The Okolona Municipal Separate School District is under state control for the second time in 15 years. 

The Mississippi Board of Education voted to take over the school district during a special called meeting Friday. District officials had reached out to the state education agency on Oct. 30 because the school system couldn’t make its November payroll. 

“This was a difficult but necessary decision to protect the educational interests of students in Okolona,” State Superintendent Lance Evans said in a statement. “The financial challenges facing this district have reached a point where state intervention is required to ensure students continue to receive the education they deserve.”

Over the past two weeks, Mississippi Department of Education officials have been meeting with district leaders to determine the financial state of Okolona schools. The district sent the agency some paperwork that show a budget shortfall of more than $100,000, but other financial documents, such as payments to vendors, were incomplete, according to information state education officials presented.

Education department officials discovered that the district hasn’t had a financial audit since 2021, and has been outspending since fiscal year 2023-24. 

“That’s part of the work … for our staff to perform, really, a forensic account and review of their finances,” said Kymberly Wiggins, the agency’s chief operating officer.

The state board determined today that the district’s situation was critical enough to warrant a takeover, citing ongoing insolvency and a pattern of financial mismanagement and accreditation violations. Effective immediately, John Ferrell, the agency’s chief of school and district transformation, will become Okolona’s interim superintendent. The district will get financial relief through the state’s school district emergency assistance fund. 

Without intervention, Okolona schools would continue to have “an inadequate and unstable educational environment, thereby denying the students of the district the opportunity to learn to excel and to obtain a free and appropriate public education,” said Matt Miller, president of the state board of education.

The state took control of the district in 2010 for similar financial issues and accreditation violations. Okolona was also academically failing then. The state returned the district to local control in 2012.

The Okolona district enrolled 517 students in 2024-25, a decrease from 688 students in 2010, the year of the last state takeover. More than 90% of the students are Black.

The state Department of Education has taken over 18 school districts since 1996. Four of those — North Panola, Oktibbeha County, Tunica County and now Okolona — have been taken over twice.

In addition, two districts — Yazoo City and Humphreys County — were consolidated and put into a different form of state supervision in 2019. They remain under state control, but they were separated earlier this year. The two districts are not included on the department’s list of takeovers.

“This is a total shock to me,” said Okolona Mayor Sherman Carouthers, a lifelong resident of the area. “We’ve seen so much improvement. You’ve really caught me off guard. This is something I’m going to have to process.”

Since 2017, the district’s academic rating has improved from a D to a B. 

“The educator part of the district has done quite well,” state board member Mary Werner said during the meeting. “But the leadership has failed miserably.” 

Barbara Carouthers, an Okolona school board member and a distant relative of the mayor, would not answer questions when reached by Mississippi Today.

Superintendent Paul Moton and the majority of the Okolona school board could not immediately be reached for comment.

Clarification: This story has been updated with additional details about school district takeovers.