Wendy Bailey, formerly deputy director of administration for the Mississippi Department of Mental Health, was named director of the agency last week. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

The Mississippi Board of Mental Health, which oversees an embattled agency often accused of perpetuating a powerful dynasty, has hired a longtime agency spokesperson and strategist as its top chief. 

Former Mississippi Department of Mental Health Director Diana Mikula, who took the helm of the agency in 2014, announced her retirement last week. The same day, the board chose Wendy Bailey, the agency’s deputy director of administration and former communications director, to replace her. 

“I just feel like this is a missed opportunity,” Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, a registered nurse who sat on the state’s Mental Health Task Force, said in a Wednesday interview with Mississippi Today. “For the board of mental health to not put an interim until we could find somebody who is absolutely the correct person professionally, educationally and has actually touched and treated a mentally ill person. You know, I’m just in shock.”

Bailey will assume responsibility for ushering in reforms ordered by a federal judge within an ongoing U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit over Mississippi’s mental health care delivery system, which the judge said contained “major gaps.”

“Understanding that there’s always room for improvement and never settling for the status quo is what drives me,” Bailey told Mississippi Today Wednesday. “…I certainly hope that the people who want to see our state’s mental health system continue to get better and advance change and advance growth will judge me and evaluate me on my performance and my vision.”

The justice department primarily accused the state of serving folks with mental illness in environments that are more restrictive than necessary — locking people in state hospitals as opposed to providing community-based care.

“There is a lot of talk, there is a lot of planning, but there is also a lot of people being hurt in the process,” U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves wrote in his Sept. 4, 2019 order, quoting testimony from a person living with mental illness in Mississippi.

Under recent leadership, the department has diverted more money from the budgets of state institutions to community services.

Bailey, who received her bachelor’s in communication from Belhaven College in 2003 and her master’s degree in communication management from Webster University in 2010, has worked for the agency for nearly 16 years, first as its public relations director. She is also a licensed mental health administrator with the department. As an agency spokesperson, she has worked to craft public messaging for the department, create outreach campaigns and develop strategic plans. 

Regarding Bailey’s experience, Currie said, “I think this is appalling.”

In the last year in particular, a board statement said Bailey “has been intimately involved in the executive leadership,” of the agency that employs 5,700 and serves 110,000 people. The board credits her with playing a critical role in both the ongoing litigation and the agency’s fight against COVID-19.

“There is no one with more institutional knowledge plus executive experience than Wendy,” said Stewart Rutledge, an Oxford real estate developer and citizen representative on the mental health board. “In light of the fact that we are in the middle of two extraordinarily difficult situations, being the ongoing federal litigation and COVID, the need to have a smooth and stable transition is really important. But there’s no guarantee that we would have that. For that to happen, you have to have the right person and that person has to be willing to take the job. We were really lucky that that person existed.”

Rutledge said that securing a leader who was already familiar with the deeply complicated state agency in such a crucial moment trumped the benefits of advertising the position and conducting a national search.

“I would say the only reason they would make a move like this is they don’t want somebody else coming in to uncover where the bodies are buried,” Currie said. “…They always hire within at the Department of Mental Health because they don’t want somebody coming in and realizing how badly things are being done there.”

Bailey told Mississippi Today she is committed to bringing in outside experts to provide technical assistance to the agency, in particular to improve the state’s data tracking mechanisms so that it can pinpoint outcomes and identify exactly how well the services are working.

“That is not something I’m going to shy away from, from letting other people provide that assistance and that help as well. I think that’s how you grow stronger,” Bailey said.

The board’s statement says that Mikula began discussing her retirement over a year ago, saying she needed to dedicate more time with her family, but she agreed to continue with the agency through the federal trial.

“We, the Board, are aware that, prior to this statement, this hiring process could have appeared rushed or predetermined, but, in reality, this has been a very deliberate process which has taken over a year of our work,” the board wrote. “And, we are very happy that the end result has yielded such a strong candidate.”

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, said he understands the potential concerns surrounding the hiring process, but, “I’d rather focus on the delivery of services and what we do going forward than on the deliberations of the committee and how they came to hire a new executive director.”

Rutledge cited two major challenges the agency faces today: navigating the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit to get the best outcomes for the state and finding ways to offer competitive salaries so it can hire and retain quality mental health professionals.

Within the maze of mental health services in the state, many advocates say the Department of Mental Health should be focused on expanding care in the community, but the agency doesn’t actually operate the primary vehicle for those public services, the Community Mental Health Centers.

