A private school district in Mississippi has terminated the contracts of all teachers at two of its schools and failed to pay them for days already worked, a signal that their doors will close for good and leave dozens of children without specialized education they struggle to find at public schools.
Both Oxford University School and the North New Summit School in Greenwood are members of the New Learning Resources School District, which has struggled financially since its owner was accused of defrauding the state and federal government.
Last week, Mississippi Today reported that New Summit School in Jackson, which also missed paydays for its teachers, was working on a court custodianship to take over operation of the school. But the custodianship does not apply to the other New schools.
The parents of students at New Summit School in Jackson worked to have the school placed under a custodianship, legally approved on June 1, in an effort to keep the school operational. Gary Herring, the court-appointed school custodian, sent an email to New Summit staff saying that the custodianship would begin without any funds to make payroll and he could not guarantee their success.
Nancy and Zach New originally stepped away from the New Learning Resources School District following their arrest for an alleged welfare embezzlement scandal, Clarion Ledger reported, but a federal grand jury also indicted them for defrauding the Mississippi Department of Education through the New Learning Resources School District.
The New Learning Resources School District focuses on providing specialized services for students with behavioral or learning disabilities. As a private school group with public accreditation from the Mississippi Department of Education, schools in the district are funded through a combination of tuition payments and Education Scholarship Accounts, a voucher that allows public school dollars to follow special needs students to private schools.
Teachers at North New Summit, New Summit, and Oxford University School are all owed six paychecks for work already completed, according to four teachers who did not want their names printed for fear of retaliation. Teachers at Oxford University School estimated that the school district owes them between $3,000 and $6,000 for work already completed, depending on the teacher’s yearly salary. Oxford University School and North New Summit teachers received their termination letter on June 11.
While New Summit School in Jackson did not begin experiencing paycheck uncertainty until March, the Oxford University School has paid their teachers late almost every pay period since late September. Three teachers confirmed that the school consistently delivered their paychecks 3-5 days behind schedule.
When one teacher attempted to report this to the Department of Labor, the department told her that a claim for non-payment would become void once the teachers were paid each time.
The Oxford University School, founded in 1984, was not acquired by the New Learning Resources School District until 2019. Mississippi Today previously reported that the owners defrauded the Mississippi Department of Education through invoices from New Summit School and North New Summit, but the indictment did not name Oxford University School as part of the scheme.
One teacher from the Oxford University School pointed out that while this partnership was intended to help the school thrive, it is ultimately the reason that they are closing.
Several teachers voiced concerns about what happened to the tuition money that parents paid if it was not being used to pay their salaries. Teachers interviewed from the Oxford University School were also frustrated by the lack of communication from administrators.
“It was so dishonest for [New Learning Resources] to take advantage of a situation where you still had money coming in and people who really cared [at the school] not making much money anyway and to just not say anything,” one teacher said.
Teachers were unsure if parents had been informed that the schools would be closing.
The letter terminating Oxford University School and North New Summit teachers did not specify whether the schools would be closing for the upcoming school year, according to a copy obtained by Mississippi Today. The letter did say New Learning Resources would not have the funds to make further salary payments.
Keith Davis, the principal of North New Summit School, could not be reached to discuss the future of school. Roy Balentine, the interim director of New Learning Resources, and Nancy New also did not return calls or text messages to Mississippi Today.
Nancy and Zach New have both pleaded not guilty to all charges and are awaiting trial.
Elee Reeves, wife of Governor Tate Reeves, at the grand opening of the newest MDHS Resource and Referral Center in Jackson. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Standing between two large, plastic trunks — faux branches and leaves crowding the ceiling of a former hotel-turned-government-office — Mississippi welfare officials announced the opening of a new child care resource center.
Mississippi Department of Human Services Director Bob Anderson, at the grand opening of the newest MDHS Resource and Referral Center. Anderson spoke of how this resource and referral center will be beneficial to early childhood development and child care by networking state wide with other resource and referral centers. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
The colorful, well-decorated office, stocked with educational materials, toys and craft supplies, exists as a place for child care providers and parents to share ideas and receive training.
The language officials used to describe the new downtown Jackson center — “interactive space,” “lending library,” “resource and referral”, “network of support” — evoke images of the disgraced welfare program, Families First for Mississippi, that occupied the space before it.
