Welcome to PPS Starkville!
PPS of Starkville, Mississippi is the second oldest chapter in the country. It was established in 1991 to showcase the quality that makes the Starkville School District the best choice for education in Oktibbeha County. In addition to promoting excellence in education, athletics and the arts, the founders of the Starkville PPS chapter believed strongly that children of all races, religions, and socioeconomic backgrounds need to grow up knowing each other and working together. We continue to believe that quality public education is vital to the future of our community, our state and our nation.
The Starkville School District has over 4,000 students and averages 220 graduates each year. Nearly 77 percent of these graduates pursue higher degrees of education. It is regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and has received the highest accreditation rating given by the Mississippi Commission on School Accreditation.
Missision
Starkville Parents for Public Schools is a local organization working to strengthen our public schools. Our proactive involvement helps our public schools attract all families by promoting the strengths of the Starkville School District. We believe that quality public education is vital to our democracy and to America’s future.
Our History
The most notable recent success of the Starkville chapter of PPS is passage of a $26 million school bond issue in 2007. PPS spearheaded the effort to galvanize support for the bond issue. In May 2009, PPS sponsored the second annual Education Celebration Barbecue as an end-of-the-year celebration of achievement by the district. In January 2009, PPS hosted community leaders at a high school play to demonstrate the quality of the performing arts at Starkville High School.
PPS conducted a successful ad campaign in the Starkville Daily News in the spring of 2009. The advertisements focused on the quality of the district. To see the individual ads, click below.
Building for the Future (2010-2011)
The Legends of Sleepy Hollow
Experience Starkville School District
Building for the Future (2009-2010)
Welcome to Kindergarten
Realize Your Dreams
Success in Starkville School District
PPS of Starkville launched itself as a public school promotional organization recruiting families to enroll their children in public schools. The group began an effective newspaper advertising campaign featuring testimonials from a diverse selection of local public school families highlighting a variety of reasons they choose the public schools. PPS began offering parent-led school tours to the city’s newcomers, and these were so successful that the district now runs this project using PPS and non-PPS parents.
In 2006, the chapter decided to take a new approach to recruiting young children to their school district. To let parents new to the district know more about what makes the public schools unique to their community, PPS and the Starkville School District sponsored a field trip for rising kindergarteners and their families to a nearby national wildlife refuge where the school district’s state-of-the-art education center is located. PPS also used a PPS National Ad featuring native Mississippian Morgan Freeman to help promote their public schools, running it on local cable television, concentrating on channels popular with children and their families.
District administrators and the school board see PPS as an ally and are open to working with PPS to address major concerns of local parents. PPS conducted a survey that brought to light several academic and safety concerns that were shared with administrators and the school board. Solutions have been implemented. The chapter continues to be instrumental in informing their community with statewide efforts to help combat additional cuts to the Mississippi Adequate Education Program and was a public proponent for a local tax millage increase to help offset the decrease of funds received from the State.
PPS has helped to financially support Starkville High School’s participation in the Scholastic Arts competition, which has gained national recognition for the high school. To further promote the Arts, PPS of Starkville hosted an annual citywide event known as the Celebration of the Arts. The event, held at a local bed and breakfast hotel, featured performances and visual art by public school students and an auction of art by local and regional artists. This event not only raised money for PPS, but also offered an opportunity to showcase the wonderful talent that is nurtured in the public schools of Starkville. The chapter also helped fund a science lab at the 3rd grade school, benefiting students for many years in the future.