The Mississippi School of the Arts in Brookhaven may once againbe drawing fire from members of the Legislature who previouslywished to see it uprooted from the city.

In comments made to the Associated Press Thursday about thestate’s worsening tax revenues, House Appropriations CommitteeChairman Johnny Stringer, D-Montrose, said the state could notafford to continue operating MSA apart from its sister school, theMississippi School for Mathematics and Science, which is located onthe campus of the Mississippi University for Women in Columbus.Both schools are residential high schools for advanced juniors andseniors, and are about 230 miles apart.

Earlier this year, Stringer and House Education CommitteeChairman Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, co-sponsored House Bill 1555,which would have moved MSA alongside MSMS in what was touted as amoney-saving measure. The House defeated the bill by a vote of73-43 after Brookhaven community leaders and legislators fromacross Southwest Mississippi and other areas rose to the artschool’s defense.

The bill was voted down because of a myriad of reasons,including the high cost of renovating abandoned buildings at MUWbefore MSA students could move there, the likelihood of upsettingthe arts school’s successful academic record and the future of thestate-funded property at the Brookhaven campus. If MSA were moved,the buildings and grounds would come under the control of the cityof Brookhaven via a reverter clause in the property deed.

Now, with tax revenues falling month after month and Gov. HaleyBarbour cutting funding for state programs, Stringer is againtalking about the possibility of combining the schools. But new MSADirector Suzanne Hirsch said leaving MSA in Brookhaven would makethe most sense financially.

“The reality is that if you put our numbers out there, look atthe actual cost and not the cost people have inflated, we cost lessper student per year than MSMS,” she said. “Our students wereoffered $3.2 million in scholarships last year, and that’s morethan our total operating budget of $2.9 million. We’re doingsomething right.”

Hirsch said MSA is engaging in an education campaign to make thestate aware of its runaway academic and artistic successes.

MSA Foundation Chairman Bill Sones said combining MSA and MSMSis a good idea, and the arts school is ready and willing toaccommodate MSMS students on its Brookhaven campus. The same ideawas proposed during last year’s debate.

“We believe it’s vital to have that school in Mississippi, andwe believe Brookhaven is absolutely the best location for it,”Sones said. “We just think the school is important, and there is nodoubt the small town setting for this school is better than puttingthese kids on a college campus (at MUW). Brookhaven embraces thesestudents.”

Stringer has not yet publicly stated a plan for moving theschool, but the chairman’s previous bill did not address severalproblems with moving MSA to Columbus, namely the lack of facilitieson MUW’s campus and what would have been a high cost to tax payersto renovate older buildings there.

Stringer and Brown told other members of the House during theMSA debates in late January the arts school could merge with MSMSimmediately, that plenty of instructional and residential spaceexisted on the MUW campus.

However, MUW Vice President for Finance and Administration NoraMiller said the campus’s buildings were empty and unused, and wouldrequire renovations throughout before being able to house about 120transfers from MSA.

When asked in January if the campus was able to accept MSAstudents in the event of the school’s closure in Brookhaven, shereplied, “Sure, as long as some funds come with it.”

Problems with MUW facilities cited by Miller in January includedthe need for total renovations to electrical systems, heating andair systems and the replacement of bathrooms “built forthird-graders” in the former elementary school that would have beenused by MSA students. MUW is also without the dance floors, concerthalls and other performance spaces needed by arts students.

Besides the need to invest potentially millions of tax dollarsin MUW renovations before the arts school could be moved, MSA andBrookhaven leaders cited other problems, among them theinstructional awkwardness of combining two groups of studentspursuing totally different educations, the dangers and distractionsof moving high school students alongside college-age students andthe fate of tens of millions of dollars worth of property at thecurrent MSA campus.