JPS working to clear violations for poor recordkeeping, management failures
By Leonardo Bevilacqua | Originally published by Mississippi Today
Student discipline policies in Jackson Public Schools are applied inconsistently — when they are applied, according to the state Department of Education.
It’s an issue state Education Department officials are aware of because of confidential reports from JPS administrators and teachers. It’s also one reason why the agency downgraded the district’s accreditation to probation in 2016.
School board members and district administrators were also allegedly interfering with school leader decisions on student discipline, which violates state law that bans the involvement of school board members in day-to-day school district operations.
School board governance issues comprise one of three outstanding accreditation violations, which keep the district on probation with a downgraded accreditation status. JPS will remain on probation next year unless they comply with agency policy as it relates to records and school board policies. MDE has downgraded the accreditation status of roughly 14 school districts each year for the past decade.
MDE auditors also found that seven school board policies were not accurately reflected in the student handbook. The policies ranged from promotion and retention rules to graduation requirements and the sale of district computers. There were discrepancies with some policies throughout the student handbook.
Turnover on the JPS school board addressed concerns about members’ behavior, Chief of Staff William Merritt said. Former Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba appointed better behaved school board members, Merritt said. The state Department of Education “has not cleared it yet, but we have done everything in terms of meeting that standard,” he added. “There are no issues.”
JPS also submitted internal policy reviews to MDE, and is awaiting a response, Merritt said.
While JPS has cleared 19 of the 22 accreditation violations state officials cited during a 2016 audit, the third largest school district in the state still has missing student records pertaining to residency and vaccination status at 10 of its 35 schools.
Residency records ensure that school districts are complying with state law in enrolling students to their zoned schools. School districts must also maintain immunization records in each student’s file, according to state law.
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Education Department regulators observed the deficient student records during an inspection last year. The issue of missing student records was first observed in 2016. The state Department of Education provided technical support to district leaders and staff in May. District leaders mandated additional training and progress reports by office staff last year.
Office assistant turnover and vacancies in the district central office have been major stumbling blocks to clearing these violations, Merritt said. In response, JPS leaders assembled and hired additional office assistants. The district also increased office assistants’ salaries to attract stronger applicants, he said.
Office assistants are paid on the paraprofessional pay scale, which started at $12.50 per hour for 219 days in the 2024-25 school year for employees without prior experience. In comparison, the starting pay for district teachers in 2024-25 was $46,500 for 187 days.
Merritt also took issue with stringent MDE policy enforcement, saying the agency cited JPS for minor discrepancies.
“Everything must be a mirror match,” Meritt said of the requirements for student records. “If ‘street’ is spelled out on the energy bill, and in the school record ‘street’ is abbreviated with ST, we could be cited for noncompliance because it’s not a mirror match. That’s how technical this is.”
An agency spokeswoman disputed that such a small change from document to document would result in a citation.
“MDE auditors use professional judgement when reviewing records for authenticity and completeness,” spokeswoman Jean Cook said in an email.
The state Education Department downgraded Hazlehurst City School District’s and North Bolivar Consolidated School District’s accreditation to probation this year for similar findings to Jackson’s surrounding records. North Bolivar failed to keep accurate personnel records.
JPS has made progress on clearing outstanding violations in the past decade. The Jackson school board voted to close Wingfield High School after being cited for violations stemming from flooding and poor drainage. School leadership also improved testing procedures, and coordinated with transportation officials to ensure that school buses arrived and departed on time to clear two additional violations after the state Board of Education accepted its 2024 corrective action plan.
This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Source: Original Article
