OurTupelo

CLARKSDALE — Clarksdale had the second highest teacher shortage in Mississippi last year — 40 posted vacancies in July. 

For district administrators, that staffing challenge hits particularly hard each year in late summer when they try to fill vacancies before the new school year begins. The problem affects students, too, when they’re taught by substitute teachers for weeks at a time. 

Clarksdale schools leaders have also tried a solution that researchers and think tanks suggest: Identifying potential teachers early — before they even graduate high school. This approach also increases diversity in local teacher workforces, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Nearly half of Mississippi public school students are Black, but about a quarter of their teachers are, according to the council’s data. The gap has only shrunk by roughly one and a half points in the last 10 years.

“We cannot continue to work in the education arena like it’s a factory putting out the next product,” said Adrienne Hudson, who runs Clarksdale-based nonprofit organization RISE, which assists aspiring educators with licensure requirements. “As we can see in the numbers, we don’t have enough products. The supply and demand are not matching.” 

“We have to do better at cultivating the educators in our schools and communities.”

Cultivating educators in the community would also address disparities between the demographics of teachers and their students. 

 A way ‘to change kids’ lives’

One way the district is trying to cultivate educators is through a vocational educator preparation class Candace Barron teaches at Clarksdale Municipal School District’s Carl Keen Career and Technical Education center. 

Triccia Hudson, the center’s director, had the goal of widening the pipeline for future educators in Clarksdale. She first recruited Barron to teach the course during the 2021-2022 school year.

“You don’t see as many families of educators any more,” Hudson said. “It was clear to me that aspiring teachers needed more mentorship.”

More than a dozen Clarksdale students are getting a feel for a career well known to them: teaching. In a classroom once devoted to a cosmetology course, students are learning how to plan lessons, manage classrooms and about the different roles in a school district.

In Barron’s course, students start their first semester learning about the origins of public education. The introductory lectures fascinate students.

It was interesting to learn that it’s always been about helping people by “spreading information,” Clarksdale High School sophomore Khloe Reed said.

Beyond having the opportunity to join a profession that predates the country’s founding, students in Barron’s class say they are drawn to education because of their lived experiences in their community. 

Barron has observed that high school-aged students understand the obstacles facing their fellow students and are in a good position to learn skills teachers employ to educate and inspire developing minds.

For sophomore Leah Myles, helping kids with learning disabilities inspired her to take the course. She saw how her brother struggled with his reading lessons, and she was moved “to learn how to help students like him.”

Sophomore Jamarick Davis said education has the power to “change kids’ lives.” He remembers his assistant teachers fondly and saw the impact a good teacher can have on a student who struggles in the classroom and at home — and might act out in class for attention.

Davis’ favorite teacher never seems to be in a bad mood despite challenges that educators face outside and inside the classroom.

Some students come from teacher families, while others admire alumni who entered the profession. All were aware that a teacher’s role involves more than what is in the textbook. 

As Reed put it, teachers are a positive role model in a young person’s life. Myles said teachers help students by challenging them, and demonstrating how they care.

“Teachers play a very important role in our community because without them, we wouldn’t really know anything,” said Reed. “It wouldn’t be a very lively life if you didn’t know anything at all. 

22 years in the classroom

Candace Barron has taught elementary school for 18 years and high school for four, but she still lights up with admiration when a student grasps a new concept or demonstrates eloquence. 

The Clarksdale native has taught hundreds of students and seen her corner of the world regress and progress from under the fluorescent bulbs in Clarksdale’s city classrooms.

When she graduated college, Barron followed in her parents’ steps when she became a teacher. She realized how important empathy was to a teacher whose classroom has students from various households and skill levels. 

“I do have bad days, but I try not to bring it to work,” Barron said. “I don’t know what (students) have been through at home and I don’t want to add to that by coming in and bringing my problems. So I come in, I have my game face on, I’m going to do what we have to do.”

That dedication matters as the teacher shortage has gotten worse in Clarksdale and other cities and counties across Mississippi in the past year. 

“We really have lost a lot of the efforts that were put in place to combat the teacher storage crisis, ” Adrienne Hudson said. “Many of the scholarship incentives that used to be prevalent and professional development opportunities no longer exist.”

Barron said she believes the program can ignite students’ interest in an education career. The lessons give students the confidence and skillset to pursue careers where communication and project management are components — even those who don’t end up pursuing education, Barron said.

One student told Barron the class helped her with a speech impediment. The student felt more confident delivering presentations, and began to imagine careers that she felt discouraged from pursuing previously. 

“At this age, they’re still trying to decide what they want to do. So the more you expose them to every different area, it’ll help them decide,” Barron said.

