Mississippi is getting devices to every child. That’s just the first step.

For the first time in state history, every student in the state will have their own device, though hurdles remain in access to internet and connectivity.

By Kate Royals | Oct. 1, 2020

Nearly 400,000 MacBooks, Chromebooks, iPads and other devices are en route to students and teachers across Mississippi – a massive undertaking prompted by the state Legislature and implemented by the Mississippi Department of Education.

But in rural school districts where a rainstorm can disrupt internet connection, or students don’t have connectivity even on a sunny day, a device is only the first of many hurdles.

State Superintendent of Education Carey Wright says ensuring students have adequate internet access and educators have the training they need will be a challenge, but the state has proven it can do extraordinary things in a crunch. They did so when they secured devices for all students and teachers in Mississippi – at the same time technology for distance learning was in high demand globally because of the pandemic.

In July, the Mississippi Legislature allocated $200 million to help schools implement virtual learning both during and after the pandemic. In all, $150 million will go toward helping schools purchase technology and devices, while the remaining $50 million focuses on expanding broadband access in areas with little or none.

“I’ve talked to people around the nation, and there’s not anyone doing something as detailed, as thorough, as coherent as what Mississippi is doing,” said Wright in an interview with Mississippi Today. 

Brent Engelman, director of education data and information systems at the Council of Chief State School Officers, a national organization comprised of the heads of state education departments, echoed Wright.

“Mississippi is among the states leading in the important equity work of closing the digital divide and ensuring students and teachers have what they need for digital learning,” said Engelman. “Importantly, Mississippi has focused not just on devices and wireless access but also funding the curriculum and professional development needed to support this use of technology.”

While it’s important that students have the devices they need, the more immediate mammoth challenge is making sure children have access to internet in an extremely rural and under-connected state. 

And as many students and teachers wait on devices, the first semester of the school year is nearly halfway over. The divide between those with access to updated technology and those without has never been more apparent.

In Yazoo County School District, there were enough devices on hand for all of its 1,384 students to share a couple weeks into the school year – a best-case scenario for a school district that was not “one-to-one,” meaning every student has a device. They placed an order for updated devices under the Equity in Distance Learning Act and, like most other districts, are still waiting on their delivery as of late September.

While they’re waiting, the district is using the equipment it has, some of which is outdated. There was a lag for some teachers and students who had to familiarize themselves with the new learning management system and applications, in addition to the devices themselves.

Andrea Edgecombe is an interventionist for elementary schoolers at Bentonia Gibbs Elementary School in Yazoo County. After teaching for six years, she now works with small groups of students who are struggling academically.

This year, she has 14 virtual learners and 19 traditional students. The Yazoo County School District is implementing a hybrid model of school this year with the option for all-virtual learning.

While there have been positives in her experience with distance learning – like making her own schedule so she can focus solely on the virtual learners during her morning hours, and the fact she and her students have access to devices – there are still challenges.

“There are lots of internet issues (on the part of the students), and lots of struggles with the younger kids and the schedule,” she said. “They have a scheduled time to hop on Zoom with me every day, and I roughly have anywhere from five to 10 no shows a day depending on the day.” 

The issues include students being kicked off Zoom, excessive delays, and for some students who live in rural areas, a loss of internet when it rains.  

Edgecombe, who also acts as the technology liaison at her school, said that while she’s glad there have been new applications to try and accompanying professional development, there has not been any training on the devices themselves.

“There are some teachers who are not as familiar with not only our laptops but also the students’ Chromebooks, so it’s made it difficult for those teachers to answer questions from parents,” she said. “In that same sense, it would’ve been great if we could have launched some sort of virtual town hall for parents to train them (as well).” 

While Edgecombe is glad everyone will be receiving new devices with funds from the Equity in Distance Learning Act, there is a concern that when they do receive the new devices, there will be yet another learning curve to overcome.

“What’s a little bit scary is when they do come out with these computers, what if they come in and they’re different than what parents and kids are used to? Then we’re going to have to re-teach everything,” she said. “I’m hoping all our apps and programs work the same way on these new devices.” 

In nearby Holmes County Consolidated School District, the district is operating entirely virtually. All students received devices in August after the district placed an order using other Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funds, and teachers had just been given new laptops the prior school year.

The district has done what it can to improve access for students – including putting hot spots in school buses and apartment complexes around the county for WiFi access at the beginning of the pandemic – but hurdles remain.

From weather-induced internet outages, attendance issues to some students’ and caretakers’ unfamiliarity with technology, Holmes County Central High School teachers Kristie Montgomery and Ravi Dutt both agree the virtual learning experience has been a challenge.

They’ve seen students logging on to class from cars or on front porches with borrowed WiFi.

Luckily, they said, students who miss virtual class usually show back up a day or two after the teacher calls the parent to let him or her know.

“I had a student who logged in to class while sitting in the backseat of a car. I asked why she was sitting in a car and she said, ‘Mr. Dutt, there’s nobody at home and my mom doesn’t want me to be at home by myself,’” Dutt said.

So they worked out a system: The mother parks her car underneath a tree, goes in to work and the student logs in to class from the backseat.

