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Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch has unveiled a plan for how Mississippi can spend $189 million of national Meta lawsuit funds, directing over $18 million a year to be split among three state agencies for the next decade. 

The plan arrived in a consent decree that lawyers for the state filed Monday in Hinds County Chancery Court. Fitch drafted the plan as Meta, the corporation that runs Facebook and Instagram, prepares to pay billions of dollars to states after attorneys general accused the company of endangering children across the country with their social media platforms. 

States argued the company turned its platforms into “addiction machines,” targeting children during vulnerable life stages. Despite the settlement, Meta and other technology giants have denied the allegations against them and that they have any liability to states. The California-based company is represented in Mississippi by the powerful and politically connected law firm Butler Snow. 

The settlement agreement allows the attorney general to set the parameters for spending the money. Legal experts, mental health advocates and state lawmakers told Mississippi Today that Fitch’s plan could impact the health of children in the state for years to come. Here is what’s in it: 

How the money will be spent 

Mississippi will be able to spend its portion of the $17-billion national settlement over 10 years. The state’s share currently stands at $189 million, but it could go up to $270 million if the other tech companies ensnared in litigation — Snap, TikTok and YouTube — also agree to settlements with states’ attorneys general. 

The plan Fitch’s office filed directs $18.8 million in payments to be made per annual installment from Meta. That works out to just under $189 million over 10 years, which is the whole settlement. 

Starting in January 2027, Fitch set these parameters for the spending each year over the next decade: 

• $6.8 million to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health for “mental health programs targeting but not limited to youth 12 through 18 years of age, including through cooperative programs with Mississippi K-12 schools.” For the remainder of 2026, Fitch directed all payments to be made directly to this department for the same purpose.
• $6 million to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks for “new playgrounds, parks, sporting courts or fields, or other outdoor recreation facilities, or improvements thereof, across the State of Mississippi, including through cooperative programs with Mississippi K-12 schools and local governments, targeting but not limited to youth 12 through 18 years of age.”
• $6 million to the Mississippi Department of Education for “afterschool and school break learning opportunities and programming across the State of Mississippi, in cooperation with the Mississippi Department of Human Services.”

Meta will pay Mississippi an additional $6.1 million from a connected settlement involving Cambridge Analytica, a now-defunct British political consulting firm that allegedly harvested the personal data of tens of millions of American Facebook users without their consent before the 2016 federal election. All the money from that part of the settlement agreement will go to the Mississippi Department of Mental Health for youth mental health programs, Fitch’s office told Mississippi Today. 

All of the money will be deposited into the Attorney General of Mississippi Contingent Fund, a special state fund that holds money the AG’s office receives from legal judgments. 

How much control will lawmakers have on the spending?

Although the national settlement assigns spending decisions to attorneys general such as Fitch, the Mississippi Constitution gives the Legislature authority to spend most public money. Lawmakers have asserted that authority with both tobacco and opioid settlement funds. 

In her consent decree, Fitch decided which agencies will get the settlement money, how much money they’re getting and what sort of programs the agencies must use. But her office said the lawmakers have the authority to determine what specific programs will get funded. 

“The Legislature still directs how the money will be spent, and we will work with them on possible funding ideas in the upcoming session,” MaryAsa Lee, a spokesperson for Fitch, told Mississippi Today. “Ultimately, the Legislature decides how the funds will be appropriated.” 

Lawmakers could, for example, create new mental health programs targeting children between 12 and 18, or fund new playgrounds to be operated by the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, Fitch’s office added.  

Fitch’s plan also says the “parameters and structure” of the spending decisions made by lawmakers should be established “in consultation with the Governor of Mississippi and the Mississippi Attorney General.” 

Fitch’s office told Mississippi Today the consultation will involve meetings between lawmakers and the offices of the governor and attorney general about future legislation appropriating the settlement money. The legislation will ultimately not require any sort of specific written approval from either the governor or attorney general, they added.   

But the provision gives Fitch influence over the specific spending decision lawmakers could make in the future.  

Fitch, a Republican, is running for governor and has touted her efforts to protect children from large technology companies. 

In the upcoming legislative session beginning in January, there will be two initial payments the Legislature can spend, Fitch’s office said. 

State has a youth mental health crisis

Under the settlement, Meta also agreed to implement new safety standards on Facebook and Instagram. Those standards include setting daily time limits on platform use by children, restricting children’s access during school hours, requiring age verification and creating a range of content controls. Some experts have said the required platform changes are drawn from research findings, while others have questioned whether the changes will be effective.

