The Indianola School District is a public school district

School district

School districts are a form of special-purpose district which serves to operate the local public primary and secondary schools.-United States:...

 based in Indianola

Indianola, Mississippi

Indianola is a city in Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States. The population was 12,066 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Sunflower County.-History:...

, Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

 (USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

).

History

Isabel Lee was the school district's first African-American board member.

After the U.S. v. Indianola Municipal School District court case ruled in favor of the federal government on a Friday, the White townspeople almost immediately established Indianola Academy

Indianola Academy

The Indianola Academy is a K-12 private school in Indianola, Mississippi. Indianola Academy offers an elementary school, a middle school, and a college preparatory education to Indianola and the surrounding areas. It originated as a segregation academy....

, with classes beginning on a Monday. Plans to establish a segregation academy had been in the running prior to the court case. Isabel Lee, then the sole African-American on the board, recalled that no White students showed up at Gentry High School on that Monday. By 1985, over 90% of the pupils and most of the teachers in the school district were African-American.

Schools

Zoned secondary schools:

• Gentry High School (10-12)
• Robert L. Merritt Junior High School (7-9)

Zoned primary schools:

• Carver Elementary School (3-6)
• Lockard Elementary School (K-2)

Indianola Career and Technical Center and Indianola Academic Achievement Academy, 10-12 schools, are also a part of the district.

In the mid-2000s the schools (aside from Gentry) were Lockard Elementary School, Carver Lower Elementary School, Carver Upper Elementary School, Robert L. Merritt Middle School, and Pennington Jr. High School.

Demographics

As of 1996 9 of 10 students in the Indianola School District are African-American. Most of the White students who attend Indianola public schools transfer to private schools by junior high school.

2006-07 school year

There were a total of 2,589 students enrolled in the Indianola School District during the 2006-2007 school year. The gender makeup of the district was 49% female and 51% male. The racial makeup of the district was 95.21% African American, 3.59% White, 0.97% Hispanic, 0.23% Asian. 84.8% of the district's students were eligible to receive free lunch.

Previous school years

School Year	Enrollment	Gender Makeup		Racial Makeup
		Female	Male	Asian	African American	Hispanic	Native American	White
2005-06	2,665	48%	52%	0.26%	95.05%	0.98%	–	3.71%
2004-05	2,712	47%	53%	0.22%	94.40%	1.03%	–	4.35%
2003-04	2,815	48%	52%	0.18%	93.61%	0.89%	–	5.33%
2002-03	2,793	49%	51%	0.25%	94.20%	0.72%	–	4.83%

Accountability statistics

	2006-07	2005-06	2004-05	2003-04	2002-03
District Accreditation Status	Accredited	Accredited	Accredited	Accredited	Accredited
School Performance Classifications
Level 5 (Superior Performing) Schools	0	1	0	0	0
Level 4 (Exemplary) Schools	0	0	1	0	0
Level 3 (Successful) Schools	2	2	1	2	0
Level 2 (Under Performing) Schools	3	2	2	3	4
Level 1 (Low Performing) Schools	0	0	1	0	0
Not Assigned	1	1	1	1	2