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Posted: 5:21 PM Jun 15, 2009
Meridian Schools Request Hearing
Jackson, Miss. The Meridian Public School System has submitted paperwork to appeal a recent lowering of its accreditation rating.
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11 Comments 
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MASS, also check the student handbook that is sent home every year. The parents are supposed to sign an acknowledgement letter stating that they have received the handbook.
MASS- May I offer this to help you understand the grading/retention policy?Every child must have a 70% or higher yearly average in the core subjects like Reading, English, and Math for elementary. The policy includes Science and Social Studies for fourth and fifth grades in elementary. I won't speak about junior high and high school because I am not sure. If a child didn't make the 70%, the administrator has to take the child's case before a review committee. That committee will decide if the child is retained. With differentiated instruction in place and teachers working with the children, it would have to be a severe case of the child just being at least 1 or 2 grade levels behind and almost impossible for that child to catch up to do on-grade level work.It is possible for a child to fail one subject and be retained. Sometimes retention is best if the child cannot do on-grade level work. There is no need to send the child to the next grade and he or she struggle unnecessarily.
The MDE should investigate other schools too. If you think these other schools are perfect with no drugs, sex, and discipline problems. YOU ARE CRAZY...Most of these schools HIDE thier problems to protect their reputation.
Good luck on knowing the policy and procedure have ask repeatedly for a copy due to the unfairness in the grading scale and how they determine to retain a student. The District office transfers my calls to one person and then another. The MPSD should be investigated for reverse discrimination.
MPSD is under fire alot lately. I think there has been alot of problems with the school district, but they are now just surfacing because some people have issues with the current superintendent. He has only been in office for one school term. People need to give the man a chance to work. There are checks and balances in the school system. It just depends on who the person is! Parents are absolutely right to voice concerns, but I doubt if its going to make a difference.
I would love to see WTOK or the local paper, or BOTH make appointments with the MPSD Super. or the school board members to ask directly the questions that were ask and 'heard' but were NOT answered at last night's meeting. The sweeping, unnecessary changes to the uniform policy are doing NOTHING to help the district, and are a financial burden to its families. I would really like to know who suggested the change and why. Flexing their power like this doesn't bring a district together to improve education, it divides. It is one of the reasons families are looking at other districts, and/or homeschooling as options.
As a parent of a second grader with 2 more siblings coming up behind him, I am very concerned with the public school system. The city raises taxes, passes school bonds, etc. and then wonders why people continually move out of the city into the county... maybe it is to get their children into better schools. I don't think the teachers are the problem nor does throwing money at the problem fix anything. A common phrase "A fish stinks from the head down" can apply in this situation. To get the Meridian public school system back on track, radical changes need to take place. We need new school board members that actually take the time to review policies and oversee what is going on within the system. Right now there are no checks and balances everyone just does what they want. Also why would they appoint a superintendent from a failing school and expect him to be able to improve our schools. What happened to common sense?
I continue to be curious as to WHY State Department did not yank the licenses immediately. Local administration and board cannot do that, only State Department. The fact that the licenses were NOT revoked, and the fact that the district has requested a hearing, make me wonder if maybe there is more to this story than any of us knows. I'm not saying there is or there isn't--I'm just intrigued that the state didn't move immediately. All the more reason for us to know policy, procedure, and have all the facts on any situation (not just this one) before judging. I don't see this as a sign of arrogance at all. What I do see is the district availing itself of an option that is available to them as laid out in State Department Policy. Like everyone else, I will eagerly await (as Paul Harvey would say) 'the rest of the story.'
The State Dept. should investigate the MPSD from top to bottom...
By requesting a hearing, MPSD just might force the State Department's hand in seeing to it that Walker and Hood are punished. Why request a hearing when you know that you are guilty? This is simply another occurence of MPSD's arrogance.