Magnolia Tribune

As charter schools turn ten, why are there so few?

Published

2 years ago

April 23, 2023

Given the success of public charter schools in the Magnolia State and the need to provide educational options, why aren’t there more than eight?

In 2013, the Mississippi Legislature enacted the “Mississippi Charter Schools Act”
providing authorization for a charter school oversight board and guidance for the formation of
charter schools in Mississippi. On Monday, April 17th, the state marked the ten-year anniversary of that legislation.

Today, over 3,000 Mississippi children receive their education in a public charter school.

The Executive Director of the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board (MCSAB), Dr. Lisa Karmacharya, spoke with the Magnolia Tribune about the application process for charter schools and the impact that these schools have on not only students, but teachers and families as well.

Dr. Karmacharya said that every parent should have a choice in where their child attends school. She said public charter schools are a critical complement to the traditional public school landscape.

“Families often feel at a loss when it comes to options and doing what is best for their children,” Dr. Karmacharya stated. “Our schools provide a public option for families to consider and our school leaders have clearly demonstrated a commitment to ensuring the students they are privileged to teach enjoy an educational experience that is provided to them in a safe, healthy, compassionate and caring school environment.”

The MCSAB Executive Director said that unfortunately, despite all of the educational gains Mississippi has made over the past few years, the fact remains there are hundreds of thousands of children attending failing schools.

“Charter schools play an important role in filling a need for those families,” Dr. Karmacharya said.

Public charter schools well received by students, parents and communities

In celebration of the ten-year anniversary of charter school in the state, Empower Mississippi, a long-time advocate organization supporting school choice, released a video featuring students and teachers speaking on the impact charter school education is making in the state.

Deborah, an eighth grader at Midtown Public Charter School, said kids in Mississippi deserve charter schools. Melody M., a sixth grader at Leflore Legacy Academy, agreed.

“They deserve the opportunity to have what I have,” Melody explained.

Dr. Tamala Boyd-Shaw, Executive Director of Leflore Legacy Academy, said her hope, dream, and desire is that more people will want to get informed about what public charter schools are and what they do in the communities they serve.

“We have seen public charter schools in the state of Mississippi become positive influences in the lives of students in big cities like Jackson and in smaller towns likes Clarksdale and Greenwood,” Kevin Parkinson, Principal of Midtown Public Charter School stated. “I just get so excited thinking about what could be possible if students and families all cross the state of Mississippi and those similar options.”

DeArchie Scott, Founding Executive Director of Ambition Prep Charter School, added that every child deserves a quality education, no matter their zip-code or background.

In 2020, Mississippi First released a report summarizing and explaining the public perception of charter schools in the state. The report found that overall, strong majorities of all parents in Mississippi charter school communities support charter schools in their communities (75.1%). The report also showed that:

96.3% of charter parents support charter schools
72.7% of non-charter parents support charter schools
58.2% of parents in charter school communities believe opening a charter school has affected access to high-quality schools positively, including majorities of both types of parents (charter parents: 84.5% and non-charter parents: 54.9%)
98.1% of public charter school parents would recommend their child’s school to other families
93% believe their child’s charter school is a caring and nurturing place

In addition, almost 100% of parents are satisfied with their students’ academic progress and agree or strongly agree that charter schools are preparing students for college (97%) and agree or strongly agree that their child’s school is a good place to learn.

However, as of March 2023, there are only eight operating charter schools located in three communities in Mississippi – Jackson, Clarksdale, and Greenwood.

Matthew Ladner, Director of the Arizona Center for Student Opportunity at the Arizona Charter Schools Association and serves as Executive Editor of the blog ReimaginED, stated that the charter school movement succeeded in providing options for millions of American families since the first law passed in Minnesota.

“Unfortunately the laws passed over the last 20 years, including Mississippi’s statute, have provided educators relatively limited opportunities to create school options,” Ladner said.

Grant Callen, CEO of Empower Mississippi, said as we celebrate ten years of charter schools in the state, he has mixed emotions.