Outside of the state-approved curriculum and textbook, students learn the art of crafting classroom bulletin boards. Fewer craft projects conjure as much nostalgia and appreciation. Some teachers spend hours with a ruler and yards of colored construction paper decorating their classroom in late July before school starts.

Creativity is the key to a successful poster board, Barron said. One student was inspired to construct a data wall with construction paper made to look like wood, while another put together a yellow bulletin board with crayons bearing the name of students. 

“I really hope that by the end of the program that they feel like they can make an impact on somebody’s life by becoming a teacher or getting into the education field,” said Barron. “That is my hope. So all of the negatives that they hear, I hope that I can dismiss some of them. 

“Students tell me at the end of (the course), they want to be successful like teachers.”

The Senate voted Thursday to spend $15 million on child care vouchers to help alleviate the pressure on roughly 20,000 low-income Mississippi families waitlisted for subsidies since pandemic-era federal funds ran out in April.  

This funding is not set in stone. The Senate Appropriations committee added it to House Bill 1909, the budget for the Department of Human Services, which will be amended again before reaching Gov. Tate Reeves’ desk for signature. 

Rep. Clay Deweese, a Republican from Oxford and principal author of the original bill, told Mississippi Today late Thursday he hadn’t had time to look at the amendment. Deweese also said he didn’t think it would be prudent to state his opinion on the issue. When asked why the House version didn’t include that $15 million for child care, Deweese said it was “just the House position.”

“I’m not going to get into these conversations,” Deweese said when pressed on the issue. “I’m not going to be put in these positions.”

Rep. Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany and an additional author of the bill, told Mississippi Today that with the “limited knowledge” he has about the situation, he would be in favor of keeping the Senate’s amendment. 

Amaya Jones, a single mother of a 6-year-old and 1-year-old in Jackson who works full-time at Kroger, has been without vouchers since June. Jones’ mother cares for her kids most days, but she has health conditions. Sometimes, her mother is too sick to care for them, Jones said, and two or three times a month has to go to the doctor. On those days, Jones has to miss work. 

“I just hope they understand,” said Jones, who worries about getting fired from her job. 

Jones is among thousands struggling to make ends meet while securing care for their children statewide. Advocates who have been calling on the state to address Mississippi’s 11-month child care crisis say the $15 million is critical, but it would only address a fraction of the waitlist. 

“Even with this needed investment, thousands of families will remain on the child care waiting list and working parents will go without access to child care,” said Matt Williams, director of research at the Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative. 

Resolving the waitlist would require about $60 million, according to public statements made by Bob Anderson, director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services. 

On the floor Thursday, Sen. David Blount, a Democrat from Jackson, said he would like to increase funding from $15 million when the bill goes to conference. Last year, the Legislature appropriated $15 million to the voucher program for the first time. Blount said need has increased since then, and addressing it should be a legislative priority.

“We have a real problem with child care in the state,” Blount told Mississippi Today.

The bill includes a reverse repealer. That means legislators will be required to have more debate and at least one more vote before the bill can be passed into law. That is common for large agency budget bills, which are often renegotiated several times before the end of a legislative session. 

Meanwhile, child care providers continue to struggle. 

One of those providers, Lynne Black, has lost nearly 100 children since April. At the two centers she runs in Tupelo, Black said she is down from 14 employees to five. Black said regaining about a quarter of her voucher children won’t put her anywhere near financial stability, but at least it would allow her centers to stay open. Right now, she said, closure is imminent.

“I’d give it til end of April, beginning of May,” Black said.

Corey Wiggins, a Hazlehurst native and federal co-chair of the Delta Regional Authority, will be the next president of Tougaloo College effective July 1. 

He will be the 15th president in the school’s 157-year-history, succeeding Donzell Lee. 

Tougaloo’s Board of Trustees appointed Wiggins as president Friday after a yearlong national search.

Wiggins “is a visionary leader whose commitment to academic excellence, student success and institutional integrity aligns deeply with the historic mission of Tougaloo College,” board chair Blondean Y. Davis said in a news release. The board “is confident that Dr. Wiggins possesses the leadership, experience and passion necessary to guide Tougaloo into its next chapter of growth and impact.”

Wiggins could not immediately be reached for comment. In the news release from Tougaloo College, he said he was honored to be selected as the college’s next president.

In his current role, Wiggins oversees an independent federal agency that supports economic development across 255 counties and parishes in eight states throughout the Mississippi Delta and Alabama Black Belt. 

Wiggins graduated from Alcorn State University with a B.S, in biology. He has also held faculty appointments at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson State University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he taught courses on health policy, strategic management and the social determinants of health.