Mississippi continues to face a youth mental health crisis. Roughly 31,000 children in the state between the ages of 12 and 17 have seriously considered suicide, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness in 2025. The alliance also found that Mississippi only has about one school psychologist for every 10,000 public school students.

The consent decree filed by Fitch’s office said Meta violated the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act by designing its social media platforms to “entice, engage, and ultimately ensnare youth and teens.” Meta “misled the public about the dangers of its platforms and ignored the damages these platforms have caused to the mental and physical well-being of Mississippi’s youth,” the lawsuit argued.

Mississippi Today has been reporting on proposed data centers across the state. State leaders say the industry is a key driver for Mississippi’s economic future.

In Mississippi and across the U.S., residents have voiced concerns about potential energy costs and water usage, as well as air and noise pollution from the generators needed to power data centers. At the same time, data centers represent a historic investment in the state that is fueling demand in the construction industry, paying millions in taxes to school districts and local governments. 

There are a lot of unknowns with data centers in Mississippi given how early the state is in the buildout. The first project was announced in 2024. Read our past reporting here.

Map of data centers in Mississippi: Confirmed and potential projects

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about data centers:

Data Centers 101

What are data centers?

A data center is a physical space that houses equipment, such as servers and routers, needed to process, store and distribute data.

Data is essential to the way we use the internet today. When we log into our email or watch a movie on Netflix, we are generating and using data. That data is stored on servers inside data centers.

What is artificial intelligence, or AI?

Artificial Intelligence is a broad term meaning a computer or system that can perform tasks generally associated with human intelligence, such as problem solving, learning and decision making. 

Chatbots, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, are examples of generative AI. Generative AI doesn’t just recognize patterns, it uses that pattern recognition to produce new content, such as text and photos. 

In order to create new content, these models have to be trained on huge amounts of data. This is a time and energy consuming process that requires tens of thousands of computer chips. The chips are stored in data centers.

If data centers have been around for a long time, why are so many being built right now?

Generative AI requires a lot of computing power, and there’s not enough right now to support the current and anticipated demand. Tech companies are racing to build more data centers to train and deploy new AI models. 

The chips, physical infrastructure and construction of such a large number of data centers is expensive, which is why companies are spending hundreds of billions to build data centers.

So, why build a data center in Mississippi?

Data centers need a large amount of reliable power and land, and companies are looking to build them quickly. Mississippi offers all of the above. In addition, leaders at Amazon have said the partnership and collaboration with Entergy and state officials and lack of strict regulations have made the process of building the data centers here effective and quick. 

Mississippi has relatively few data centers, compared to other states. The 10 states with the most data centers have over 100.

Water & Environmental Impact

How much water do data centers need, and how will they impact our water supply?

The short answer is it depends on the facility.

Large data centers, which often need water for cooling, use up to 5 million gallons a day, or the same as a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. Yet some, such as Amazon’s planned facility in Clinton, will instead implement “air cooling,” meaning they won’t need large volumes of water. The company is also planning to use recycled municipal wastewater at its Canton data center in a partnership with Veolia. 

As far as where they get water from, a data center can either purchase water from a local utility or dig a well, in which case it would need a permit from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. 

Regarding other data centers coming to Mississippi, companies have not said much publicly yet about their water footprints, but this is something we’ll be focusing on in our ongoing coverage.

What noise and air pollution levels will nearby communities experience?

Noise and air pollution concerns come primarily from data centers that self-generate power. The most glaring example we’ve reported on has been xAI’s cluster of natural gas turbines in Southaven. Because those turbines operate in a state-sanctioned loophole that allows them to run without permits, there’s no official data on how much toxic emissions are coming from the facilities. The Southern Environmental Law Center argued in a lawsuit that the cluster is likely emitting harmful amounts of nitrogen oxides and formaldehyde.  

Moreover, Southaven residents for months complained about a constant humming noise coming from the facility. Mississippi Today reporters could confirm hearing the noise when visiting the area.

What are the primary power sources for data centers?

For the most part, data centers in Mississippi will source their power from whichever utility owns the service area for that facility, such as Entergy Mississippi and Mississippi Power. It’s hard to delineate which types of power go to which places, as utility companies blend power from an array of sources before sending electricity to an end user. Entergy has said that investments from data center companies such as Amazon will help the utility bolster its natural gas generation. Mississippi Power also successfully petitioned to keep an aging coal unit alive to power a data center in Meridian.