“It was very touching to me to know how hard she’s working to log in to her class,” said Dutt.

But Montgomery, who has around 100 students herself and another nearly 100 students of a colleague on maternity leave, said despite hiccups at the beginning of the semester, she finds she’s getting into a good groove.

“In the beginning it was a little bit overwhelming … but it’s almost like a ritual now,” she said.

Wright, the state superintendent, and other state officials say as the devices come in, the focus will shift to other areas that will help educators effectively implement distance learning.

Wright argues the combined focus on curriculum, professional development and expanding access to connectivity is the key not only to students keeping up during the COVID-19 pandemic but also to improving inequities that existed before the pandemic. 

Since the state Legislature appropriated $150 million in federal coronavirus relief funds toward the effort in July, administrators at the Mississippi Department of Education began an effort that could normally take one year or more and completed it in six weeks. 

In those six weeks, the department conducted needs assessments from every school district, developed minimum specifications for all of the technology, conducted countless webinars with school superintendents and technology directors and finally ordered a massive number of devices from CDWG, a technology solutions provider company headquartered in Illinois.

School districts were able to choose between three types of devices: Windows laptops, Google Chromebooks or Apple MacBooks or iPads. 

The devices are the first step in the roll-out of the Equity in Distance Learning Act, which also includes components around professional development for teachers and curriculum.

J.C. Lawton, director of information systems at Columbus Municipal School District, said his district is using the funds to provide devices to students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. All high schoolers already had individual devices.  

Lawton said despite some hiccups – such as not being able to thoroughly research the type of device before being locked into the program – the experience of purchasing the devices has been a good one.

“I’m excited to be able to put 2,700 devices in students’ hands,” said Lawton. 

The Equity in Distance Learning Act gave a deadline that all devices must be delivered to school districts by Nov. 20, or school districts would not be reimbursed for their orders. The clock was – and still is – ticking, but officials at the state education department say the devices are on track to meet the deadline.

“During a global drought on Chromebooks, we have 90% of our (Mississippi’s) order on the ground in the United States right now,” said John Kraman, chief information officer of the Mississippi Department of Education, told the State Board of Education at a meeting last week. “There’s more work to do on the Windows, Macs and iPads.” 

Wright is confident there won’t be any issues meeting the delivery deadline. She said this is in part because Mississippi used bulk purchasing power – that is, ordering all school districts’ devices in a uniform manner instead of individual school districts ordering their own products separate from one another. 

“We’ve seen across the nation supply chains breaking down, and they (CDWG) have been on top of it in Mississippi,” said Wright in the interview with Mississippi Today. “That’s been a big plus for us because of the quantity (of the order). If we had just pushed the money out to districts, each little district would have been its own entity standing in line. I’m glad we did it the way we did it.” 

But some school districts still went out on their own. Ken Barron, superintendent of Yazoo County School District, is one of those. 

“We weren’t going to sit around and wait” for the Legislature or for MDE, said Barron. Forty percent of students in his school district chose the virtual option. “I was concerned about having the devices in students’ hands in time.” 

Barron said his district conducted a reverse auction which resulted in such a good price he decided to replace the entire fleet of devices in the district. As of late September, they were on schedule to be delivered in October, said Barron. 

Stacey Graves, the chief financial officer of DeSoto County School District, said her district participated in the state’s program, officially called Mississippi Connects, and the process worked well for them.

“What we’re getting, you just can’t beat it,” she said. “I’m getting 27,770 devices for a little over $3.8 million,” or an average of $137 per device. 

Graves also appreciated the specifications of the devices, including cases and insurance.

“These come with everything you could ever want on them, including special insurance for if a kid drops it,” she said. “In the first two weeks of our distance learning, we’d already had four kids drop their devices.”

Graves admitted, however, that figuring out how to identify why particular students don’t have access is difficult. 

“We surveyed all of our students during registration, so we know who does not have internet connectivity, but we don’t know why they don’t have it,” said Graves, whose district had nearly 35,000 students last year. “We are working on gathering that information to determine the best solution to connectivity for each student.” 

Phillip Burchfield, executive director of the Mississippi Association of School Superintendents, oversaw the Clinton Public School District as it transitioned to a “one to one,” or one device for every student, school district in 2012.

He said superintendents have concerns about the longevity of the devices. 

“It takes time for teachers to understand virtual learning (and devices), and that’s not even mentioning the kids,” said Burchfield. “So by the time we were making strides (on that front), our hardware, our computers, are going to be on their last leg. A big concern of superintendents is where is that money going to come from? Is that going to be left up to individual school districts who are already on a tight budget?”

Money from the state education department covered 80% of the costs of devices, and districts were expected to match 20%. The Legislature encouraged schools to use funds from another pot of federal funds to cover the 20% – but some districts were faced with more costs. 

Columbus Municipal, for example, is one. That school district ended up having to pay an additional $467,738 from its reserves to cover its order – not an insignificant cost for a district of just under 3,500.

Districts and the state education department are working ahead as devices purchased through the program begin arriving. On Wednesday, West Point School District became the first to receive its order. Tate County School District is scheduled to receive its Friday.

