Recently, they arrived in droves at a forum with Superintendent Charlie Kent. Monday, they flooded a school board meeting. But by Tuesday, concerned parents, teachers, and members of the community at large still wanted more answers from Meridian Public School District officials.

A second community forum with school officials was hosted by the Wesley House Tuesday evening, and this time, representatives of both the administration and the school board were there to answer questions from concerned and sometimes angry parents and teachers about what some said is a deteriorating situation at Meridian's public schools.

Kent, Meridian High School Principal Vicky Hood, School board members Ed Lynch and Fred Wile, and Meridian High School Assistant Principal Bruce Pugh together answered questions, some of which were accusatory, from the crowd of about 150.

One question that came up repeatedly was about the perceived change in policy regarding MPSD teachers' ability to choose their children's school.

Kent said the policy itself has not changed, but its enforcement has. Wile explained that, with Witherspoon Elementary, Kate Griffin Junior High School, and Carver Junior School all closing, enforcement of the policy was necessary to distribute students effectively amongst the remaining campuses.

"We hear what the parents in the community are saying," Kent added. "We still have time before registration to address that policy."

Brad Sims, the parent of an MHS sophomore, was not satisfied with Kent's or Wile's answers.

"We've had a practice for 15 years of our teachers being able to take their children where they want," Sims said. "If you do something for 15 years, that's policy in my book... We have great teachers. We're not going to continue to have them for long (if that practice changes)."

Tonzyaan Griffin, who said he has three kids in Meridian public schools, also voiced his opinion about the transfer policy.

"If a teacher teaches at a given school and she doesn't want her child, or he doesn't want his child, to come to the school where he teaches, what does that tell you about the school," he asked, but added that he feels teachers and administrators shouldn't shoulder all the blame for poor school performance.

"Don't blame the teachers. Blame the parents," Griffin said. "All of my children are going to make A's and B's because I expect them to make A's and B's. It doesn't matter if they go to Poplar Springs, Parkview, or Crestwood."

Rebecca Combs of the Phil Hardin Foundation agreed that parental involvement is necessary for schools to thrive.

"Parents are the key role," said Combs. "Parents are their children's teachers. Even though there are over 100 people here tonight, there are over 6,000 children in the school district. Obviously, thousands of children are not being represented here tonight."

Combs added that she feels all of the community, not just parents and teachers, should be involved in education.

Nearly a quarter of the crowd stood up when they were asked to do so if they did not currently have children in the school system.

Marcia Russell said she has four children in the school district, two of whom have struggled with learning disabilities, but managed to make honor roll thanks to the support of family and caring teachers.

Russell appealed to the teachers in the crowd to reach out especially to those children who do not have strong family support.

"I can tell you, from those children who really struggle, the teachers who really care... you make a world of difference to those children," she said, wavering on the edge of tears. "If you cannot look those children in the eye and give 100 percent, then you should not be there."

When it came to questions regarding the demotion of the district's state accreditation, officials said legal issues forced them to be tight-lipped.

The district's accreditation rating was bumped down from "accredited" to "advised" after a teacher was caught using a previously administered state test as a study guide for students.

Officials could not say whether the teacher in question would be terminated. "I apologize that you are not happy with the answer," Kent said when the crowd jeered after being asked if they were satisfied with the information they were given, "but from a legal standpoint I can't get into a personnel matter."

Kent and Hood did say, however, that the "advised" rating would not change the status of graduates' diplomas or of scholarship opportunities.

An "advised" rating, Kent said, means that "a letter goes into the file for that testing cycle... if there are no other violations once that testing cycle is over, the letter is removed and accreditation is restored."

Kent said the district has appealed the rating, but that he does not expect to hear from the state school board until after the board meets in August.

Because of recent incidents like the assault of a teacher at Northwest Junior High School, safety was another issue that came up repeatedly during the forum.

Kent said the district has been in talks with the Meridian Police Department and has applied for federal grants that would provide school resource officers. He said they have also applied for a grant to place cameras in buses and upgrade existing cameras in school buildings.

"We recognize that we need an additional police presence in our schools," he said. He said he aims to start the next school year with two resource officers as well as a police presence on campus at dismissal time.

"We ask that all of you pray that we get stimulus money," he said.

Kent said the district is also re-evaluating policy regarding parents' ability to take their children from school at will because of an incident in which a parent removed from campus a child on whom police had just been called.

"That has to be tweaked," Kent said.

Kent took a lot of criticism for his treatment of teachers, which some members of the crowd said was less than ideal.

One person anonymously submitted a question asking why Kent seems to have "little confidence" in teachers.

"That's a misrepresentation of what I've tried to portray to the staff," he said. "All we ask is that the staff do what they are hired to do."

Kent said some teachers have resisted changes that have been implemented since he joined the school district.

"One of the things we find in education that is most difficult is change," he said. "Oftentimes when one is asked to make changes he or she often rebels to those changes."

He said he wants teachers to "get away from handouts. We have to get away from not giving constructive homework, constructive criticism... We have to establish relationships with the students."

Sims, who along with being a parent is the husband of a teacher, took issue with that comment. "He needs to have the relationship with his teachers that he wants them to have with their students," he said to great applause.

When asked by Poplar Springs teacher Diana Covington how many classrooms he has visited, Kent said that visiting classrooms is not one of his primary responsibilities as superintendent, but added that he will be seen in the school buildings more often next year.

Hood addressed rumors that the MHS administration has instructed teachers not to give students a failing grade.

Hood said the possibility of a "recoverable F's" policy had been discussed, but that, if instated, it would not mean students would be immune to failing. She said a recoverable F, while still a failing grade, would make it possible for students to pull up their failing grade later in the school year.

"We have talked about in the first nine week period not to allow a child to get less that a 60," she said. "A 60 is an F, no matter how you look at it... But if you have a child that makes a 17 in a class (early in the course), then that child is going to fail (the entire course)."

Hood said students who receive a grade so low early in the year that it cannot be pulled up are more likely to drop out because they see no point in continuing with a class that they are guaranteed to fail. Students are more likely to try to improve their grades, she said, if they have a chance of improving the grade enough to pass the course.

"Everything we do from the federal standpoint and from the state standpoint deals with drop-out prevention and graduation rates," she said.

Kent said the district currently has a 21.7 percent dropout rate.

Kent told the crowd that he believes the school district can drastically improve.

"In 1991, Meridian Public School District was the number one school district in the state," he said. "We can get back there... We are trying to move the district, but it's going to make people uncomfortable."

He said his main goals are to reduce the dropout rate and reduce teen pregnancy, but that they will be tough goals to meet.

"We need to change the culture in the community and also change the climate in the classroom at the same time," he said, adding that he is still new to the school district and still learning about it. As a new superintendent, he said, "You can't go in and make wholesale change because you don't know what to change."