Dozens of alumni and supporters of the historically Black university, including U.S. Rep.  Bennie Thompson, shared congratulatory posts on social media. 

Thompson, a 1968 graduate, said because of his work, he has seen “firsthand the kind of leadership he brings to the table.” 

“As an HBCU alumnus himself, he understands the mission and legacy of institutions like Tougaloo and the critical role they play in shaping future leaders,” Thompson said of Wiggins in an emailed statement to Mississippi Today. “His experience in leadership and his commitment to service will position Tougaloo College and its students to continue building on the school’s strong foundation. I look forward to working with him in the years ahead.”

Donzell Lee, who has led Tougaloo since previous President Carmen Walters stepped down in 2023, said he was the director of Alcorn State’s honors curriculum program when Wiggins was a student there. Lee remembers Wiggins as a highly organized student.

Lee said he met with Wiggins Wednesday, and they discussed initiatives Lee took on as president, including strategies for growing enrollment, raising research and institutional funds and redeveloping nearly 500 acres of land on campus for economic growth. 

“He certainly understands people and processes and is someone keen to take the institution further,” Lee told Mississippi Today. “It’s clear his leadership ability is solid, based on his numerous work experiences.”

“I am confident and convinced the things I’ve done were always in the best interest of the institution,” Lee said. “I’m sure Wiggins is keen to listen to those constituents’ concerns, and it is something we as an institution are all keen on engaging with our stakeholders.”

Pioneering pastor and civil rights leader John Perkins left the world Friday, but his family and friends say his light will long remain.

“He will always be remembered as one who tried to get the races to come together,” said Constance Slaughter-Harvey, who represented the pastor after he was tortured by Mississippi law enforcement officers in 1969. “Anybody who could take that kind of beating and be so forgiving is an extraordinary man.”

Perkins, 95, died under hospice care. His funeral service is set for March 21 at the New Horizon Church in Jackson.

His family shared a picture of him with his wife, Vera Mae. The family quoted her as saying she loves him and thanking God for their 74 ½ years of marriage.

Perkins, who penned the 1976 memoir, “Let Justice Roll Down,” wrote more than a dozen books. His last was “One Life Well Lived,” a book on how to live with purpose and passion.

On March 5, Elizabeth Perkins posted about one of the last moments with her father. She said she sat beside him, took his hand and sang one of his favorite songs, “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”

“As I sang, Daddy gently squeezed my hand, a quiet ‘amen’ in the early morning light,” she wrote. “Even in this season, the love of Jesus still fills the room.

“Daddy has lived a life fully given to God. It has not always been an easy life, but it has been a faithful one, marked by courage, reconciliation, justice, forgiveness, and hope.”

The John & Vera Mae Perkins Foundation works to raise up young leaders dedicated to reconciliation, she wrote. “We believe reconciliation is still possible, communities can still be restored, and the love of Christ still transforms lives.”

Perkins was born into poverty in New Hebron in 1930. His mother died of malnutrition and his father left his life years later.

His brother, Clyde, fought in World War II and enjoyed freedoms he had never experienced before in segregated Mississippi.

Like many other Black veterans who returned home from that war, he became a victim of violence when an officer gunned him down.

After Perkins’ family warned him he might be next, he left the state, one of about 6 million African Americans involved in the Great Migration from the South to other parts of the nation.

He landed in California, where in 1951 he married his wife and where their son, Spencer, was later born. Drafted into the Korean War, Perkins served in Okinawa, Japan, for three years before returning home.

One day in 1957, Spencer came home singing, “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” The song moved Perkins, who became a Christian. A year later, he was ordained as a Baptist minister.

In 1960, he and his family, which had grown to include four children, returned to Mississippi. A year later, he started the Mendenhall Ministries, which gave birth to a church, a daycare center, a youth program, a cooperative farm, a thrift store, a housing repair ministry, a health center and an adult education program. His wife ran a daycare center that later became part of the Head Start program.

In the past, the young people who made it out of the community never returned, but Perkins encouraged them to get their college degrees, said the Rev. Dolphus Weary, who worked with and succeeded Perkins at Mendenhall Ministries and later became executive director of Mission Mississippi, a ministry dedicated to promoting racial reconciliation among Christians in Mississippi. “He instilled in us the idea of coming back.”

In 1965, Perkins organized a voter registration drive in Simpson County, drawing the ire of the powers that be.

Four years later, he led a Christmas boycott in Mendenhall to protest white businesses’ refusal to hire Black employees. Officers jailed protesters, and when Perkins went to bail them out, they brutalized him.

“They beat John, cut his hair with dull scissors and stuck a fork up his nose,” said Slaughter-Harvey, who became the first Black woman to graduate from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1970.

