JACKSON REDREW LINES LAST YEAR (DRAWING THE LINES)

JACKSON -- A year ago, Jackson School District tackled the issue of drawing lines for elementary school boundaries as it prepared to open the new South Elementary School.

In making the change, Jackson consciously moved from grade-level-attendance centers toward a neighborhood concept, explained Superintendent Howard Jones.

A neighborhood-school concept is defined as children attending the schools closest to home but also includes developing schools that educate a range of grade levels.

When Jones came to the Jackson district four years ago, North Elementary had grades one through five. The district's other elementary schools had a variety of grade configurations ranging from one to three grades in a building.

Jackson's enrollment is on the rise. Enrollment is growing at about 5 percent a year, and classroom space is a premium across the district.

"With the decision to add classrooms to the district, we made a decision to gravitate back to neighborhood, kindergarten through five, self-contained schools," Jones said. "We will not accomplish this in the near future, but we are working in that direction."

South Elementary has four rooms per grade level from grades kindergarten through fifth. Ten classrooms were added at North Elementary to bring kindergartners back to that neighborhood school. The long-range plan calls for an additional east elementary school that would be kindergarten through fifth grade.

"Underlying all of these changes is the philosophy that there is enough disruption in children's lives today without the school adding to it," Jones said. "When you send a kid every two years to a different school, it is unsettling for kids, particularly for kids who lack stability in other areas of their lives.

"For the sake of administrative convenience or more efficient assignment of kids, we sacrifice the stability of those children."

The Jackson school board decided it was good for children to get to know the school custodian, the secretary, the nurse, the principal, the librarian, the cafeteria worker. "These are the stable people in their lives they can depend on to be there," Jones said.

When Jackson students reach sixth grade, they head to the middle school for two years, then to the junior high in eighth grade and to the high school in 10th grade. "At least they are a little more mature and older when we ask them to make these transitions," Jones said.

Unlike Cape Girardeau, racial diversity isn't an issue in Jackson. The district has a minority enrollment of 2 percent. "And racial minorities are well spread out throughout the district geographically," Jones said. "We haven't found the need to artificially integrate."

Children are assigned to an elementary school based on their residence. But as a way to accommodate individual needs, Jackson has a system that allows children to transfer to a different school.

To transfer a student, parents must fill out an application, which is reviewed by a group of principals and the assistant superintendent. Decisions are made based on several criteria.

Foremost, Jones said, parents requesting a transfer may be required to provide transportation to the new school.

"We have provided a perfectly good classroom with a perfectly good teacher and transportation," he said. "If a parent chooses a different school, they may be required to transport that youngster."

Secondly, the transfer cannot create a significant class imbalance. For example, if Millersville and Orchard both had kindergarten classes of 22 students, but 11 Millersville parents wanted their kindergartners to attend Orchard, those transfers couldn't be accommodated. "We can't have a class of 11 at Millersville and a class of 33 at Orchard," he said. "Sometimes it's a case of two from one school and two from another school. That's easy. We just grant it."

He estimated some 50 transfer requests are made each year. Of those, the majority is granted.

1998-99 JACKSON SCHOOLS

Primary Annex: Kindergarten

Orchard Elementary: First through third grade

Westlane Elementary: Fourth and fifth grade

South Elementary: Kindergarten through fifth grade

North Elementary: Kindergarten through fifth grade

Gordonville: First through fourth grade

Millersville: Kindergarten through third grade

Jackson Middle School: Sixth and seventh grade

Jackson Junior High: Eighth and ninth grade

Jackson High School: Tenth through twelfth grade