STARKVILLE, Miss. – The following news item, from the Associated Press, was published on June 16, 2014:

“The Starkville (Mississippi) School Board has approved 5 percent salary increases for Superintendent Lewis Holloway and Assistant Superintendents Toriano Holloway and Jody Woodrum.”

“(School Board President Lee) Brand said each administrator has performed to the best of his or her abilities and continue to improve the school system.”

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The superintendent’s salary increased from $175,000 per year to $183,750. Woodrum’s pay increased from $130,000 to $136,500, while Toriano Holloway’s compensation jumped from $115,000 to $120,750.

This was a very short news item, and there was no mention of any sort of public input into the decision. If any citizens were at the school board meeting, and raised any questions about the raises, the reporter must not have noticed.

The obvious conclusion is that Starkville residents were satisfied with the way their school district was being operated. That must mean parents and taxpayers were satisfied with mediocrity.

The school board certainly was.

The fact is that the Starkville school district was not spinning any heads at that time with its academic performance.

In 2013, students in the district’s two secondary schools, Armstrong Middle School and Starkville High School, both regressed in their cumulative scores in the Mississippi Curriculum Test 2 and the Subject Area Testing Program.

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Both schools’ scores dropped three points from the previous year. The middle school was given a “D” grade by the Mississippi Department of Education while the high school received a “C.”

Ward-Steward Elementary did better, receiving a “B” grade from the state, while Henderson Elementary got a “C.”

Overall the Starkville district earned a “C.”

Those results were a mixed bag, at best. The “D” grade for the middle school was particularly worrisome, because it put the school on the state’s “academic watch” list.

Perhaps the three top administrators mentioned above had performed well enough at that point to maintain their positions and very nice salaries. Maybe they made improvements to the district that were not mentioned in the AP story.

But was the student academic performance strong enough to warrant pay increases?

It’s bad enough that a high percentage of public school districts throughout the nation award most of their teachers automatic, annual “step” raises every year, based almost completely on seniority, and not at all on student performance.

It’s even worse when school administrators are rewarded with salary increases based on so-so results.

What’s the message those administrators received? That the results were good enough, and the district was satisfied.

Of course district residents are as much to blame as anyone when tax money is used to reward mediocrity. As citizens, they have a responsibility to monitor all government units – including public schools – to make sure sound decisions are being made and funds are being spent wisely.

Americans will have the type of public schools they demand. If they demand very little, that’s exactly what they will get.