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, 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. In 2009 the State of Mississippi took over the school district because it had insufficient funds, and was therefore unable to meet payroll. In February 2012 the Mississippi Senate voted 43-4 to pass Senate Bill 2330, to consolidate the Indianola School District, the Drew School District, and the Sunflower County School District into one school district. The bill went to the Mississippi House of Representatives. In May 2012 Governor of MississippiPhil Bryant signed the bill into law, requiring all three districts to consolidate. SB2330 stipulates that if a county has three school districts all under conservatorship by the Mississippi Department of Education will have them consolidated into one school district serving the entire county. For the 2012-2013 school year Indianola School District will remain a separate school district. In July 2014, the Indianola School District was merged into the Sunflower County Consolidated School District.
Indianola Career and Technical Center and Indianola Academic Achievement Academy, 10-12 schools, were also a part of the district. In the mid-2000s the schools 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 were African-American. Most of the White students who attend Indianola public schools transfer to private schools by junior high school. In 2012 Sarah Carr of The Atlantic said "While there's some modest racial integration at Indianola's public elementary schools, by high school all but a few white students have departed."
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.
