JACKSON BOARD CONSIDERS DROP-ADD POLICY

JACKSON -- The Jackson Board of Education agreed to research a parental concern and authorized several grant submissions during a meeting Tuesday.

Jim Roach, a parent of two Jackson students, asked the school board to consider lengthening the amount of time junior high and high school students have to drop a class without receiving a failing grade.

Current policy requires students to make schedule changes within 10 days of the start of the semester. Roach said the policy is restrictive and encourages students to drop a class without even making an attempt to master the material. He suggested lengthening the time requirement through a quarter or to the class' halfway point.

"I think what it does is get a student to say they won't even try, when we should be encouraging them to make an informed decision," Roach told board members. "I think the main control should be in putting the control back in the parent's hands and the student's hands."

The school board agreed to research similar policies in area school districts and the state to determine if the district's scheduling policy is too restrictive.

Board member Jack Knowlan suggested also polling teachers and school administrators regarding whether students would use a more liberal time limit to drop classes if they test poorly early in the semester.

In other business, the school board approved submission of three competitive grant applications to provide additional programming and literacy resources at the elementary level. One request was made by Dr. Ann Gifford of Southeast Missouri State University for the district to serve as fiscal agent for a $2 million grant request to fund an afterschool program for reading and the arts.

Gifford is submitting a consortium grant application for a federal program that would employ teachers to lead cultural and literacy activities at Jackson, Cape Girardeau, Perryville, Kelly and Malden school districts.

Jackson would not have qualified for the grant on its own because the district's participation in the federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program does not meet mandated guidelines. However, by grouping the district with others that have higher Free and Reduced Lunch numbers, the overall participation was high enough to meet the guidelines, Gifford said.