Impact on electric bills?

Will data centers drive up my utility bill?

Last year, Entergy Mississippi CEO Haley Fisackerly told Mississippi Today that customers’ electric bills will go up less than they would have without the arrival of Amazon’s data centers. Because of the immense amount of power Amazon will have to buy to run the facilities, Entergy will be able to use that revenue to make grid improvements it otherwise wouldn’t be able to, the company said. According to Entergy, customers’ bills were going to go up regardless as both prices and demand for gas are rising, necessitating new generation capacity. But limited information around Amazon’s projected energy use, as well as limited oversight approved by state lawmakers in 2024, makes it hard to verify those claims. A recent report from Synapse Energy Economics Inc. estimates that the data center projects have already increased rates for Entergy Mississippi’s residential customers by $10.60 a month.

How much power does a data center use?

According to research from the International Energy Agency, a typical AI-focused data center uses enough electricity to power 100,000 homes. Another report, from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, found that data centers accounted for over 4% of the country’s electricity consumption in 2023, adding that the number could reach as high as 12% by 2028.

Economic Impacts

How many jobs do data centers create?

Amazon has said its data centers across the state will create 2,000 jobs, AVAIO in Brandon said it will create at least 60 direct jobs, xAI in Southaven said the project will create hundreds of permanent jobs and Compass in Meridian is expected to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs. 

The projects also create new jobs in construction and other indirect jobs, such as, service providers, caterers, electricians and more

In other states, the number can range from 50 to 400. Critics say the number of jobs is relatively few, especially relative to the size of capital investment. But proponents say new jobs are new jobs, that these jobs pay well and that services/surrounding businesses benefit from the center which creates more jobs in the area.

What are the benefits of having a data center in a community?

Like many things, it is a benefits vs risks situation. How do governments and companies maximize benefits for the community and minimize risks?  

People often point to Virginia, given the large number of data centers built and operated in the state over the past 15 years. An important caveat is that the technology has significantly evolved since then. 

Here’s a story on how a community used tax revenue from data centers to create an affordable housing program.  

In Loudon County, Virginia, sometimes known as Data Center Alley, the economic developer who led the data center development told the Wall Street Journal that he estimated property taxes are down 48 cents on the dollar in the county and 45% of county revenue comes from data centers.

An application to rezone over 1,000 acres from agricultural to light-industrial use is facing intense public scrutiny in the small town of Walls. 

While there appears to be no project at this stage, some believe that the town wants to attract a data center. But residents say the larger question is why a rezoning this large is needed.

Rep. Dan Eubanks, a Republican from Walls, wrote on social media that the town is “wanting to put another massive data center right in our back yard.” 

Eubanks said that he’s for more economic development in the area but cautioned that it should not be done “at the expense of the residents.” 

FAQ: Your questions about Mississippi data centers, answered

In a letter to the town’s planning director, a representative for the land owner wrote that the rezoning would help attract economic development to the property which will in turn bring jobs and contribute tax dollars to the city. 

The rezoning has attracted so much attention in the majority-Black town of 1,400 that a planning commission meeting scheduled for Sept. 22 was moved to a larger venue, Walls Elementary School, in anticipation of a crowd. Some residents have expressed concern about how a data center or other industrial development would fundamentally change the small town’s character.

Walls resident Emily Harris said she was devastated when she learned of the rezoning, which is about a mile from her home. She and her family moved to Walls for the opportunity to own land in a rural, quiet community. 

“We are not against progress,” Harris said, “Growth is a wonderful thing if we do it smart.”

She and other residents have said they want more information about a potential project.

Residents questioned why the rezoning is coming so quickly after the town approved its comprehensive zoning plan earlier this year and if there has been sufficient change in the past few months to warrant rezoning.

The specter of Elon Musk’s SpacexAI looms large in Walls, which is near the company’s growing data-center operations in Southaven and Memphis. Harris has been to Southaven and has heard the noise that residents of Southaven have been living with for over a year. 

Members of the Walls Board of Aldermen did not respond to requests for comment, but on social media the town wrote that the rezoning was “to create a potential path to economic development” and encouraged residents to attend the meeting to gather facts, ask questions and express concerns.

