The district serves all children within the county, including Starkville, residents of Mississippi State University,[1] and the other communities and rural areas countywide due to the state legislature mandated consolidation with the Oktibbeha County School District in 2015.
[4] Over the next few decades, the SSD became racially mixed, while the OCSD stumbled badly and was take over by state conservators on two occasions, most recently in 2013.
[8] After repeated failures and charges of mismanagement, the state legislature attempted to get the schools to consolidate, first in the 1990s, and again in 2013 but with no avail.
After the legislature passed a bill in 2014 forcing the SSD to consolidate with OCSD, the county was out of options.
[4] As a result of the merger, East Oktibbeha elementary school was closed because it would have been over 90% black and would not reflect the racial makeup of the district.