“I am proud because the eight operating charter schools are giving children a wonderful environment to learn and helping thousands of kids get to college,” Callen said. “But I’m saddened because the growth of the sector has been so glacially slow, leaving out thousands of children who could have benefited from the life-changing opportunity to attend a charter school. We must do better in the next ten years!”

Rachel Canter, Executive Director of Mississippi First, said they have been a supporter of charter schools, essentially from their founding. She noted that kids in charter schools outperform their similar peers and the longer they are in charter schools, the better and better they do.

“That’s very compelling evidence that we should be open to additional public schools, because charter schools are public schools, that can provide another educational option for kids who have been historically underserved by the traditional public school system that they are currently in,” Canter stated.

Canter explained that when the Mississippi Charter School Act of 2013 was first passed, there was a lot of optimism about what the growth of the sector would look like.

“I knew as a realistic matter, that we would not be ten years down the road with thirty, forty, fifty charter schools. That just wasn’t going to happen because it’s very difficult to open schools. It takes the right kind of entrepreneurial leader, it takes philanthropic resources, federal resources, it takes a system of support to get schools off the ground,” Canter stated.

Canter added that no one could have predicted that the growth would have been as “glacially slow” as it is now where the MCSAB is approving one charter school application a year.

“And that’s extremely disappointing for those of us in this sector,” Canter continued. “One of the things that is frustrating is that the last couple of schools that have been approved had to apply multiple times before they’ve gotten approved. And that also indicates to me that there is something wrong with the authorizer board’s process because none of these individual are different people between the first year they applied and the second year they applied and are approved.”

The Mississippi First Executive Director said its a question of trying to figure out what kind of game the authorizer board is playing, “and I think that’s a real frustration and area of weakness that we need to improve as part of our sector.”

Canter said the current Board should consider having more than one cycle, such as a rolling cycle.

“Over time it has become less and less clear what the authorizer board is looking for, they have “standards” that they published in teh RFP. Those standards are vague, it’s not clear how schools are going to be evaluated,” Canter stated. “We’ve had situations where year to year there’s inconsistency in how different application’s narratives are evaluated and none of these things should be the case.”

Canter said it goes back to whether the authorizer board wants more schools, do they believe in the mission of the organization, do they want to support this sector?

“Because all of these things are within their power to control, within their power to set the application process, within their power to set the standards, within their power to clearly articulate what they’re looking for and how people can meet that bar,” Canter noted.

Recent applications for charter schools in Mississippi

The MCSAB recently approved charter schools locating in Natchez and Canton. Those schools are expected to open by Fall 2023.

In 2022, just one applicant, Instant Impact Global Prep, received approval to open a new charter school in Mississippi.

According to a 2014 – 2022 Charter School Application Cycle report, MCSAB received 11 letters of intent for charter schools in its 2022 application cycle and 10 complete applications. Four applicants for a proposed five schools were invited to a capacity interview.

MCSAB received five complete applications for charter schools in its 2021 application cycle. The Board, on recommendation from its independent evaluator, did not approve any applications for additional charter schools during that year.

The Board received three complete applications for charter schools in its 2020 application cycle. Of those, the board, with assistance from a review team of three independent evaluators, approved one application and denied two. Because Revive Prep was initially approved in 2018 and had delayed their opening, MCSAB required RePublic Schools, Inc. to submit a modified application for Revive Prep. The application was approved for the school to open in 2022. The pandemic required capacity interviews for the 2020 cycle to be held virtually.

Roles and responsibilities of the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board

The MCSAB is the authorizing body for charter schools in the state and is responsible for
oversight of the schools’ operations. The Board’s responsibilities include developing chartering policies, reviewing charter school applications, deciding whether to approve or reject applications (including renewal applications), entering into charter contracts with applicants, overseeing charter schools, and, when necessary, revoking a charter school’s contract.

Dr. Karmacharya agrees that there needs to be more public charter schools operating throughout the state but doesn’t believe it is okay to approve new school applications for the sake of numbers.