LSU sack leader Princewill Umanmielen has been served legal papers related to a July lawsuit filed by the University of Mississippi which alleges that the former Rebels edge rusher owes Ole Miss $550,000 because of his decision to transfer to the rival Tigers.

Records filed in Lafayette County Circuit Court in Mississippi indicate that papers were served on Tuesday, just five days before No. 7 LSU was slated to visit No. 8 Ole Miss in a game immersed in hype stemming from coach Lane Kiffin’s decision to leave Mississippi in favor of LSU last Nov. 30.

A person familiar with the situation said Umanmielen was served outside LSU’s football operations complex. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because university officials have not commented publicly on the lawsuit between Ole Miss and two former players who are now at LSU, and who allegedly failed to compensate Ole Miss for their departure as required by revenue-sharing agreements they signed in early January.

The other is offensive lineman Devin Harper, who allegedly owes Ole Miss $400,000.

While legal issues between Ole Miss and Umanmielen have gone unresolved for months now, the timing of papers being served, first reported by ESPN, will only further pump up the intrigue surrounding Saturday night’s game in Oxford, Mississippi.

It will mark the first time Kiffin has returned to Oxford since being showered with insults by angry Rebels fans as he arrived at a small airport to catch a private plane to Baton Rouge.

Kiffin persuaded four players and host of assistant coaches and other staff to follow him to LSU, including linebacker TJ Dottery and Winston Watkins Jr., Dottery is LSU’s leading tackler through two games and Watkins Jr. leads LSU in yards receiving so far this season.

College athletes have been able to transfer far more freely in recent years without having to sit out a year, as was once required by the NCAA. There have been scattered disputes between players and their former schools over compensation agreements. Earlier this year, Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. said he would return to the Huskies after his school was reportedly prepared to pursue legal options to enforce his lucrative name, image and likeness contract.

Ole Miss has said revenue-sharing agreements signed by both players included a provision requiring them to compensate the university with a predetermined amount if they departed before fulfilling their commitment.

“The University of Mississippi has a responsibility to enforce its contractual terms, and this position is consistent with the actions of other institutions in the current landscape of college athletics,” the Ole Miss statement said. “The university attempted to amicably resolve this matter prior to filing.”

Kiffin left Ole Miss following its regular-season finale against Mississippi State in late November. Kiffin initially asked to continue coaching the Rebels in the College Football Playoff after he’d accepted the position at LSU, but Ole Miss declined and appointed then-defensive coordinator Pete Golding as Kiffin’s replacement. Golding coached Ole Miss to the national semifinals.

Umanmielen had nine sacks and 13 tackles for loss as a junior last season for the Rebels. Harper was a freshman reserve in 2025, appearing in six games.

The Trump administration has cut or frozen up to $177 billion in federal grants since the president took office for his second term, according to a tracking tool released Wednesday by a pro-democracy nonprofit and a group of researchers and scientists.

The cuts affected all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with health, nutrition, the environment and disaster relief making up the largest share of cuts, the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness organization found.

Among the grants that were eliminated, frozen or delayed were ones related to maternal health in Michigan, education research in Mississippi and assistance to minority farmers in Iowa, the researchers found. California, Texas, New York, Illinois and North Carolina saw the highest amounts of interrupted grant money. The tracking tool is called Lost Funds.

“By bringing thousands of funding disruptions from the Trump administration together in a publicly accessible, verified database, Lost Funds puts the magnitude of their impact on full display,” Scott Delaney, co-founder of Grant Witness, said in a statement.

The $177 billion finding represents nearly 10% of federal discretionary spending, the groups said.

The tracker’s organizers said the disrupted grants were beyond the kind of cuts that typically happen when administrations change.

“Lost Funds shows the extraordinary scale and real human impact of these disruptions, and how states are once again on the front lines protecting their residents,” said Kelly Rader, States United Democracy Center’s research director.

In some cases, courts have ruled against the administration’s grant funding cuts.

The new tool, which is being made available for public use, relies on data from USASpending.gov, an open data source of federal spending information, according to the groups’ methodology. They said the tracker would be updated regularly as the administration takes new action and lawsuits move through the courts.

States United bills itself as a nonpartisan group dedicated to the rule of law and free, fair, secure elections. It was cofounded by Norm Eisen, an attorney who has been involved in prominent lawsuits against the Trump administration, including over the Kennedy Center. Eisen left the States United center in 2024.

