Summary:
The Winona-Montgomery Consolidated School District serves about 1,069 students across exactly two schools — Winona Elementary School (grades PK–6, 567 students) and Winona Secondary School (grades 7–12, 502 students) — in a high-poverty Mississippi community where roughly 99% of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch.
Both schools carry a 1-star rating, but Winona Elementary School is clearly the brighter spot. Its 3rd graders exceed state averages in math (58.9% vs. 48.8%) and reading (50.0% vs. 48.5%), and its chronic absenteeism rate of 16.0% is well below the state rate of 23.9%. Those gains fade quickly, however: 5th grade math proficiency plunges to 17.4% (state: 49.6%) and 6th grade reading and math both fall to 21.6%. Winona Secondary School is below the state average in every subject tested, with the largest gaps in 8th grade science (–22.3 points), Algebra I (–18.7 points), and Biology (–14.7 points).
The secondary school also struggles with persistence: its graduation rate is 77.6% versus 89.2% statewide, and 25.6% of students are chronically absent — roughly one in four. Both schools have declined sharply over three years, dropping from 2 stars to 1 star, with the elementary falling from the 47th to 24th percentile and the secondary from 35th to 22nd. Notably, Winona Secondary School has a better student-teacher ratio (10.4 vs. 15.2) yet performs worse, suggesting attendance and engagement matter more than class size alone. For parents, the key takeaway is that early promise in elementary often gives way to mounting academic and attendance challenges by middle and high school.
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