In the 1960s and 70s, the school districts were reconfigured so that most of the areas surrounding Starkville were grouped into the
Starkville School District (SSD). This resulted in a situation where the population of the OCSD had a median income of around half that of the SSD, and was over 90% black. Prior to 1970, black students from
Sturgis were bused to
Maben. One day before the faculty of the schools were to be integrated in February 1970, a black school in Maben was burned. The district served most of Maben and the town of Sturgis in the West Oktibbeha County Elementary (Pre-K-6) and
High School (7–12) as well as several communities in the western parts of the county not in the Starkville City School District. The East Oktibbeha County Elementary (K-6) and
High School (7–12) served the communities in the eastern parts of Oktibbeha county not included in the Starkville City School District. OCSD was taken over the state twice due to academic failure and mismanagement, and the state proposed several times that it should be merged with the SSD. In 2013, the Mississippi Legislature passed a bill requiring that all Oktibbeha County schools be merged into the Starkville School District. In the implementation of this plan, East Oktibbeha Elementary was closed because its location would have resulted in a school that was over 90% black. The district was dissolved under Mississippi law on July 1, 2015. ==Schools==