BOE faces facilities dilemma; Jefferson faces Walmart pressures
The Jackson County School System has a problem. Over a decade ago, school leaders made the decision to build a slew of new schools on the East side of the county.
The problem is that this decision was driven more by politics than by projected growth data. The new schools were put on the opposite side of the county from where the main growth was happening, which has been in the West side of the county.
Today, that has left the system with too many empty classrooms on the East side of the county and too few classrooms on the growing West side. West Jackson Middle School has five portable classrooms this year and will have more next year. Other West side schools will also have portable classrooms in the near future unless something is done to balance the facility needs.
In an effort to give some relief to the West side, school leaders have been considering plans to temporarily shift some of the student population to the East side where empty classrooms are available. If the system can find a way to do that and to fill up all its classrooms in the next few years, it will qualify for some $12 million in state funds to build a new high school on the West side of the county.
System leaders began these efforts by looking at moving 7th and 8th Graders on the East side into unused space at East Jackson Comprehensive High School. But a parental backlash ensued with that idea and it was scuttled.
Now the system is looking at creating a 6th Grade academy in what is currently Kings Bridge Middle School. The idea behind this would be to lure, perhaps on a voluntary basis, some 6th Graders out of West Jackson Middle School into the Kings Bridge program and thus creating some space relief at WJMS.
But Kings Bridge is a long way from West Jackson. There are no direct road routes that link the two areas. And many West Jackson parents work in the opposite direction, making the logistics of transportation for school events difficult.
It remains to be seen if system leaders can create a dynamic that would overcome those issues and have 6th Graders leave their neighborhood school for a new school 15 miles away.
There will be several meetings in the coming weeks on all of this (see story elsewhere.) This issue of how to best use the system’s facilities is a big deal and will likely be a key focus in the system for months, if not years, to come.
There is a lesson in all of this. When decisions of where to build schools are made based on politics, this is the kind of skewed outcome that results. One can’t blame residents on the West side for feeling that the school system has been taking their tax money to prop up big new schools on the East side while their own kids now have classes in trailers.
Making this issue even more critical is the feeling that the state might not stand behind that $12 million the system has earned for growth. Given the tight state budget and years of the state shifting the burden more to local school systems, school leaders are right to be concerned about how long that money might be there. The sooner the system can qualify for those dollars, the better.
But doing that by trying to shift kids from West Jackson facilities to East Jackson schools on a voluntary basis may not be enough to fix the problem. It may take some kind of redistricting to get the system where it needs to be in terms of fully using all of its facilities.
The county school system is between a rock and a hard place. The current board and school leadership didn’t create this problem, but they are the ones stuck trying to fix it. There are no easy answers.
***
Walmart has postponed for 60 days its initial rezoning hearing on locating in Jefferson. That comes after a public meeting at which several residents near the proposed store complained about the impact Walmart will have on traffic.
Although some people say they would like to see the store moved several miles away, that isn’t a realistic option. The firm is known for doing its homework in locating new stores. Anyone looking at a map and traffic patterns in the Jefferson area would have to agree that the store’s proposed location at the by-pass and Old Pendergrass Road is a natural location for a large retail project. Why would they want to locate anywhere else?
Most homeowners in the area bought after the bypass was built. It was apparent to everyone that there would someday be retail development along that corridor, especially at this particular intersection. It is not surprising that any retailer wants to locate for maximum exposure and traffic access.
The group responsible for balancing the needs of the store with the needs of area residents isn’t Walmart — it is the City of Jefferson. It is the city’s responsibility to provide the necessary infrastructure to accommodate growth, both residential and commercial.
In this particular deal, that means the city will have to spend money to make sure the road feeding into Walmart will be safe with the increased traffic. Walmart locating along Old Pendergrass Road will likely push the city to do something it should have already been doing; that is, to widen Old Pendergrass Road to accommodate peak traffic demands.
The road has become one of the main corridors into Jefferson from the bypass. That’s partly due to the fact that the city school system is located there and the traffic it generates in the mornings and afternoons.
When the Kroger shopping center opened, it created even more traffic demand along that road. Walmart will magnify that even more since its entrance and exit will be on Old Pendergrass Road (the state DOT won’t let the company have access off of the bypass.)
The only solution to all of this is to widen the road to accommodate this increasing traffic pressure. That won’t be cheap, but growth is never cheap. Although new businesses bring in additional tax dollars, the demands growth makes on infrastructure are costly.
As part of the deal to approve Walmart, the city should negotiate with the company to have it help pay for part of a road widening project and traffic signals. It needs to be done anyway, but Walmart’s locating there will put immediate pressure on the city to take some action.
Growth isn’t easy to absorb in a community and it doesn’t come for free. There is a cost to both residential developments and commercial developments. The city can’t avoid that reality.
But that cost of growth is better than the alternative. It’s better to have the problem of accommodating growth than not having any growth at all.
Mike Buffington is co-publisher and editor of The Jackson Herald. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
Today, that has left the system with too many empty classrooms on the East side of the county and too few classrooms on the growing West side. West Jackson Middle School has five portable classrooms this year and will have more next year. Other West side schools will also have portable classrooms in the near future unless something is done to balance the facility needs.
