At Wednesday’s board retreat Jackson Madison County School Board members began the first steps of changing the way education is delivered in Madison County.

For a while the board has known they face a problem with the school system as it is currently operating.  According to Board Chairman Jim Campbell, under the current delivery system the district is operating at a fund deficit and in 2 years will be broke.

The school leaders face the decisions of how to bring the system back to financial solvency.

As if that were not enough work, the board has also determined that academic achievement levels must be raised if students are going to be college and career ready for 21st Century jobs.  That is also something the economic and industry leaders are calling for in order to make Jackson competitive in industrial recruitment.

The goal set by the board is to redirect existing funding to avoid certain budget deficit and repurpose the funds to programs specific to raising academic achievement.

The purpose of the retreat was for board members and the superintendent along with Central Office team members to come together and share information and ideas.  Those ideas are meant to inform the board of the options and action steps of Rezoning vs Restructuring.  The board will ultimately use the information along with input from community and others to outline a plan of direction for the superintendent to proceed.

It was discussed that some of the decisions the board will make will likely not be popular with all employees, or parents.  Some of the possible decisions could have a negative effect on some while offering opportunity to others/

Right now everything is on the table and nothing is certain about what decisions will be made in the final process.  For instance, instead of closing school buildings the option of disposing of portable classrooms is one option that may be sufficient to reduce the school footprint and therefore freeing up dollars to repurpose.  Increasing the population at Madison Academic was discussed which may have enough room for additional students.  The board members even discussed the option of selling the Central Office building as a means of raising Capital funds.  An idea like many of the others that are right now in their infancy stage.

The one thing that is certain is that in the absence of additional funding the school system will have to change the way it allocates dollars.  That means changing the way education is delivered.  Board members say this is not anything unexpected and they must have a plan that is less about brick and mortar and more about students that are college and career ready.

The board does not vote or take action at retreats.  They did ask that the superintendent instruct Building and Operations Director John Mills to give the board a complete facilities report.