Press Release by Kevin Alexander, Chairman of the JMCSS Board
As most know, the Jackson Madison County school board is dependent upon the Madison County commission for funding. As the new Board chairman, I see it as very important to coordinate, interact and be in sync with our County Commission. Without funding, many of the major decisions we make as a Board have little consequence.
In recent days, I have heard from several asking why I agreed to so many agenda items at one time and secondly as to why the urgency to address them now?
Personally, I feel that if these items are not on the same agenda, several may not be approved by the board because they are highly partisan to one part of our county. Particularly, I see this being true concerning the approval of a new north school and the relocation of Madison Academic to the Lambuth campus. If we have all parts of the county benefiting from initiatives on the same agenda, I believe it gives us the best chance of moving forward as a Board.
As to the question of urgency, in my interaction with county commissioners I believe that many would support additional capital funding for our schools if considered at the same time as the upcoming request for additional jail funding. It now has been announced that the additional jail funding request of $17 million will be voted upon at the next County Commission meeting on October 15. Approval of those funds would mean the jail addition funding will total $49.4 million and school capital funding will total $17.5 million per recent bond issues. I contend that an additional 40 million for schools would be fair and more progressive. Better schools prevent crime; jails treat crime. Productive citizens pay taxes. Inmates cost taxpayers $20,000 to $30,000 per year after the jail bed is built. Better schools cause crime rates to go down resulting in less costs to build and operate jails.
If we can move forward as a Board in unity on all agenda items, we will have our request for an additional 40 million before the County Commission at their Monday, October 15 meeting. Otherwise, a request from our school board will not be presented. In my opinion, a rare opportunity of leverage on behalf of school capital funding will be lost. The County Commission has a history of rarely approving bond issues and interest rates are now at historic lows. Please keep in mind that Dr. Jones first presented his plan to the county commission about a year ago as well as our repair list of 144 million. Commissioners expressing their support for our request and actually funding our request are two different things. We need more capital funding for schools now. Our children and their future are at stake. This Thursday, I believe that we as a Board have an opportunity to move our schools forward.
