A large, vocal crowd called for more principals, a smaller enrollment and more district-level support for Robert Lewis Middle School Tuesday night.

Approximately 200 parents and community members attended the meeting to discuss the pending restructuring of RLMS.

The school has failed to meet federal No Child Left Behind requirements for four years, meaning school administrators must consider drastic options, including replacing most of the staff or becoming a charter school.

Superintendent Anthony Morris explained to parents that the problem at RLMS has been with the number of students who attend school on test day. In each of the last four years, a different subgroup of children — divided by race, gender and socioeconomic status, according to federal regulations — has failed to test enough students. Ninety-five percent of each subgroup must take the state tests.

But the talk of problems at RLMS opened the door for discussion on everything from principals to the primary schools.

“When the district first realized they had a problem at the middle school, did they ever consider gathering some of the best teachers and administrators together and sending them to the middle school to alleviate the problem?” Natchez City Alderman Ricky Gray asked.

Others in the crowd responded with applause and similar questions.

Morris said his staff works to recruit and hire the best teachers for every school.

“Every administrator at every school wants the best for their children,” he said.

The crowd also questioned why Morris was not supporting the current interim principal at the school, Larry Hooper. Several members of the public said they felt Tuesday’s meeting and recent failures at RLMS were a planned attempt by the central office personnel to make Hooper look bad.

The meeting was required by the federal NCLB legislation.

Morris showed the group a chart tracking the test failures at RLMS, pointing out that it began in 2002, four years before Hooper was hired. Hooper stepped in mid-year this year after Principal Bettye Bell had to step aside for health-related issues.

“I have in no way implied that Mr. Hooper is at fault,” Morris said. “Don’t accuse me of saying Mr. Hooper is at fault.”

The crowd then turned their focus to the number of principals at RLMS, saying Hooper did not have enough help.

Several in the audience pointed out that in the past RLMS has had three to five principals and that Natchez High currently has five.

Now, Hooper has one assistant principal.

Morris said the number of principals and the people filling those slots would be part of what the district looks at during the restructuring plan over the next year.

He said no additional principals would be placed in the school before the end of this year.

The group also asked Morris for more information on the subgroups failing to test enough students, saying it might be helpful to know which groups were in question.

Morris said the white male subgroup failed to meet the required 95 percent testing requirement in 2002-2003, but that he did not have the other numbers in front of him. He also pointed out that because the number of white males at RLMS is low, the percentage would be highly affected by just one absence.

Students who are absent on the day of testing are given a chance to retest, Morris said. The district doesn’t want to zero in on one subgroup, he said, but wants to stress the importance of the test for all students.

“Everybody needs to take the test seriously,” he said. “All groups need to impress that the test is important.”

Multiple audience members asked Morris why he was not more supportive of Hooper and the school, pointing out a recent article in The Democrat about drugs found at the school. Morris was asked why he didn’t “back the school” when the story appeared.

“A public school in any community is a mirror image of the total community,” Morris said. “Any problem that appeared in the general community at one time or another is going to rear its head in the school district.”

Alderman Gray later said he felt The Democrat unfairly reported on RLMS, reporting only the bad, not the good.

Gray asked for a boycott of the newspaper.

Morris refuted the claim that The Democrat only reports the bad, pointing out three positive articles published in recent weeks in the paper. One article he mentioned was about a group of ministers mentoring RLMS students.

Morris also said it was unfair for the community to blame the school district for all the problems with students.

“My personal philosophy is there are three institutions of learning — home, church and school,” he said.

“The school can’t take the rap for all of it. Home has to do its fair share. Society intends for the school to be the fix all for everybody.”

When asked to talk more about the drugs found and the students responsible, Morris said he couldn’t comment on student matters in a public venue.

Others in the audience said they didn’t feel central office personnel were motivating or supporting teachers at the school enough.

“You set the tone,” retired teacher Georgia Oliver said. “The attitude of you determines how other people are doing. Learn to be kind and decent with people. The teachers are frustrated and the students are frustrated.”

Oliver said she’d like to see more meetings like Tuesday’s where the public can be involved in the decision-making process.

Terri McGruder, a teacher in Tensas Parish and mother of two Natchez-Adams students, said the group needed to focus on finding a solution, not dwelling on the negative.

“No matter what the problem is, there is a solution,” McGruder said. “I have kids in the Natchez public school district and I have nothing but positive things to say.

“It does not take one person, everybody must make this thing work. We are not going to be able to tell Dr. Morris who is going to show up for the test. Some people are just not going to come; they are not committed to excellence the way others are.”

But that doesn’t mean the community should give up, she said.

“We can test these kids in May and we still may not meet the target. But we can open our mind. Sometimes you’ve got to volunteer. We need to focus on those young kids.”

Morris invited everyone present to express their ideas or concerns in writing to his office. He said more meetings will be scheduled in the coming months.

The school board will decide what restructuring option to pursue early this summer.

Tuesday’s meeting lasted an hour and a half.