“That does not demonstrate a commitment to our mission or values. It is not fair to families, children or communities when approved schools delay or fail to open and it would be absolutely devastating to open a school and have to close them due to any number of factors,” Dr. Karmacharya said. “And frankly, it is not fair to the applicant team to approve them if they are not ready.”

Karmacharya said it is much more common among authorizers, and certainly more ethical, to provide the team with feedback and constructive criticism for improving while encouraging them to apply again, hopefully setting them up for success in the future.

“As you may know, the first charter school opened in the early 1990’s. And we’ve learned from other states that ‘doing charter schools’ takes time,” she added. “Many took the ‘let a thousand flowers bloom’ approach only to disappoint families, potential staff communities, and most of all children.”

Dr. Karmacharya noted with respect to the eight operating charter schools in the state, that their success is a direct result of continued high expectations of self and others. She said that is evidenced by schools in their portfolio demonstrating encouraging accountability results.

“Schools have outperformed other similar schools in their respective districts, comparative growth is relatively strong across most categories, parent satisfaction is at an all-time high, chronic absenteeism is improving and there is a positive demand for charter seats,” Dr. Karmacharya said. “These are all signs of a vigorous charter school community. Doubling our charter school portfolio since 2019, approving every school that has been through renewal and increasing student enrollment provide clear evidence of the of progress we’ve made.”

Applicant teams must be able to provide compelling evidence that they are well positioned to serve scholars once they open their doors. She said that is more than words on paper; it means a founding team and governing board members with diverse skill sets and areas of expertise who are able to demonstrate a complete understanding of the legal, moral and ethical complexities of operating a school.

To name a few, that it is an understanding and the practical application of academics, curriculum, instruction, formative, summative and state assessments, data analysis to inform instruction and organizational practices, scheduling, transportation, child nutrition, federal programs, gifted education, personnel, budgeting and how state and federal law play a role in each.

The primary reasons for applicant teams not being successful are:

Not fully understanding the role of the governing board, how to structure governance, how the governing board oversees its schools, and avoiding conflicts of interest.
Not submitting a well-developed cohesive plan that provides the reviewers with high levels of confidence.
Gaps in the application (underdeveloped sections) that fail to address the specific needs of the community and children they propose to serve.
Failure to clearly articulate the school model and mission.
Failure to demonstrate a healthy, viable, and realistic 5-year financial plan.

Public charter school application process

The MCSAB is currently inviting proposals for quality charter schools seeking to open in the 2024-2025 school year or thereafter.

The charter school application process begins with a Letter of Intent and concludes nearly nine months later with the Board making a decision to approve or deny the application. The process includes several phases including the following: Stage I: Completeness Check, Stage 2: The Threshold Quality Review, and Stage 3: The Independent Evaluation Team Review and Capacity Interview for Invited Applicant Teams.

Click to view details from the Board’s milestones

An applicant team should be able to demonstrate in writing their ability to bring their vision to life. The written application should provide evaluators with a high level of confidence that the team is well prepared to open and operate a high-quality school.

The application is very comprehensive and requires the applicant to provide detailed information about the proposed school model, the curriculum, community need and support, the schools’ governance structure and a five-year budget including philanthropy and access to funds for the start-up year.

Additionally, in 2022, the NACSA recommended that the Board add a requirement regarding the capacity interview, which provides an applicant team an opportunity to further demonstrate its capacity to open a high-quality school.

The Executive Director of MCSAB said not every applicant team that submits a letter of intent completes the application cycle and that Mississippi has been at a significant disadvantage since 2015 in terms of recruiting and training up high-quality applicant teams.

Mississippi had no incubator until very recently and still do not have a charter school association. The majority of states have both including our neighbors in Louisiana who have a robust association and new school organizations such as New Schools for Baton Rouge (and there is a new schools for Alabama). These entities help to ensure applicant teams are well prepared to participate and be successful in a vigorous new school application cycle.