The fake trees, previously purchased by embattled nonprofit Mississippi Community Education Center using money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, embodied the nature of that now-defunct program: a façade.
TANF is the federal fund that states may use to provide cash assistance, what used to be called the “welfare check,” to very poor families.
But the new Resource and Referral Centers have a more defined mission to bolster and support private child care centers, the primary vehicle for early childhood development in the state, and they are funded by the Child Care Development Fund, not TANF.
“I’m so glad that we’ve been able to put this together. These are ideas that our child care division put together themselves. They designed this space themselves. Except for the trees, which were already here,” Mississippi Department of Human Services Director Bob Anderson said at the Wednesday ribbon cutting, eliciting laughter from press conference attendees. “They didn’t design the trees. We inherited those.”
The announcement comes from a department still reeling from an alleged $4 million embezzlement scandal that broke last year and an audit that uncovered the misuse of up to $94 million in federal dollars intended to provide assistance to needy Mississippians.
Officials made no mention Wednesday of what else they inherited.
Since Gov. Tate Reeves appointed Anderson to run the agency in March of 2020, the new director has implemented stronger procurement practices, financial controls and increased accountability among the department’s welfare grantees. Anderson also secured from the 2021 Legislature a $90 increase to the monthly welfare benefit — from $170 to $260 — the first cash assistance hike families have seen since 1999.
Similar to TANF, the Child Care Development Fund block grant provides child care vouchers directly to low-income families who need help affording daycare so they can go to work. But the federal government also encourages the state to use the flexible money on other programs, like training to improve the quality of care and promote early childhood education in private centers across the state.
Now, with the federal government increasing the child care block grant by $3.5 billion nationally in 2021, the state agency seems poised to redirect their focus to the child care industry, a major touchpoint between the state and families with small children, to improve early childhood education.
“Early childhood development is obviously important to me,” Elee Reeves, the wife of Gov. Reeves, said at the ribbon cutting. “What an amazing resource these centers are going to be across our state. I just think this is fabulous.”
Two child care initiatives implemented under former Gov. Phil Bryant’s administration also became defunct in Reeves’ first year as governor. One was Early Childhood Academies, through which the Mississippi Community College Board was supposed to provide training to private centers. And the other was a revamped quality rating system that replaced the former “star” rating of child care centers with either a “standard” or “comprehensive” designation.
The department is still partnering with individual community colleges in the state to help train child care center employees, though they are no longer called academies. The standard-comprehensive rating model was a dud, causing frustrations among child care providers.
Chad Allgood, director of the MDHS Division of Early Childhood Care and Development, told Mississippi Today that the most recent rating system expected quality improvements of centers but did nothing to provide resources to help usher that growth.
Mississippi Department of Human Services Director of Early Childhood Care and Development Chad Allgood. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
“Throughout the years I’ve worked in early childhood, I’ve seen a lot of change hit this industry. There have been some not-so-great decisions that have been made that have really, really impacted childcare providers in a negative way,” Allgood said. “…Knowing what childcare providers have had to deal with as you’ve seen these very large-scale changes, systematic changes, we don’t want to put them through that again.”
“When we go into their centers, it should be to help, not to point fingers and say, ‘You’re doing this wrong. You’re doing this wrong,’” Allgood added.
Allgood noted the particularly challenging time childcare providers have faced during the pandemic. At one point, as many as 70% of centers had ceased operations, Anderson said.
“We’re back to almost 90% capacity that has reopened, which is fantastic,” Allgood said. “And I will say that, in and of itself, is a testament to the dedication of our child care providers.”
For more than a year prior to the Wednesday ribbon cutting, the first floor office at 750 N. State Street had sat abandoned. Families First, the multi-million-dollar resource program for impoverished Mississippians, was previously located in the space, called the State Street Center. But it closed in February of 2020, just before the pandemic ravaged the nation’s economy and put millions out of work.
The former Families First State Street office sat empty on Mar. 18, 2021. The office, which was supposed to assist needy families, shut down shortly after Nancy New, the owner of the nonprofit, Mississippi Community Education Center, that ran it, was arrested on embezzlement charges. A Mississippi Department of Human Services spokesperson said the agency was in the midst of renovating the space for early childhood development programs.
