The people of Jackson and the Jackson Public Schools made that kind of bold, forward-looking statement on Thursday during groundbreaking ceremonies for the new $27.9 million Gladys Noel Bates Elementary and Thomas Cardozo Middle School complex on McDowell Road Extension.
The elementary school will have an enrollment capacity of 550 students, and the middle school will have an enrollment capacity of 650 students.
The elementary school honors Gladys Noel Bates and the middle school is built in memory of Thomas Cardozo. Both are Mississippi civil rights pioneers.
The new Bates/Cardozo complex is the first new public school built in the city in more than 20 years.
JPS has built "replacement" schools (elementary schools at McWillie, Van Winkle and Pecan Park and the Forest Hill High School), but there's been no "new" school built since Northwest Jackson Middle School in 1988.
A JPS spokesman said the two-school complex will alleviate overcrowding at current Jackson schools, including Timberlawn, Woodville Heights and Oak Forest elementaries and Siwell Middle School, and will accommodate the families moving into new housing developments in south Jackson.
The project is funded by the 2006 $150 million JPS school bond referendum, the largest ever passed in Mississippi. The Bates/Cardozo complex also is the second largest K-12 school construction project in the state.
JBHM Architects designed the complex and Evan Johnson & Sons Construction, Inc., was awarded the construction contract for the complex that will occupy 165,068 square feet built on 47 acres. The anticipated completion date is June 2010.
While the Bates/Cardozo complex is impressive in its own right, the best news is that even more investment in the future of quality community public school in Jackson is under way as well.
JPS confirmed that the referendum is currently funding construction of new classroom additions at Wilkins, Marshall, North Jackson, McLeod and Casey elementaries and for construction of new classroom wings and an athletic field house at Forest Hill High School. In the near future, JPS expects to announce dates for groundbreakings for the new Henry J. Kirksey Middle School and the replacement school for Peeples Middle.
From downtown redevelopment to growth at the state's only truly urban university to continued expansions of the city's government and medical centers, Jackson's shaking off years of decline and boldly looking forward. There are problems, yes, and work remains to be done on myriad fronts.
But communities that are declining aren't communities that are spending $150 million in bond referendum funding from the taxpayers to build new and better public schools. These new school construction projects should be a point of significant civic and community pride in Mississippi's capital city.
- Clarion-Ledger, March 2, 2009