Lowndes Co. Supervisors provide funds for MUW PR Firm
COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors is helping Mississippi University for Women take its message to keep the Mississippi School for Math and Science statewide.
Supervisors passed a resolution to provide up to $15,000 to help the MUW Foundation hire a public relations firm to get the word out as to why MSMS should stay in Columbus.
Earlier this year, the Mississippi Department of Education made a recommendation to move MSMS from The W, where it’s been since its beginning, to the campus of Mississippi State.
That plan would likely include a shared facility between the statewide school for academically gifted students and a proposed new high school for the Starkville Oktibbeha County School District.
The Mississippi Legislature would have to sign off on any plan to move the school.
That’s why local leaders believe taking MSMS and The W’s message statewide is crucial.
“Locally, in Columbus and Lowndes County, of course, we don’t have to convince anybody here it’s the right thing to do. Everybody knows it. And, so, therefore, it really comes down to the decision by the Legislature, so this needs to be a statewide conversation about spending state dollars on a local school district,” said Lowndes County Board of Supervisors Trip Hairston.
The Columbus City Council is expected to take up a similar resolution at its next meeting.