“I think the Community Mental Health Centers will tell you they’re spending an awful lot of time just trying to keep their head above water, what with the continuing funding issues and with the coronavirus,” Bryan said.

Bailey said she plans to strengthen the department’s relationship with the centers, in part by offering them more state grant funding.

To understand the delivery of mental health services in Mississippi, longtime experts say, you must consider the succession of leaders at the state department. One of Mikula’s predecessors, Albert R. “Randy” Hendrix, headed the mental health agency for over thirty years and was in charge when Bailey first joined.

“All of those people that are in those positions, they were all Randy Hendrix hires and hold overs. And he controlled it with an iron hand,” said Jackie Edwards, retired director of Region 7 Community Mental Health Center. “After he left, none of them knew what to do.”

The new top level hire, Edwards said, shows “there’s just no change in the direction that they’re taking.”

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Rogelio V. Solis, AP

The Golden Egg is at stake Saturday in this craziest of football seasons.

One guy’s opinion on Saturday’s Egg Bowl: If you combined the Ole Miss offense and the Mississippi State defense, you’d have an upper level Southeastern Conference football team.

But you can’t do that. So, instead, we’ve got Mississippi State, with a 2-5 record, limping into Oxford to play Ole Miss, which is 3-4. The oddsmakers make Ole Miss a 9.5-point favorite, which seems especially high given the rivalry and the situation.

This is not exactly what we anticipated when Mississippi’s two SEC schools hired new football coaches less than a year ago. Mike Leach and Lane Kiffin were proven winners with national name recognition who infused both fan bases with enthusiasm. Never mind there were many reasons – mostly involving talent level – why both jobs were open in the first place.

Rick Cleveland

Ole Miss couldn’t stop anybody. State couldn’t score enough points. New coaches, no matter their pedigree, weren’t going to magically change that overnight.

And then COVID-19 hit and all bets were off. Every college football team nationwide was impacted. But new coaches, trying to install new systems, with new staffs, were especially hamstrung without spring training, normal summer programs and fall camps. What’s more, the SEC went to all-SEC schedules, much more taxing and without the occasional “gimme games” to pad the record.

So, what we see is what we get. And the future of each program will be decided by how well Kiffin, Leach and their staffs recruit. Ole Miss must improve light years on defense; Leach must get the Jimmys and Joes he needs to execute his famed air raid offense.

That said, it sure seems to me Leach has the quarterback he needs for the future. True freshman Will Rogers – you really have to love the name – has all the tools to do what Leach needs. He can make all the throws. He’s tough. He’s football smart, a coach’s son. He sold me on his abilities in the Mississippi-Alabama all-star game last year when he came off the bench, essentially on one leg, and brought the Mississippians back from a 10-3 deficit to win in the fourth quarter. He Willed them to win is what he did. It should have been clear to anyone watching he has the “it” factor.

On the other side, Ole Miss has Matt Corral, the Californian, who has far exceeded what most had expected from him this season. Only Alabama’s Mac Jones and Florida’s Kyle Trask have thrown for more yards in the SEC. Only Jones has completed a higher percentage of passes. Corral really has been splendid.

While Ole Miss has been explosive all season long, State often has struggled to move the ball. But the Bulldogs seemed much improved against a rugged defense in a tough loss at Georgia last week. Perhaps the best Egg Bowl bet of all is the “over” in the over-under total of 67 points. After all, Ole Miss has proven it can score on anyone, including Alabama and Florida. And the Ole Miss defense hasn’t stopped anyone, at least not yet.

Hard to say what it means that Ole Miss has had an unexpected week off because of the COVID-induced postponement of last week’s scheduled game with Texas A&M, while State was playing a grueling, down-to-the-wire game at Georgia. Normally, you’d say the advantage swings to Ole Miss, but State made real progress at Athens. The Bulldogs should be better because of it.

Prediction? It’s a fool’s errand in this season of so much turmoil. I mean, today is Wednesday and how do we know for sure they will even play? Or who will play if they play? The answer is that we won’t until final COVID testing is done. Games are being postponed and canceled all over. Just Tuesday, the Southern Miss-UAB game, scheduled for Friday, was canceled because of COVID issues within the USM program. State played last week with just 49 scholarship players. In this 2020 season, nothing is certain.

But if they play, I would go with the home team, Ole Miss, in a high scoring game, and I would expect the best player on the field, the irrepressible Elijah Moore, to make a play that wins it.

The post It’s Egg Bowl week (we think). Some observations and a guess… appeared first on Mississippi Today.

COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 1,092 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | November 25, 2020

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Wednesday, November 25:

New cases: 1,092| New Deaths: 16

Total Hospitalizations: 1,041

Total cases: 145,636| Total Deaths: 3,745

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. Since then, he has added a total of 41 individual county mask mandates, covering half of the state. State health officials encourage widespread masking and credit the original mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, November 25

The seven-day new case average reached 1,294 last week, a 75% increase since the start of November and the highest mark since July 31. 

The health department has reported over 9,000 new cases in the last week; a threshold only surpassed by one other week in July.

The number of hospitalizations have also begun to surge in the last month; using the seven-day rolling averages, total hospitalizations have increased by 46% in that time, ICU patients by 39%, and patients on ventilators by 47%. 

Though hospitalizations haven’t reached peak July levels, they are growing at a quicker pace than before. On Oct. 3, average total hospitalizations were at their lowest point since the state health department started tracking them. In seven weeks, numbers grew by 85%. The same percent growth took 12 weeks from April to July, heading into the peak.

Overall, the state’s ICUs are 83% full, with COVID-19 patients comprising 31% of all ICU beds. Sixteen of the state’s highest level COVID-care centers are at 88% capacity, and six of them — both Baptist Memorial Hospitals in Southaven and in the Golden Triangle, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Baptist and Merit in Jackson, and the Delta Regional Medical Center in Greenville — have zero ICU beds available. 

Within the last three weeks, Mississippi has moved from “orange” to “red” on the Global Health Institute’s risk level tracker, meaning it now averages over 25 daily new cases per 100,000 residents, along with most of the country. Despite the rise in cases in the state, Mississippi now ranks 33rd in new cases per capita, dropping from 26th two weeks ago.

Counties across the state saw large increases in cases over the last week. Winston County (13% increase), Jefferson County (12%), Amite County (12%), Stone County (12%) and Choctaw County (11%) saw the biggest surges in that span. 

MSDH reports that 121,637 people have recovered. 

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

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As a congressional ethics office investigates U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo’s campaign spending, a deeper look at his campaign finances raises questions of whether he uses his account as a second personal income.

Palazzo spends thousands of dollars a year from his campaign account on meals, from the swankiest restaurants and clubs in Washington, D.C., and Mississippi, to Hooters, Newk’s, pizza and fast food chains, and live music and barbecue joints.

In all, Palazzo has spent more than $115,600 on meals since he took office in 2010 — an average of $11,560 a year — not counting the nearly $188,000 he spent catering events and booking venues for his campaign. By comparison, his colleague Rep. Michael Guest since he took office has spent less than $1,300 a year listed as meals separate from larger catered campaign events.

Palazzo has also spent tens of thousands of dollars on hotel rooms in D.C., Mississippi and beachside Florida resorts, entertainment and golfing — including a $3,100 golf cart. The campaign also has spent nearly $42,000 on “gifts.”

The Office of Congressional Ethics is investigating Palazzo’s campaign spending after the Campaign Legal Center watchdog group in March filed a complaint. That complaint centered on whether Palazzo used campaign funds to pay himself and his erstwhile wife nearly $200,000 through companies they own.

Palazzo, through a campaign spokesman, said the complaint and questions about his campaign spending are “politically motivated,” and that Palazzo is cooperating with the OCE investigation and will be exonerated.

“This all started with Congressman Palazzo’s primary opponents in the 2020 Republican primary, and it is all just politically motivated,” said Palazzo campaign spokesman Justin Brasell. “… All of this is permissible, except where we found a couple of mistakes and we fixed it.”

The mistakes, Brasell said, were the campaign’s purchase of a $5,100 fold-up wall bed, or “Murphy bed,” and nearly $2,000 in continuing accounting education for Palazzo, who is a CPA.

“The (bed) purchase was for office furniture in the D.C. office,” Palazzo’s campaign said in a written statement. “We thought it was allowable only to learn later it was not … After inquiring on (continuing education), we were told this was not allowed.”

Brasell said Palazzo has reimbursed the campaign for those expenditures. The campaign also corrected what it said was a “typo” in Palazzo’s campaign reporting — a $119,771 payment originally listed to the Hyatt Regency hotel on Capitol Hill was only for $1,197, spent on “hotel rooms for Congressman Palazzo’s family for campaign events they attended in D.C.”

The Campaign Legal Center said Palazzo, who makes $174,000 a year as a congressman, appears to be using his campaign account as a “personal slush fund.”

