The Mudcat Report Episode 12: State Government on Public Education

The Mudcat Report Episode 12:  State Government on Public Education 

HOST:  Hunter Dawkins -  Owner/Publisher of the award-winning newspaper - The Gazebo Gazette, SuperTalk Mississippi News contributor, former Congressional Staffer, former Public Relations for the Attorney General's Office

PRODUCER:  Jeff Clark - Award-Winning Journalist, Multimedia/Podcast Host, Director for the Harrison County Senior Services

GUESTS:

• Dr. Carla Evers - Pass Christian Public School District Superintendent, Award Winning Educator, Administrator for 30+ years
• Jeffrey Hulum - District 119 State Representative of Gulfport, Vice Chair of Port Marine Resources Committee, Retired Veteran

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:07

Welcome to the Mudcat Report, community news, politics and culture with the local twist. Here's your host, owner and publisher of the Gaza Book is Deck, Hunter Dawkins.

SPEAKER_06 0:23

Good afternoon. My name is Hunter Dawkins, the host of the Mudcat Report, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community News Podcast. This is the 12th episode sponsored by the Gazebo Gazette, the Harrison County Independent Newspaper. Joseph Kelly, Attorney at Law, O'Duire Realty, Agent Stephanie Mankowitz. And we're always in the U.S. Marine Studio. I'm here with the wonderful producer of the show and my friend Jeff Clark. Jeff is a well-accomplished award-winning journalist, director of the Harrison County Senior Services. Jeff, how are you, my friend?

SPEAKER_07 1:06

Doing well, Hunter. I'm excited that we're doing another education episode tonight. I think people like to come to the Mississippi Gulf Coast for the beaches, for the entertainment, for the many things that we have down here. But I think that the great schools we have, uh from Pass Christiane up to D Iberville, all across Harrison County, I think that the the great schools we have are reasons that people want to stay.

SPEAKER_06 1:35

Yeah, and you know, this is not so much as you know, you and I try to stay out of donkey and elephant ideals. But with this being said, this is the state government philosophy on uh public education. And we're coming at it from two people that are directly involved uh with the public education field, uh one in the state government and one who is uh a high up end uh superintendent uh in that uh you know in in one of the best schools in the state, Pascushan School District, Pascushan Public School District. Uh and Dr. Carla Everett will tell us about uh her feelings about uh where the state is going and where the in her mind for public education and public schools need to head. And I I certainly trust her because she's been around the business for at least uh over 34 years. So uh Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 2:31

I mean it's it's an it's an ongoing thing every year as the husband of an educator or someone who's in administration now. It's it's it's a thing every year. They're gonna fund, they're not gonna fund, what are they, you know. So uh it's important stuff. Our our our public schools and our Catholic schools too. I know they don't receive state funding, but uh both all of our schools here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast uh are fantastic. And uh Dr. Ever is a good friend of mine. My my wife taught taught in the past school district for several years, uh, and she loved it. Now she's with the Harrison County School District in administration. But uh, you know, we're uh Dr. Ever is a good friend of ours, as I said, and a very smart person. I look forward to hearing what she has to say.

SPEAKER_06 3:17

Well, and then secondly, we have uh district uh 119 state rep Jeff Holm, uh Jeffrey Holm again, uh Jeffrey Holm III, who is uh coming at it from a different point of view, obviously. You know, both chambers have a little bit of different view on it, and there may be even be a special session call based on uh what the terminology of uh public education uh versus school choice uh that's one of the matters at hand of the legislature. School choice is a uh you know an option for a creation of uh of uh almost put it out there in an ESA account, which means that it gives the money to parents that want, or it gives uh parents the opportunity to send their kids to school wherever they want. Now that's uh a little bit of uh undermining factor, at least there could be a lot of negatives on it, but uh that's also a positive in some frame of mind. Uh it's it's more or less what it's gonna come down to, and we'll hear the discussion from uh both of these wonderful people. And you know, it's uh that's all you can really do. You can't really uh put anything more than it's a political thing, Jeff, but it's not something that you and I really want to go into. We're gonna let the the experts talk about it.