“Now we need to pivot to ensure children are learning with these new devices,” said Wright, noting the department has already created a large team to coordinate statewide professional development for teachers. 

She also said the department and school districts are doing what they can to improve internet access by working with providers and purchasing hot spots and data plans.

Wright and other educators have echoed a common theme throughout the pandemic: inequity in education is a major issue during normal times, but the presence of COVID-19 has highlighted it to an extraordinary degree.

“When COVID hit, the whole equity issue was just front and center,” said Wright. “You either have internet or you don’t. You either have a device or you don’t. It shouldn’t be a privilege.”

The post Mississippi is getting devices to every child. That’s just the first step. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America

Mike Espy speaks to supporters during his watch party at the Hilton Jackson on Nov. 6, 2018.

The Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans opposed to President Trump, plans to support Democratic Mississippi U.S. Senate candidate Mike Espy against incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in the final month of a race that has otherwise seen scant national attention or outside spending.

“We’re going in there,” said Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican political strategist who was field director for President George H.W. Bush’s 1988 campaign. “We’re going to help (Espy) … It’s the right thing to do. Mike Espy wins the ‘I don’t want to be embarrassed by a lunatic’ demo.”

The Lincoln Project has gained national attention for their brutal ads that typically call into question the character and morals of Republican candidates.

Wilson said the political committee plans to run ads in Mississippi, similar to what it has done in Alaska to support Democratic Senate candidate Al Gross against incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan. The Lincoln Project has a $482,000 ad buy in Alaska, part of a $4 million campaign also supporting challengers to GOP candidates in Maine and Montana.

Wilson made the announcement this week in The Daily Beast’s “The New Abnormal” podcast, in a Wednesday post-presidential debate discussion with Stuart Stevens, a Mississippi native, longtime national Republican campaign strategist and bestselling author.

SUBSCRIBE: Are you prepared for the polls? Signup for our free one-week #MSElex Crash Course.

Stevens, a consultant with The Lincoln Project, said in an interview with Mississippi Today that he is personally donating to the Espy campaign and, “I think he can win,” even in a red state that has strongly supported Trump and voted Republican in federal elections for decades.

Stevens said Hyde-Smith is a Trump sycophant and “accidental candidate,” and that he believes Mississippi will see a very high African American voter turnout for Espy, and “an erosion of Trump votes,” particularly among women.

Stuart Stevens

“Yes, I think Espy can win, and I think last night (with the presidential debate) every Senate Republican candidate took a hit,” Stevens said. “… I just don’t understand how any person, how any female, can support (Trump) whose defense for not raping a journalist was that ‘She wasn’t my type.’”

Stevens was referring to claims by columnist E. Jean Carroll that Trump raped her in the mid-1990s, and Trump’s denial of the accusation.

“I think there are a lot of Republicans who find Trump repugnant,” Stevens said. “Trump is the ultimate rich Yankee we were warned about — the way he treats women, thinks money can buy anything, how he makes fun of Southern accents … I’ve always thought of Mississippi as a place where people care about values and role models.”

Stevens said Espy would be “better for Mississippi.”

“Mississippi has a history of having powerful, influential senators,” Stevens said. “Does anybody think Cindy Hyde-Smith can evolve into one? … She’s sort of an accidental senator, and I don’t think nine out of 10 Mississippi voters could pick her out of a lineup … Who would you rather have in the office of a Fortune 500 company trying to convince them to move to Mississippi, Mike Espy or Cindy Hyde-Smith?”

The post The Lincoln Project to support Democrat Mike Espy in Mississippi Senate race appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

President Donald Trump embraces Tate Reeves during a campaign rally Tupelo on Nov. 1, 2019.

Gov. Tate Reeves condemned white supremacy groups Wednesday, but refused to criticize President Donald Trump’s refusal to do the same.

“I condemn white nationalist groups,” Reeves said Wednesday in response to a question from a reporter. But he said he did not “interpret” Trump as refusing to condemn white supremacy during Tuesday’s contentious debate with former Vice President Joe Biden.

When debate moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump and Biden if they condemned white supremacist groups on Tuesday night, the president did not do so, and instead said, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and the left.”

The Proud Boys has been labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and has been accused of committing multiple violent acts during Black Lives Matter protests across the nation,

In recent days, antifa has been labeled by FBI Director Chris Wray as being a movement more than an organized group. People associated with antifa often are blamed for some of the violent acts during demonstrations in cities across the nation and are often in conflict, sometimes physically, with white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys.

During the debate, Biden condemned all violence that occurred at the protests. Reeves on Tuesday said Trump recently labeled both the KKK and antifa terrorist groups.

“I supported his effort to do so,” Reeves said.

While Reeves did condemn what he called “white nationalist groups,” he refused to say during the news conference whether he would vote in November to remove an 1890s provision from the state Constitution that was designed to ensure African Americans, then a majority in the state, were not elected to statewide office. The Legislature has placed a proposal on the Nov. 3 ballot to remove the measure after a federal judge, in response to a lawsuit, indicated that if the state did not, he might do it himself.