At that time, officials had just arrested Nancy New, the owner of Mississippi Community Education Center, which ran the center. The nonprofit is now defunct and has not filed its required annual reports to the Secretary of State’s office since 2018, a year it pulled $27.2 million in revenue.
Nancy New, her son and employee Zach New, the nonprofit’s accountant Ann McGrew and the former welfare agency director John Davis all await trial after pleading not guilty to conspiring to embezzle more than $4 million in welfare dollars from the nonprofit.
“We got to take a sneak peek at the center and the incredible services they provide to Mississippians,” conservative talk news radio station Supertalk wrote about Families First in September of 2019, when the State Street center opened.
In reality, the center offered virtually no direct services and served very few people for the amount of federal grant money, tens of millions, the nonprofit was receiving.
“We’ve got a learning library … parenthood classes. We’ve got a computer lab where we can do our online diploma program,” Will Lamkin, operation coordinator for the Families First center, said in a promotional video produced at the 2019 ribbon cutting. “We have centers all over the state that are more informational based, where this one is really hands on. And it’s super interactive.”
The morning before the February 2020 arrests, during a visit to the center, Lamkin told Mississippi Today the welfare-funded organization’s main goal was getting people off of welfare.
Instead, officials were using the money that flowed through Families First to enrich their family and friends, pay for lobbyists, luxury vehicles, religious concerts, expensive getaways, publicity events with famous athletes and even a speeding ticket, a state audit published in 2020 revealed.
Families First for Mississippi used an existing network of centers called Family Resource Centers, which dated back to the 1990s, to boast a presence in all 82 counties.
The Resource and Referral Network, the name of the new center on state street, has existed for many years as well, Allgood said, but has not been well marketed in the past. Allgood called it a “hidden treasure.” He hopes the center in downtown Jackson will serve as a model for future network sites, two more of which the department plans to open soon.
“This is what we call the discovery zone,” Allgood said during the Wednesday tour, attended mostly by Mississippi Department of Human Services or other state employees. “This specific area, we want children, we want their families, we want child care provides to come in, to interact with the different areas, play with the materials that are on the shelves. This is a very interactive space.
Mississippi Department of Human Services Director of Early Childhood Care and Development Chad Allgood, at the grand opening of the newest MDHS Resource and Referral Center. The newest resource and referral center will network state wide with existing resource and referral centers. Credit: Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
“We’re going to be offering, as Bob said, some pretty extensive training, what we call technical assistance, which is on-site, teaching early childhood teachers how to implement these things in the classroom. What we’re going to be setting up here are things that they can replicate using resources, using our make-and-take station.”
“This fun space that you’re looking at behind me, this is called our make-and-take area. And this is actually a place where teachers can come and make things … for their classroom,” Allgood said, standing in a room that used to be a free food pantry — containing mostly canned corn and green beans. Now the room is filled with colorful craft paper and shelves of bins holding glue, scissors and more.
Gov. Tate Reeves told hundreds of business leaders on Wednesday that his main regret about his handling COVID-19 is that he didn’t deem all businesses essential and let them remain open during the height of the pandemic.
Reeves quoted William Faulkner as he bemoaned all the natural and man-made disasters he’s had to “endure” since he took office in 2020, including the pandemic, flooding and ice storms, a prison death and overcrowding crisis and the largest government embezzlement case in state history. He addressed about 800 members of the Mississippi Economic Council, the state’s chamber of commerce, in its annual meeting — the first large in-person gathering MEC has hosted since the pandemic.
“The biggest regret I had from 2020, and I did it because I believed it was the right thing to do to protect our economy from overzealous local elected officials, we worked with the Trump administration and made the decision to define some businesses as essential,” Reeves said. “It turns out about 80% or 85% of all businesses were defined as essential during that time, but as I look back on it I realize that I made a mistake, because the fact of the matter is that every single business in Mississippi is essential.”
After his speech, Reeves demurred on whether he regretted issuing any shut-down or other orders to slow the disease’s spread, but said that on whole, Mississippi’s per capita COVID-19 rates were on par with the rest of the nation, “even though we had little restrictions.” He said, “We got more right than we got wrong.”
But with 10,736 COVID-19 infections per 100,000 residents, Mississippi has the 21st highest infection rate in the country. Mississippi’s vaccination rate is the lowest in the country, although Reeves did not mention vaccination efforts in his speech.
