schools, are not required to take Mississippi state standardized tests. Interactions with government agencies In a two-year period ending in 2012, according to officials of the Indianola School District, IA received $56,000 in Title II professional development funds. Sarah Carr of The Atlantic said that Indianola residents told her that "apart from that exchange of money, there's little formal or informal interaction between the academy and the public school system". Athletics In the Mississippi Delta typically private academies play other private academies in interscholastic sports. Indianola Academy does not play Gentry High School, the public high school in Indianola. Throughout most of its history the school held control of an American football field adjacent to the former public junior high school, which now contains the public early childhood center. The academy places its "IA" logo on the buildings of the field and it has a barbed wire fence around the perimeter of the field. It does not share the facility with other agencies. Sarah Carr of The Atlantic said that the fence is "a stark reminder that outsiders should stay away" and that the logos are "like territorial markings." Leaders in the City of Indianola said that the American Legion owns the land. Carr said that IA maintains control of the field "for reasons that remain the subject of urban legend in town". Alumni Steve Yarbrough - Novelist See also Segregation academies White Citizens' Council References Moye, J. Todd. Let the People Decide: Black Freedom and White Resistance Movements in Sunflower County, Mississippi, 1945-1986. University of North Carolina Press, 2004. , 9780807876701. Notes External links Indianola Academy Website - IAOnline 1965 establishments in Mississippi Educational institutions established in 1965 Schools in Sunflower County, Mississippi Segregation academies in Mississippi Private K-12 schools in Mississippi Preparatory schools in Mississippi