Current law states that charter schools can only be established in “D” or “F” rated districts. Below are the eligible districts in Mississippi for charter schools in 2023 based on the latest grading:

North Panola School District
Noxubee County School District
Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District
Greenville Public School District
East Tallahatchie Consolidated School District D Amite County School District
Wilkinson County School District F Yazoo City Municipal School District

The post As charter schools turn ten, why are there so few? appeared first on Magnolia Tribune.

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By: Anne Summerhays
Title: As charter schools turn ten, why are there so few?
Sourced From: magnoliatribune.com/2023/04/22/as-charter-schools-turn-ten-why-are-there-so-few/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=as-charter-schools-turn-ten-why-are-there-so-few
Published Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2023 03:37:42 +0000

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Magnolia Tribune

Staring mortality in the face at Christmas

Published

11 months ago

December 16, 2023

Staff Editor

My friend Jarrod is dying after an eight year battle with cancer. He’s lived a life worth celebrating, one that has drawn people to Christ.

I was going about my business this week when I received a text that stopped me in my tracks. A college friend was being moved to hospice care.

Jarrod Egley was diagnosed with colorectal cancer in early 2017. In the fall of 2018, tests revealed the cancer had spread to his lungs and Jarrod’s cancer was classified as Stage IV.

For almost eight years from the date of the original diagnosis, he’s fought. Through surgeries, radiation, endless rounds and cycles of chemotherapy, and experimental immunotherapies, he’s fought.

Last year, I flew out to California and spent some time with Jarrod and his wife, Emily. We sat outside one night. He acknowledged to me that it was not a question of ‘if’, but ‘when’ the cancer would claim his life. I told him I was sorry, because what else is there to say?

We talked about our faith, about the trials of Job, about Jacob wrestling with God, about Paul’s affliction. But mostly we reflected on our time together in school, on the good things, and the mundane things, that happened since.

Jarrod and I met at Tulane University. One Sunday morning in the Spring of my freshman year, I rose from my dorm room bed, dressed, and began walking down Saint Charles Avenue in New Orleans with no particular agenda. I walked until I came across First Baptist Church and the thought flickered in the vacuous recesses of my brain to enter.

Some would say it was a lark. The Calvinist in me says providence. The walk that morning changed the trajectory of my time at Tulane and my life on the whole. Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and the Baptist Collegiate Ministry became central to my life and put me in regular league with Jarrod. I met him first at the BCM and we ultimately ended up attending church together.

Jarrod was a faithful servant on and off campus. He helped organize a group of us that would weekly make our way down to the Esplanade seawall on the backside of the French Quarter to feed the homeless. On Friday nights, he could be found at chapel with a small cadre of students foregoing Bourbon Street for early 2000s worship music.

Jarrod was a loyal friend in those years. Never rude or biting. Not prone to an insult for an easy laugh. Persistently encouraging. An engineering student, his mind worked linearly and was oriented to problem solving. There were never a lot of wasted words — always a lot of deliberative questions when he disagreed or did not understand a point. He exhibited intelligence, empathy, and the kind of moral conviction that sets someone apart.

He also had a wry and dry sense of humor and a penchant for beating people at Madden football. He was fair-to-midland on the ultimate frisbee pitch. Along the way, there were crawfish boils, Mardi Gras outtings, poorly attended Tulane football games, and more than a decent amount of wing eating.

After college, I lost touch with Jarrod. He moved back to his home state of California. He got married to his college sweetheart, who could not have anticipated her husband’s journey, but has been a steady and constant helpmate throughout. Jarrod became a very successful engineer and a bourbon connoisseur. One of his bucket list trips took him to Kentucky, where he got to meet and became friends with bourbon “Hall of Famer” Freddie Johnson of Buffalo Trace acclaim.

Jarrod at Buffalo Trace Distillery (Spring 2022).

Sitting in his backyard nearly 20 years after graduating from Tulane, I saw many of the same qualities I had grown to admire when we were students together. I saw a husband who doted on and supported Emily’s passions. But I also saw someone whose body had been beaten to hell and back, who was tired, and who, like Jacob, had been wrestling with God. We quickly fell back into friendship, which perhaps is the mark of good friendship.