Federal law and U.S. House rules prohibit conversion of campaign money to personal use. Violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act can carry felony criminal penalties. The OCE investigates such complaints and can recommend they be dismissed, handed off to the House Ethics Committee for further review or discipline, or refer them to the U.S. Department of Justice for criminal investigation.

Brasell said Palazzo has not been contacted by any agencies or investigators other than the OCE.

Robert L. Deming III, a Biloxi city councilman who unsuccessfully challenged Palazzo in this year’s Republican primary, said he saw what he believed were “red flags” with Palazzo’s campaign account and “unfathomable” spending. He said he hired an investigator and election compliance experts and turned over his findings to the CLC, U.S. attorney’s office and “everybody I could think of.”

Deming said it “absolutely” appeared Palazzo was using his campaign account for personal spending. He said he did not try to make this a big issue in his run against Palazzo — although other opponents did — but that he felt bound to report it.

“I just did my duty as a citizen,” Deming said. “When you see something that doesn’t look right, turn it over to the proper authorities and let them do their job.”

The CLC complaint being investigated by the ethics office is centered on:

• More than $60,ooo in monthly rental payments of $3,000 from the campaign to a property company called Greene Acres MS that Palazzo owns in Perkinston. Palazzo claims this was for a campaign office, but the complaint said there is a “lack of any publicly available information” about the campaign having used such an office.
• More than $146,000 to his now former wife’s accounting firm — which Palazzo turned over to her after he took office. The campaign also was paying another accounting firm “for apparently the same services,” the complaint said. Palazzo’s campaign, the CLC complaint says, in recent years has paid nearly as much for accounting services as his three Mississippi House colleagues paid combined. Brasell said the Palazzo firm handled the campaign’s day-to-day accounting while the other firm handled FEC compliance and reporting.

But the payments also raise questions about Palazzo’s separation and later divorce from his wife. The 2016 divorce settlement said Palazzo shall “continue to pay the wife rent” of $1,500 a month on an Arlington, Va., condominium in which he has lived while in D.C. Palazzo’s campaign payments to the accounting firm are mostly for round numbers, Deming said, and on aggregate total nearly the same amount as $1,500 a month rent would.

Palazzo’s divorce records also said he would be responsible for debt on a Perkinston home and property, raising questions of whether his payments to his Greene Acres property company were campaign related or for mortgage on the home and property.

Brasell said all of Palazzo’s campaign spending has been for campaign-related expenses.

For instance, of Palazzo’s campaign spending on meals, Brasell said, “It is commonplace to hold meetings at restaurants and pay for meals for campaign staffers, volunteers and donors.”

“Members are allowed to expense meals that are incidental to their role as a candidate as an officeholder, such as food for campaign events, fundraisers or strategy sessions.”

The campaign did not specify what campaign events or strategy sessions were held at a Hooters in Mississippi. Campaign records indicate expenditures of $57.41, $63.65, $89.78 and $394.63 for meals at Hooters, among more than 550 meals listed in the campaign account.

Most of the campaign meals listed run from a few dollars at fast food places to hundreds of dollars at steak houses or fancy restaurants. One is for more than $3,655 at the Capitol Hill Club. Others include $461 at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and $533 at Beau Rivage Prime casino restaurant.

Federal officeholders and campaign staff are allowed to expense meals “incidental” to their role as officeholder or candidate, such as campaign meetings and events, strategy sessions or fundraisers.

Other lawmakers have come under scrutiny for their meal and other spending, such as Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, who spent more than $70,000 from his campaign account since 2017 on meals, and Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, who pleaded guilty of misuse of campaign funds and resigned after being accused of spending more than $200,000 from his campaign account on family vacations abroad and large bar tabs.

Other notable expenditures from Palazzo’s campaign funds include:

• Nearly $42,000 in “gifts.” These gifts include thousands of dollars worth of liquor and wine and purchases from a tactical clothing outfitter, a cowboy boot store and university campus stores. The campaign said these are “memorabilia for fundraising events, items given to silent auction events for local political party groups, etc.”
• More than $12,700 on sporting events in the Washington, D.C. area. This includes about $2,000 on “fundraising expenses” at Washington Nationals baseball games, and more than $10,600 with Washington Suite Life, which offers suites at sporting and other events. Palazzo’s campaign said these expenses were for “tickets to the Nationals game for the fundraising event.”
• More than $53,000 on golf-related expenses. This includes more than $3,100 for a golf cart for campaign events and thousands of dollars for golf balls, hats and tees with his logo on them. The campaign has for years held a golf tournament fundraiser at the Preserve Golf Club on the Coast.
• Nearly $7,500 for “trailers.” The campaign has made five expenditures over several years for trailers, including one in 2018 for nearly $2,200 to MCPAL Company for an “enclosed trailer.” Secretary of State filings show Palazzo’s mother is president of MCPAL Company. Palazzo’s campaign said the MCPAL payment “was a reimbursement for a borrowed trailer that was stolen during the campaign.” The statement said, “As of now the campaign has one covered trailer and one flatbed trailer.”