“I think anybody in America can look back and nitpick decisions that were made,” Reeves said after his speech.
Reeves in his speech quoted author Donna Tartt: “‘Sometimes you can do all the right things and not succeed. And that’s a hard lesson of reality.’”
“I know that we made every decision based upon the data that we had at that time, but I also know that every single decision did not turn out exactly the way we wanted it to,” Reeves said.
Reeves told business leaders that despite the pandemic, new capital investment in Mississippi for 2020 reached $1.7 billion, far above the 10-year average of $900 million a year. He also vowed that the state’s revamped workforce training program, Accelerate Mississippi, will be a “game changer” for state business development.
MEC’s outgoing Chairman Anthony Wilson, president of Mississippi Power, thanked Reeves for allowing business leaders to help with pandemic policy decisions and said, “You have been a consistent supporter of the business community.”
Wilson noted that MEC’s first large in-person gathering since the pandemic included another first — its stage was under a huge new Mississippi state flag, without the divisive Confederate battle emblem of the state’s old flag. MEC helped pushed lawmakers to remove the old flag.
“Without a doubt, taking down the controversial state flag was a defining moment for our state,” Wilson said. He said the state has “removed a significant impediment” to growth and prosperity by changing the flag.
MEC’s incoming chairman is Retired Maj. Gen. Augustus “Leon” Collins, former state adjutant general over the state Army and Air National Guard, and the first Black person to obtain general officer rank in the Mississippi National Guard. Collins is now CEO of MINACT Inc., a workforce training and management company.
Collins asked the large crowd to “breathe” after he took the stage, and noted “how great it is to do that without a mask over our faces.”
“I think it’s a new day and we have an opportunity for a new beginning here in Mississippi,” Collins said.
Mississippi Today reporter Will Stribling contributed to this report.
One year later, Reeves has been allocated the $50 million but has spent only $20.7 million of that amount.
Reeves’ office, when contacted by Mississippi Today, would not provide any details of how the public money has been allocated and spent. But we obtained a breakdown from the Department of Finance and Administration, an agency that falls under the governor’s control.
Reeves allocated those funds to eight agencies — most of which fall under his direct control, according to information provided by DFA.
Governor’s spending
As of the end of May, the governor’s CARES Act funding disbursement consists of:
Supreme Court: $2.5 million allocated and $459,568 spent
Attorney General: $232,734 allocated and no money spent
Auditor: $3 million allocated and $606,588 spent
Department of Revenue: $1.5 million allocated and fully spent
Department of Finance and Administration: $6.7 million allocated and $692,482 spent
Mississippi Development Authority: $2.8 million allocated and $2.75 spent
Department of Corrections: $812,855 allocated and fully spent
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency: $32.5 million allocated and $13.9 million spent
Agencies contacted by Mississippi Today say they have used the funds to deal with issues related to combatting COVID-19. For instance, DFA spent $692,482 for such items as mailing out the checks to businesses that received grants through the CARES Act, to offset losses during the coronavirus lockdown and for other issues related to helping agencies that received CARES Act funding.
“How the remaining funds will be spent is yet to be determined, but they will be used on the unexpected expenses related to the pandemic as they arise,” said Marcy Scoggins, a spokesperson for DFA.
When the Legislature appropriated the funds in the summer of 2020 in multiple areas, such as grants for businesses, grants to health care providers to help with their effort to combat COVID-19 and in a litany of other areas, the CARES Act funds had to be spent by the end of the 2020 calendar year. But later in the year, the federal law was changed, giving states until the end of 2021 to spend the funds. But the money appropriated by the Legislature – with the exception of the $50 million provided to Reeves — still had to be spent by the end of 2021. It was incorporated into state law that most of the money not spent by then was deposited into the trust fund that provides unemployment compensation.
Other ways the money was spent
The judiciary originally was appropriated $2.5 million in CARES Act funding last summer by the Legislature. The Court spent nearly $1.5 million of that amount and returned the rest because of the mandate that the funds had to be spent by the end of 2020. But the governor also appropriated $2.5 million to the courts.
Beverly Kraft, a spokesperson for the courts, said the governor’s funds have been spent in accordance with oversight of the Department of Audit to help the judiciary statewide in dealing with COVID-19 issues and protocols.