We all have aspirations in our youth — for the kind of spouse or parent we might be, for what we might accomplish, for what we might experience. Along the way, dreams are satisfied, modified, or they die on the vine. The clock inevitably works against all of us. That night in Oceanside, California, Jarrod, a numbers guy, saw that time was not on his side. He believed, as we all would, that he still had more to give, more impact to be made, and more things to see and experience.

After that trip, Jarrod and I stayed in touch, most frequently triggered by news of his cancer. It has been mostly the bad variety in recent months. Now spread throughout his body, down to his bones, he has lived in constant pain for months. Not even a steady diet of morphine and an implanted pain pump solve for it. Jarrod’s been hospitalized twelve times just in 2023.

But his matter of fact sense of humor and way of seeing the world remains in tact. So too does his faith that despite these trials, he has always been safe in the hands of Christ.

There are people in the world who believe that life is random, disordered, and without reason. I am not among them. I think my friend is staring mortality in the face at Christmas for a reason.

For thousands of years before Christ came, there was darkness and despair. Sin and shame gripped the hearts of men. Until one holy night, God, in His infinite love, mercy and wisdom, sent His son to save. Jesus is the light of the world and the hope of man. He has won victory over death and Jarrod’s will not be the exception. Jesus came for Jarrod, and for you.

For thousands of years since Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, His disciples have been used as divine instruments to point the way to God. Jarrod is among them. If life expectancies were the measure, Jarrod would be at the midway point for most people. He’s made a lifetime of impact for the Kingdom and on other people.

So, to my friend Jarrod, you were placed here with a purpose. You have run your race. You are loved. And when this chapter closes, you will hear “well done, my good and faithful servant.” There is no greater evidence of a life well lived.

While Jarrod and Emily have been fortunate to have health insurance, their portion of the medical bills so far in 2023 have eclipsed $30,000, and Emily is facing additional uncovered expenses during Jarrod’s hospice care, including a night nurse that costs over $400 a night. If you would like to help defray the cost, a contribution can be made at their Go Fund Me page.

The post Staring mortality in the face at Christmas appeared first on Magnolia Tribune.

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By: Russ Latino
Title: Staring mortality in the face at Christmas
Sourced From: magnoliatribune.com/2023/12/16/staring-mortality-in-the-face-at-christmas/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=staring-mortality-in-the-face-at-christmas
Published Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2023 15:05:22 +0000

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Magnolia Tribune

Magnolia Mornings: December 15, 2023

Published

11 months ago

December 15, 2023

Staff Editor

Important state and national stories, market and business news, sports and entertainment, delivered in quick-hit fashion to start your day informed.

In Mississippi

1. Laurin St. Pe’ named CEO of Singing River Health System

The Board of Trustees of Singing River Health System announced the immediate appointment of Laurin St. Pe’ as the Chief Executive Officer on Thursday.

“We are thrilled to announce Laurin St. Pe as the new CEO of Singing River,” said Steve Ates, Board President in a statement. “His wealth of healthcare experience and proven track record make him the ideal leader to steer our health system toward its next phase of growth and success.”

St. Pe’, who has been serving as Interim CEO since July 2023, said he is honored to assume the role of CEO at Singing River. He has worked at Singing River as Administrator of Singing River Health System’s Pascagoula Hospital and Gulfport Hospital, in addition to overseeing program service lines throughout the entire system to his subsequent appointment as Chief Operating Officer of Singing River.

The health system says St. Pe played a crucial role in the financial revitalization of Singing River Health System while steering the organization toward financial stability.

2. Gulfport-Biloxi airport, Stennis evacuated after threats

The Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport was evacuated on Thursday morning “out of an abundance of caution,” airport officials said, after receiving an emailed threat to certain transportation entities across the state.

The airport was thoroughly security swept, cleared and reopened in just over two hours. Gulfport-Biloxi is now operating regularly.

The threat was also sent to Stennis International Airport. Their staff and personnel were also evacuated until the facilities could be swept and cleared.

Any passenger whose travel was affected by the evacuation is encouraged to contact their respective air carrier.