As a result of that torture, he suffered a heart attack and part of his stomach had to be removed because of ulcers.

Despite that torture, Perkins bore no malice against those officers, Slaughter-Harvey said. “I’ve always respected his extraordinary forgiveness. He had an impact on my life and so did his wife, Vera, and their children.”

Doug Huemmer, who spent nights in jail with Perkins in 1969 and 1970, said while Perkins was involved in work some described as civil rights activities, his work should be viewed as in the tradition of the Great Protestant Reformation ministers, such as John Calvin, Martin Luther and George Fox. 

Perkins sought to eliminate racism, corruption and sin in the white and Black American Protestant Church, Huemmer said. “John and I shared the belief that we have a great country, but we have succumbed to a spiritual decadence that is destroying the American character.”

Quoting a prominent university professor, he said, “In America, we could have built a Chartres Cathedral. Instead, we built Las Vegas.”

In his final conversation with Perkins, he said the pastor told him, “Complete submission to God is the beginning of wisdom.”

In 1978, Perkins became friends with Klansman-turned-minister Tommy Tarrants, who later served for a dozen years as president of the C.S. Lewis Institute. Books and the narrative, “The Preacher and the Klansman,” detailed their lives and friendship.

Perkins began to speak at churches, colleges and conventions across the nation. He served as a religious adviser to Jimmy Carter and other presidents who followed. 

He later established the Christian Community Development Association, which focused on bringing the love of Christ to America’s most impoverished communities. “Other people became dedicated to what he had taught because they saw that it works,” Weary said.

Perkins’ teaching also helped lead to the 1992 creation of Mission Mississippi, which encouraged Christians to cross racial lines to develop friendships.

Weary led the organization for more than a dozen years. “We’re gonna be together in heaven,” he said. “Why can’t we be together on this earth?”

After Spencer’s unexpected death at 44 in 1998, the Perkins foundation created the Spencer Perkins Center to serve under-resourced children and families in west Jackson. The center also provided affordable housing to low- to moderate-income families.

John Perkins’ daughters, Elizabeth and Priscilla, serve as co-presidents for the Perkins foundation.

His memoir inspired the band Switchfoot to write “The Sound (John Perkins Blues).” The pastor’s “life of service and compassion is a tangible demonstration of what it means to live a life of love,” said band co-founder Jon Foreman. “Love is the loudest song we could sing. Louder than racism. Louder than fear. Louder than hatred. John Perkins said it right, ‘Love is the final fight.’”

 Mississippi Today Ideas is a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share their ideas about our state’s past, present and future. Opinions expressed in guest essays are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Mississippi Today. You can read more about the section here.

Public policy debates often happen in committee rooms and on legislative floors. But the real impact of those policies is felt in the everyday lives of people across Mississippi.

As a former Mississippi legislator, I spent years working in communities throughout our state. I sat with seniors, veterans, working families and people in rural towns who simply wanted to participate in the democratic process. What I learned is that for many Mississippians, something as simple as obtaining the documents requested in Senate Bill 2588, known as the Mississippi SHIELD Act, can be far more complicated than policymakers realize.

In Mississippi, obtaining a birth certificate can cost $25 or more and a passport $165. For people living on fixed incomes, cost matters. For those living in rural communities, access can be an even bigger challenge. Some residents must drive hours, sometimes as much as eight hours round trip, to reach the office where they can obtain official records.

For many women, documentation issues arise for another common reason: marriage. A woman’s birth certificate may reflect the name she was born with, while her driver’s license and other legal documents reflect the name she took after marriage. That difference can create confusion and additional hurdles when verifying identity.

And for some Mississippians, the challenge runs even deeper because of our state’s history. Many Black Mississippians born during the Jim Crow era were delivered at home by midwives and were never issued official birth certificates. This is not rare. It is a documented reality in communities across our state.

These are people who have worked their entire lives, paid taxes, raised families and voted in elections for decades.

I also think about my friend Raquel, a veteran who served our country and is now blind. Despite losing her sight, she has never lost belief in the power of her vote.

Sometimes people suggest that passports can solve these documentation challenges. But the truth is that only 22% of Mississippians have a valid passport.

And according to Mississippi’s own secretary of state, we do not have a widespread voter fraud problem. In fact, he has repeatedly said Mississippi has some of the safest elections in the United States.

Most Mississippians agree on two things: Our elections should be secure and every eligible voter should be able to participate. Those goals are not in conflict. If we keep people at the center of these conversations, we can find solutions that protect election integrity while also honoring the dignity and voices of Mississippi voters.

