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Individuals attending the Parents for Public Schools May 2, 2012, Lunch Bunch meeting, submitted questions in writing related to the district's rezoning process. JPS Interim Superintendent Dr. Jayne B. Sargent and district officials involved in this effort have addressed these forty-five questions below.
For more information, contact Eric Stringfellow, communications consultant for JPS rezoning, at 601-983-9490.
- Are both Academic and Performing Arts APAC students moving to Bailey?
- Both arts and academic APAC students will be considered to attend Bailey if they are in good academic standing for participation in both programs. Arts program students who are in good academic standing will be dually-enrolled in performing/visual arts and academic courses.
- Why are all of the special programs being pulled out of South Jackson, and how will transportation be handled for those students?
- Spacing is limited in many of our schools due to overcrowding.
- Students are forced out of their home schools because of overcrowding.
- Why move Bailey students when they had the highest graduation rate in 2011 compared to other schools?
- Class sizes are too small.
- Bailey is the smallest high school in the district.
- Currently, the district is busing students from other high schools to maintain the student population.
- You were quoted by one of the television stations as saying, “The goal is to get more children going to their community schools.” But it seems that 90% of the plan focuses on special programs. Why doesn’t the plan align with the intent?
- The plan aligns with the total rezoning effort in the district.
- 53 of the 59 schools in the JPSD will be more community based than they have been since the 80s.
- Two out of the 53 schools are configured as schools within schools – for example, Jim Hill and Murrah.
- Did we consider the students in this equation?
- Yes, the students were considered.
- The last time the school district totally rezoned school attendance lines was in the 1980s, and the purpose was to desegregate schools.
- It is past time to restructure community-centered schools that are more convenient to parents.
- What was the goal of the district in the rezoning?
- To be good stewards of taxpayers’ money and create community based schools.
- What specific things were taken into consideration before the decision was made to make these changes?
- Capacity of school buildings
- Pupil to teacher ratio
- Community schools and potential savings
- What specific examples did you look at before making this decision?
- The 1980s zone lines
- Under used school buildings
- Overcrowded buildings
- Future housing developments in the city
- Brown, George and Galloway elementary schools have some of the lowest enrollment among JPS elementary schools. Why weren’t these schools included in the reshifting of students?
- Elementary structured schools cannot be used for secondary purpose. (e.g., gym, band halls, athletic practice fields)
- In regard to the selection of the IB middle school, Northwest is quite a distance for students living in South Jackson. Is this their only option in school selections?
- Northwest is the only option for Middle School IB.
- Northwest was selected based on overcrowding in South Jackson.
- Does this rezoning really have to do with test scores? APAC test scores are not being reflected when combined with regular class student scores.
- Rezoning is not about test scores.
- How does rezoning help the schools in South Jackson when the only schools mentioned are in North Jackson? Please tell the truth. Parents and students deserve it.
- The rezoning will help with the overcrowded schools in South Jackson.
- Special Programs eliminate space for the students residing in South Jackson.
- There has been an increase in population in South Jackson.
- Will Northwest be an all IB school for middle school students?
- McWillie currently has over 700 students according to the most recent Mississippi Assessment and Accountability Reporting System (MAARS) report. Will some students be rezoned from McWillie to accommodate the new students from Van Winkle?
- Yes, students will be rezoned from McWillie to accommodate the new students.
- McWillie will house only Montessori students.
- There will be no regular program children attending McWillie.
- We have a friend who is a Montessori teacher who has been hired to work at Van Winkle. Will the Van Winkle Montessori teachers be moved to McWillie?
- Yes, The teachers will follow the students as needed.
- Will the Power APAC site still be used for the performing arts students?
- Are extracurricular activities being planned for children moving into the new APAC middle school?
- Yes, the school will offer all extracurricular activities that are at other middle schools.
- How will this be handled, given that students making up this population may have already been selected for sports teams, cheerleading, etc.?
- Only cheerleaders, drill teams and flag teams have been selected.
- Students will automatically be on the respective team(s).
- With so many parents being upset about the rezoning, is there any way it will be reversed? (I am for the change!)
- Based on the financial status of the district and overcrowding in South Jackson, the decision will not be reversed.
- How will the rezoning impact the other initiatives that will be implemented for the 2012-2013 school year? (For example, common core, sex education, career pathways, the restructuring of the district, etc.)
