Barring a drastic change in direction, the partnership between Sunflower County Consolidated School District and Delta Health Alliance will come to an end on April 30.
With that comes the dissolution of Indianola Promise Community and over a dozen programs housed within that, including the Early Learning Collaborative that funds Pre-K in Sunflower County.
“To this day, I don’t know why. I just know they terminated the partnership,” SCCSD Superintendent Dr. Miskia Davis told The Enterprise-Tocsin.
DHA President and CEO Dr. Karen Matthews told The E-T during a phone call this week that more programs will remain in Sunflower County than will leave as a result of this decision.
Chief among the ones staying is DHA’s Head Start program.
As far as the end of IPC and the collaborative, Matthews said the decision came down to diverging approaches to early learning by DHA and the school district.
Matthews said IPC funding came from the U.S. Department of Education, which sets curriculum guidelines she said must be followed to the letter in order for the funding to continue.
“The contract between DHA and the school district was approved by the Department of Education every year, and it specified the Promise Community curriculum,” Matthews said. “And the school district preferred to use its own curriculum (in the last year), which differed from the DOE-approved curriculum, so as a result, we weren’t able to seek continued funding for IPC.”
Matthews said DHA had little choice but to part ways with the district.
“With the collaborative partnership, we were just not aligned with how to execute a joint approach to early learning,” Matthews said. “I’m not making a judgement as to whose approach is better. I’m not saying their approach was bad…It’s just that the Department of Education has some gold standard curriculum…They’re obviously giving us the funding for this for a long time. We have to follow those guidelines.”
DHA currently has a little over 120 employees in Sunflower County, according to Matthews. She said they have been able to place those employees affected by IPC’s closure in other programs.
“We didn’t lay anybody off,” Matthews said. “We have been able to move people to other programs in Sunflower County or other programs within Delta Health Alliance.”
SCCSD’s Davis said the decision will have a direct impact on Pre-K funding for the county.
“What that means is, in order for us to have a Pre-K program, we have to partner with Head Start in order to get funds from MDE (Mississippi Department of Education),” Davis said. “So, if they pull out, that means we don’t get MDE funds.”
Davis said the district filled 125 Pre-K seats this year, which should total around $250,000 in DOE funding for the district.
In spite of losing the partnership, Davis said the district plans to continue its Pre-K program.
“We’re looking for other funding options,” Davis said. “Early learning, that’s the foundation for everything that we do. It’s vital. We can’t lose it.”
Davis said she was notified by Matthews of DHA’s plan to dissolve the partnership back on March 13.
Davis said that MDE officials contacted the district asking if it would be willing to go to mediation with DHA to help restore the collaborative. She said SCCSD Board President Edward Thomas met with DHA officials who informed him they were not interested in mediation.
Over the last decade, IPC’s brand has become a big part of the community, even being named multiple times as the No. 1 Promise Community in the nation.
“Indianola was our very first Promise Community,” Matthews said. “It was a dream come true, at least for me personally. I wanted a Promise Community so badly. A lot of people in the Delta got together and decided that Indianola would be the perfect town to do this in. Delta Council brought people in from all over the Delta to discuss it when we were looking at that first Promise Community.”
The impact of losing IPC reaches beyond school buildings.
Indianola Parks & Recreation Director Carolyn O’Neal appeared before the Board of Aldermen in March requesting funding totaling around $18,000 to cover summer camps that she said had typically been paid for through IPC.
The city agreed to cover the costs this coming summer, Mayor Ken Featherstone told The E-T.
Matthews noted that even with IPC leaving, DHA has $11.8 million budgeted for Sunflower County programs in 2023.
Disagreements over curriculum were not the only frustrations that existed between DHA and SCCSD.
DHA had expressed a desire last year to purchase the shuttered Inverness Elementary building and proposed to invest at least $1 million into renovating the facility for Head Start and workforce development.
Matthews said there are 204 students currently on the waiting list for Head Start due to a lack of space in the county.
The district opted to hear other proposals in February for that building as well as the closed East Sunflower Elementary facility, a move that pushed past DHA’s deadline, which was apparently tied to grant funding, for securing the building.
During the district’s April 11 trustees’ meeting, the board decided to hang on to the Inverness building, Davis said, citing the recent arson fire at Thomas Edwards which gave the board pause when it comes to leasing or selling available building space.
Davis said DHA reached out earlier this month and expressed interest in rekindling talks about the Inverness building.
“We’re not talking about the Inverness building anymore,” Davis said. “With that fire at Thomas Edwards, we just want to hang on to our buildings in case we need them for our students, so we’re not interested in having that conversation… They terminated the collaborative without even giving us a rationale of why it’s being terminated, and then came back and said, ‘Let’s talk.’ That’s where we are.”
Davis spoke highly of DHA and the work that has been done over the past few years in Sunflower County.
“I would be a fool to say that Delta Health Alliance did not positively impact children in some of the things that they did,” she said. “I agree that they did. They have some great things.”
Matthews likewise praised SCCSD for its academic achievements over the past few years.
“I’m proud of the school district going to an A,” Matthews said. “I know they’re proud of it. I’m thrilled that they’re able to do that. A great deal of the credit goes to the teachers, the leadership of the school district. I think that’s wonderful.”
Davis said if DHA is interested in renewing the partnership, she and the district are open to discussion.
“I would take that to the board,” she said. “I think we would be willing to have that conversation… Anything that benefits children in this community, it’s worth a conversation if nothing else.”
When asked if DHA would be interested in having those talks, Matthews’ answer was succinct.
“Certainly, most definitely,” she said.
