Verona Elementary School

Verona Elementary School is a small public elementary school in Verona, Mississippi, serving 364 students in grades PK through 4 as part of the Lee County School District. The school stands out for both its challenges and a few promising signs: nearly every student (99.18%) qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch — the highest poverty rate in the area — and the school's state ranking has placed it in the bottom 10% of Mississippi elementary schools for several consecutive years. In 2025-26, Verona ranked 348th out of 377 elementary schools with a 0-star rating, far below the district's 3-star average.

Academic performance at Verona lags significantly behind both state averages and neighboring schools. On the 2025-26 MAAP assessments, only 23.8% of 3rd graders and 27.5% of 4th graders were proficient in English Language Arts, compared to state averages around 50%. Math proficiency was even lower for 3rd graders at 18.8%, a 30-point gap from the state average. Nearby Shannon Elementary School, just 5.5 miles away and in the same district, outperformed Verona in nearly every subject — for example, 43.1% vs. 23.8% in 3rd grade ELA. Lawndale Elementary School in the Tupelo Public School District, the closest school at 1.57 miles, also posted much higher scores (34.4% in 3rd ELA, 42.2% in 3rd math). The one bright spot: 4th grade math has improved steadily from 12.1% proficiency in 2022-23 to 30.4% in 2025-26, even surpassing Shannon's 19.8%.

What makes Verona's low scores particularly striking is that some common explanations don't quite fit. The school's chronic absenteeism rate (21.4% in 2023-24) is actually better than both the district average (26.2%) and the state average (23.9%), and its student-teacher ratio of 12.3 is comparable to nearby schools. The comparison with Shannon, which serves a similar high-poverty population but achieves much stronger results, suggests improvement is possible within the same district. Verona's path forward likely requires intensive literacy and math intervention, along with targeted supports to address the effects of concentrated poverty — while building on the genuine gains already seen in 4th grade math.