- The rezoning will not impact these initiatives.
- Where will the other forums be held and on which dates?
- This information is on the district website, and the website will be constantly updated.
- With an already strapped budget, how will rezoning impact the budget for the upcoming year and future years?
- The plan is expected to reduce expenditures in the future.
- Will the rezoning affect students at Casey and Davis? If so, how?
- Rezoning will not affect Davis.
- Less than 30 students will be rezoned to Casey from McWillie and Boyd.
- What happens if Chastain, Peeples, and Powell scores go down because APAC kids are gone? Is there a bigger middle school plan that this rezoning heralds?
- We do not expect scores to change.
- The staff will continue to help all students succeed.
- How will the traditional children benefit from the rezoning process when they will be pulled from their community schools?
- Traditional children are not being pulled from their community schools.
- There are less than 4,000 students being affected in the complete rezoning effort.
- Those 4,000 students are being placed in a school closer to their neighborhood or they have been selected to be in a special program (APAC, IB, Montessori).
- Is there more to this plan that has not been disclosed?
- What are the plans for the abandoned buildings? For example, moving departments into them or demolishing them?
- The district will use Bradley to house our Security Department and our Compulsory Attendance officers.
- How will transportation be impacted?
- There will be additional routes for some buses, but the savings have not been determined yet.
- According to The Clarion Ledger, fifth, eighth and twelfth graders may remain at their current schools (except Bailey Magnet High School).
- Rising fifth, eighth, and twelfth graders may remain at their current school.
- Transportation will be provided one year for seniors only.
- No transportation will be provided for students in grades 5 and 8.
- How will this affect the APAC school and the high school students enrolled in the arts program?
- They will not be affected.
- Are performing arts students moving to Bailey as well, or only academic APAC students?
- Why did it take so long to consolidate APAC and IB programs into a school for each?
- Over the years the population in Jackson has shifted from north to south.
- The financial status of the district was necessary to make changes at this time.
- When will the staff for the new APAC middle school be in place, and how will parents be notified?
- We are currently planning for the staff of the school, and every teacher in JPS will be notified at the same time about contracts and placements.
- The parents will receive letters to let them know where their child or children will attend school.
- Will the teachers remain at their schools?
- It will be based on the number of students and staff need to accommodate students.
- Murrah is already extremely overcrowded. If they move some of the Bailey students to Murrah, won’t that add to the problem?
- No, because some students will be shifted from Murrah in the overall zoning process.
- Will rezoning cause class sizes to increase? If so, what will be the teacher student ratio?
- Class sizes could possibly increase.
- One of our main focus of the rezoning process was to increase/align student/teacher ratio with the state standards.
- As a parent of a Bradley student(s), my question is why is a high performing school being closed? Also, did JPS have prior knowledge of Bradley being closed?
- The school was closed based on size.
- The performance of a school depends on its students, and we believe that students at Bradley will continue to perform at a high level regardless of the school.
- Why was a proposal of a new school being built not possible before closing the school?
- School overcrowding was not the issue at Bradley.
- K-2 and 3-5 schools will be consolidated due to budget restraints.
- Why didn’t the Board consult with the public through public meetings before deciding on the rezoning?
- Due to budget constraints beyond our control, an objective decision needed to be made immediately.
- When is the detailed plan going to become available?
- Will the Van Winkle Montessori children be bused to McWillie? If so, will that incur an additional fuel expense? If so, will the children in the Van Winkle zone be picked up earlier in the morning to get to school on time?
- Yes, the Van Winkle Montessori children will be bused to McWillie.
- Additional fuel expense may be incurred for those students, but it will balance itself out with other savings.
- The children will be picked up and delivered to school in a timely manner.
- How can the public obtain a zone map and/or list of streets in the zone for each school?
- A complete set of maps and the listing of streets will be placed on the JPS Website.
- When will the parents know if their child/children are being rezoned?
- Parents are being notified through scheduled parent meetings at their children’s school(s).
- Why not charter schools? If teachers and administrators are not serving children well, then they should have the competition of charter schools!
- Our legislators did not find it necessary to pass a bill on charter schools.
- Why was this announcement made during the time when the kids have to take state tests? Very poor timing! Our kids can’t focus on their tests because of this issue.
- We realize that no timing is good when changes are taking place.
- It is our firm belief that as adults we should help our children to focus.
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