The Mississippi Legislature recently appropriated $7 million for the Winona Montgomery Consolidated School District.
Dr. Teresa Jackson, superintendent for WMCSD, said Rep. Karl Oliver worked with the Legislature to secure the funds that will be used for renovations to Winona Secondary School.
While Winona Elementary School also is scheduled for renovations, school and local officials visited the high school facilities to determine how to approach making improvements, according to Jackson.
“Rep. Oliver, Sen. Chassaniol, and county supervisors, Keith McGee, Willie Townsend Jr. and Ronald White visited our schools and facilities in the fall of 2021 to see the projects we were working on and determine our facility needs. We were able to use ESSER funds to complete a much-needed renovation project at Winona Elementary that includes all new student restrooms with touchless sinks and toilets and new HVAC units,” said Jackson. “We planned on starting a project at each location, but construction costs have increased significantly due to the [Covid-19] pandemic so we halted planning for the secondary school project until we could determine actual costs for WES.”
During this year's legislative session, Oliver worked on securing funds to do some much needed renovations to the secondary school, Jackson said.
“WMCSD is extremely thankful for the money for renovations to WSS,” said Jackson. “We couldn't do what we do without the support of our stakeholders including our legislators, city and county officials, and community leaders.”
Oliver said Jackson pointed out some structural needs during the school site visit last fall, and he shared an “achievable course of action.” Work on the school will be completed in “sections over a period of time.”
“It has to be maintained; it has to be safe; it has to be attractive,” said Oliver.
He said it was a legislative effort between the House of Representatives and Senate to secure the funds without raising taxes of Montgomery County citizens.
“Speaker of the House Philip Gunn, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Gov. Tate Reeves, they agreed with our plan of action,” said Oliver. “While [Mississippi] had the excess revenues, I thought we could apply it to our plan of action.”