Grant Witness is a group of scientists, researchers and attorneys who document how funding is changing under President Donald Trump’s administration.

A message seeking comment on the analysis was sent to the White House.

CBS National College Football Writer John Talty joins the podcast to talk about this week’s LSU – Ole Miss game and his latest book, in which he profiles LSU coach Lane Kiffin, one of the most divisive figures in sports.

LSU and Ole Miss will play one of the most anticipated and important football games in Mississippi history Saturday night in Oxford.

Put all the Lane Kiffin stuff aside (please!). LSU-Ole Miss is meaningful enough without all that, especially when both are Top 10 teams. Games in this rivalry can change lives.

I remember talking about the 1959 Ole Miss-LSU regular season game with Rebel great Charlie Flowers shortly before he died 55 years later in 2014. LSU won that game 7-3 on Billy Cannon’s 89-yard punt return.

“I still have nightmares,” Charlie told me. “We should have won that damned football game. We were better than they were”

The Rebels proved it in the Sugar Bowl about two months later when they thrashed LSU 21-0. Nevertheless, Cannon’s remarkable touchdown run on Halloween night spoiled an otherwise perfect season and kept Ole Miss from being an undisputed national champion. It probably kept Flowers from winning the Heisman Trophy, which went to Cannon instead.

This LSU-Ole Miss rivalry creates legends and heroes, and sometimes the most unlikely of heroes.

Exhibit A: Andrew Walters Ritter. Remember? Ritter, the great grandson of Mississippi sports writer legend Carl Walters, was a fifth-year senior placekicker for Ole Miss when the Rebels faced off against No. 7 LSU in October of 2013. The Tigers were a 10-point favorite and Ole Miss was playing without five defensive starters who were injured..

“We had freshmen all over the field playing key positions because of all the injuries,” Ritter, now an Oxford real estate developer, said this week. 

But strange things happen in this LSU-Ole Miss series. Ritter’s chip shot field goal gave the Rebels a 3-0 first quarter lead. With quarterback Bo Wallace playing one of his best games as a Rebel, Ole Miss extended the lead to 10-0 at halftime and then 17-0 early in the third. LSU fired back with two scores to cut that to 17-14, before Ole Miss scored again to extend the lead back to 24-14, setting the stage for a wild fourth quarter.

Ritter had a short field goal blocked early in the fourth, and here came LSU tying the score with first a field goal and then an 80-yard, 11-play touchdown drive that made it 24-all with just over three minutes remaining. 

Ole Miss used almost all that time to move from its own 15 to the LSU 24 with 6 seconds remaining. TV cameras showed Ritter smiling on the sidelines as the drive progressed. What was he thinking?

“So much was going through my mind,” Ritter said nearly 13 years later. “You have to understand I am a fourth generation Ole Miss Rebel. My parents, my grandparents were diehard Ole Miss people. My great grandfather, Carl Walters, didn’t attend Ole Miss, didn’t go to college at all, but he was made an honorary graduate because of his sports writing. All that was going through my mind.

“I thought about all the kicking camps my parents took me to around the country. I came back for a fifth year to get the opportunity to kick field goals and to get my MBA. And I know I was thinking about how hard my teammates had fought and that they really deserved to win the game. All that was going through my mind and probably a lot more. I knew this was a moment I had spent years preparing for.”

The snap and hold were perfect. Ritter swung his right leg. The kick started to the right then hooked a good 2 feet inside the right upright. A standing-room-only crowd went berserk and stormed the field. Ritter’s fiancee – and now the mother of his two children – found him amid the bedlam. The celebration lasted long, long into the night and next morning.

How does he remember it 13 years later?

“I’m just so glad I made it,” he said. “It was everything I had dreamed about my whole life.”

Did it change his life?

Ritter laughed. “Sometimes I think to myself that if I had missed that kick, I’d be living in Seattle or Portland or somewhere far, far away from Oxford,” he said.

And, yes, Ritter says, he will be in Vaught-Hemingway on Saturday night for the 112th edition of the LSU-Ole Miss rivalry. He likes the Rebels’ chances, especially if the game comes down to another last-second Ole Miss field goal try.

“I just think Lucas Carneiro is the best placekicker in the country,” Ritter said. “”He’s a weapon, one of the best weapons we have. If we cross midfield, we are in position to score. He’s so consistent – not only with his distance but with his trajectory. I’d feel mighty good if the game comes down to a field goal with him kicking it.”

