By Raymond Billy

rbilly@jacksonvilleprogress.com

As the 2008-2009 academic year approaches, Jacksonville Independent School District officials will have their work cut out for them in order to live up to the high standards set last year.

JISD was officially credited last week with one “Exemplary” rating — the highest academic distinction given by the Texas Education Agency — which was earned by West Side Elementary School. Four other campuses — East Side, Fred Douglass and Joe Wright elementary schools and Nichols Intermediate School garnered a “Recognized” designation. Jacksonville High School, Jacksonville Middle School and the Compass Center were all deemed “Acceptable.”

To achieve Exemplary status, 75 percent of students in each category tracked by the TEA — African Americans, Hispanics, Whites and Economically Disadvantaged students — had to pass their TAKS tests. At least 70 percent of students have to pass in those categories for a campus to become Recognized.

In 2006-2007, the district had two Recognized campuses and the rest were Acceptable.

Stuart Bird, JISD superintendent, said the accomplishments took a team effort.

“I’m proud of our teachers, parents and administrators who played a role in our success last year; this is the highlight of the year,” Bird said. “This is the culmination of what we’ve been working toward for the last several year’s and we’re going to work hard to build on our successes this coming year,”

Success will prove somewhat costly for the district next budget year, but officials say they’re happy to absorb the expense. Teachers at West Side will receive $1,000 in incentive pay for helping the campus attain Exemplary status, while educators at the four Recognized schools will receive $750. Other personnel on the campuses will receive incentives of varying levels as well this November. The incentives will make up $185,000 of JISD’s 2008-2009 budget.



Striving for continuity

Numerous high-level personnel changes have taken place on campuses throughout the district this summer and JISD is working to ensure those changes don’t disrupt the continuity that helped so many of its schools earn significantly improved marks. Fred Douglass, which narrowly missed being an Exemplary campus, will be led this coming year by Amber Penn, who was promoted from assistant principle, a post she held at the school for three years. Penn, who is replacing Tina Stewart as principal, said she doesn’t feel pressure from taking over such a successful school. She said her overriding emotion is excitement.

“I’m very excited to be a part of such a great campus with so many terrific teachers and administrators. It’s been a great experience working here throughout my time in Jacksonville,” said Penn, who came to Jacksonville six years ago as a teacher at Fred Douglass.

With the exception of East Side, all of JISD’s elementary schools added new assistant principals, as did Nichols and JHS.

Bird said the changes pose a challenge, but that the right people have been selected to help the district continue moving forward.

“They key is to get the right people in the right places and we think we’ve chosen some fine people,” Bird said. “I’m pleased with the new assistants we’ve hired. We had to be mindful of areas that we needed to work on as we’ve made these hires and I believe we’ve chosen people who will help us improve on some of our weaker areas,” he said.



Officials not resting on their laurels

Although JISD officials expressed elation over the success of the five campuses, they said several goals remain to be reached. The district continues to face the challenge of improving its math and science scores, particularly at the middle and high schools. Teacher turnover has been blamed for some of the schools’ math difficulties. After struggling to fill vacancies this summer in math, the Board of Trustees voted to offer $5,000 and $2,500, respectively, to highly qualified JHS and JMS recruits. Those vacancies have been filled, save for one opening that arose when one of the district’s math teachers resigned to take a position at Lon Morris College.

The areas of math and science prevented JISD from being Recognized as a school district.

But, Judy Terry JISD assistant superintendent of instruction and curriculum, said the accomplishments of last year show the district is not far from reaching its ultimate goal.

“We are extremely excited about having one Exemplary and four Recognized campuses,” Terry said. “We are working hard and are well on our way to accomplishing our goal of receiving a district-wide rating of Exemplary.”