Protecting our elections should always go hand in hand with protecting the people who make them possible.

Sonya Williams Barnes is the Mississippi state policy director at the Southern Poverty Law Center. She previously served as the state representative for the 119th District for 10 years, representing portions of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Max Baria, a 17-year-old high school senior from Bay St. Louis, is a good-looking, soft-spoken, highly intelligent young man, who emerged this basketball season as one of the best high school players in Mississippi.

Baria, who stands a slender 6 feet, 8 inches tall, last Saturday helped St. Stanislaus to the State Class 3A Championship. This Saturday, he will play for the Mississippi team in the annual Mississippi-Alabama All-Star Game (2 p.m.) at A.E. Wood Coliseum on the campus of Mississippi College. His story – actually his and his family’s story – is one worthy of telling and perhaps re-telling.

Where to begin?

We probably should begin nearly three years before Max was born. That was in August of 2005 when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, demolishing the dream home of David and Marcie Baria and their three children on Beach Road in Waveland. Something far, far worse happened a month later. Darden Baria, David and Marcie’s oldest child and only son, became mysteriously ill and died at the age of 10. The Barias later learned that Darden died of rabies, probably the result of a bite from a rabid bat on a camping trip.

Readers should know the Barias were – and remain – good friends of this writer. In all my life, I have never witnessed such grief as the Baria family endured. They were, in a word, broken.

Says David, a lawyer and former state senator and representative, “You never, ever get over something like that. You just don’t. You just have to find better ways to cope.”

Says Marcie Baria, a retired lawyer, “I knew almost immediately, and I don’t know how I knew – but I knew there was going to be another child in our lives.”

They tried. First, David underwent a vasectomy reversal. That didn’t work. They tried in vitro fertilization. That didn’t take. They decided on adoption and listed the preference of a male baby, and the wait began.

“We were on the list nine months and heard nothing, not a thing,” Marcie says. “Finally, I called to ask what was going on. The answer we got was that it was really difficult to find a white baby boy.”

To which Marcie responded, “Who said anything about the baby being white?”

Not more than a week later, the Barias received a call from the adoption agency that a possible baby had been found. A young unwed mother was considering putting her as yet unborn baby up for adoption. The birth mother was white, the father was Black.

That baby was Max, who was born May 30, 2008, 21 inches long and 7 pounds, 8 ounces, with gorgeous brown eyes that seemed as big as saucers.

“The first time I held him and he opened those eyes, I was just blown away,” Marcie now says. “He was just perfect.”

And now, nearly 18 years later, she puts it this way: “He saved my life.”

“When we first started talking about having another child, David told me, ‘Before we have another child, we need to get ourselves emotionally right,’” Marcie says. “I told him that he had it backwards, that I wouldn’t be right until I had another child.”

It is no understatement to say that since birth Max has been smothered in love, from Marcie and David and his older sisters Merritt, 29, and Bess, 27. 

“The girls were so excited when Max came home,” Marcie says. “We all were. I think, after what we had been through, we were all determined that we weren’t going to take a single second of Max’s life for granted.”

Says David, “All his life, Max has been enveloped in a world of people, both Black and white, who have just loved and supported him.” 

It helps that Max makes friends easily and has had many of the same close friends since kindergarten at Coast Episcopal School. Says David, “There’s about seven or eight of them and they are like brothers.”

David Baria says his adopted son was still a toddler when it first dawned on Max that his skin was different than that of those he lived with. “You could see it,” David says. “Max would look down at his arm and then put it next to mine and compare. I told him, ‘Son, it’s just skin. We’re all the same.’”

The Baria family does get some strange and questioning looks when out in public.

“It’s not like it was back the ’60s, nothing blatant,” David says. “You see the second glances, kind of like ‘what’s going on here’ looks. There’s not been any overt racism. Well, there was only one time when Max was at a sailing camp. There were four kids in a boat and the other three were white. One of the kids called Max the n-word. Max never said anything to us about it, and he wouldn’t. But we heard about it from the man who ran the camp, who apologized and told us that one of Max’s friends slugged the kid in the nose, and that was that.”

For his part, Max Baria says he doesn’t see anything unusual about his life or his upbringing. What might seem strange or unusual to others is just the way it has always been for Max. Marcie and David are simply Mom and Dad. Merritt and Bess are his loving older sisters. He knows he has an older brother, Darden, who died before he was born. The rest of the family has told him all about Darden.

Learning has come easily for Max, who has a 3.6 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) in rigorous advanced placement classes and a 29 score on the ACT. 

He played all the sports until the ninth grade when he decided to concentrate on basketball. He once won an MVP award at Mike Bianco’s Ole Miss baseball camp. He also excelled in youth soccer, as did Darden.