3. Cassidy arrested in Iowa for beheading Satanic Temple statue

Former Mississippi congressional and legislative candidate Michael Cassidy was arrested this week in Iowa for beheading a statue at the state’s Capitol erected by The Satanic Temple.

Cassidy reportedly decapitated the statue and turned himself to police on Thursday. He was charged with fourth degree criminal mischief. He then started an online legal defense fund where he’s raised upwards of $20,000 as of Thursday night, according to his X account.

4. “Serial fraudster” ordered to cease offering investments into companies

According to the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office, on October 26, 2023, Secretary Michael Watson and the Securities Division issued an order against Stephone N. Patton. The SOS says Patton is a serial fraudster with multiple criminal convictions in Mississippi and Florida.

Through business filings with the SEC and Mississippi, Patton has held himself to be the CEO of various companies, including Star Oil and Gas Company, Inc., North Gulf Energy Corporation, Inc., Patton Oilfield Services, Inc., and Patton Farms, LLC.

The SOS says using these business filings and company websites, Patton claimed to have raised hundreds of billions of dollars through investment opportunities. Through investigative efforts and collaboration with the SEC, the SOS discovered none of Patton’s companies are operational, have any assets, or generate any revenues. Account records show Patton spent investors’ funds almost as soon as he received them on personal expenses. The total amount of known investments made to Patton’s fraudulent companies is over $80,000. Further, none of Patton’s investment offerings have been registered or notice filed with the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office.

The SOS order requires Patton to cease and desist from offering investments with his companies, requiring Patton to permanently deactivate his companies’ websites to prevent any further dissemination of his false or misleading information. Patton is also ordered to pay an administrative penalty of $25,000 to the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office for these violations, in addition to restitution owed to all his Mississippi investors.

National News & Foreign Policy

1. Congressional retirements mounting as 2024 election cycle nears

Retirement and departure announcements are piling up ahead of the start to the 2024 election cycle. The New York Times has developed a Retirement Tracker that currently shows 22 Democrats and 11 Republicans who are in Congress now will not be seeking re-election next year.

“Dozens of members of Congress have announced plans to leave their seats in the House of Representatives, setting a rapid pace for congressional departures, with more expected as the 2024 election draws closer,” the NY Times reports. “Given Republicans’ razor-thin House majority, the wave of exits has the potential to lead to a significant shake-up next year.”

You can find the tracker here.

2. Texas, Daily Wire, The Federalist sue U.S. State Department over media censorship

The U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center has come under fire as Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton along with The Daily Wire and The Federalist have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the department funded technology that could “render disfavored press outlets unprofitable.” They claim that the department has helped social media – Facebook, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) – to censor free speech while funding technologies used to censor right-leaning news outlets such as theirs.

New Civil Liberties Alliance is representing The Daily Wire and The Federalist. Paxton and the outlets claim the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a British think tank, received a $100,000 grant from the State Department in 2021, and NewsGuard, which rates the “misinformation” levels of news outlets, received $25,000 from the State Department in 2020, according to the lawsuit.

According to the State Department’s website, the Global Engagement Center’s mission is to direct, lead, synchronize, integrate, and coordinate U.S. Federal Government efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations.

As reported by Reuters, the lawsuit cited a GDI-produced list from December 2022 that ranked The Daily Wire and The Federalist as among the 10 “riskiest sites” for news while the least-risky included The New York Times, Associated Press and NPR. Reuters notes that the lawsuit alleges such “blacklists” are reducing revenues to The Daily Wire and The Federalist along with their visibility on social media and ranking results from browser searches.

Sports & Entertainment

1. SEC releases 2024 schedules

Wednesday evening, the Southeastern Conference released the 2024 football schedules for its member schools, including of interest in the Magnolia State the schedules for Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

It is the first schedule that includes new conference members University of Oklahoma and University of Texas, bringing the conference to 16 schools. Each SEC team will play eight conference football games plus at least one required opponent from the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12 or major independent, each team will have two open dates.

