Greenville closes Coleman Middle School amid mold, enrollment concerns

Greenville moved to close Coleman Middle School after district leaders said the building faced mold and leaks, and Superintendent Ilean Richards said she feared the Mississippi State Department of Health could force it shut. The decision landed in a school district already squeezed by fewer students, aging buildings and millions of dollars in debt tied to construction costs.

Patrick Ervin said a forwarded text message reached him on June 25 urging Coleman alumni to turn out for the Greenville Public School District board meeting, where the future of the historic school building became one of the most emotional items on the agenda. For many residents, Coleman was more than a campus in need of repair. It was part of Greenville’s civic identity, and the possibility of losing it touched a nerve in a city that has already watched other schools disappear or change form.

District leaders described the closure as temporary, but they did not offer a timetable for repairs. Coleman enrolled more than 200 students, and its exterior had already shown visible decay and disrepair in late April. Richards, who became superintendent in January 2025, has said the district is dealing with obligations measured in millions, not small sums, and that reality has narrowed the options for fixing every damaged building at once.

The Coleman fight also reopened an older frustration. Ervin noted that a previous group of Greenville High graduates had tried to raise outside money through the Community Foundation of Washington County to repair problems at Coleman, including the roof, parking lot and band room, but that effort lost momentum before major work could be completed. Those unresolved repairs became part of a larger pattern: Solomon Middle, Fulwiler Elementary, Manning Elementary and Ella Darling Elementary were already closed or repurposed, and Greenville High and T.L. Weston were merged after enrollment fell from more than 7,000 students in 2007 to about 4,500 in 2026.

The backlash was swift. Some parents organized a petition calling for an investigation and the removal of three school board members, a sign that the dispute had moved beyond building maintenance and into questions about district leadership and trust. In a district where regular board meetings are held at 430 Dr. Martin Luther King Blvd. in Greenville, the Coleman decision showed how closely school closures, public money and neighborhood identity are now tied together.