He says he loves basketball most because “it’s such a team sport” and because “when you really work at it, you can see yourself getting better.”

Daniel Grieves, who has been Max’s coach since the eighth grade, says Max’s best basketball is ahead of him. “He’s going to get bigger and a whole lot stronger. He’s competitive and he’s so intelligent. Some people would say he’s quiet and reserved, but what I love most about him is that he stays on such an even keel. He never gets rattled, no matter the situation.”

Doctors have told the Barias that X-rays of Max’s growth plates indicate he could add another two or three inches in height. When ask how often he shaves, Max answers, “Once a week, maybe.”

In the days before the transfer portal, a player with Max’s height and skill level likely would receive several Division I college basketball scholarship offers, probably red-shirt his first year and be given time to develop as a player. Now, with the portal, coaches are looking for more seasoned and physically developed players who can help right away

Max, whose goal is to eventually play D-1 basketball, was recruited by several small colleges and junior colleges and chose the junior college route at Jones in Ellisville, where Newton Mealer has consistently put together winning teams. Mealer believes young Baria has barely touched the surface of what he can become as a basketball player, provided, that is, he dedicates himself to the weight room and continuing to develop his skills.

“Great kid, great family,” Mealer says. “We can’t wait to get him in our program.”

Meanwhile, David and Marcie Baria are preparing for life in an empty nest and most likely a lot of 90-mile trips to Ellisville.

Not long ago, Marcie received a call from Darden’s kindergarten teacher who has stayed in touch through the years. The teacher said she had been going through some old things in storage and found a record she said was Darden’s favorite. Each day, when the children came in from recess, she would let one choose his or her favorite song to play. Darden’s fave was a song called “Happy Adoption Day.”

Marcie never knew about the song back then but tears well in her eyes when she talks about it today.

“It’s almost like Darden is sending a message to his brother Max,” she says.

A couple stanzas of the lyrics will tell you why:

“There are those who think families happen by chance

A mystery their whole life through

But we had a voice and we had a choice

We were working and waiting for you

No matter the name and no matter the age

No matter how you came to be

No matter the skin, we are all of us kin

We are all of us one family.”

Officials tasked with selecting and naming the next Jackson State University president plan to choose three top candidates next week, March 19-20, and invite them to the campus for a second round of interviews in mid-April. 

On Thursday, members of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning’s Board of Trustees, the Jackson State search advisory constituency and search firm consultants went into closed session to discuss semifinalists for first-round interviews. March 3 was the deadline to apply for the university’s top role. 

Officials would not say how many applications they received for the role. 

IHL assembled a search advisory group to assist with the president search to increase transparency, but members of that group said they cannot publicly discuss potential candidates because an IHL board policy prohibits it.

Patrease Edwards, president of the Jackson State University National Alumni Association and a member of the advisory group, said members signed a confidentiality agreement and cannot discuss details of the meeting. Gee Ogletree, president of the IHL board and member of the search committee, said he could not comment on the meeting. 

Sen. Sollie Norwood, a Democrat from Jackson and a JSU alumnus, said he believes the search process has been transparent and understands why the board would want to keep names of candidates confidential. He said he is prepared to embrace the best candidate the group puts forward. 

Unstable leadership at Jackson State has been a barrier for many projects state legislators want to enact for the university, Norwood said. “It has been kind of difficult to move forward.”

Rep. Zakiya Summers, a Democrat from Jackson and a JSU alumna, said she hopes the next president comes into their role with a clear vision to move the university forward. This vision should include a “plan to prioritize students’ issues related to housing,” or “getting a new stadium,” she said. 

“They need to recognize the significance of working alongside folks that represent JSU, like lawmakers and alumni, because we’re the ones that carry the name and legacy,” Summers said.

The Jackson State presidency has been vacant since May, when Marcus Thompson resigned without explanation less than two years into his tenure. He was the university’s third president in five years. Denise Jones Gregory, former provost and vice president of academic affairs, is serving as the interim president. 

In December, IHL trustees voted unanimously to waive the board’s policy that would prevent a university interim president from applying for the permanent position at the institution they lead. Jones Gregory is eligible to apply for the president role. Mississippi Today reached out to Jones Gregory to ask if she had applied for the role, but she did not immediately respond. 

The December vote reflects repeated criticism the IHL board received from alumni and stakeholders last summer, which questioned the fairness of the search process and lack of transparency. 

A bill cleared the Legislature on Wednesday that would temporarily ease state approval requirements for rural hospitals, allowing them to add new services or make costly upgrades as lawmakers aim to help struggling facilities provide needed care and boost revenue.