Logan Reeves, a spokesman for the Department of Audit, said the agency had used the funds from the governor to provide oversight of all the CARES Act funding the state received to ensure it is being spent in accordance with federal mandates.
“We are trying to provide oversight on the front end,” Reeves said.
Jacob Manley, a spokesman for the Department of Revenue, said the $1.5 million the agency received from the governor has been spent:
On law enforcement: $870,300
On computer equipment: $397,595
On cleaning equipment and personal protection equipment: $73,988
On COVID-19 employee leave: $97,152
On administering the small business relief payment program created by the Legislature: $34,722
On complying with Centers for Disease Control safety guidelines: $26,240
Melissa Scallan, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Development Authority, said the agency spent $2.8 million “on administration of the CARES Act programs — Back to Business, rental assistance, independent schools, healthcare providers. We had a call center, set up a website, etc. so we could take applications and process them.”
MEMA, which received the largest allotment from the governor, has spent the funds on various COVID-19 response items, including $1.9 million for salaries, $1.5 million for a call center and $4 million for commodities purchased related to the coronavirus, according to Malary White, a MEMA spokesperson. MEMA has been responsible for procuring much of the PPE for the state and for many healthcare providers during the pandemic.
Auto parts manufacturer Edelbrock announced today it will move its headquarters from California to DeSoto County, saying it will bring 200 new jobs to Mississippi.
The Mississippi Development Authority says it has committed up to $1 million in grant funding to help the company with building costs for the Olive Branch facility. The project totals $14.4 million in corporate investment, according to MDA.
“Along with the great popularity of the automotive performance industry in the Mid-South, Mississippi’s fantastic business climate, highly skilled workforce and strategic logistical competitiveness make our state the perfect home for Edelbrock, perhaps the most legendary name in the world of automotive performance,” MDA Executive Director John Rounsaville said in a statement.
Edelbrock recently merged with Olive Branch company COMP Performance Group, which already had locations in DeSoto County and the greater Memphis area. The newly formed Edelbrock Group will have 80 headquarter jobs and 120 manufacturing positions. The company will also maintain 90 existing Olive Branch warehouse jobs.
Edelbrock says it will fill the 200 new positions over the next three years.
The City of Olive Branch, DeSoto County and the Tennessee Valley Authority are also helping finance the project.
Edelbrock specializes in the production of upgrade parts such as supercharges, carburetors, and electronic fuel injection systems.
“Edelbrock and our family of brands are iconic innovators in the performance automotive aftermarket, and we are excited to call north Mississippi home for the next chapter of our company’s 83-year history,” Edelbrock president Tim Jones said in a statement. “Olive Branch and DeSoto County offer everything that we value in a location, and we are excited to become an active and valued member of the local community.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi will meet this morning with a group of House committee chairs, including Homeland Security Committee Chair and Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, to discuss House Democrats’ next move on investigating the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
House Democrats passed a bill last month with support from 35 Republicans, including Mississippi Rep. Michael Guest, calling for creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the deadliest attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812. However, the bill was blocked by Senate Republicans, including Mississippi Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith. The final 54 to 35 Senate vote fell six votes shy of the 60 votes needed to prevent a procedural filibuster.
The unsuccessful bill, modeled after the commission that studied the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was the result of bipartisan negotiations between Thompson and the Homeland Security Committee’s Republican ranking member, Rep. John Katko of New York.
The commission would have been composed of 10 members, with both parties appointing half of them. Proponents of the commission said it was necessary for Congress to acquire a full understanding of the riot.
As reported by Punchbowl News, Pelosi will meet with Thompson and other House chairs on Tuesday to decide how to proceed. House Democrats have several options: They could amend the original commission bill to include changes sought by Senate Republicans and send it back to the Senate for another vote; create a select committee; let the standing committees do their own investigations; or appoint one committee chair to take the lead.
Thompson has suggested to Pelosi that his panel should take the lead in the probe, although he’s happy to serve in whatever role the Speaker chooses.
“If I’m offered it (running the investigation), I will. If I’m offered to be on the select committee, I’ll serve,” Thompson said in an interview with Punchbowl on Monday night. “My preference is to get the commission done… It’s her call. I have indicated my interest in participation in whatever it is.”
