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Jackson Public Schools board votes to close 13 school buildings

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The board of the Public School District approved a plan Tuesday night to close 13 school buildings, with one board member dissenting.

In October, JPS district leadership introduced a plan to close 16 school buildings because of declining enrollment in the district. The district has lost around 9,500 between the 2015-16 and 2023-24 school years, about a third of its population. The district has also previously consolidated schools.

Earlier this month, district leadership presented an amended plan that three elementary schools from this list of proposed consolidations, citing feedback they had received at community meetings.

The following schools are on the updated consolidation plan:

  • Dawson Elementary School
  • G. N. Smith Elementary School
  • Lake Elementary School
  • Lester Elementary School
  • Marshall Elementary School
  • Obama IB Elementary (delayed to 2025)
  • Raines Elementary School
  • Shirley Elementary School
  • Sykes Elementary School
  • Wells APAC Elementary (delayed to 2025)
  • Chastain Middle School
  • Whitten Middle School
  • Wingfield High School

At the meeting Tuesday, several people spoke for and against the proposed closures, community activists, current teachers and state legislators.

Rep. Chris Bell, D-Jackson, said he supported the consolidation plan because he did not want financial issues to open the district up to state takeover again.

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“JPS has risen from the ashes,” he said. “Under the leadership of Dr. Greene, we have risen to a point where individuals have pretty much washed their hands of to take over JPS.”

When Superintendent Errick Greene spoke before the vote, he emphasized this cannot be delayed or pushed down the road without putting the district in serious jeopardy.

“If we do not take drastic action right now … we could, in effect, create a situation where our system cannot survive because we didn't take the measures to stop the bleeding,” he said.

Nearly every board member agreed that something needed to be done to decrease costs for the district, but some questioned the way the plan was communicated.

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“Everybody knows that we have too many buildings and we have too much real estate and we don't have any money to take care of it,” said Cynthia Thompson, JPS board member for Ward 6. “It's not so much that I, or even the community, is upset with the plan, it was just the presentation.”

Thompson motioned to Wingfield High School from the list, a measure that failed 3-3. She was also the only board member who did not vote in of the consolidation plan.

“We face, in Jackson, the challenges that we face because of the of Mississippi (),” said Frank Figgers, board member for Ward 3. “People in our communities … should know on whose feet and backs to place this blame that we are in this position.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1896

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MAY 18, 1896

The ruled 7-1 in Plessy v. Ferguson that racial segregation on railroads or similar public places was constitutional, forging the “separate but equal” doctrine that remained in place until 1954.

In his dissent that would foreshadow the ruling six decades later in Brown v. Board of Education, Justice John Marshall Harlan wrote that “separate but equal” rail cars were aimed at discriminating against Black Americans.

“In the view of the Constitution, in the eye of the , there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens,” he wrote. “Our Constitution in color-blind and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of , all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law … takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the are involved.”

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.biloxinewsevents.com/?p=359301

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Mississippi Today

Renada Stovall, chemist and entrepreneur

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mississippitoday.org – Vickie King – 2024-05-17 11:53:33

Renada Stovall sat on the back deck of her rural Arkansas home one evening, contemplating when she had a life-altering epiphany…

“I gotta get out of these woods.” 

She heard it as clear as lips to her ear and as deep as the trees surrounding her property. Stovall's job as a chemist had taken her all over the country. In addition to Arkansas, there were stints in Atlanta, Dallas and Reno. But she was missing home, her and friends. She also knew, she needed something else to do. 

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“I thought, what kind of business can I start for myself,” said Stovall, as she watered herbs growing in a garden behind her south home. Some of those herbs are used in her all-natural products. “I know when I lived in Reno, Nevada, where it's very hot and very dry, there really weren't products available that worked for me, my hair, and my skin suffered. I've got a chemistry degree from Spelman College. I took the plunge and decided to create products for myself.”

A variety of soaps created by Renada Stovall. Stovall is a chemist who creates all natural skin and hair care products using natural ingredients.

In 2018, Stovall's venture led to the creation of shea butter moisturizers and natural soaps. But she didn't stop there, and in December 2022, she moved home to Mississippi and got to work, expanding her product line to include body balms and butters, and shampoos infused with avocado and palm, mango butter, coconut and olive oils.

Nadabutter, which incorporates Renada's name, came to fruition.

Renada Stovall, owner of Nadabutter, selling her all-natural soaps and balms at the Clinton Main Street Market: Spring into Green, in April of this year.

Stovall sells her balms and moisturizers at what she calls, “pop-up markets,” across the during the summer. She's available via social and also creates products depending on what of her ingredients a customer chooses. “My turmeric and honey is really popular,” Stovall added.

“The all-natural ingredients I use are great for conditioning the skin and hair. All of my products make you feel soft and luscious. The shea butter I use from Africa. It's my way of networking and supporting other women. And it's my wish that other women can be inspired to be self-sufficient in starting their own businesses.”

Soap mixture is poured into a mold to cure. Once cured, the block with be cut into bars of soap.
Renada Stovall, making cold soap at her home.
Renada Stovall adds a vibrant gold to her soap mixture.
Tumeric soap created by Nadabutter owner, Renada Stovall.
Soap infused with honey. Credit: Vickie D. King/

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1954

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-05-17 07:00:00

MAY 17, 1954

Ella J. Rice talks to one of her pupils, all of them white, in a third grade classroom of Draper Elementary School in Washington, D.C., on September 13, 1954. This was the first day of non-segregated schools for teachers and . Rice was the only Black teacher in the school. Credit: AP

In Brown v. Board of Education and Bolling v. Sharpe, the unanimously ruled that the “separate but equal” doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson was unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed equal treatment under the

The historic brought an end to federal tolerance of racial segregation, ruling in the case of student Linda Brown, who was denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, because of the color of her skin. 

In Mississippi, segregationist called the day “Black Monday” and took up the charge of the just-created white Citizens' Council to preserve racial segregation at all costs.

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This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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