The provision requires a candidate for statewide office to garner both a majority of the popular vote and the most votes in a majority of the 122 state House districts. If candidates do not obtain both thresholds, the election is decided by the state House from the top two vote-getters.

Reeves said he would be announcing his positions on various ballot measures in the coming days, though he stressed he was supporting Trump.

Another person on the Nov. 3 ballot, incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, released a statement praising Trump’s debate performance, but did not comment on his refusal to condemn white supremacy.

In a statement, Hyde-Smith said the Tuesday debate “was a clear demonstration as to why those who want to keep America great must turn out and vote this Nov. 3. President Trump has brought better-paying jobs to our communities, strengthened our families, kept our country safe, and returned the rule of law to our courts, and he will continue to do so as our commander in chief for the next four years. He is the leader to take us back to our pre-pandemic growth.”

Hyde-Smith continued: “In stark contrast, Joe Biden has moved too far to the left for even most Democrats to be comfortable with, opening the door for Socialist ideals, including Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, and an activist judicial takeover that bypasses Congress to impose a radicalized agenda.”

Biden said Tuesday night he did not support Medicare for all or the Green New Deal.

Hyde-Smith faces Democrat Mike Espy in the Nov. 3 election.

The post Gov. Reeves condemns white supremacy, but not Trump for refusing to do same appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Gov. Tate Reeves speaks to media during a press conference Friday, April 24, 2020 in Jackson.

Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday declined to extend a statewide mask-wearing mandate as COVID-19 cases remain relatively flat, saying “we should not use the heavy hand of government more than it is justified.”

He also called for any schools that remain closed to in-person teaching to open, but said mask wearing will still be required in schools, and at some “close contact” businesses such as salons and barber shops.

“It can be done safely — that’s been proven,” Reeves said. “There is no excuse to force parents across Mississippi to continue to be full-time teachers.”

Reeves’ decision to end the statewide mask mandate comes as similar mask mandates continue in 30 states. Reeves issued an executive order on Aug. 4 mandating wearing of masks in public after he had issued mask mandates on a county-by-county basis after COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in those areas spiked.

Reeves said he believes most Mississippians will continue to wear masks in public.

“I believe that masks work,” Reeves said. “I think the facts and data in our state and across the country bear that out. I still plan to wear one and I expect most people in our state will.

“It’s the smart and prudent and wise thing to do,” said Reeves, who has faced some criticism for himself appearing at crowded events without a mask. “But there is a difference between something being wise and something being a government mandate.”

Reeves’ executive order issued Wednesday will last through Nov. 11 and supersedes all previous ones, dating back to March. The new order relaxes other restrictions, increasing attendance at outdoor K-12 extracurricular events such as football games to 50% of seating capacity, raising limits on group gatherings to 20 indoors and 100 outdoors.

For college and university football games, stadium seating will remain restricted to 25% capacity, and attendees will still be required to wear masks while entering or moving in the stadium. Indoor club areas will be allowed a maximum of 75% capacity. A prohibition on tailgating remains in effect.

Reeves has, in turn, been criticized for being too slow or lenient with shutdowns or restrictions during the pandemic, and for being too strict. He said Wednesday he has always tried to balance his decisions, and “as a general rule, guidelines are better than mandates.”

“We need to trust the people of this country to look out for themselves,” Reeves said.

State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, who participated in Reeves’ Wednesday press conference, did not clearly answer when asked whether he agreed with removing the statewide mask mandate. He said he was encouraged that masks will still be required in schools, but said he understands the arguments of personal liberty. He said he plans to continue to wear a mask.

Since a steep drop in new COVID-19 cases from late August to early September, the daily average of cases has remained steady between 400 and 500 for most of this month. In late July, the seven-day case average peaked at 1,382 per day.

On Wednesday, the state Health Department reported 552 new cases and 12 new deaths, bringing the Mississippi case total to 98,190 and total deaths to 2,969.

The post Gov. Tate Reeves ends statewide mask mandate, urges all schools to open appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith greets supporters during a 2018 campaign event.

Health care, which Democratic challenger Mike Espy has described as his top issue, is the focus of Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s second campaign ad in advance of the Nov. 3 general election.

“As your United States senator, I’ve made it a priority to improve access to quality health care for all Mississippians,” Hyde-Smith said in the 30-second TV ad released Wednesday.

Espy has for weeks focused on health care during the campaign, saying he wanted to be known as the health care senator for Mississippi.

“This is the No. 1 issue for the Espy campaign. It is the No. 1 issue in Mississippi,” Espy said.

Various polls have highlighted the importance of improved health care affordability and access for Mississippians with a Chism Strategies/Millsaps College poll in January, finding 70% of Mississippians were concerned about being able to afford health care. And the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the importance of the issue.

READ MORE: “Cindy Hyde-Smith is holding us back”: Mississippians rip senator in new Mike Espy ad.

At the center of the health care issue is the future of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare. Hyde-Smith, a close ally of President Donald Trump, supports the president’s efforts to eliminate the Affordable Care Act. Trump’s administration will be asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the signature law on Nov. 10 — one week after the election.

