History of Lauderdale County School District | Page 79

After the Middleton School opened in 1959, the following articles appeared in the
Meridian Star during the week of October 25 - November 1discussing the county school district:

Meridian Star, October 25, 1959

Our County Schools: 1 - Are County Schools Meeting Educational Needs?
Curriculum Shortcomings Acknowledged by Principals
(Editor’s Note – Jack Wardlaw of the Star staff has been studying the Lauderdale County School System
for the past several weeks. In a series of articles, of which this is the first, he will report on the state of
public school education in the county outside Meridian).
By Jack Wardlaw, Meridian Star Staff Writer

Lauderdale County schools are giving the county’s white children a horse-and-buggy
education for the Space Age, if criticisms by some of those closest to the situation are valid. A
group of citizens whose children attend the five white county high schools (outside the Meridian
Separate School District) have organized to study the situation and work for better schools; they
term the present setup “inadequate for today’s needs.” School principals who must fight the day
to day battle against overcrowding and insufficient facilities disagree on the answers to the
problem, but agree that providing a first rate education in the school as presently constituted is a
difficult task. Each is doing a man-sized job of meeting the task in his own way.