Moss hopes to extend her time on JMCSS Board

Marcia Moss hadn’t been on the Jackson-Madison County School Board for two months before it was time to pull her petition to run for re-election.

Moss was appointed by the Madison County Commission last October to fulfill the unexpired term vacated by Scott Gatlin earlier in 2023.

And whoever wins the race for this seat – District 5, Position 2 – will have to run again in two years for the regular election for this seat.

“I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize all this campaigning would come up so quickly when I was appointed last year, but that’s OK,” Moss said in an interview after last week’s school board meeting. “Now that I’ve been on for a few months, I want to stay here to help however I can.”

Moss said nine months into her appointment on the Board, she understands the process of how things happen better than she did when she first came on.

“There’s a lot of information we get from Dr. [Marlon] King and his team that we as a Board work through,” Moss said. “And I appreciate the camaraderie of this group.

“We don’t agree on everything, but at the end of the day, we all can agree we want what’s best for the District and everyone involved.”

Moss taught school for a total of 30 years including a couple years in Madison County before teaching at University School of Jackson for 27 years. After that, she taught a course at Jackson State Community College for students that had reading comprehension problems coming into college.

“That’s what made me want to run is wanting to help future students avoid being in that situation,” Moss said.

While a lot of the conversation she’s been involved with has generated around buildings and infrastructure, she said she is encouraged by some of the things she sees in the District.

“I like the way Dr. King leads this District,” Moss said. “He just completed a tour of the schools toward the end of the year where he spoke with people in the school personally to get a check on how things are going, what’s working, what could use improvement, and that’s good to see the leader being the one having those conversations.”

She said there are two things she’s learned about that she wants to see improve and is willing to help figure out the solution if needed.

“Truancy is an issue, especially in first period where a lot of students are so late they just decide to miss the entire first class of the day,” Moss said. “But it’s also a problem for some of the teachers to come to school consistently too.

“So I want to be involved in both of those conversations if I’m needed.”

Moss acknowledges that the District has a long way to go to get where it wants to be, but she likes how hard the students and faculty are working.

“We’ve taken small steps as a District in improving our math and reading scores,” Moss said. “They’re getting better.”

Moss is the Republican nominee, and her opponent, Dwight Jones, is the Democratic nominee who was her competition last year for the appointment.

Early voting is underway at the Madison County 4H facility on North Parkway from 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. until noon on Saturdays through July 27. Election Day is Aug. 1.

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news