Connect with us

Mississippi Today

‘You’re breaking up a family’: Hundreds attend community meeting about proposed Jackson school closures

Published

1 year ago

on

Hundreds of capital city residents attended a community meeting Monday night to discuss the proposed consolidation plan for Jackson Public Schools, with nearly every speaker asking district officials to save Wingfield High School.

Last week, JPS district leadership introduced a plan to close 16 school buildings because of declining enrollment in the district. The district has lost around 9,500 students between the 2015-16 and 2023-24 school years, about a third of the district population. The district has also previously consolidated schools.

District leaders hosted the first of four community meetings Monday night at Forest Hill High School, where about 20 people spoke to share concerns about the school consolidation plan. At various points during the meeting, attendees applauded and reacted enthusiastically to statements made about saving the schools on the proposed closure list.

Samaya Johnson, a current student at Wingfield, spoke about the positive experience she’s had at the school and asked the district to not take it away.

“Y’all are talking about money and everything else but you’re not going off of how your students feel,” Johnson said. “You’re not just tearing down a school, you’re breaking up a family.”

Errick Greene, the superintendent of Jackson Public Schools, shared additional financial data Monday night, which showed the district had lost $107.7 million over that same nine-year period because of enrollment decline and payments to charter schools. The new plan would be expected to save around $18 million annually.

Greene told Mississippi Today that schools were identified for closure or consolidation based on enrollment declines being steeper in some areas, estimated costs to address facility issues, and related impacts on feeder patterns. He emphasized the academic performance of schools was not a factor in the process.

The following buildings are on the proposed closure list:

  • Clausell Elementary School
  • Dawson Elementary School
  • G. N. Smith Elementary School
  • Green Elementary School
  • Key Elementary School
  • Lake Elementary School
  • Lester Elementary School
  • Oak Forest Elementary School
  • Obama IB Elementary
  • Raines Elementary School
  • Shirley Elementary School
  • Sykes Elementary School
  • Wells APAC Elementary
  • Chastain Middle School
  • Whitten Middle School
  • Wingfield High School

After an overview of the proposed plan from Greene, students, parents, staff and community members asked questions and offered comments for over an hour, with several people emphasizing the social toll these changes will have on the community. 

Audience members listen as Superintendent of Jackson Public Schools Errick Greene speaks about school closures during a JPS community meeting at Forest Hill High School in Jackson, Miss., Monday, October 9, 2023. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

About 30 Wingfield students were in attendance Monday night, with several more offering testimonials of the support they have received from teachers, the positive experience of the athletic programs, and their concern they may lose class rankings and opportunities to scholarships if merged with another school.

The impact of merging rival high schools was a repeated concern, with some students saying attendance would become an issue if students were forced to attend rival Forest Hill or Jim Hill.

“The merger of these scholars … will definitely increase violence and it will affect their education,” said Valencia White, an alumnus of Wingfield.

She listed recent incidents between students of the schools, suggesting that JPS instead merge Whitten Middle School into the Wingfield building, similar to the approach taken at Lanier High School.

Greene responded to the concern about rivalries. “I resent and resist that language that says our scholars cannot get along,” he said.

After being met with grumbles from the audience, he continued.

“We can agree to disagree on this point, but I do want to strongly urge you to think about what we’re saying about our children, children who live in our city, and the implications of this assertion that it cannot work.”

He continued that it will take work and changes to help students make the shift, but that he does believe it is possible. 

Superintendent of Jackson Public Schools Errick Greene speaks about school closures during a JPS community meeting at Forest Hill High School in Jackson, Miss., Monday, October 9, 2023. JPS announced its plan to close or consolidate 16 schools. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Multiple people also asked about plans from the district to stem the declining enrollment and prevent future closures. Greene said the city and state are also declining in population, making it likely JPS will continue to lose students, but it is unclear at what rate. He said he wants to be a part of making Jackson successful and highlighted the improved performance of the school district in recent years, which he hopes will attract more people to the area.

READ MORE: Jackson schools, on verge of state takeover just 5 years ago, earns ‘C’ rating

“At some point, the investments that are starting to be made and needing to be made in the city, as well as the investments we’re making, as well as our increased performance, will catch fire,” he said.