The bill establishes a pilot program that will benefit about 55 rural hospitals across the state until June 2027. The legislation would loosen the state’s certificate of need laws, which require providers who want to open new services or make costly expansions to first prove they are needed in their area to curb potentially wasteful spending. Hospitals require approval for changes over $20 million for nonclinical improvements, $10 million for clinical improvements and $3 million for major medical equipment. 

Hospitals in small communities will be granted approval to open one new facility within five miles of their main campuses or make an improvement above the threshold, and those located in the Mississippi Delta will be allowed two exemptions. The facilities will also be allowed to open geriatric psychiatric units without seeking approval first. 

The House and Senate traded bills altering certificate of need requirements for rural hospitals this session, nearing consensus as the session went on. House Bill 1622 will go to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ desk in the coming days. If the governor signs the bill or allows it to become law without his signature, it will go into effect immediately. 

Senate Public Health and Welfare Chairman Hob Bryan, a Democrat from Amory, said March 5 that, while he has been slow to support changes to the state’s certificate of need law, he believes there is merit in implementing a pilot program to see if loosening restrictions could help rural hospitals. 

“I know for sure there are going to be unintended consequences,” Bryan said. “I don’t know what they are … but I think the time has come, as I phrased it from time to time, to do something in this general area.” 

The author of the legislation, House Public Health and Human Services Chairman Sam Creekmore, a Republican from New Albany, previously told Mississippi Today he drafted the legislation to allow rural hospitals more flexibility to open services without going through the certificate of need process, “hopefully making them more profitable, and providing better health care services at the same time.”

Certificate of need laws aim to lower costs and improve the quality and accessibility of health care by reducing duplication of services, but stakeholders are divided on whether or not it accomplishes its goals.

Critics argue the law stifles competition and fails to decrease costs. Advocates say it ensures that communities have access to a range of health services, not only those that are profitable. In Mississippi, where more than half of rural hospitals are at risk of closure, some people argue the law harms rural hospitals by restricting the services they are allowed to offer.

The bill also aims to speed up the certificate of need process by implementing a ‘loser pay’ provision. This language would require any party appealing the state’s approval for a new facility or improvement to pay the applicant’s legal fees if the ruling is not overturned. 

Certificate of need law has long been criticized as cumbersome and time-consuming, often slowing the opening of new health care services when competing health providers appeal the state’s issuance of a certificate. 

The legislation passed Wednesday also removes Humphreys and Issaquena counties from certificate of need requirements entirely and grants the state health officer the authority to issue licenses to eight dialysis facilities across the state.  

The legislation is the second change lawmakers have proposed to the state’s certificate of need law this session. Reeves signed a bill Feb. 4 that will make it easier for health facilities to make costly improvements and limit where the University of Mississippi Medical Center can open new locations without state approval. 

Another similar measure that makes it easier for rural hospitals to open facilities was passed by the House March 10 and has been returned to the Senate for consideration. 

A Hinds County Chancery judge on Wednesday ordered the Mississippi Division of Medicaid to temporarily stop collecting money owed by Greenwood Leflore Hospital after the hospital said resuming the recoupments would likely force the Delta hospital to close. 

The public hospital and Mississippi Medicaid have been locked in a dispute since last summer about how quickly the hospital must repay the debt, which stems from a state program designed to help struggling hospitals. Under the order from Judge J. Dewayne Thomas, the state must pause the recoupments while the hospital’s case proceeds in court, as long as the hospital posts a $50,000 cash bond within 30 days.

The program, designed to supplement low Medicaid reimbursements, initially provided a financial boost to Greenwood Leflore Hospital, which has struggled for years to stay open. But the payments were later recalculated using updated patient volume data as a part of a routine process that found the amount of funding was too high. That discrepancy occurred because state officials did not account for declining patient volumes after the hospital closed its labor and delivery and intensive care units in 2022.

In a Thursday email to Mississippi Today, Gary Marchand, the hospital’s former interim CEO who now serves as a consultant for the Greenwood Leflore Hospital’s board, said the hospital appreciates the court’s understanding of “the financial crises” created by the repayments.

The Division of Medicaid did not respond to a request for comment.

If the Division of Medicaid were to resume the recoupments — previously scheduled to begin again in March — it would have dire consequences for the hospital, Marchand said in a March 6 court filing. 

“GLH’s financial viability will be harmed to the extent that it will be unable to meet its financial obligations, which will likely lead to closure absent extraordinary action,” Marchand wrote.

The Division of Medicaid notified the hospital in June of 2025 it would recoup $5.5 million. Hospital leaders warned the agency in September that the proposed repayment schedule of $900,000 a quarter — with about $2 million already recovered that summer — would severely strain the long-struggling hospital. 