STARKVILLE — There’s nothing quite like college baseball in Mississippi. Mississippi State’s Diamond Dogs and their passionate following made certain the rest of the nation saw it Monday night.
The Bulldogs fought off Notre Dame’s free-swinging Fighting Irish 11-7 before still another record-setting crowd at pristine Dudy Noble Field. A rocking, thunderous standing room only crowd brought the three-day attendance total to an NCAA Super Regional record-shattering 40,140.
Rick Cleveland
Bulldog faithful came early, they stayed late. They left fulfilled — if they ever left at all.
“They’re still out there,” State coach Chris Lemonis said, a full hour after the game when he conducted his post-game video interview. “They are the best fans in the country.”
Thus the Bulldogs will make a 12th appearance in the College World Series at Omaha that begins this weekend. State will play the Texas Longhorns Sunday night in the opening round.
But here’s the deal: There’s no way — no way possible — the College World Series, college baseball’s largest stage, can match the atmosphere on display over three days of a marvelous Starkville Super Regional.
The baseball was terrific. The atmosphere — from the crowd hanging on every pitch, to the barbecue smoke wafting in from the outfield, to the raucous cheering at all the right moments — was remarkable. And don’t think the crowd didn’t play into the outcome. It most certainly did. Link Jarrett, the Notre Dame coach, called it “the most passionate fan base in the country.”
“It factors in,” Jarrett said of the constant noise. “It gives the home team an edge in energy. We haven’t played a game in a setting like this. Until you experience it in this setting, you can’t prepare for it.”
The Bulldogs were good. Rowdey Jordan and Tanner Jordan were racing and diving all over the outfield, making run-saving, SportsCenter catches. They were racing all around the bases, taking extra bases, too. Catcher Logan Turner was providing the power with a three-run home run and a double. Left-hander Houston Harding was crucial with four innings of quality starting pitching. And, of course, closer Landon Sims was matching a season-high four innings of relief, shutting the door on the Irish.
All rode a crest of cheering from State fans. Asked to describe the lift from the crowd, Harding said, “It’s what I’ve dreamed about since the first day I picked up a baseball. Unreal, indescribable, I could run out of adjectives to describe it. They brought the energy every day.”
State had won the opener 9-8 Saturday before more than 14,000. Notre Dame won 9-1 on Sunday to set up the rubber match. And then came Monday when State scored six second inning runs to take a 7-1 lead and then fought off the Irish the rest of the way.
What made the victory all the more rewarding was, well, Notre Dame. The Irish, the run-away Atlantic Coast Conference champions, had run through the South Bend Regional, winning three games by a 50-5 count. Batter after batter, up and down the Notre Dame batting order, was a line drive waiting to happen. Those guys can play.
And then there’s Irish cleanup hitter Niko Cavadas, the muscular one we will be watching someday in the Major Leagues. State pitched him carefully all weekend, until Sims served up a three-ball, one-strike fastball in the seventh inning with a runner on first. Cavadas blasted it far, far beyond the right field fence and the light poles. “Oh man, he got on that ball,” Sims said. “No, I have never given up a home run that went that far. Ever.”
It was the first home run Sims gave up all year. However, it should be noted, with runners on first and second in the ninth inning, Sims got Cavadas to ground into a game-ending double play. “I wasn’t about to throw him another fastball,” Sims said.
And that’s when the celebration began. After the Bulldogs had dog-piled near the pitcher’s mound, the crowd stayed and cheered while State players circled Dudy Noble Field, slapping high fives with their adoring fans. It went on and on and on. From the first base dugout, Notre Dame players watched while consoling one another.
Mississippians shouldn’t take all this for granted. No other state matches this state’s passion for college baseball. Ole Miss bowed out in a three-game Super Regional at Arizona. Ole Miss ended Southern Miss’s season in a superb, well-attended Regional championship round at Oxford last weekend.
That said, Mississippi State continues to set the standard. Consider: Jordan and Allen, the two junior outfielders, will make their third College World Series appearances later this week. State has competed in five straight Super Regionals under four different head coaches. It’s crazy. And it’s nothing new. State has played in a College World Series in six consecutive decades.
The one thing they haven’t done? Win one.
Could this be the year?
“We’ve got as good a chance as anybody,” Tanner said.
Maybe so. But if they could box “the Dude effect” and take it to Omaha, there’d be little doubt.