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SPEAKER_01 5:31

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SPEAKER_06 6:20

And I would like to introduce somebody that I have known for nearly a decade and has been the past Christian Public School District Superintendent, Dr. Carla Evers. Dr. Evers has served as an educator or administrator for over three decades. Dr. Evers, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 6:43

Hey Hunter, I'm doing great.

SPEAKER_06 6:48

I'm doing well. I'm doing well. It is uh it's uh, you know, it's getting better, it's getting a little warmer, and uh I'm thinking the kids are definitely getting a little more active, and I'm sure you know that better than anybody. But being a prominent figure, and yes, you are a prominent figure in this in this state for education, give me your thoughts about the recent Mississippi Department of Education strategic plan for pre-K through 12, which uh from what I remember, you guys have been pretty big on. Education that was recently approved by the state board of education.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

All right, honor. I had the opportunity of serving on uh one of the stakeholder input committees, therefore I'm at least appreciative for having had an opportunity to seat, have a seat at the table during the process for developing this new plan. Um, some of the things that really stand out to me as interesting is that this plan seems to enhance what we previously had by retaining similar priorities to those first five goals, but they have um added a new priority that relates to students attending school and safe, engaging and supportive learning environments, which really ties nicely in to our belief in Pastor Christian school districts that pirates excel when all are accepted, valued, and safe. Now, um the actions in this updated plan also align with our current initiatives that include promoting, again, the importance of attendance, innovation through the use of technology. And as you know, we are a one-to-one school for Apple iPads. All of our students have access to those as well as teachers, which moves us um that helps to move our teachers uh into what we like to call the power zone, and then it also gives our students opportunities to be more creative in their problem solving. And then finally, um the plan seems to have more of an emphasis on career learning and career readiness, um, starting as early as pre-K all the way through 12th grade, which then aligns with our current mission. We work with school districts across the coast like Gulfport, Hancock, and Bay Wavelength to provide opportunities in the areas of career ready learning. Um, however, we also introduce our little pirates to those same concepts as they grow throughout our system. So overall, I look forward to how MDE will lean into this new plan and how the um action steps will impact teaching and learning across the state and within our district.

SPEAKER_06 9:33

Now I know you're not a politician and I know that you're trying to stay like Jeff and I, kind of very out of the political frame of mind, but almost I know you sort of have to be involved in your career to a certain extent. Almost every bill in both chambers has die from the education committees and the legislature this year. What concern do you have in defense of public education for Mississippi? And I'm not necessarily talking to you about, you know, uh, is this matter better for this? Because I know you're not really concerned about what is going on with a private school, but it's not saying that you're against it. It's it's just saying what is your defense of public education for Mississippi? What concern?

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Well, each year our school board um completes a survey for the Mississippi School Board Association that kind of outlines um their their um their priorities for the year as it relates to um house bills and um educational law. So one of our concerns that um were expressed by the board was that um public dollars would go to private schools, especially absent the accountability that we as public schools are held to, um such as our accountability system with regard to the expectations that the state has for us in the area of achievement, and then in expectations for open enrollment for us and transparency in our accounting practices, as well as having to hold board meetings uh in the public. Now, having said that, I have to say that our delegation did support public schools uh through their actions this session, and I encourage them to just continue to hold that line when it comes to keeping public dollars for public schools, especially absent equal accountability. Uh, secondly, um, it would be concerning if there's no resolution on the pay raise for teachers and teacher assistants. I believe that our teachers and our teacher assistants have not only met the expectations that we have for them, they have exceeded them. Many um state education agencies across this country want to know what have we done. Some people call it a miracle, um, but I assure you it was not a miracle. What we did as educators in the state was done with a refusal to limit our children. It was also done with great intentionality, and it was done by an incredible team of teachers and administrators who came to work every day with the understanding that our children can achieve great things when they are held to clearly define high expectations for learning, and those same children are actively engaged in the learning process. So it was certainly, like I said, no miracle. It took time and focus, uh, which we will need again to meet the newly established accountability uh expectations, which have been raised for us uh moving forward.