In December, both parties agreed to pause the repayments until March to give the hospital time to secure a bond. But Marchand wrote March 6 that the hospital had in good faith exhausted all reasonable efforts to obtain a bond, including working with 10 surety companies through two agents and negotiating directly with the Division of Medicaid. Surety companies are specialized financial institutions that issue bonds to guarantee that a business will fulfill contractual obligations to another party.

Marchand said the hospital is exploring options to sell, lease or transfer the facility to a larger health care system. If the recoupments resume, “the likelihood of successfully completing these negotiations will be irreparably harmed,” he said, pointing to the importance of staff remaining at the facility and the continued maintenance of property and equipment. 

Mississippi Today previously reported that Greenwood Leflore Hospital and its owners signed a letter of intent in February to discuss a possible transaction in which the hospital would contribute all land, facilities, assets and operations to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the state’s only academic medical center, or its affiliate. The proposed donation would include clinics, ancillary facilities and physician practices, and it would give UMMC full authority and control over the hospital.

The hospital needs four to six months to complete negotiations pertaining to the lease, sale or transfer of the hospital, and for the repayments to be paused during that time, Marchand said.

In recent weeks, state lawmakers have also sought to pave the way for a possible transfer of the hospital. 

State lawmakers hurried Senate Bill 3230 through the legislative process to allow the public hospital to file for bankruptcy, passing it out of both chambers March 6 and sending it to the governor’s desk. This step will allow another entity to take over, Sen. Rita Parks, a Republican from Corinth and chair of the Local and Private Committee, told fellow lawmakers.

“We do have another hospital that is waiting at the door to come in,” Parks said. 

Senate lawmakers failed to act on a bill that called for more oversight of prison deaths.

On Wednesday, the last day for action on bills originating from the other chamber, House Bill 1739 did not come up for a vote.

The legislation was inspired by an investigation by Missisisppi Today, The Marshall-Project Jackson, the Clarion Ledger, the Hattiesburg American and The Mississippi Link.

Rep. Becky Currie, a Brookhaven Republican who filed the prison death oversight legislation and chairs the House Corrections Committee, has told lawmakers that people continue to die in prison and their cause of death remains unknown, regardless if it was by homicide, accidental drug overdose, suicide or lack of access to health care. 

“There is no way of making a plan to stop increases in deaths if we do not know or keep up with what is going on,” she said before the bill died on the calendar. 

Currie said internal investigations into prison deaths don’t always take place or are incomplete, so the bill would have provided desperately needed data. 

Senate Corrections Chairman Juan Barnett had said he planned to review the prison death task force legislation before bringing it up for a vote in his committee, saying prison deaths are something that needs to be looked into more. 

“More oversight, more transparency for the public so they can feel more comfortable and know that if something happens, somebody will be on top of it to make sure that we don’t have any bad actors,” he said. 

The Heidelberg Democrat has been out of the Capitol recovering from an illness, leaving Vice Chairwoman Lydia Chassaniol, a Winona Republican, in charge. She said Barnett only requested two bills be passed in committee: HB 1739 and HB 1444, which would give protective equipment to prisoners working with harmful chemicals, including those that can cause cancer. HB 1444 advanced Wednesday. 

But Chassaniol passed on bringing up the prison deaths oversight bill before the full Senate when it came up on the calendar. 

The bill would have directed and empowered the existing Corrections and Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force to look into “unexpected” deaths, which would have included those not related to a previously diagnosed or serious terminal illness.

Under Currie’s bill, the task force would have been required to release a public report describing its findings and recommendations to try to prevent future deaths.

Currie proposed prison death oversight in response to an investigation by the news outlets. Prison understaffing and gang violence likely led to the killings of nearly 50 people since 2015, the news team found. Eight resulted in criminal convictions. At least 20 deaths remain undetermined. 

Family members of people killed in prison said they received little information from prison officials, and instead had more luck learning from a whisper network of incarcerated people, insiders, advocates, and, in some cases, from journalists. 

Weeks after the news investigation, prison Commissioner Burl Cain told a legislative budget committee and Mississippi Today that the department would review unprosecuted homicides and deaths ruled as undetermined. 

But five months later, there have been no new indictments or convictions in open homicide cases.

Currie’s bill would have also added members to the task force, including the chairs of the House and Senate Corrections committees, the Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency committees and the public safety commissioner or a designee. 

Currently, much of the task force representation is from Department of Corrections staff members, leading to a situation where “MDOC is reviewing themselves,” Currie said.

Reporters Jerry Mitchell and Michael Goldberg contributed to this report.