West Point attorney Thomas Storey said the parents will address the board behind closed doors because of student privacy concerns.
The parents of two Black high school students in West Point — originally named valedictorian and salutatorian before their school claimed an error showed two white students were the actual honorees — will address the school board about the issue Monday evening.
The discussion about the mixup, which has garnered national media attention in recent days, will be behind closed doors, the school board attorney for West Point Consolidated School District, told Mississippi Today. Board attorney Thomas Storey said the parents will address the board in executive session because of student privacy concerns.
Angela Washington and Lakira Temple, the mothers of the two Black students who were originally named as valedictorian and salutation for West Point High School, referred Mississippi Today’s questions to their attorney Lisa Ross.
Ross, in a Monday interview with Mississippi Today, questioned why the school board plans to meet behind closed doors.
“What does the board have to hide?” Ross said. “I think the board should be transparent.”
After Ikeria Washington and Layla Temple were named valedictorian and salutatorian of their class at a senior awards ceremony on May 24, a white parent questioned school officials about whether they were following guidelines in the school handbook in determining the top students.
Less than a week later on the day before graduation, Superintendent Burnell McDonald named two other students — who are white — as co-valedictorian and co-salutatorian.
McDonald told Mississippi Today the high school guidance counselor was new to the school and was given incorrect information about how to determine the designations. The counselor selected the two students based on quality point average (QPA), which is measured on a 4.0 scale and takes into account weighted courses, instead of an unweighted numerical average of the students’ semester grades over their high school career, which the district defines as its grade point average (GPA), he said.
“When you generate the report from the system, it clearly shows the two white students would’ve been first and second based on that number,” McDonald told Mississippi Today last week.
McDonald continued: “If someone assumes I was discriminatory in my decisions, they are absolutely wrong. I don’t know if you can tell on the phone, but I’m African-American myself… This is not based on who the parents are, the race of the kids — it’s based on doing what’s right for all students.”
He then made the decision to name all four students valedictorian and salutatorian and allow all of them to speak at graduation.
Ross told Mississippi Today on Monday that she and the parents of Washington and Temple don’t buy McDonald’s reasoning.
“Are (West Point school board members) hiding page 14 of the (school) handbook…” Ross asked ahead of the school board meeting.
Ross was referring to the section of the school handbook that Washington and Temple say proves their daughters are the rightful valedictorian and salutatorian. Meanwhile, Melissa Borgioli and Shaun Berry — the parents of the two white students who were named co-valedictorian and salutatorian — point to another page in the handbook that states class rank is “based on the average of semester averages.”
Page 14 of the handbook, however, says that GPA is “calculated by averaging the grade point weights assigned to semester averages. Some classes may be weighted double see counselors for this information (sic).”
Last week, McDonald acknowledged to Mississippi Today that the school’s policy was unclear and needs to be better defined.
All four students are eligible for college scholarships given to incoming students who held the titles. But Layla Temple, the Black co-salutatorian, told MSNBC on Monday that according to her transcript, she’s number three in her class.
“So I don’t know if that would interfere with any of my salutatorian scholarships,” she said on national television.
McDonald has since declined to answer questions from Mississippi Today, citing possible litigation.
Ross said her clients’ goal for the school board meeting on Monday is for the district to provide specific information that backs up what the superintendent said.
“Is the district prepared to show that every (past) valedictorian and salutatorian were named based solely on their GPA? That’s what we would like to know,” said Ross.
She also questioned why the school district removed the school’s handbook from the website and took down its Facebook page after the news about the error spread.
Berry, the father of white salutatorian Emma Berry, said he also “welcomes an investigation” into what happened and wishes the discussion would be accessible to the public. He said he plans to attend the meeting.
He also said his daughter has monitored her class rank since eighth grade, and every year she has been at the top of the class based on her unweighted grade point average, or the average of her grades without additional credit given for Advanced Placement and dual credit courses. That’s why the news the week before graduation that she had not been named valedictorian or salutatorian came as such a shock.
The meeting will be held as Temple and Washington, along with their daughters, continue to make appearances on national television. MSNBC, according to the West Point parents, is preparing to host a segment on the issue Tuesday.
