Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of articles looking at the issues that shaped the Miss-Lou in the first decade of the 21st century.

NATCHEZ — The end of a 15-year-old court order governing the Natchez public schools was supposed to mean a fresh start, but the story of the schools this decade may have more to do with perception than performance.

In 2003 a judge said the desegregation sought after in the 1989 order had been achieved.

The order prevented district leaders from opening new schools, re-arranging grades or hiring employees outside the confines of what the order allowed.

The only major change as a result of the district’s newfound freedom came in 2005 when the grade levels were reorganized. Geographic lines that previously determined where students went to primary and elementary school were done away with and now all students in the same grade attend the same school.

That change was a needed one, Superintendent Anthony Morris said, to improve professional development, unify teaching goals and avoid turf battles at the middle school level.

And the new alignment is working fine now, Morris said.

But dreams of opening a new school in an existing building or even building a new one after the order was lifted were dashed when the state announced funding cuts, Morris said.

“(Building) is written in a long-range plan,” he said. “But we don’t foresee being able to do that with the economy the way it is.”

And winning support from a community that tends to look down on the public schools may not be easy either.

“Fixing” the public schools was a campaign platform of many a politician this decade.

The public perception is that the schools are bad, test scores are falling and a private education is the way to go.

And compared to the state and the nation, the schools aren’t where anyone would like them to be, district officials will say.

But they aren’t getting worse.

The percentage of students scoring proficient or above on the Mississippi Curriculum Test from 2000 to 2007 went up in every grade level and every subject area except one — eighth-grade reading, which has dropped 3.4 percentage points over the seven-year span.

In the 2007-2008 school year the state rolled out a new test, which is scored differently and can’t be compared to previous years.

But the public has hardly noticed the improvements.

Morris said it almost seems to him that it has simply become popular in the community to bad-mouth the public schools.

“For the non-public supporters, it gives them credibility to do that,” he said. “I don’t fall out with people about where they send their children, but the bottom line is you have to embrace your public schools.”

Alderman Tony Fields, who is an assistant principal at the district’s Frazier Primary School, said the district and the city have to do a better job of getting information about the schools out to the public.

“It’s easy to blame those in charge,” Fields said. “But a lot of people just don’t look at themselves and say, ‘What have I done to help.’”

Local businessman Terry Estes, who served a decade on the Natchez school board ending in 2001, agreed the perception is worse than the reality.

“Private schools have gotten to be a part of Adams County,” Estes said. “That’s just the way (people) expect to educate their children. You take those kids out of the normal public school system and it hurts the average.”

Former mayor Phillip West, a plaintiff in the original lawsuit that led to the court order, said the district and the community have missed opportunities to improve the schools.

“There has not been the coming together of the minds to get something done,” West said. “All the court order did was give us the necessary foundation to take another step forward. We did not take the necessary steps.”

Moving forward, changing the perception and the performance of the public schools may be one of the most difficult tasks facing Adams County, all four men agreed.

“We have to change our attitude about it and all come together on the same page and be willing to address this together as a community,” Morris said.

“Give us credit for what we are doing right. Come see what’s going on. I think (you) will be pleasantly surprised at any building (you) go into.”

But Estes said the district needs new schools, so students can attend school closer to home and the community surrounding the school can get more involved. And Fields said in addition to more involvement from home and faith-based entities, the area needs a new focus on daycare, preschool and Head Start educations.