From the Business Desk ... More from Jackson's mayor and superintendent

The Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce hosted an interesting program last week as part of its "Business Leadership" series featuring Jackson Mayor Dwain Hahs and John Link, superintendent of the Jackson School District.

Over the course of an hour, the mayor and superintendent covered a cornucopia of topics, including a review of major accomplishments from the past year and the challenges the school system and city face in 2020.

Although I wrote a 30-inch story about the program (much longer than most news stories, which are in the 15- to 20-inch range), I couldn't cover every subject that came up. Therefore, I'll use a little bit of my column to mention a couple of subjects I didn't have space to report on in my original story -- career training and high-speed internet connections.

Both Link and Hahs said career and technical training for students in the Jackson School District can go a long way toward enhancing the local workforce, which would, in turn, benefit existing businesses and industries as well as those that could be recruited to the Jackson area.

The problem, the mayor and superintendent said, is finding the funding and building consensus for additional postsecondary trade training in the region among legislators, educators and municipal leaders as well as buy in from key businesses and industries that see the need for career training.

"This is something we need in Southeast Missouri to keep our young people here," Hahs said. "The jobs are here, the opportunities are here, certainly we all love living here and we think more people should. Certainly having the opportunity to go to school and learn those trades close to home rather than four, five, six hours away I think is important."

"Honestly, it's going to take a spearhead of people that can come together and work side by side and not really care if the building is built in Jackson or Cape or Sikeston," Link said. "It's not a Jackson problem; it's a Southeast Missouri problem, so we've got to come together. The school district can help, but the push has got to come from the community because the school districts are strapped. We're not going to be able to give a lot of funding to (a project) like that. What we're going to give is we're going to give students."

On the topic of high-speed internet, the mayor and superintendent were asked what its going to take to add connectivity in some neighborhoods currently lacking it. Hahs said the city is encouraging the local cable provider to add service in several underserved subdivisions, but it takes time to do so, especially when the community's growth outpaces the cable provider's ability to service new areas.

In the meantime, at least one parent at the program said it becomes challenging for students in the school district to complete online homework assignments when their homes don't have internet connectivity. As a result, she said she and her children have to become creative when it comes to completing online assignments.

"I can tell you the Nissan dealership has excellent Wi-Fi on its parking lot," she said.

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