In Mississippi, an estimated 600,000 people with pre-existing conditions, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, are guaranteed health care coverage because of the ACA, and an estimated 100,000 received coverage through the ACA exchange, with a large percentage of those insured receiving federal subsidies to help pay for the insurance.

In addition, Espy has supported the state expanding Medicaid, as is allowed under the ACA, to provide health care coverage to between 200,000 and 300,000 primarily working Mississippians who are in jobs that do not provide employer-sponsored insurance.

Mississippi is among 12 states that have not expanded Medicaid, refusing to provide the 10% match that states are required to provide for the expansion. If elected, Espy said he will work with the governor and the state Legislature to try to convince them to opt into the program in which the federal government pays 90% of the cost of the health care coverage. If unsuccessful with that pitch, Espy said he will work in the U.S. Congress to try to get the federal government to waive the 10% match for Mississippi.

Espy’s support of expanding Medicaid is shared by several prominent Republicans in Mississippi, including Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann.

Hyde-Smith has not taken a position on the issue of Medicaid expansion, saying it is for state officials, not Mississippi’s federal officials to decide.

Asked about what would happen to people with pre-existing conditions should the ACA be repealed, Hyde-Smith campaign spokesperson Justin Brasell recently said, “President Trump has repeatedly stated that he will ensure that individuals with pre-existing conditions will continue to be covered regardless of the outcome of the litigation. Sen. Hyde-Smith agrees with the president that ensuring continued protection for these individuals is important and so does Senate Republican leadership.”

Thus far, the proposals made by Senate Republicans to cover pre-existing conditions in absence of the ACA have been met with skepticism by many health care advocates. The non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation, for instance, points out some Senate Republicans’ plans have prevented the exclusion of pre-existing conditions coverage from insurance policies, but do not provide financial supplements to make the plans affordable. In short, the insurance companies might be able to charge more for people based on their pre-existing condition and might even allow higher premiums for women than for men, according to the KFF analysis.

In Tuesday’s presidential debate, the president was asked about his plan to replace the ACA. He said he had a plan, but did not offer specifics other than to say it would be better than the ACA.

In Hyde-Smith’s new campaign advertisement, Hyde-Smith said, “I’ve worked to bring more support for rural hospitals.” At least six of the state’s rural hospitals have closed in recent years, with other Mississippi hospitals facing bankruptcy and possible closure, according to a January article from the Mississippi Rural Health Care Association.

The Mississippi Hospital Association has presented a plan to expand Medicaid, which hospital officials said would help the state’s hospitals, but it has been rejected by state leaders.

The post Hyde-Smith, in new Senate ad, works to take health care issue away from Espy appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Scottie Scheffler hits from the 12th tee during the first round of the BMW Championship golf tournament, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2020, at Olympia Fields Country Club in Olympia Fields, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

So my task today: Pick a winner for the PGA Tour’s $6.6 million Sanderson Farms Championship to be played Thursday through Sunday at Country Club of Jackson.

Trying to choose a single winner from among a field of 144 might best be described as a fool’s errand. Nevertheless…

Rick Cleveland

The temptation is to pick one of the nine veteran major tournament champions here this week, including 2017 Masters winner Sergio Garcia, 2016 Open champion Henrik Stenson or 2011 Open champ Louis Oosthuizen. All have won on golf’s biggest stages. All have won all over the globe. All have played well recently.

The thing is, accomplished veterans aren’t usually the story in Mississippi’s only PGA Tour tournament. Here, youth is usually served. The last six winners of the Sanderson Farms Championship have been first-time winners, including Colombia’s Sebastion Munoz last year.

If I am right, that streak will continue and 2020 PGA Tour Rookie Scottie Scheffler will get his first tour victory here this week in his first start of what is now the 2021 season. Scheffler, a 24-year-old Texan who ranks No. 30 in the world golf rankings, has done everything but win on the tour. It’s high time for him to cross that off the list.

The strongest field in the tournament’s 53-year history is here this week. The golf course is immaculate. The weather should be sublime, October in Mississippi at its finest. This is what chicken magnate Joe Sanderson must have imagined four years ago when he signed on to sponsor this tournament through 2026 and negotiated the autumn dates. The only spoiler is the one that has spoiled 2020 all around the world: the COVID-19 pandemic, which will prohibit fans from attending. If you want to watch this week’s proceedings, you must do so on The Golf Channel.

And if you do, watch for Scheffler, the tall, slender former Texas Longhorn who hits the golf ball a mile and doesn’t back down when the stakes are highest. Scheffler was playing as well as anyone in the world from mid-July into early September. He didn’t win but he was a money-making machine. He tied for 24^th at The Memorial, tied for 15^th at the World Golf Championships in Memphis. He was just getting warmed up.

In the year’s first major in early August – the PGA Championship – Scheffler finished tied for fourth. He was fourth again two weeks later at The Northern Trust where he shot a remarkable 59 in the second round. He shot a final found 66 to finish 20^th at the BMW Championship and then shot consecutive rounds of 66, 66 and 65 over the last three rounds of The Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta to finish fifth all alone.