Brasell said Palazzo’s campaign spending is all aboveboard and all on “political expenses, fundraising, campaign expenses.”

“He has to constantly run for office, every two years,” Brasell said. “This is all just routine (campaign spending), they’re just trying to spin it and make it seem otherwise.”

Kedric Payne, general counsel and director of ethics for the Campaign Legal Center, said: “The big picture is that this diminishes the public’s trust when a congressman uses campaign money for a personal slush fund. It is encouraging to see there is an investigation into this.”

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Gov. Tate Reeves added 19 counties to the mask mandate under his executive order on Tuesday, bringing the total to 41, or half of the state’s counties.

Asked repeatedly during a press briefing about a statewide mask mandate, Reeves responded that there is no “one silver bullet,” and that it’s important to pinpoint counties with rising case numbers rather than enacting a blanket order.

“There is no one single bullet, there is no one thing that we can do as a state, there is no one thing that I as a leader or we as a state can do to make this go away,” Reeves said.

He went on to compare Mississippi’s rate of new cases compared to other states, including those with statewide mandates. As of Sunday, Mississippi ranked 35th in daily new cases per capita.

In addition to the 22 counties already under a mandate, the 19 new ones are: Alcorn, Attala, Bolivar, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Jefferson Davis, Jones, Lafayette, Lawrence, Lincoln, Lowndes, Neshoba, Panola, Perry, Prentiss, Stone, Tippah, Tishomingo and Union.

Reeves’ continued refusal to implement a statewide mandate comes a day after a top health official in the state called on him to do so.

Of the 41 counties under a mandate, Reeves said four no longer met the threshold used for the rule, but he kept them under the mandate because cases were still relatively high. The criteria are that a county must have, over a two-week period, over 200 new cases — as well as 200 cases per 100,00 people — or over 500 cases per 100,000 people. Meanwhile, Mississippi as a whole has met both those marks for five straight days now.

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LaMiracle holds up her answer, four, during virtual class at the Boys and Girls Club Capitol Street unit in west Jackson on Sept. 21, 2020.

Despite initially capping the award amount at $1 million for a 16-week program serving a minimum of 10,000 Mississippi children, Gov. Tate Reeves gave nearly twice that in federal funds to a Utah-based organization serving only a fraction of the number of kids.

Waterford.org requested and received $1.9 million to provide a virtual, 20-minute-a-day computer program to 2,500 4-year-olds in Mississippi — more than twice the amount received by other schools, child care centers and education organizations that also received grants from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) fund. These are federal relief funds for education distributed to the state through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Reeves has full discretion over the spending of that money.

The organization, in its application for the funds, obtained by Mississippi Today through a public records request, acknowledged its request exceeded the guidelines.

“… our proven pandemic recovery impact, past performance, and ready network of partners justifies this request and positions us to do much more than ust (sic) meet the pandemic moment — we will build capacity for both children and their families for a lifetime!” the application stated.

A spokesperson for Waterford.org said 65% of the grant will go toward providing devices and connectivity to participants who need it. The group said it also hired an additional seven coaches to work with families, bringing the total number of coaches in the state to 13.

Waterford.org “identified the need for more than the $1 million maximum award and explained the increased costs were a result of more households being served and providing internet service and devices to each participating family,” said Bailey Martin, press secretary for Reeves’ office, which is administering the $34.6 million of GEER funds. “Upon review, our office determined these costs to be justified and to the benefit of the children and families in the state of Mississippi.”

Waterford.org, formerly the Waterford Institute, is not new to Mississippi. It launched its signature Upstart program — a 15- to 20-minute-a-day computer adaptive program for preschoolers — in Utah in 2009. The Utah Legislature funded the program, and it has since expanded to at least 15 states across the country.  

Up until now, however, the group’s attempts to secure public funding in Mississippi have been unsuccessful. Lobbyists working for the company visited the Mississippi Capitol in 2011, 2012 and 2013, but several bills that would have created and funded the Mississippi Upstart project were unsuccessful after receiving pushback from some public education groups.