SPEAKER_06 12:39

Okay, as you and I both spoke about it earlier. I'm not really necessarily sure what the bill number is. I think it's HB 1395, it could be 1935, I'm not exactly sure. But it's a bill that's headed to conference. Um, and you know, it's more or less uh directing the school districts to revise certain provisions uh regarding sale or lease of unused property. And because I know uh the Pascoan, unlike all the rest of the county schools, uh Pascracian district does have uh some uh areas of of leases or unused properties too as well. Is this a concern of is this bill a concern because it is going to the governor or going to conference, I believe. Is this a concern for your local school districts like the Pascotion Public School District?

SPEAKER_00 13:34

I I've not heavily studied this particular bill, but um looking at it um just quickly today, I don't we do not have currently have any unused facilities in our school district. However, however, at first glance, um I think a primary concern would be that it appears to restrict our ability to sell or lease without first giving the charter school's first right of refusal. However, it does exclude land sales. So um at least um they did take that piece out with regard to land sales, excuse me, land sales, but as it stands, this really wouldn't be a concern for us as a school district as we are A-rated um and it it excludes the sale of lands, if I'm understanding it correctly.

SPEAKER_06 14:22

Yeah, and that's another question, just a quick thing, and it's how much how much land does the Pass Christian School District, because like I I said, how much they have, like I said, they're different than the rest of the municipality schools, at least from the county. You guys have a little bit more accessibility, so I'll let you speak on that.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

So we do have 16th section property, which is about 640 acres. Uh, we do have, I want to say it's three to five leases on that property. Some of it's giving right away to get from our property to um their property, and we do have a few leases with the Harrison County Um Board of Supervisors to lay down um things of that nature. Uh so um that's basically uh the property that we have that might be up for lease. We do small leases like with gyms and um things like that when we have organizations that nonprofits that may want to come in, or even for-profits that want to come in and use our facilities for um events and things of that nature. But um most of our land is on our 16th section land and is reserved um for educational use, and we we have those few leases that we have.

SPEAKER_06 15:42

Okay, thank you very much. Final question for you, Dr. Evers, unless if you want to talk a little bit longer, but uh is and I know this this question kind of comes out about it maybe you might see it in a negative format, but it's it doesn't mean to be that but uh based on the accountability ratings that uh the school district has been successful with uh really for your time of service uh in the last 10 years as a superintendent. Is the accountability rating what drives the district, or is it the the overwhelming lot for you guys, or is it more about community service and activities with the school system or and with the uh your students?

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Yeah. I I think it's a combination of all, um, Hunter, you know, being in a district that has, in its history, being ranked number one for five years consecutively, you would think that accountability ratings would be our our number one driver. Now that's not to say that it's not important to us. Of course, we always want to be our best and we have goals established in our strategic plan with regard to um improving student achievement based on um how they are assessed on their math assessments. However, um we also understand that our children are more than an accountability rating, they're more than a number, though there is an expectation, like I said, that we uphold and expand our legacy of high student achievement in our district. When you look at our strategic plan, we begin with a vision that calls us to be committed to excellence. And I always say that's not just something that we say. Um it's not just what we do, it's how we do the things that we do. And that one thing is what drives us to accomplish our mission of working in partnership with our families and our community, to empower our students to do three things. So we we want to empower students to be college career-ready learners, to be critical thinkers and uh contributing citizens. And of course, like I said earlier, we have goals that we measure along the way to improve student achievement, is uh one of the important components. Yet for me, um, it's in those moments when our students excel outside of our four walls that I'm most proud of. And I think you witnessed that um this week when we had our state of education address. Uh, whether they become entrepreneurs like Prescott Williams or researchers like Jackson Roberts, who is currently studying at Harvard, are serving our country like Zay Chambers or teaching or working in our schools like Dylan Laurie or Tim Allen, or maybe they're even serving our city uh like Mayor Torgeson or Chief Woodson. Um we even have alums who are on our school board uh with Ms. Caleb, Miss Daniels, and Miss Fortonberry. Well, I mean, I said all that to say that it's it's it's those individual dreams that parents and students have for their lives that I think ultimately drives what we do to achieve. And um, as I'm sitting here, and I'm trying not to be emotional, but I know I started out saying that I'm great, but I do have something in the back of my mind that's just burning me. As I'm sitting here tonight on this call with you, um, we have a family that has 10 young people ranging in ages from the 20 or mid-20s to age 13 who are in a moment of need, um, as they've already lost their mother in the last three years and now they're at the bedside of their father. And um, it's moments like this that just reaffirms that our children are not numbers, they are people, and it is our responsibility, responsibility to see them first as humans and to ensure that we control those controllables while they are with us, that we educate them in caring environments and first seek to touch their hearts so that we can gain access to their learning abilities. And you know, that old saying is that they don't care how much you know until they know um how much you care really just is highlighted in moments um like this. So um just be prayerful for us as we go through these um next few days to try to support um these children. We still have four of them, four of the ten in the schools uh right now. And um, you know, achievement is important to us, but it is not more important to us um than our children.

