Jackson-Madison Co. Schools awarded $400K priority school grant
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MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — The Jackson-Madison County School System has been awarded a $400,000 grant to plan for how to best support the system’s priority schools, according to the Tennessee Department of Education. The federal funds were awarded by the department as part of $5 million distributed to five districts across the state. The districts are given the funds to develop plans to support their priority schools, which are the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools in the state in terms of academic achievement, according to a release from the department. Lincoln Magnet School for Mathematics and Science and Jackson Career Technology Magnet Elementary both were classified this year as priority schools, according to a release from the school system. The school system will develop a plan with the funding and will communicate the plan to the staff at both schools as well as communicate the principles of the priority schools grant, according to the release. The new list of priority schools was identified last summer, and the planning grants provide resources for districts to determine how best to support the schools beginning in the 2015-16 school year. These funds can assist districts in engaging the community, recruiting teachers and leaders, and exploring additional resources that may be needed for priority schools, the Department of Education release states. Additional funds will be made available through a competitive grant process in the spring of 2015 to further assist districts with implementation of their turnaround plans, according to the release. The other districts across the state awarded grant funding are Metro Nashville Public Schools, Knox County Schools, Shelby County Schools and Achievement School District.
