By Christian Coffman

NATCHEZ — Thursday’s meeting of the Natchez-Adams School Board spiraled into chaos as accusations of racism were hurled between supporters and opponents of the board’s efforts to borrow money for a new high school.

Approximately, 16 minutes into the meeting school board member Phillip West suggested community members were taking racist actions by opposing what he called improving the education of public school students.

“The real reason for most of opposition to (the school board) is that their children are in private or parochial schools,” West said. “They do not care about the children who attend public schools.”

West said results of May’s school bond election support his position.

“91 percent of the black community voted for it, and 91 percent of the white community voted against it. 90 percent of the kids who go to public schools are African American,” West said.

“While some have legitimate concerns, the driving force, regardless of your attitude, is based on the racial composition of the students depending on public education,” West said. “I’m ashamed of this mindset after 50 years.”

“The evidence shows exactly what I am talking about is fact,” West said.

Members of the crowd asked West if he was accusing them of being racist.

Before West could answer one person in the meeting said, “We are not racist.”

West responded.

“You’re not racist. You’re just taking racist actions,” West said.

The meeting then quickly devolved into shouting between West and members of the public.

A member of the crowd accused West of not being concerned about the bills of taxpayers, to which West shouted above the melee, “You weren’t concerned about the bills when I wasn’t allowed to go into the schools, when I was paying taxes.”

Soon after, West was pulled out of the room by board members and the meeting was adjourned for approximately a half an hour. A police officer was called to the meeting but showed up after the meeting was adjourned.

Before West’s comments, opponents to the board’s intention to borrow $9 million submitted a petition containing 452 pages with 3,388 signatures.

The school district’s bond attorney Tony Gaylor said the petitions and their signatures would have to be verified and requested the board table acceptance of the resolution to borrow money, which the board members voted to do unanimously.

Petition organizer Kevin Wilson said he thought the number of signatures would not be enough to force a vote.

Wilson asked the board if they could be allowed two or three more days to gather signatures since they only found out about the resolution after most people had come back from vacation.

“We had 15 days after the Fourth of July,” Wilson said. “Everyone was on vacation, so I started this eight days ago … It was impressive that there were so many signatures.”

President Amos James told Wilson that the board does not have the authority to give them more time and the board attorney has to allow it.

Before Wilson’s comments, resident John McCullough said that after going through the salaries of teachers and staff in the district, he was concerned about the proposed plan.

“The schools currently have over 3,000 students and over 700 staff,” McCullough said. “That works out to a ratio of 1 employee for every 4.9 students. I still think there is room for improvement.”

Resident Randolph Trappey said that since he was once a college professor, it was his opinion that a teacher does not need updated facilities to teach children.

“All you need is a teacher, a chalkboard and chalk,” Trappey said. “Until you can teach reading and writing and basic mathematics, you don’t need much more than a chalkboard to do it.”

West requested to speak after the public comment session. His comments and interactions with residents in the audience forced the meeting to be adjourned. It was later reconvened 30 minutes for the remainder of the regular board meeting, when they discussed, among other items, preparation for the start of the upcoming school year, the district’s efforts to fill 18 vacant teacher positions and an upcoming workshop on bullying.