SPEAKER_06 20:29

Dr. Evers, we thank you very much and we appreciate you coming on, and we look forward, we will have you again if you're interested. So we uh we look forward to it, Doctor.

SPEAKER_00 20:40

Hey, thank you for the opportunity to share tonight. And like I said, just keep us in your prayers as we work through this challenging moment with these children.

SPEAKER_06 20:48

We will absolutely do that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 20:51

All right, have a good night. Bye.

SPEAKER_06 20:54

The Gazebo Gazette is Harrison County's only independent newspaper publishing news from Gulfport with the Bay St. Louis every Friday. I this is Hunter Dawkins, owner of the Gazebo Gazette. If you're looking for local news without the hack on story after digital story, log on to thegazebozette.com. Add your name to the digital audience of 250,000 plus residents who already know where to find the stories that matter to them. I would like to introduce my good friend, District 119 of the Mississippi House, Representative Jeffrey Hullum III from Gulfport. Representative Hullum is an Army veteran and the first African American to serve as the vice chair of the powerful marine resources committee and has served since 2022. There's a lot of you know, Representative Holland there's a lot of uh you know feedback from both chambers with what's going on with public education to talk to me about. Where you're feeling this is gonna go, if there's a potential special session, what's it gonna what's it looking like right now with the public education for the state of Mississippi?

SPEAKER_05 22:12

Well, one of the most important things, first I want to say thank you, honey, and um also thank you for being a good friend for these years and many years, man. You're just a world-class individual. But when it comes to special education, education, we gotta understand where this push for school choice is coming from. This stuff is coming from a national narrative, something that's a part of Project 2025 to dismantle public education and turn it over to the states and break it down. And the state of Mississippi had an appetite for it on the Republican side, but a lot of people, even Republicans and Democrats, knew that it was bad for the state of Mississippi. Universal school choice is terrible because it takes away the investment in our communities, it removes jobs from our community, it segregates our students, and also it walks away some of the gains that we have made in the state of Mississippi. Now, here in the Capitol, you know, we have the people pushing hard for it, which is died really quick. The governor says he's gonna call a special session. We're going in this afternoon trying to see exactly what they're gonna do. Because whatever they try, they know they don't have the vote to pass it. So we are monitoring all bills, anything to do with education, making sure they're not sliding through on an amendment. So right now, school choice is still dead, and I'm here to tell you they bring it back out in a special session. That's gonna be another waste of Mississippi money because it's gonna die again.

SPEAKER_06 23:41

You know, Representative Holm, the thing about it is it's hard to see because especially on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, it doesn't really appear like we have this problem with anything, and it, you know, of all the accountability ratings for the schools that we have down here on the Gulf Coast, including Gulfport, Past Christian, um, and Harrison County School District. Talk to me about uh what efforts the those individuals within the school districts have reached out to you and trying to see if there's something that we can do to change this philosophy.