Other people pointed out the majority of the schools on the consolidation list are located in south Jackson, saying it will further harm conditions in the neighborhood if more schools are closed.

After the meeting adjourned, JPS leadership said they were pleased by the turnout and engagement from students.

“I was very, very excited to see the amount of support that came out for their schools, especially the students and the teachers and the coaches,” said Cynthia Thompson, JPS board member for Ward 6. “To hear that kind of support makes us really think about what we have to do, but what I am hoping we were able to convey is that something has to be done.”

Greene said he appreciated specific questions about data, which the district will be publishing answers to in a FAQ document. He said that as the district hosts the three remaining community meetings, leadership will be looking for trends in the feedback to make adjustments.

“There’s some (room for change), but they’re tradeoffs,” he said. “At the end of the day, I can’t name a building that doesn’t require some level of investment.”

Greene asked community members to continue looking at the data the district shared as they continue to gather feedback at the additional community meetings, which are Oct. 30 at Callaway High School, Nov. 6 at Provine High School, and Nov. 14 at Murrah High School.

“This is nothing that I wanted to bring. I really hate that we are in a position where this is even a conversation because it drums up so much emotion and angst, but this is a real issue that we simply can’t ignore,” he said. “Most of the folks here … have had experiences in our buildings that are not so great in terms of HVAC failing or water pressure or restrooms that don’t work. We sometimes have short memories about those things.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=295059

Related Topics:

Mississippi Today

‘The pressure … has gotten worse:’ Facing new charge, Tim Herrington will remain in jail until trial, judge rules

Published

4 hours ago

on

February 27, 2025

By

mississippitoday.org – Molly Minta – 2025-02-27 12:17:00

‘The pressure … has gotten worse:’ Facing new charge, Tim Herrington will remain in jail until trial, judge rules

by Molly Minta, Mississippi Today
February 27, 2025

OXFORD — A judge denied bond Thursday for the University of Mississippi graduate who is accused of killing Jimmie “Jay” Lee, a well-known member of the LGBTQ+ community in this north Mississippi college, and hiding his body. 

Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge Kelly Luther made the decision during Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr.’s bond hearing, which was held on the heels of the discovery of Lee’s body. Despite the finding, the prosecution also announced that it would not seek the death penalty, just as it had declined to during last year’s trial that resulted in an 11-1 hung jury. 

“The pressure on Mr. Herrington has gotten worse,” Luther said. “The justification for not showing up is about as high as it can get. The only thing higher is if the state had said ‘we’re gonna seek the death penalty.’”

Though Herrington, a son of a prominent church family in Grenada, had previously been out on bond, he will now remain in jail pending trial. The prosecution recently secured a new indictment against Herrington for capital murder and hiding Lee’s remains, which were found in a well-known dumping ground in Carroll County, 19 minutes from Herrington’s family home, wrapped in moving blankets and duct tape and hidden among mattresses and tires. 

Lee was found with a silk bonnet, which evidence shows Lee had worn when he returned to Herrington’s home the morning he went missing on July 8, 2022. 

Herrington’s new counsel, Aafram Sellers, a criminal attorney from the Jackson area, said he was too new to the case to comment on the possibility of a plea deal. But he made several pointed arguments against the state’s move to revoke Herrington’s bond, calling it an attempt “to be punitive in nature when the presumption still remains innocent until proven guilty.” 

Before making his decision, Luther asked the prosecution, who had previously agreed to give Herrington a bond in 2022, “what’s changed since then?” 

Lafayette County District Attorney Ben Creekmore responded that the state now had more evidence, when previously, the case “was mostly circumstantial evidence.” 

“Now they want to hold us to that same agreement when the situation has changed,” Creekmore said. “We tried the case. … Everyone knows it was an 11-1 finding of guilt on capital murder.” 

“It’s not a no-body homicide this time,” he added. 

This prompted Sellers to accuse the prosecution of attempting to taint a future jury, because the court had not established the jury’s split. 

“Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it’s a fact,” Sellers said.  