“‘Virtual’ education is not an appropriate or effective means of educating preschool children, and state tax dollars should not be used to further line the pockets of a wealthy family from out of state,” stated a 2012 email from The Parents’ Campaign, a group that advocates for full funding of the Mississippi public school system, to its members about the bill.

The “wealthy family” referred to in the email is the Heustons. Dustin Heuston, a former college teacher and headmaster of a K-12 school in New York City, founded Waterford in 1976 and began creating educational technology and software. 

After he stepped down in 2016, Benjamin Heuston, his son, took over the company as president and CEO. Benjamin Heuston earns $331,800 a year in that role, according to the nonprofit’s 2018 tax forms.

Since 2016, Waterford.org has been active in Mississippi using private funding. They have partnered with organizations such as the Mississippi Head Start Association and Jackson Public Schools to provide the program to a total of 3,639 low-income children in areas of the state where literacy scores are low. 

The program intends to supplement, not replace, preschool, company officials have said. 

“We work with students prior to them entering kindergarten. We are not a program that replaces a site base or tries to get kids not to go to brick and mortar schools,” said LaTasha Hadley, vice president of state education partnerships and the point person in Mississippi for the company. “We only use our software to fill in gaps and give extra boosts to cognitive learning.”

As part of the program, students and families are provided devices and costs to cover internet services if needed. The students log on for 15 to 20 minutes a day, five days a week. Coaches help parents monitor the child’s progress and provide other guidance. 

Some in early education who are familiar with the program say it works. 

Nita Norphlet-Thompson, executive director of the Mississippi Head Start Association, said Upstart has “absolutely” made a positive impact on Head Start students who have participated.

“Just looking at the data of the children, the assessment scores, they’re showing marked improvement,” she said. “Then having conversations with the families, they talk about not only how they see improvement in terms of educational outcomes but how it’s helping their families sort of re-evaluate their whole perspective on early education.” 

Jackson Public Schools also partners with the company to provide the program to its preschoolers. William Merritt, assistant superintendent for the district, said the program has “proven to be an asset in helping close the gap in reading and math. It’s a quality program.”

The organization also touts studies produced by its own research arm and several third-party studies as evidence of its success. One of those outside studies focused on a group of Mississippi children who participated in the program nearly two years after the start of their preschool year. 

Half of the children in the study participated in Waterford’s literacy program, while the other half participated in the math program. Results showed kindergartners from the reading program scored higher on measures of literacy than the other group, and similarly, those in the math group outperformed students in the literacy group on measures of math skills. 

The study warns to interpret the results with cautions due to limitations in “the lack of highly related baseline measures to control for preexisting differences in learning achievement,” and because the final sample size was limited due to lack of family participation and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Waterford.org also received an innovation grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and a study looking at early literacy outcomes of the reading program in rural, low-income areas showed some positive benefits. It found a significant difference in children’s mean scores on letter knowledge and phonological awareness, but no differences in measures of vocabulary and oral language or listening comprehension. 

Critics, however, say money would be better used toward traditional pre-kindergarten, particularly in states like Mississippi where high-quality public early education options are limited. Only 27% of 3-year-olds and 33% of 4-year-olds attend publicly funded early childhood education centers, including Head Start, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research’s 2019 State of Preschool report. 

“It (Waterford) is not going to change the fact that kids are still not getting quality early childhood education that they need, and that comes from having trained adults who understand child development” and learning through play, said Denisha Jones, co-founder of Defending the Early Years, a nonprofit founded in 2012 that advocates for quality early childhood education that includes active, developmentally appropriate, play-based approaches to learning. “And it doesn’t solve the fact that parents need child care so they can go to work. If there’s one thing we’ve learned (from virtual school), if the parent isn’t sitting there next to the (young) child, it doesn’t happen.”      

State leaders should take a more long-term view, even during the pandemic, Jones said. She points to research that shows learning through play and using all five senses is more beneficial to children’s healthy development than time spent in front of a screen.

But Reeves said in a statement that the program is another way to “ensure all children in our state are afforded the ability to get the same start to academic, life and career success.”

The program is being made available to children in Mississippi regardless of income level, though the organization says 93% of participants’ families are at or below 185% of the federal poverty level — an annual income of around $48,000 for a family of four. 

By the end of the 16 weeks, Waterford.org’s goal is for at least 65% of participating children to achieve a “school readiness” score on the Waterford Assessment of Core Skills which will be administered in February.