In an effort to give some relief to the West side, school leaders have been considering plans to temporarily shift some of the student population to the East side where empty classrooms are available. If the system can find a way to do that and to fill up all its classrooms in the next few years, it will qualify for some $12 million in state funds to build a new high school on the West side of the county.
System leaders began these efforts by looking at moving 7th and 8th Graders on the East side into unused space at East Jackson Comprehensive High School. But a parental backlash ensued with that idea and it was scuttled.
Now the system is looking at creating a 6th Grade academy in what is currently Kings Bridge Middle School. The idea behind this would be to lure, perhaps on a voluntary basis, some 6th Graders out of West Jackson Middle School into the Kings Bridge program and thus creating some space relief at WJMS.
But Kings Bridge is a long way from West Jackson. There are no direct road routes that link the two areas. And many West Jackson parents work in the opposite direction, making the logistics of transportation for school events difficult.
It remains to be seen if system leaders can create a dynamic that would overcome those issues and have 6th Graders leave their neighborhood school for a new school 15 miles away.
There will be several meetings in the coming weeks on all of this (see story elsewhere.) This issue of how to best use the system’s facilities is a big deal and will likely be a key focus in the system for months, if not years, to come.
There is a lesson in all of this. When decisions of where to build schools are made based on politics, this is the kind of skewed outcome that results. One can’t blame residents on the West side for feeling that the school system has been taking their tax money to prop up big new schools on the East side while their own kids now have classes in trailers.
Making this issue even more critical is the feeling that the state might not stand behind that $12 million the system has earned for growth. Given the tight state budget and years of the state shifting the burden more to local school systems, school leaders are right to be concerned about how long that money might be there. The sooner the system can qualify for those dollars, the better.
But doing that by trying to shift kids from West Jackson facilities to East Jackson schools on a voluntary basis may not be enough to fix the problem. It may take some kind of redistricting to get the system where it needs to be in terms of fully using all of its facilities.
The county school system is between a rock and a hard place. The current board and school leadership didn’t create this problem, but they are the ones stuck trying to fix it. There are no easy answers.
***
Walmart has postponed for 60 days its initial rezoning hearing on locating in Jefferson. That comes after a public meeting at which several residents near the proposed store complained about the impact Walmart will have on traffic.
Although some people say they would like to see the store moved several miles away, that isn’t a realistic option. The firm is known for doing its homework in locating new stores. Anyone looking at a map and traffic patterns in the Jefferson area would have to agree that the store’s proposed location at the by-pass and Old Pendergrass Road is a natural location for a large retail project. Why would they want to locate anywhere else?
Most homeowners in the area bought after the bypass was built. It was apparent to everyone that there would someday be retail development along that corridor, especially at this particular intersection. It is not surprising that any retailer wants to locate for maximum exposure and traffic access.
The group responsible for balancing the needs of the store with the needs of area residents isn’t Walmart — it is the City of Jefferson. It is the city’s responsibility to provide the necessary infrastructure to accommodate growth, both residential and commercial.
In this particular deal, that means the city will have to spend money to make sure the road feeding into Walmart will be safe with the increased traffic. Walmart locating along Old Pendergrass Road will likely push the city to do something it should have already been doing; that is, to widen Old Pendergrass Road to accommodate peak traffic demands.
The road has become one of the main corridors into Jefferson from the bypass. That’s partly due to the fact that the city school system is located there and the traffic it generates in the mornings and afternoons.
When the Kroger shopping center opened, it created even more traffic demand along that road. Walmart will magnify that even more since its entrance and exit will be on Old Pendergrass Road (the state DOT won’t let the company have access off of the bypass.)
The only solution to all of this is to widen the road to accommodate this increasing traffic pressure. That won’t be cheap, but growth is never cheap. Although new businesses bring in additional tax dollars, the demands growth makes on infrastructure are costly.
As part of the deal to approve Walmart, the city should negotiate with the company to have it help pay for part of a road widening project and traffic signals. It needs to be done anyway, but Walmart’s locating there will put immediate pressure on the city to take some action.
Growth isn’t easy to absorb in a community and it doesn’t come for free. There is a cost to both residential developments and commercial developments. The city can’t avoid that reality.
But that cost of growth is better than the alternative. It’s better to have the problem of accommodating growth than not having any growth at all.
Mike Buffington is co-publisher and editor of The Jackson Herald. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com.
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#1
Double B
on
01/21/13 at 10:50 PM
[Reply]
Like I said. Let the money being spent on walmart begin. This company is going to cost you more than you ever make off it.
#2
Bobby
on
01/25/13 at 01:20 PM
[Reply]
There is no answer except to redistrict. Every growing county at some point has to do it. It has to be done. They (the super and the board) need to go ahead and do it and work through it. I still don't understand 1/3 of the decisions that Dr Green is making but this one is obvious. It will take political courage and will and no one will be happy but redraw the lines. That is the only real option. Everything else is a gimmick.