Prior to discussing Herrington’s bond, Luther heard arguments on Sellers’ motion to dismiss Herrington’s new charge of evidence tampering for hiding Lee’s body. Sellers argued the charge violated the statute of limitations because law enforcement knew, by dint of not finding Lee’s body at the alleged crime scene, that evidence tampering had occurred, so Herrington should have been charged with that crime back in 2022. 

“If there is a gun here that is a murder weapon and I walk out of here and leave and they never find it, but they know a murder happened in this courtroom, they know I moved evidence on today’s date,” Sellers said. “It’s not hard to contemplate that.” 

This led Luther, who said he was not prepared to rule, to ask both parties to provide him with cases establishing a legal precedent in Mississippi.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Continue Reading

Mississippi Today

Mississippi private prison OK’d to hold more ICE detainees

Published

5 hours ago

on

February 27, 2025

By

mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2025-02-27 11:41:00

Federal immigration officials will soon be able to house an additional 250 people at a privately run prison in the Delta. 

Tennessee-based CoreCivic announced Thursday that it has entered contract modifications for the Tallahatchie County Correctional Facility in Tutwiler, which has held U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees for years.

“We are entering a period where our government partners, particularly our federal government partners, are expected to have increased demand,” Damon T. Hininger, CoreCivic’s chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We anticipate additional contracting activity that will help satisfy their growing needs.”

The 2,672-bed facility already houses Mississippi inmates and some pretrial detainees, out-of-state inmates including those from Vermont and South Carolina and U.S. Marshals Service detainees, which includes immigration detainees.

On Thursday, CoreCivic also announced contract modifications to add a nearly 800-detainee capacity at three other facilities it operates: Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, Nevada Southern Detention Center and Cimarron Correctional Facility in Oklahoma. 

The company also operates the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, which is holding the largest number of ICE detainees, averaging 2,154 a day, according to the data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse and reviewed by Axios.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Continue Reading

Mississippi Today

Ocean Springs homeowners file appeal challenging state’s blight laws

Published

6 hours ago

on

February 27, 2025

By

mississippitoday.org – Alex Rozier – 2025-02-27 10:10:00

Ocean Springs homeowners on Wednesday appealed a federal court’s decision to dismiss their lawsuit against the city. The dispute stems from the city’s 2023 proposed urban renewal plan that would have permanently labeled some properties as “slum” or “blighted.”

While later that year the city voted against the plan after receiving public pushback, as the Sun Herald reported, the plaintiffs maintain that the state code behind the city’s plan violates their constitutional right to due process. They also argue that there’s nothing stopping the city of Ocean Springs, whose mayor, Kenny Holloway, supported the plan, from reintroducing the idea down the road.

Property owner Marie Cochran poses for a portrait after expressing her concerns with Ocean Springs’ proposed Urban Renewal Plan on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

In January, U.S. District Judge Taylor McNeel granted the city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the appropriate way to contest the urban renewal plan was by appealing to their locally elected officials.

“This is somewhat evident by how the Plaintiffs’ complaints to their elected leaders have resulted in their properties being removed from the urban renewal area,” McNeel wrote in his opinion. “In a way, the Plaintiffs have already won.”

Under Mississippi law, cities are not required to notify owners of properties that they label “blighted,” a distinction that doesn’t go away. On top of that, those property owners only have 10 days to challenge the designation, a limitation that doesn’t exist in most states, an attorney for the plaintiffs told Mississippi Today in 2023. In 2023, property owners whose land was labeled “blighted” in the Ocean Springs urban renewal plan didn’t know about the designation until months later.

A sign that expresses opposition to Ocean Springs’ proposed Urban Renewal Plan is seen in the front yard of a home in Ocean Springs, Miss., Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

While Holloway, who also owns a real estate and development company, maintained that the city never wanted to forcibly take anyone’s property, a “blight” designation would have allowed the city to do just that through eminent domain.

The nonprofit Institute for Justice represents the five homeowners and church that filed the suit in Wednesday’s appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Mississippi governments cannot brand neighborhoods as slums in secret,” Dana Berliner, an attorney at the institute, said in a written statement. “Obviously telling a person about something when it’s too late to do anything is not the meaningful opportunity to be heard that the U.S. Constitution’s Due Process Clause requires.”

The nonprofit said it plans to make oral arguments in the New Orleans court later this year.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Continue Reading

Trending