Ritter says he would love for Carniero to get to feel what he felt 13 years, a marriage, two children and a head of hair ago.

Said Ritter, “The feeling was indescribable. Still is.”

A Democratic political newcomer is hoping to unseat a six-term Republican congressman in a historically conservative district that stretches from northeast Mississippi to the populous DeSoto County on the northwestern side of the state. 

U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly, a Republican from Lee County, is facing Cliff Johnson, the Democratic nominee from Lafayette County and Johnny Baucom, a Libertarian candidate from Columbus.

Kelly and Johnson disagree on President Donald Trump’s performance, voting policy and the ongoing war in Iran. Baucom wants government to be hands off, and supports deregulation and the abolition of the IRS.

Kelly is running for his seventh full term in Congress. He is a native of Union, but has lived for decades in the northern Mississippi town of Saltillo in Lee County. He first won a special election in 2015 to fill the seat vacated by former Rep. Alan Nunnelee. He has since been reelected to a full term six times.

Kelly also served 39 years in the Mississippi Army National Guard as a combat engineer, rising to major general. He retired from the National Guard in 2015.

He serves on the House Armed Services Committee and chairs the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee. He is the vice chair of Intelligence and a member of the Agriculture Committee. 

Kelly has been a staunch defender of President Donald Trump, particularly the president’s defense and national security decisions. In an Aug. 4 press release, Kelly said he and the rest of the state’s Republican congressmen support Trump’s defense, farm aid and election-security policies. 

“The threats facing our nation require the Department of War to have the resources necessary to defend the United States and protect American interests,” the lawmakers wrote. “Our brave men and women in uniform deserve the equipment, munitions and support needed to carry out their missions and return home safely.”

Kelly also supports federal aid for farmers and the federal legislation, known as the SAVE Act, that would require people to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. 

Johnson, his Democratic challenger, has lived in Lafayette County for over 30 years. He’s an attorney and the director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Before becoming a law school professor, he worked for five years as an assistant U.S. attorney during the Clinton administration. Johnson is running to be the first Democrat to represent Mississippi 1st District in Congress since Travis Childers won in 2008.  

Johnson told Mississippi Today reporters on “The Other Side” podcast that he decided to run for Congress after feeling that Trump began eroding historical norms in the federal government and that the administration is eating away at the rule of law.    

He hopes to use Trump’s sinking popularity and the rising cost of goods to raise his profile and convince voters in the rural, conservative area to support a Democrat. 

“With the war, prices, lack of trust in the government, unfavorable ratings of the president, this really is a change election, and there’s some very interesting questions about whether people who have historically voted Republican in the face of all this can take a breath, go into that voting booth and pull a lever for a Democrat,” Johnson said.

The Democratic nominee said he wants to reverse voter apathy in the congressional district by meeting with voters regularly and limiting the outsized influence of corporate donations in campaigns. 

Baucom, an Army National Guard veteran and health and safety technician who has managed mechanic shops, said he will push for deregulation to address affordability and will promote personal freedom and limiting government overreach and citizens’ reliance on government.

The general election for federal seats will be Nov. 3. 

Nonya Thrasher, who has led Hazlehurst City School District as interim leader since June, is now the permanent superintendent. 

The school board voted 3-2 Tuesday to appoint Thrasher and offer her a one-year, $130,000 contract. Darryl Hilliard Jr., Gloria Sandifer and school board President Paul Rhodes supported Thrasher’s appointment. Corey Murray and Oscar Tanner III voted no. 

Rhodes said there was no reason why the board offered Thrasher a one-year contract instead of a longer one.

Thrasher had served as the district’s director of accountability, compliance and accreditation since July 2023. Before working in Hazlehurst, she was superintendent of Claiborne County School District during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

With Hazlehurst, Thrasher inherits a district in crisis. The Mississippi Department of Education may take over the district by December if it does not clear outstanding accreditation violations. In March, the state Board of Education rejected the district’s corrective action plan to address those violations. 

For nearly a decade, the state Education Department has downgraded the district’s accreditation to probation. The agency previously took over the district from 2008 through 2014.

Before Thrasher took over as the interim leader, district facilities needed maintenance, its dysfunctional special education department failed students, and poor administrative oversight allowed for poor recordkeeping. 