SPEAKER_05 24:22

Well, I've talked to many people, um teachers, superintendents, parents, and I even talked to some of the students about this thing, and no one has an appetite for it. Because one of the most biggest concerns about sending public dollars to private schools, because the tax is supposed to be used for the benefit of all people, not a select few. And there's no accountability standard or model when you put public dollars into private schools, because some private schools are already getting some form of public dollars when it comes to disabled kids and different things like that. But when you have the superintendents of these private schools say they want the public money, but no accountable standards. Also, when it comes to the transportation piece, some people will be given transportation vouchers, but the other will not. And then also when it comes to the schools, the public schools, some districts will be able to choose who get to come to that school or not. That's back to segregation. And Mississippi have come too far to go back to that type of Jim Crow rhetoric and that Jim Crow area of politics and education. You know, and what I tell you, most Mississippi fans rely on public schools. In protecting a system that protects and serves our community, our workforce, that's what we all must do, either in the seat or out of the seat.

SPEAKER_06 25:53

Representative Holem, I first want to congratulate you for your uh nomination for the Democratic Party that you received a couple weeks ago at least. My question to you is there is obviously you can't necessarily pay attention to everything that's happening right now at the federal level because you have your own issues to handle with the state level. But uh with a lot of this turmoil that's going on federally, what uh what message are you trying to send out there?

SPEAKER_05 26:28

But one of the most important things I want everybody to understand that we gotta have strong schools. We gotta have access to health care. We gotta provide a living wage for the people in our state, especially South Mississippi. You know, we have to have infrastructure that works for all people. We have to protect our veterans. Our veterans earn their benefits. Their benefits were not given to them. So we need to make sure that we are governed, we have realistic approaches to the things that affect our everyday lives. We got to make sure that our lived experiences that's affecting us at our dinner tables and our pocketbooks are being heard, not something soundbites on we see on the news and cable news channels. Because our economy, our workforce, and our rural communities have unique needs. And we need to make sure we always focus on the work and family and also just the people. Because we have people who done and served their time in the workplace for Social Security, they need to make sure that they have access when it's time for them. We need to make sure when it comes to prescription medication, you know, they have taken away the name brand and get a lot of people on genetic brand medication that come with side effects and being cocaines, but also affordability, accountability, accessibility. The elected official should be accessible and accountable to the people for which who elected him and who he's sworn to be over in the congressional seat. Even when President Forum is still a constituent, they have the same right to be able to have access to their elected official. You know what I'm saying? So that's that's where I come from with that.

SPEAKER_06 28:20

Representative Holem, well, this would be the final question for you. Um, because I know you guys have to check in pretty soon here for your afternoon legislative uh session. Uh that uh this question would be, you know, as you've spoken about the the problems at least from the economy, does it seem like you know um things are going to trend another way or does it seem like under this leadership in Congress right now, things are gonna maintain the same at least until there's a change in November?

SPEAKER_05 28:57

Well, right now, if we do not change leadership, what we have right now, we're gonna continue to get, but it's gonna get worse. Because as long as we fighting overseas and abroad, it's still gonna be uncertainty at home. As long as the oil prices continue to go up, gas prices go up. As gas prices go up, commodities grow up. We're not just talking food. We're talking insurance, we're we're talking products that people consume on a day-to-day basis. But one of the things I would tell you, I want to focus on the real fight, about solving the problems, not fighting the political battles. You know, I want to talk about safe communities, good jobs, strong schools. I want to talk about what the people of South Mississippi can get out of me and gonna get out of me just like the people 119. They're gonna get confidence over chaos. They're gonna get a person who values people or politics. They're gonna get a person who has a proven attack record of accountability with compassion. They're gonna get a person with economic responsibilities with real investment. They're gonna get a person who believes in law enforcement community, believes in strong military, believe in strong borders, do it the right way with public safety and civil rights, and they're gonna get a person that puts service above themselves. For 22 years, I put this country above myself, and I'll continue to do that.