Mississippi has reached a $55.5 million settlement agreement with Centene, the 24th largest corporation in the United States, amid an investigation into whether the state’s largest Medicaid contractor was overcharging for pharmacy benefits.
Centene also has reached a separate $88.3 million settlement with the state of Ohio. The company has not admitted fault in either settlement. The company will set aside $1.1 billion for settlements with other states investigating the company.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch and State Auditor Shad White released a joint statement, celebrating the development as a major win for Mississippi taxpayers.
“I do not care how large or powerful the company is, Mississippi taxpayers deserve to get what they paid for when the state spends money on prescription drugs, and we will stand up for the taxpayers if they do not get a square deal,” White said in the statement.
Centene’s subsidiary and contractors in Mississippi control health insurance benefits for about 480,000 Medicaid patients in the state.
The investigation was centered on pharmacy benefit managers, subcontractors who act as middlemen between insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies. The lawsuit alleged three areas of wrongdoing by PBMs: trying to double dip on reimbursements already paid by the state, artificially inflating drug dispensing fees and failing to disclose the true cost of pharmacy services.
Centene’s Mississippi subsidiary, Magnolia Health, paid its PBMs more than $1.1 billion from 2016 to 2020, according to the Division of Medicaid.
The Mississippi investigation into Centene has been going on for over two years after White hired the law firm Liston & Deas to look into potential wrongdoing in the corporation’s pharmacy benefit system under the state’s Division of Medicaid. Fitch’s office later began probing the company over the same billing issue.
Based on a contract with outside counsel posted on the Attorney General’s web page, the Ridgeland-based law firm of Liston & Deas will receive about $2.8 million of the $55.5 million settlement with Centene. The law firm entered into a contract with the Attorney General’s office to pursue the case against Centene.
Colby Jordan, a spokesperson for Fitch, confirmed the firm’s participation in the case. The contract with Liston & Deas is posted on the attorney general’s website, as mandated by state law. Based on that contract, the law firm would receive 5% of any settlement exceeding $25 million. Jordan confirmed that was the amount of the settlement the law firm received.
In a statement, Brent Layton, Centene President of Health Plans, Markets and Products said: “Putting these issues behind us allows us to continue our relentless focus on delivering high-quality outcomes to our members.”
Former state Rep. Ashley Henley of DeSoto County was shot and killed while mowing the grass outside the home where her sister-in-law’s body had been found late last year, authorities said.
Former state Rep. Ashley Henley
Henley’s body was found by Yalobusha County deputies on Patricia Drive in the Water Valley Boat Landing community on Sunday night around 10 p.m., Assistant District Attorney Steven Jubera said. He said she had been shot, but did not disclose many details because “we are in the earliest stages of an investigation” and that the gunshot was “non-accidental.”
The case, first reported by the North Mississippi Herald, is being investigated as a homicide by the Yalobusha Sheriff’s Department, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, District 17 District Attorney’s office and other agencies.
Jubera said Henley, 40, had been mowing the grass outside the burned out trailer where her sister-in-law Kristina Michelle Jones’ body was found on Dec. 27.
Jubera said Jones’ death is also being investigated.
“We are going back to square one (on Jones’ case) after receiving an initial Fire Marshal’s report and lab reports,” Jubera said. “… We are looking at that with fresh eyes.
“(Henley) was a nice lady — I met with her previously,” Jubera said. “That family has gone through a lot in the last six months … We will investigate this as thoroughly as possible — do everything possible to get it right.”
Henley had recently on social media expressed frustration with the investigation of her sister-in-law’s death and vowed to continue to push for justice in the case.
Henley is survived by her husband, Brandon Henley, and a son.
Rep. Dan Eubanks, R-Walls, a friend and colleague of Henley’s, has created a GoFundMe account to raise money to help the family.
Jubera said there has been nothing found to date to indicate Henley’s death was related to her service in the Legislature.
Henley served as representative of District 40 in DeSoto County from 2016-2020 and was vice chair of the House Military Affairs Committee and a member of the Education, Tourism, Workforce Development and Youth and Family Affairs committees.
Henley had been a public school teacher for 13 years, and had taught as an adjunct American history instructor at Northwest Mississippi Community College.
House Speaker Philip Gunn’s office on Monday released a statement saying, “We are all shocked and saddened by this news. Our thoughts and prayers are with Ashley’s family and friends.”
