By Christian Coffman

NATCHEZ — The Natchez-Adams School District will make changes at Morgantown Middle School in the fall to address the need for certified teachers.

In the past, the school was divided into two distinct academies — the Morgantown Arts Academy and the Morgantown College Prep Leadership Academy.

Each academy previously taught students in the sixth through eighth grades, which resulted in a shortage of teachers in both schools for core classes, such as English, math and social studies.

Next fall the schools will be reconfigured so that all students in the sixth and seventh grade will attend the Morgantown college prep academy and the Morgantown arts academy will be attended by eighth-grade students only.

Both academies will be consolidated into one building, instead of two separate buildings on campus.

“Morgantown will be considered one school with two smaller learning communities within that school,” Deputy Superintendent Zandra McDonald said.

The Natchez-Adams School Board approved the new configuration at its last board meeting.

McDonald said because each of the two current schools at Morgantown served students in grades six through eight, the district was having difficulty securing enough certified teachers for both schools.

Before the reconfiguration, McDonald said more than 20 vacancies needed to be filled in both core areas and elective classes for both of the schools. The new organization will allow the district to consolidate teachers, she said.

With the changes, the middle school should have enough certified teachers for core classes next year, with the exception of one open science teacher position, McDonald said.

“This reconfiguration will make certain that we are fully staffed,” McDonald said.

Natchez-Adams Public Relations Coordinator Steven Richardson said the district had already started making changes last school year to begin to merge the two academies which helped lead to the new changes for next year.

“Really what this does… is turn (the middle school) into learning houses,” Richardson said. “We’re creating a traditional setting.”

Richardson said new principals would take over for each of the Morgantown learning houses.

Superintendent Fred Butcher said work to reconfigure the Morgantown schools would begin this summer.