Saraland voted to separate its schools from Mobile County in 2006, with Satsuma and Chickasaw following suit in 2012.

By early 1836 the board had managed to pull together $50,000 in lottery funds, a $15,000 municipal loan, and additional private donations with which to commence building a school.

This included a large private donation from local millionaire Henry Hitchcock, who was also on the building committee.

The school board relocated to a new central office complex in 2007, leaving the historic building vacant.

The Barton Academy building was added to Alabama Historical Commission's "Places in Peril" list in 2009.

[12] In 1983 there were allegations that the Mobile County school board deliberately ignored an injunction against prayer led by teachers, but that year, Lewis F. Powell, a member of the Supreme Court of the United States, declined not to bring contempt proceedings against the district's board.

In 1987, there was another lawsuit alleging that secular humanism was being promoted but this claim was rejected in Smith v. Board of School Commissioners of Mobile County.

In 1991 Governor of Alabama Guy Hunt announced that the state education budget would decrease by $145 million.

[14] In 2001 superintendent Harold W. Dodge proposed removing all extracurricular activities from MCPSS schools in order to save $1.3 million.

This money funded supplemental salaries for people who do instruction for extracurricular activities, including American football programs.

Much of the remaining population loss resulted from the termination of a contract with Alternatives Unlimited Inc., an outside company, to operate Drop Back In Academy.