SPEAKER_06 30:22

Representative Holm, tell everybody how they can get in touch with you or how to contact.

SPEAKER_05 30:28

But everybody, you can contact me on our website, and it's at Jeffrey Holm III for Congress at Gmail. And again, that is J-E-F-F-R-E-Y H U L U M the third or F-O-R Congress, C-O-N-G-R-E-S-S.com. And you can leave any type of information. You can if you got questions for the campaign, reach out to us. We'll get back to you. And if you want to donate to the campaign, if you want to volunteer for the campaign, and if you want to just see where we stand, we're asking everybody to go to our website and go from there. You can also see me on Facebook at Jeffrey Hullum, the third on Facebook. You can go on any social media platform. We want to make ourselves accessible. And also, if you see me in the public, just stop speaking to me. I have an open air, you know, transparency possible. Where you see me at talk to me, can I see you on the top of you?

SPEAKER_06 31:33

We thank you, Representative Holland. You take care.

unknown 31:37

Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 31:38

Gratefully appreciate you listening to this podcast. We thank you again, Jeff. It was a great show, and I think it's only gonna be better. You know, the more people that we have on, Jeff. I mean, it's it's you know, the more issues that we're talking about, because you know there's a lot of issues all the way all the time, not only in our state, but on the coast.

SPEAKER_07 31:57

So absolutely, man. It's just like the Barry Gibb talk show talking about issues. Um, which was a skit on Saturday Night Live with Jimmy Fallon that makes me laugh. But uh yeah, man, it's uh people want to hear from the from the stakeholders and the policymakers, and there's always things to talk about in the community. So I look forward to seeing what you're able to come up with next week.

SPEAKER_06 32:20

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And you know, this is a it's an important factor that everybody really needs to. I'm not trying to to give myself a bias, but this is an important stuff. I mean, we we don't really make as much money as you and I would like on this, and and hardly we don't make money at all off this. We make a little bit of uh a little bit of pocket change off of some advertising, but that's that's about it.

SPEAKER_07 32:46

Uh but it's an important thing, you know, and uh and and you do it and you do it well, and we're in all the spots now, uh Spotify, Apple Podcast, etc. But more importantly, people in the community are talking about it.

SPEAKER_06 33:00

So that's an important thing. And I know you got to to be there uh yesterday at the uh at the uh the manor in in Scenic Drive, and uh as you told me, there's been a bunch of people chatting about it. So that's important.

SPEAKER_07 33:15

And I I I I do want to mention that. Like uh it was a great event. It was for the Pirates Excellence Foundation, their uh benefit, uh fundraiser for the year. My my my good friend Brandy Viator, that's her venue. I hadn't seen it before. You know, I passed by it all the time. Uh it was lovely, the grounds were lovely. Um saw Dr. Evers, uh saw Bach and Kirk Kimball, saw Sheriff Haley, saw a lot of people, man. It was a it was a really great event, and uh I was glad to be there uh representing the pirates.

SPEAKER_06 33:51

Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, uh I definitely'm glad you you uh you went over there at least uh for the paper wise, and everything was was good, it was solid. And uh, you know, anything I can I can uh contribute to, of course, I'm gonna do my best.

SPEAKER_07 34:07

So absolutely, man. I'm glad glad to see the gazebo gazette sponsoring things like that. It's important stuff.

SPEAKER_06 34:14

Yeah, exactly. Well, and additionally, you know, uh we uh want everybody to make sure to follow us on the gazeboazette.com where the podcast will be posted next week, as well as on facebook.com backslash the real gazebo gazette. Additionally, the Mudcat Report, as Jeff said, is on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, radio, and Amazon music under the tag the Mudcat Report, and we ask everybody, leave us some reviews, leave us some stars, tell us how everything's going, good or bad, we'll we'll take it. Signing out, this is Hunter Dawkins, the host of the Mudcat Report. Now you know the rest of the local story. Good night.