JMCSS approves budget for Pope School, provides update on current projects
JACKSON, Tenn. — The Jackson-Madison County School Board met to approve plans for future projects.
The school board has a lot of projects on the horizon and even some that are already underway.
Among the projects approved during Thursday’s meeting was the ESSER 3.0 plan. The plan comes from the federal funding relief aid in the amount of $37 million.
JMCSS Superintendent Dr. Marlon King says the project will create a central hub for the district, which will include a multi-use football stadium and a social and mental health resource center.
The board also approved a budget to move into phase II of the Pope School building project. The budget was set at $770,000.
School Board Vice Chairman AJ Massey says they now can present the budget to the Madison County commission.
“To get us a dollar amount that we can then present to the county commission for funding, and they’ll know how much we need to spend on this building,” Massey said. “And then it is on them to decide how that is going to be put in their budget or financed, however they are going to work that out.”
And with the extra federal funding from the ESSER project, Massey says helps the county commission finance the Pope project.
“There is just a lot of spending in there that we could have asked them for, but instead decided to take on with our ESSER funding. So it gives them a really easy yes for the Pope project and moving forward with that. Hopefully that is the endgame,” Massey said.
The Jackson Central-Merry High School and Madison Academic construction may see slight change in plans as well.
Deputy Superintendent of Operations, Dr. Ricky Catlett says JCM is on track to finish July 31.
A timeline has yet to be determined for when Madison Academic’s construction will finish. Catlett says the district has a plan ready for any date.
“We have three plans to move in. Phase I, phase II, and phase III, so depending on when they are completed,” he said.
The board will meet with the Madison County commission to see if their budget is approved for the Pope School building.