All that made him one of the betting favorites headed into the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. If you follow professional golf much at all, you know what happened next. On the Sunday before the U.S. Open, Scheffler became the first Tour player in six weeks to test positive for COVID and was forced to withdraw.

Here Wednesday, Scheffler pretty much stated the obvious. “Yeah, yeah, that absolutely stunk, catching COVID,” he said … “It definitely stunk sitting at home all week watching the U.S. Open, especially the way I was playing leading into it. I felt like I had a good chance of winning. It stunk, but it’s the world we live in. I felt OK… felt good through it all and came out on the other side recovered so all good,” he said.

Scheffler will be making his first start after a layoff of nearly a month. Clearly, he aims to pick up where he left off. Sometimes, in golf, that’s not so easy. Golf is a game of rhythm. And Scheffler was very much in rhythm before COVID struck.

“I feel my game is still in a good spot,” Scheffler said. “I think there’s still a few areas that are a little rusty just from having not played tournament golf the last three weeks. It’s a little different feeling coming into this week. I’m not as in rhythm as I usually am, but hopefully I pick back up soon, but like I said, my game feels like it’s in a good spot.

“A good finish this week would be nice. … Obviously I’m here to win and that’s the goal, but really just trying to go out in the first round and do as best I can see what I’ve got this week.”

At 30^th in the world, Scheffler is the highest ranked golfer here this week. He knows the course. He finished 16th here last year. And, he is no longer a rookie. Every PGA Tour golfer has one shot at Rookie of the Year. Scheffler aced his.

The post With COVID-19 in his rearview mirror, Scheffler takes aim at Sanderson trophy appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Are the kids alright?

During COVID-19, kids in Mississippi’s capital city are overcoming mammoth challenges unique from any generation before them — and doing it with grace.

Where the pandemic has illuminated historic unmet needs, it’s also put the community’s strength on display.

BY ANNA WOLFE | SEPT. 30, 2020

Kharter, a second grader at Galloway Elementary School in west Jackson, wiggles out of his seat at the Stewpot After-school Program where he’s completing a virtual grammar lesson and strikes a ninja pose.

He nails the look with the black facemask he’s wearing, not as part of a costume, but to guard against the spread of the novel coronavirus.

His classmate Khamiya finishes her schoolwork before begging the teacher to go outside, where she’ll dance on the porch on a gray, drizzly day in late September. She hopes her dad will take her shopping at “Toys R Us” later.

Down the street, Javier and Kelvi, a second and third grader, dart through a classroom at the Boys and Girls Club Capitol Street unit, snatching stacks of notebook paper strips — handmade play money — off each other’s desks. Kelvi soon loses interest in hoarding her stash and playfully tosses the fake cash, letting it shower the linoleum. Her classmates dive to scoop it up.

The last six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the deaths, layoffs, evictions and school closures, have brought immeasurable hardship and heartache, especially to Black and poor communities in Mississippi. The rippling effects seem to have altered most aspects of everyday life — except for a child’s nature.

“They’re still learning with virtual learning. They’re able to still play,” said Brooke Floyd, director of children’s services for Stewpot Community Services. “Like, I think that’s a beautiful thing, when you put kids out in the yard and they don’t have any toys or can’t use the equipment and they still have fun and you can hear the laughter.”

“To me, that’s letting us know that everything’s going to be okay.”

With more than four in ten already living in poverty, Jackson children have long felt the unmet needs — perhaps most visibly a historically underfunded and segregated school system — that the pandemic has illuminated in their communities.

Nearly every child in Jackson Public Schools is Black and lives in a low-income household, qualifying them for free or reduced lunch. School buildings never opened back up after March, spurring a frustrating fight to obtain enough E-learning technology for every student and sticking most families with tough decisions about where their kids will spend their days.

Unemployment benefits are dwindling and despite a federal moratorium, evictions have continued. And while efforts to get meals to children have been possibly the most valiant, food scarcity and affordability remains a persistent problem across the capital city.

This school year so far, the district has recorded 2,600 children — a tenth of their student body — as homeless, which usually means they are living unstably at other families’ homes. Still, about a third live in shelters or hotels. But this isn’t a COVID-19 problem: Last year, JPS had 3,100 enrollees in the federal McKinney-Vento grant to serve homeless students.

“A lot of our kids are so accustomed to going through a lot that it kind of rolls off them,” said Penney Ainsworth, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Central Mississippi. “Kids will adapt to whatever the setting is and what’s going on. But it’s a scary time. So they’re nervous, but they’re resilient.”

Playtime after a long day of virtual learning

Jackson Public Schools does not gather data showing where kids are conducting their virtual schoolwork, the district spokesperson told Mississippi Today, but many traditional afterschool programs like Stewpot Community Services and the Boys and Girls Club started operating at a lower capacity in the daytime to accommodate working parents.

Floyd normally has 40 students at her center, a bright blue house close to the city’s primary soup kitchen. The day camp is limited to 20 kids to ensure they can adhere to social distancing. These community organizations are, too, not able to offer the consistency and stability of the public schools. Just Monday Stewpot had to cancel virtual school for the day after a break-in occurred over the weekend.