The post Gov. Tate Reeves capped federal education grants at $1 million. This Utah-based group received nearly twice that amount. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Gov. Tate Reeves and Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs speak to the media about the coronavirus during a press conference at the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson, Miss., Thursday, March 26, 2020.

On Aug. 4, Gov. Tate Reeves announced a statewide mask mandate — a policy 34 other states including Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana had already put in place.

At the time, COVID-19 numbers in Mississippi had shown slight improvement after a record peak in late July. To that point, Reeves had resisted pressure to implement the statewide mandate as President Donald Trump and other top Republicans leaders continued to publicly question the effectiveness of mask-wearing.

The governor’s main inspiration for issuing the statewide order, he said at the time, was to contain the virus so public schools could reopen safely in person and on time.

“Up to this point, we’ve kept the focus for masks on the counties with the highest spread,” Reeves said at a press briefing at the time. “Now, with a two-week push, I believe we can have the maximum effect and allow for the education of our kids to occur. I have taken a piecemeal approach, I’ve been criticized about it by an awful lot of people. But I’ve taken a piecemeal approach because I firmly believe that that was the best way to get the most amount of people to participate (in wearing masks).” 

Reeves, despite pushback from state health officials, allowed for most schools to reopen. The statewide mask mandate, though, lasted only briefly, as Reeves let the executive order expire on Sept. 30, making him the first governor in America to end a statewide mask order. Since then, he’s relied on issuing county-by-county mask mandates for COVID-19 hotspots.

In schools, and in the state as a whole, the difference in cases during and after the statewide mandate is stark: Between the last week of the mandate and the most recent weekly case count, COVID-19 cases in schools have nearly tripled.  

During the statewide mask mandate, which lasted nearly two months, the seven-day new case average shrunk by over half, falling as low as 413 on Sept. 14. Since then, the case average has increased by 200%, and 140% since the statewide mask mandate ended.

While the current surge hasn’t yet reached the peak set in late July, health officials last week warned ahead of Thanksgiving of a pattern of case spikes after holidays. Some have even called on Reeves to re-issue the statewide mask mandate. As of last week, 37 states and the District of Columbia all had such mandates.

But Reeves continues to rely on county-by-county mask orders.

“We do very much believe we should have a statewide mask mandate,” Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, said Monday at a press conference. “… I think we have reasonable evidence to believe the county-by-county approach is not working.”

In August, MIT released a study comparing states with and without mask mandates, suggesting that a nationwide mask mandate could have saved 40% of worker deaths.

State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs, who recently tweeted about the contrast in cases in counties with and without mask mandates, said on Friday that the current spike is on pace to surpass the summer’s.

“We’re seeing a rate in rise in hospitalizations we haven’t seen yet at all,” Dobbs said. “We’re seeing increasing case burdens that we haven’t seen yet at all. It looks very likely that this fall surge is going to be far more severe than even our summer surge.”

Dobbs said last week that the state’s test positivity rate had climbed back to 14%, or nearly double what it was toward the end of the statewide mask mandate.

As of Monday, Reeves had placed 22 counties under mask mandates, a policy the governor said is decided by a formula unchanged throughout the pandemic: over a two-week period, a county needs to either have had more than 200 total cases or over 500 cases per 100,000 residents. Yet for the first of the two criteria, a spokesperson for his office clarified, a county would also need to have had over 200 cases per 100,000 residents in that span — a detail Reeves repeatedly excluded at press briefings. 

As of Nov. 24, Mississippi as a whole has met both criteria for five straight days. 

Leading up to the August mask mandate, Reeves talked at his briefings about the importance of constantly reassessing state policy.

“Throughout this pandemic we’ve tried to operate with humility, understanding that we cannot be too proud to change course,” he said on Aug. 4. “We know that with this virus, times change every single day. The data changes, the situation changes, and we’ve got to be prepared to change as well.”

On July 24, when the new case average was roughly what it is today, Reeves told his constituents: “If at any point I believe that the best approach is to go to a statewide mask mandate, I’ll do it in a heartbeat if I believe that’s the best thing for Mississippi and Mississippians.”

The post Gov. Tate Reeves has resisted statewide mask mandate despite warnings from health officials and alarming COVID-19 trends appeared first on Mississippi Today.

COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 665 new cases

By Alex Rozier and Erica Hensley | November 24, 2020

We are bringing you the latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates, as well as testing data charts and other helpful interactive maps and graphs.

