JACKSON SCHOOLS TO NAME FOCUS PANELS

JACKSON -- The Jackson Board of Education decided to head up committees, slow down drivers, and expand curriculum during its meeting Tuesday night.

Board members voted to accept a recommendation to appoint committees and coordinators for 10 focus areas within the district. Each of the area chairpersons will exist as a contact person for the district, and will attend meetings, receive mailings and generally field questions and concerns dealing with the focus areas.

"We felt it would be in our best interest to create a contact list that we could place in the parent handbook next fall and the faculty and staff directory," said Dr. Howard Jones, superintendent.

The board also gave administrators the green light to research the necessity of lowering the speed limit during peak school hours near the middle school for increased safety to students. The approval allows administrators to prepare an application to the Missouri Highway Department to lower the speed limit from 40 to 30 mph in front of the middle school for 30 minutes before and during school hours. Before sending in the application, administrators will determine what rules and regulations would have to be followed by the district.

"We have pursued this in response to some patron interest as well as a legislator who was interested in it," Jones said. "There are, however, some strings attached to that process that I was not aware of previously."

The board also approved adding a required semester-log health course to the eighth-grade curriculum and expanding the current alternative learning center for the 1997-98 school year.

Junior-high-school principal Dennis Parham asked the board to approve the health course because he felt a more comprehensive program would better meet needs of students. The addition of a health requirement would mean a full-time faculty member would also be needed, he said.

"We feel this is a good option for students," said assistant superintendent Fred Jones. "We don't want to neglect the junior-high students in this area."

Alternative Learning Center supervisors gave a presentation regarding the improvements the center has provided the district during its pilot year. Decreases in out-of-school student-suspension rates, instructional days lost, and failing grades per semester were all credited in part to the pilot program.

"It is apparent we want to continue this project, but we also need to look at expanding it to the middle school and high school," said Jones. "There are definite advantages to having a program like this in place, and the benefits are evident in our numbers."