“For people to expect the worst or think that the worst is going to happen, I’m not buying it. Even parents that are poor want their kids to succeed and they’re going to try their best to make it happen.”

—Brooke Floyd, director of children services for Stewpot Community Services

Some parents have jobs working from home, a separate, difficult juggle, but many are relying on grandparents, aunts, cousins, friends and neighbors to fill in the child care gaps.

Other families are simply uncomfortable with the idea of placing their children in a center during a pandemic, Floyd said, especially knowing the virus has disproportionately taken the lives of Black people. So they’ve done whatever they must, even altering their work life, to keep their kids home.

Floyd and Ainsworth said they have contact with many of the families they’re not serving during this time. They know they can call if they’re in need, Floyd said, “and they do.”

But child services coordinators also recognize there are some children falling through the cracks. Floyd recalled meeting kids over the summer that she’d never seen before while delivering bags of food to apartment complexes where her students live.

“Kids ran to the van. They were like, ‘Can we have a bag?’ And I was like, ‘Where’s your mama?’ ‘I don’t know,’” Floyd said through tears. “I was like, ‘Oh my god. Who are you? What’s your name?’

“They’re lost,” she said. “We help the kids right in front of us, but if you work with children, you’re like, ‘What’s happening to the other kids? Who’s helping them? Who’s checking up on them?’”

Onlookers are quick to blame parents, she added, but a longstanding lack of access to affordable childcare and the drop in unemployment benefits in August have put some working parents, especially those without family support, in impossible situations.

“If I am doing everything I can for my children to survive, unfortunately sometimes I’m going to have to leave them,” she said.

Left/top: Some of Jackson Public Schools’ fourth, fifth and sixth graders conduct their virtual learning from a classroom inside the Boys and Girls Club Capitol Street unit on Sept. 21, 2020. Right/bottom: Johnathan Thomas, a construction estimator for the Mississippi Department of Transportation, a Club volunteer and dad, oversees the class. When he first offered to facilitate, he thought he could use the time to complete his work, but a student in his class lacked a laptop and was conducting her lessons paper packets, so he’s letting her use his computer. He’ll work in the evenings to make up for it.

“I think JPS kids are well-adapted … The ones that go here, I think they’re pretty much well-rounded, well-disciplined kids … Everyone’s respectful and that’s all I can really ask for,” Thomas said.

Jackson Public Schools is still offering breakfast and lunch to students during the closures, which has been a big help for the private centers. But the district isn’t otherwise subsidizing these programs, Ainsworth said, leaving most of the physical responsibilities that usually fall on public schools — staffing, sanitizing and keeping the lights on — to a patchwork of community partners.

“School is a safe place for many of our students and not being able to be in that safe place and be around friends and share experiences and that whole social aspect of schooling has all of our hearts heavy,” said Bobby Brown, principal at Jim Hill High School in west Jackson.

Jackson’s youngest virtual learners

Even students who secured devices to use for distance learning have had trouble accessing their classes.

“We kinda have trouble getting into WiFi and stuff because it kinda shut down sometimes and we have to wait for a few minutes,” Keiyana, a fifth grader at Casey Elementary School, told Mississippi Today. “One time I missed class because of that.”

Khamiya, the 7-year-old, said doing all her schoolwork on the computer makes her tired and her hands ache.

“I don’t like online. I want to learn in the classroom. I like it (in-person) but I don’t want to get corona,” Khamiya said. “Whoever made it (the virus), I don’t know who made it, but they should have never made it.”

Kieyana, who attends the Boys and Girls Club Sykes unit in south Jackson, said virtual class is different in one way that adults might not expect: She said her teachers are less likely to yell at students over video calls “because they know that you’ll tell.” Keiyana is a good student; she said she’s getting all A’s and especially likes math and science.

When she grows up, she wants to be a pediatrician, a perfect mix of her favorite school subjects and her love of helping care for babies. She said she wishes her school had a gym like the one she plays in at the Club and that her teachers “would stop yelling every now and then.”

Top childhood development experts aren’t as worried about what the impact of COVID-19 and distance learning will be on a child’s ability to keep up with school curriculum. Susan Buttross, a professor of child development at University of Mississippi Medical Center heading up the Mississippi Thrive! Child Health Development Project, said she’s more concerned with the loss of social connections and positive adult reinforcement.

“It’s not that we think kids can’t learn in distance learning,” Buttross said. “People are struggling with making enough money to survive. They’re struggling with so many other social determinants of health, being able to access the right kind of food, and jobs and housing and all of that. So many times, the primary caregiver at home is not equipped to then be the teacher too.”

Anxiety surrounding the virus and grief over a death in the family only compounds the chronic stress children living in poverty already endure. Fleeting stress is normal, Buttross explained, but toxic stress, when a child is constantly on high alert and their stress response system becomes overwhelmed, can hinder their brain development and wreak havoc on their health.

Research shows that the toxic stress of poverty — resulting from economic hardships, racial discrimination, deaths of loved ones or living in an area where violence is prevalent, for example — affects the part of the brain used for decision-making.

