Last week, Natchez aldermen — three of them at least — jumped deep into the middle of the latest storm engulfing the Natchez-Adams School District.

Aldermen normally live on the fringes of such school weather disturbances since the city board selects three of the five Natchez-Adams School Board members.

That means the highly political aldermen are sensitive to any public complaints aimed at the school board.

That’s a good thing; it’s how the current system of appointing school board members is setup.

But last week three aldermen crossed the line when calling for the removal of three school board members on suspicion the board had violated its own policies.

It was a conviction without a trial. Heck, I’m not even certain aldermen hold the power to officially judge in this regard anyway. It would seem the matter might be best determined by the Mississippi Department of Education.

Essentially, at least one of the three aldermen who voted for the removal of the school board members believes the school board has allowed unfair treatment of disciplinary matters to pass under its collective nose.

School board members who were reached for comment suggest the matters in question were never formally brought before them for review.

That may be true, at least in an official capacity.

The city attorney suggested the law doesn’t allow aldermen to simply remove appointed school board members.

That seems true as well.

All that said the proverbial cat is out of the bag now.

The accusations have been made public, so the school board needs to investigate the actions of the superintendent and any other district officials in question and explain and the actions of the district.

Alderman Ricky Gray believes the district should have alerted the Mississippi Department of Education when an incident occurred at Morgantown Middle School.

Allegedly, in the incident, a student brought a screwdriver onto the campus and threatened both another student and a member of the school’s staff.

How the district handled this matter differs greatly from the harsh handling of a large fight — in which apparently no weapons were involved — later in the school year at the high school, critics say.

The inference is that the screwdriver incident was more serious, but was handled more lightly than the old-school fistfight.

The reason, critics say, is that an administrator’s child was involved in the screwdriver incident.

If that’s true, it’s a valid concern for district parents. Disciplinary issues should not be handled differently based on who someone’s parents are.

If parents involved in either issue are willing to step forward and talk, the newspaper’s reporters are willing to listen. Without outside help our proving some wrongdoing occurred is downright impossible.

Of course, the disciplinary matter is only one of several that appear to be plaguing the community’s residents now.

The district has terminated a number of faculty and staff over the last few months, some of who were beloved teachers.

District officials have indicated the terminations were related to academic performance in the schools.

But the storm clouds appear to be more widespread than just a few bad teachers. Instead of waiting for this one to blow over, administrators would be wise to address public concerns openly.

 

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.