The district has received a “C” rating on the state accountability system the past two years. Both its high and middle schools earned “D” accountability ratings in the 2024-25 school year. The district’s graduation rate for disabled students dropped to 17% last year, the lowest in the state.

As Hazlehurst schools’ accountability chief and later, interim superintendent, Thrasher reduced the number of accreditation violations from 11 to two since January.

Her predecessor, Cloyd Garth, left the district on June 5. The school board would not confirm if Garth resigned or was fired.

Thrasher hired a new special education director over the summer and told Mississippi Today on Tuesday that clearing remaining violations is a top priority. Hazlehurst schools still face another threat: consolidation with the Copiah County School District. Lawmakers have been meeting to discuss school district consolidation ahead of the 2027 session. Consolidation bills introduced last session failed. 

Thrasher plans to meet with lawmakers next month.“We want to avoid consolidation if at all possible,” she said.

Democratic Rep. Greg Holloway of Hazlehurst, the Copiah County board of supervisors and other local leaders have expressed support for Thrasher. Hazlehurst residents also rallied for Thrasher in recent weeks. District alumni, parents and community members posted messages of support on Facebook and circulated posters and flyers listing her qualifications.

Rhodes said Tuesday community members have recently approached him in Walmart to voice their support for her.

Thrasher said she is heartened by the support as a Hazlehurst resident.

“I’m ready to get the job done,” she said. “I have been overjoyed, overwhelmed and overloved by the community, but I have always worked in this community long before sitting in this seat. Whatever we need to do to move this community forward, I have always been in the forefront to make that happen.”

Rhodes feels optimistic, too. He said he believes Thrasher will help the district better serve students and improve academic standards.

“I believe we reached that point to where we can now move forward, straighten things up and educate our kids,” Rhodes said, “which is the reason why we’re here.”

After more than half a century, Leake County schools have been released from a federal order that monitored and prevented racial discrimination within the district. 

That means a judge will no longer oversee Leake County School District to ensure Black  students get equal access to a quality education. 

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Jordan approved the order’s dissolution on Sept. 3. Officials announced the decision Monday night on Facebook.

“This historic milestone reflects our continued commitment to providing every student with an equitable, high-quality education,” the post reads. 

Leake County schools Superintendent Will Russell said Tuesday that it’s been an arduous process, and the decision reflects the work of the community and past district leaders. 

“I just want to congratulate everyone who’s been part of this effort,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Justice has been monitoring Leake County schools for decades, after parents of Black students brought a discrimination lawsuit against the school board in 1963. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi imposed a formal desegregation order in 1969, ordering Leake County schools to halt discriminatory practices and practice mandatory reporting to ensure no school within the district was racially identifiable.

Justice Department officials closed two Leake County schools in 2011 and reassigned students and faculty to promote equity after they found four schools were still racially divided.

Monte Ladner, former Leake County superintendent, said Tuesday the district had little choice but to comply at the time. 

“We weren’t given much of a choice on how we got back in compliance,” he said. “Even if we suggested something different, their reaction was ‘no.’”

That lack of community input about the school closures was devastating, Russell said. 

“It was just one of those hard things to accept even though it was the right thing to do,” he said. 

The district has made strides since then. Last year, each school reached the standard the court established to determine racial balance.

The school district consolidated its high schools this school year due to declining student enrollment. Russell prefers to call that “realignment” because of the community’s negative memories of the 2011 school closures. 

Board attorney John Hooks argued in a July 28 court filing the merger will ensure equity. Ladner agreed Tuesday and said the merger will make it easier for the district to provide equal opportunities to students. 

Leake County schools have lost about a fifth of their students over the past decade. The district enrolled 2,369 students last year, about a 19% decrease from 2015-16. 

“It’s great to get out from under this order,” Ladner said. “It gives the district some flexibility now in moving forward. This reflects the work of this administration and others before that tried to better the district. It’s very positive and will benefit students and parents alike.”

Leake County is the third Mississippi school district to be released from such an order in two years. Rankin County School District was released from its desegregation order in July, and Copiah County School District in August 2025. 

Under President Donald Trump, the Justice Department has signaled increasing willingness to release school districts from desegregation orders. 

Twenty-seven Mississippi school districts remain under desegregation orders. 

Russell is confident Leake County schools will maintain its progress without federal oversight. 

“We’re in a good place to keep it going and make sure we’re equitable across the board with student achievement,” he said. “I don’t see us slipping back into this concern again.”