Khamiya said her family recently chose to move into a new apartment complex in west Jackson that they thought was in a safer neighborhood.

“We’ve been talking about community. It’s the area where people work and play,” Khamiya said, then she answered how she felt about her west Jackson community: “It’s good, but I don’t like how be people be shooting and killing people.”

The location of prominent community service agencies, west Jackson also has a higher concentration of homeless people than other parts of the city, and therefore higher visibility to someone like Khamiya.

“Do you ever feel bad for homeless people?” she asked this reporter. “I got feeling sad because they need money. They need a house. They need to feel safe.”

Not only are Black Mississippians disproportionately impacted by the nation’s wealth imbalance — three times more likely to live in poverty than whites — they’re also grieving at a higher rate due to converging national crises.

Almost one-third of Black Americans said in a Washington Post-Ipsos survey that they personally knew someone who had died from COVID-19 — compared to less than 10 percent of whites — which coupled with a national spotlight on policy brutality has spawned a bereavement crisis in Black America, Marissa Evans writes in a recent The Atlantic article.

A pair of siblings in Floyd’s program lost their mom in June. Floyd said she was in her thirties and died in her sleep. She didn’t think the mother had been sick.

Another former student, not even 20-years-old, took his own life this summer after becoming entangled in the criminal justice system.

Right as the pandemic began, Stewpot’s bus driver died from cancer. The kids were heartbroken. And they couldn’t have a memorial service due to social distancing.

“People can’t properly grieve right now,” Floyd said. “It’s almost like, you have to just keep moving the same way you were before because if you sit still and think about it, you’re going to lose it.”

But researchers working on toxic stress have also identified the ways to bolster resiliency for kids facing adversity.

“The one factor that keeps coming out is having one adult in their life who is positive, a ray of sunshine for them,” Buttross said. “One person who encourages them and helps them along … Somebody out there who says, ‘You’re good. You’re smart. You’re awesome. You can do something.’”

“It might not be a parent,” she added. “It might be a grandparent or a teacher.”

Or a volunteer at the after-school program.

Ainsworth, the local Boys and Girls Club CEO, said she herself grew up in government housing with a single mom and eight siblings in Norfolk, Virginia.

“My four blocks of the world did not define who I was and who I was going to be. That’s my desire for my Boys and Girls Club babies,” Ainsworth said. “I need them to know that this situation that you’re in right now, it may be bleak. But if we look to your future, we keep exposing you (to opportunity) … through workforce development, college tours, and those things, the sky is the limit for you too.”

At work and play

Simultaneously, the pandemic has also produced a flood of resources and people called to help.

“Hopefully those people that are in need realize that there is almost an influx of support right now,” Floyd said.

This extends beyond the help that has come with federal pandemic relief packages, such as large investments in internet connectivity and devices for school children, increased food and unemployment benefits and extra money for housing assistance.

Jackson Public Schools received a nearly 70% increase in its annual McKinney-Vento grant to serve homeless students, some of whom also receive services at Stewpot. Faith Strong, the district’s coordinator for homeless services, said she hopes to hire more social workers who can work more directly to address individual students’ needs.

The Mississippi Food Network partnered with the district to distribute family food boxes with enough fresh and frozen foods to last a family several days. The Boys and Girls Club, the City of Jackson and Meals on Wheels partnered initially and delivered roughly 20,000 meals across the city.

“There were just churches with lines out in front of them handing out boxes to whoever showed up,” Floyd said. “I’ve been proud to watch as it’s happened.”

Even before the pandemic hit, Dole Packaged Foods, a subsidiary one of the world’s largest fruit and vegetable producers headquartered in California, chose Jackson as the first city it would bring its Sunshine for All program aimed at fighting food insecurity. The company called Mississippi’s capital city one of the largest food deserts in the nation. Dole partnered with the Boys and Girls Club and has been hosting a farmer’s market at the Capitol Street unit, where people can purchase fresh produce from local Footprint Farms.

“Me and my daughter have really benefitted from being able to come and give back on a Saturday, as well as the meals. It has been a big help to me, cause I’m a single parent,” said Ebony Yarn, a Club employee and volunteer. “I fall in the gap where I make too much to get assistance but then I don’t make enough, per se, to handle everything I need to do.”

Dole is also supporting local food hub Up in Farms’ Farm-to-Table Training Center and providing 1,000 meals to the needy; launching a virtual cooking camp that teaches kids about nutrition and cooking; and building community gardens at Boys and Girls Club locations.

“It’s truly unfair that the kids here in Jackson are limited in fresh fruits and vegetables or opportunities to go into a store and get it and it just came from the vine,” Ainsworth said, “but yet if they go down the street to Madison County, the food is being washed as it’s set down, you know? It’s fresh.”

The poverty rate in Jackson is about eight times higher than the 3.3% poverty rate in the city of Madison. For Ainsworth, these food programs are about more than nutrition.

“What I want to do is make sure that we are exposing our kids to knowing that you are worthy of any and everything that you desire,” she said.

The post Are the kids alright? How Jackson students are surviving the pandemic. appeared first on Mississippi Today.