| Bayou Academy | |
| Location: | 1291 Crosby Road Cleveland, Mississippi 38732 |
| Coordinates: | 33.762°N -90.763°W |
| Pushpin Map: | Mississippi |
| Head Label: | Head of School |
| Head: | Will Reed[1] |
| Faculty: | 30.5 (on FTE basis)[2] |
| Ratio: | 7.1 |
| Type: | Private |
| Affiliation: | Non-sectarian |
| Grades: | Pre-Kindergarten to 12 |
| Accreditation: | MAIS[3] |
| Conference: | MAIS Div. AAA District 1 |
| Mascot: | Colts |
| Colors: | Royal Blue, and White |
| Rivals: | Lee Academy, Indianola Academy |
| Enrollment: | 350 |
| Established: | 1964 |
| Website: | www.bayouacademy.net |
Bayou Academy is a non-profit school located in unincorporated Bolivar County, Mississippi, near the City of Cleveland on Highway 8. The school serves about 500 students in grades Pre-Kindergarten through 12.The school is accredited by the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools.
Bayou Academy was founded in 1964 as a segregation academy.[4] In 1966, the all-white school board sold Skene Attendance Center to a white group called Skene Civic Improvement Society, Inc. for $1.00. The property was then leased to Bolivar Academy, achieving a transfer of public property to the segregationist group.[5] After the United States Supreme Court decided Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education in 1969, ordering the desegregation of public schools in the South, the all-white Bayou Academy doubled its enrollment for the 1970 school year.[6] In 2009, the old Skene school building burned to the ground.[7]
In 2021 the former elementary school principal was arrested for placing a camera in the girls locker room.[8]
Of the 372 students who attended in the 2011–2012 school year, 99 percent were white.[9]