This page was last updated Tuesday, November 24:

New cases: 665| New Deaths: 53

Total Hospitalizations: 1,014

Total cases: 144,544| Total Deaths: 3,729

Mask Mandates | On Sept. 30, Gov. Tate Reeves ended the statewide mask mandate order, originally issued Aug. 4. On Nov. 16, Reeves added seven counties to the state’s mask-wearing mandate. The 22 counties under a mandate until Dec. 11 are: Benton, Carroll, Covington, DeSoto, Forrest, Harrison, Hinds, Humphreys, Itawamba, Jackson, Lamar, Lauderdale, Leflore, Lee, Madison, Marshall, Montgomery, Pontotoc, Rankin, Tate, Winston, and Yalobusha. State health officials still encourage widespread masking and credit the mandate with helping cases improve after a steep summer spike. View the full list of COVID-19 orders here.

All data and information reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health as of 6 p.m. yesterday

Weekly update: Wednesday, November 18

The seven-day new case average reached 1,143 today, a 54% increase since the start of November and the highest mark since Aug. 3. 

The health department has reported over 8,000 new cases in the last week; apart from the record surge in July and August — which saw a 13-day stretch with over 8,000 new weekly cases — this is the only other time Mississippi has reached that threshold. 

The number of hospitalizations have also begun to surge in the last month; using the seven-day rolling averages, total hospitalizations have increased by 32% in that time, ICU patients by 34%, and patients on ventilators by 36%. 

Overall, the state’s ICUs are 84% full, with COVID-19 patients comprising 26% of all ICU beds. Sixteen of the state’s highest level COVID-care centers are at 86% capacity, and five of them — both Baptist Memorial Hospitals in Southaven and in the Golden Triangle, University of Mississippi Medical Center and St. Dominic in Jackson, and the Delta Regional Medical Center in Greenville — have zero ICU beds available. 

According to the latest White House task force report, Mississippi’s test positivity rate is now 14%. 

Within the last two weeks, Mississippi has moved from “orange” to “red” on the Global Health Institute’s risk level tracker, meaning it now averages over 25 daily new cases per 100,000 residents. Despite the rise in cases in the state, Mississippi now ranks 31st in new cases per capita, dropping from 26th a week ago.

Counties across the state saw large increases in cases over the last week. Choctaw County (15% increase), Stone County (12%), Lincoln County (12%), Attala County (12%) and Marshall County (12%) saw the biggest surges in that span. 

MSDH reports that 116,683 people have recovered. 

Click through the links below to view our interactive charts describing the trends around the coronavirus in Mississippi:

View our COVID-19 resource page for more information about coronavirus in Mississippi.

The post COVID-19 cases: Mississippi reports 665 new cases appeared first on Mississippi Today.

READ: Chief of Mississippi’s largest hospital urges Gov. Reeves to re-issue statewide mask mandate

The post Marshall Ramsey: Convincing Tate appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Dr. LouAnn Woodward, who leads the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the state’s only academic health center and largest hospital, directly called on Monday for Gov. Tate Reeves to re-issue a statewide mask mandate.

Reeves became the first governor in America to rescind a statewide mask mandate on Sept. 30, and COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have steadily climbed since that date. Since the statewide mandate expired, however, Reeves has issued more than a dozen county-by-county mask mandates — a piecemeal approach that has received some criticism from medical experts.

“We do very much believe we should have a statewide mask mandate,” Woodward said Monday at a press conference. “… I think we have reasonable evidence to believe the county-by-county approach is not working. It’s not doing what we need it to do. It is not turning these numbers around for us.

“With the governor being the highest level of state official, I think that sends a big signal for that position to say, ‘We are at a critical point, people. We need to have a statewide mask mandate.’ That sense of urgency is rapidly becoming much more intense and powerful. And what we have been doing hasn’t turned us around.”

Woodward was also vocal in the days leading up to the governor’s first statewide mask mandate in early August. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, who leads the state’s health department, has recently posted to social media information about the effectiveness of mask mandates.

The rise in COVID-19 cases in Mississippi — a surge only topped by the record spread in July and August — has persisted for nearly two straight months. On Saturday, the state health department reported a single-day record of 1,972 new cases. The seven-day rolling average reached 1,294 over the weekend, which is the highest mark since July 31.

READ MORE: The latest COVID-19 Mississippi trends with daily case, death and hospitalization updates.

The state health department also reported close to 900 total hospitalizations for people with the virus. That mark is at its highest point since Aug. 26. Health officials on Friday warned the public about managing spread in the cold months and during the holiday season.

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