Published: February 19, 2008 05:11 pm      

JISD assesses impact of company closings on student population

By Raymond Billy

rbilly@jacksonvilleprogress.com

The impending closures of two companies and the loss of more than 600 jobs could have a major impact on Jacksonville Independent School District enrollment, according to a worst-case scenario presented Monday during the district’s board of trustees meeting.

“Please bear in mind, we won’t have any earthly idea what the impact is going to be on our schools for a while,” said JISD Superintendent Stuart Bird, who presented the report. “We ran a report today that I absolutely would not hang my hat on, given the way we obtained it.”

School district officials compiled a list of students’ emergency contacts and were able to determine how many of those contacts worked for the two soon-to-be-departing Alliance Data Systems and Astro Air Inc.

Astro Air’s London-based parent company, Luvata, announced Thursday it would shut down its Jacksonville plant in August. Alliance Data told employees Jan. 29 it would close locally in April.

About 204 students from 118 families will be impacted by the future job losses, according to school district data. If all of those families leave Jacksonville to seek economic opportunities elsewhere, it would have a dramatic impact on the district, particularly with regard to the proposed expansion of Nichols Intermediate School.

Nichols Principal Tammy Jones told the school board on December 2007 her school would need additional space to accommodate the 141-student increase it was projected to experience by the 2012-2013 academic year. That projection was based solely on students advancing from JISD’s four elementary schools into Nichols.

According the JISD data, 104 elementary school students belong to families impacted by the announced plant closures. If all of those families left the city, that would leave Nichols with an influx of 37 students more than its current enrollment. Additionally, Nichols has 35 students with ties to those companies.

While it is unlikely all worker impacted will uproot their family, the turmoil in the local labor market presents a tricky situation for JISD, which now must decide whether to move forward with the expansion of Nichols when the school’s future enrollment is so uncertain.

While JISD trustees may feel reluctant to authorize expanding the intermediate school in light of recent employment data, Bird cautioned it could be costly to take a wait-and-see approach with regard to the impact of the economy on the student population.

“If we postpone the project — just so everybody understands — I think it will be at this time next year, 10 to 12 percent more expensive. Just so everybody understands that that’s kind of where the inflation has gone over the last four or five years,” Bird said.

JISD officials previously indicated a decision on whether or not to expand Nichols would be made at the March school board meeting.

In action items considered Monday, the board approved:

• a staff development waiver request for the 2008-2009 school year for submission to the Texas Education Agency;

• the proposed 2008-2009 JISD school calendar;

• an order to call a JISD trustee election for May 10 and a joint election agreement with the city of Jacksonville;

• program changes resulting in a reduction in force, which would necessitate the non-renewal of term contract employees at Compass Center and Jacksonville High School;

• items to be sold in the March 1 JISD auction; and

• the consent agenda.

The JISD Board of Trustees regularly meets at 6:30 p.m. on the third Monday of each month at the JISD Administration Building, 1547 Pine St.