Education Vision tackles truancy in JMCSS

This month’s Education Vision meeting had a different look to it as Madison County Juvenile Court Judge Christy Little and her staff along with Juvenile Court Services Coordinator T.J. King were invited to discuss truancy.

“When we met, we were in the third week of school, and we already had a high number of students who’d missed five or even 10 days of school to that point,” said Harvey Walden, one of the co-chairs of the committee. “And it’s something I’ve wanted to look at and discuss for awhile, and I appreciate Judge Little and T.J. King for coming by and having that discussing with us and our truancy folks.”

The Education Vision Committee is a non-voting committee that is made up of both Jackson-Madison County Board members and Madison County Commissioners. There’s a co-chair from each legislative body. Walden is the co-chair from JMCSS. Commissioner Olivia Abernathy is the other co-chair.

Claudell Brown was the only Commissioner present for this meeting, but JMCSS Board members Sherry Franks, Debbie Gaugh and Marcia Moss were in attendance along with Melissa Spurgeon, Superintendent Marlon King’s chief of staff.

Also in attendance was Shalonda Franklin, the JMCSS chief of social and behavioral services, along with truancy officer Jerry Hill and a new member of his staff.

Franklin and Hill explained to the Committee members and to the criminal justice officials that there are four tiers to truancy in JMCSS.

The first two tiers are handled within the school building before the student and their parents reach the third tier, which is when families get referred to Little’s courtroom.

A lot of the discussion, which lasted nearly 90 minutes, discussed how out-of-control many situations seem to be by the time the student and his or her parents get to where they’re appearing before Little in her courtroom and different potential steps that could be taken.

Hill was commended for the job he’s doing in trying to curb the situation, but since his department has been largely understaffed for the past couple years, it’s an almost impossible job, which was why a lot of the present officials were glad to see Hill joined by a staffer who was a recent hire from a statewide social service for children.

“The bottom line is our children can’t be educated if they’re not showing up for class, and we need to do our part as a district to make sure we’re helping the families get their children to school on time consistently,” Walden said. “Because I think when we see this problem start to decline, we’ll see a noticeable improvement in some of the metrics our district is evaluated by.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news