NASD Security Supervisor Ray Brown said he thought the student community invested “very little” pride in the actual structure of the facilities.

When Bailey asked which buildings, “need to go home,” — or be replaced or retired — several in the crowd murmured “Robert Lewis Middle School.”

Bailey also noted that the Natchez High building is ineffective in creating unity and order, since the outdoor layout allows for little coordination between teachers, students and any type of administrative management.

Larnell Ford, the NASD operations manager who oversees buildings and grounds said he thought every school should be rebuilt except for Braden.

“I think we really need actual new buildings,” Ford said.

When Bailey posed the question, the group at the meeting also agreed that the restructuring of grade levels into the way they are organized now is a result of racial integration.

“It was (due to) fear that white kids (would go to) one school and black kids in another,” Bailey summarized following casual discussion.

The district today, however, is majority black, Bailey pointed out as a fact.

“It’s going to be majority black,” he said.

Bailey said the public schools cannot control where white students go to school, but they have the responsibility of teaching whichever children walk through the door.

“Parents are sending us the best kids they have. What do we do with them when we get them?” Bailey posed.

The purpose of the study, he said, was to figure out the best feasible option for the Natchez public schools, which may or may not include total restructuring.

“You control the destiny of your kids, and you have to decide if you want to stand up and talk about it,” Bailey said.

Attendee Janice Davis asked Bailey whose role it would be to tell the community what the school district has decided to do as a result of his study.

Bailey said it was ultimately the school board’s decision, but the public had the right to give input for public schools.

“Stay in touch with the board, the superintendent…” Bailey said.

“(The district) can’t (fix the facility and organization problems) with bubble gum and Band-Aids,” Bailey said.