The 2024 season will be the first year the SEC will play a schedule without divisional competition since 1991. The top two teams in the league standings based on winning percentage will play in the 33rd SEC Football Championship Game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday, December 7.

2. White, Jesiolowski, Jones honored by MAIS

The Midsouth Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) in Mississippi, comprised of non-public schools, announced this week that Madison-Ridgeland Academy’s senior quarterback John White was named the 6A Player of the Year while Hartfield’s Reed Jesiolowski and Hartfield Chris Jones were named the MAIS 6A Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, respectively.

All three have committed to play college football at the University of Mississippi.

White is Mississippi’s all-time leader in career passing yards with 15,259 yards, a record he broke during the 2023 season.

MAIS, like the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) for public schools, is broken down into classifications, from 1A to 6A. However, MHSAA added a 7A this season.

Markets & Business

1. Consumer retail sales up as energy, gas prices move down

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.1% in November after being unchanged in October. Retail sales rose 0.3% in November after rising 0.2% in October, meaning consumers continue to spend at the start of the holiday season.

The CPI or inflation rate is 3.1%, higher than the Federal Reserve target of 2% but below the 9% peak in 2022 which reached a 40-year high.

As for the energy index, BLS reported that it fell 2.3% in November after decreasing 2.5% in October. The gasoline index decreased 6% in November, following a 5% decrease in the previous month.

The index for fuel oil fell in November, decreasing 2.7%. However, the natural gas index rose 2.8% over the month after rising 1.2% the previous month. The index for electricity also rose 1.4% in November, after increasing 0.3% in October.

The energy index fell 5.4% over the past 12 months. The gasoline index decreased 8.9%, the natural gas index declined 10.4%, and the fuel oil index fell 24.8% over this 12-month span.

2. Week’s market rally continues into Friday

At close of trading on Thursday, the U.S. markets continued the week’s rally, pushing the Dow up 158 points to 37,248 while the Nasdaq and S&P also made gains, 27 points and 12 points, respectively, to close at 14,761 and 4,719.

The record high for the Dow on Thursday moved futures up 102 points.

According to CNBC, the major averages are headed for their seventh straight positive week. As of Thursday, the Dow is higher on the week by 2.8%. The S&P 500 is up by 2.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.5% this week.

Stocks rallied after the Federal Reserve left rates unchanged this week while members look towards cuts in the new year and beyond.

The post Magnolia Mornings: December 15, 2023 appeared first on Magnolia Tribune.

…

By: Magnolia Tribune
Title: Magnolia Mornings: December 15, 2023
Sourced From: magnoliatribune.com/2023/12/15/magnolia-mornings-december-15-2023/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=magnolia-mornings-december-15-2023
Published Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2023 13:00:00 +0000

Magnolia Tribune

New water rates expected in Jackson come 2024; those who don’t pay face shut off

Published

11 months ago

December 15, 2023

Staff Editor

Interim Third-Party Director Ted Henifin said this week that only about 59% of the City of Jackson’s water customers are paying their bills.

JXN Water has announced new rates and fees coming in 2024. Those who are not paying will be at risk of shut offs.

The company, which was established by federal appointed interim Third-Party Director Ted Henifin, has been overseeing the city’s water system for the better part of a year.

Officials estimated that the average cost for water in the city was $76 per month for residents. Henifin clarified that JXN water will not attempt to recoup any charges prior to November 29, 2022, and will work with those who have failed to pay since that time.

He said only about 59 percent of the city’s water customers are paying their bills.

“You can’t forgive bills, so we have to be creative in how we part that,” said Henifin in reference to Mississippi’s laws that prevent giving away water.

According to a release by JXN Water announcing the rate changes, residents in single family households with small meters that use up to 748 gallons daily would see a bill increase of roughly .30 cents per day. Research indicates that the average U.S. family uses 300 gallons per day.

SNAP customers will have a new rate tier that could lower their bill by up to .69 cents per day, on average.

“Those who need to save the most benefit from saving money by drinking tap water. This new rate structure makes water affordability possible for 12,500 JXN Water customers who receive SNAP benefits,” said Henifin in the release.