the plan is to split students at Coldwater using Interstate 55 or U.S. Highway 51 as a midpoint. Students who reside west of those lines would attend Strayhorn, while students on the east side would attend Independence.
House Bill 669 was signed by Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves in June 2020, essentially giving the Tate County School Board the authority to consolidate its system of high schools by closing Coldwater.
The bill also called for the attendance zone of Coldwater High School be collapsed, redrawn and distributed in equal proportion to the two other high school attendance zones in the Tate County School District.
The Mississippi Attorney General submitted the bill to United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, which has jurisdiction over a desegregation order concerning school districts affected by the requirements outlined in the bill.
A Federal Court order summarized the impact of closing Coldwater High School on student assignment, faculty, staff, extracurricular activities, and facilities weighed in favor of allowing closure and only the impact on transportation was considered neutral.
The order stated additional factors, including the likely academic benefit to Coldwater students and financial benefit to the school district, also weighed in favor of closure.
