Chamber of Commerce links school system’s reading problems to the economy

In a move similar to the development of an urgent and strategic business plan, the leadership of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce is targeting a local educational lapse they believe is preventing new business and industry from locating here and driving away potential residents.

The chamber’s board of directors has determined that the “D” rating of Marianna High School, given by the state Department of Education, must be raised and that the chamber will team up with the school district and the high school to improve student achievement in the critical area of reading.

Led by this year’s chairman of the board, Tommy Lassmann, the chamber announced an initiative at its First Friday Power Breakfast. The chamber’s president and CEO Art Kimbrough said the “proposal for an economic stimulus investment” came about through talks with School Superintendent Danny Sims and MHS Principal Randy Ward.

“We asked if there was anything the chamber can do to help change this,” Kimbrough said, “and the answer was ‘yeah, there is.’ ”

To start with, the chamber wants to raise $6,000 from the business community in just over a week – by April 15 – to fund the basis for reading improvement.
That would pay for all five of the reading specialists at Marianna High to attend the International Reading Association Annual Conference in Atlanta in May, where they will “secure the up-to-date tools, techniques, training and technology needed to solve the reading problem,” according to the executive summary of the position paper on the proposal.

It’s based on the premise that “education is an economic development issue.”

“We have to put our money where our mouth is,” Kimbrough said. “They’ll learn how to deal with a 15-year-old who’s reading on a fourth-grade level.”
The chamber is seeding the pot with $1,000.

But the trip is just the first step in the year-long effort. The goal is to help Marianna High become an “A” or “B” rated school in the next 12 months, “so the school’s rating becomes an asset for promoting our community rather than a liability,” Kimbrough said.

The chamber is after “immediate payback,” Kimbrough told those gathered for the First Friday event.

As outlined in the Executive Summary, the problem of the school’s D rating “has caused some to reject a move to our community.”

It continues, “Individuals and businesses considering a move to Jackson County use school rankings as a key factor in their decision process,” and, “When a single factor, such as the rating of the county’s largest high school, is clearly identified as a cause for choosing or rejecting our community, then the problem is an economic development issue as well as an educational issue.”

According to the position paper, the root causes of the low rating are that 58 percent of MHS students read below grade level when they arrive at the high school, and MHS teachers lack the tools and training to solve the problem.

The chamber’s plan calls for commitment, follow-up, and measurement of progress:

• The reading specialists will develop a plan for implementing new tools, techniques, training and technology;

• The team will meet weekly on their own time to share best practices, practical experiences, lessons learned, and results achieved;

• The team and the principal will meet monthly with chamber officials to discuss progress;

• A representative of the team will meet quarterly with the chamber board of directors to report results and discuss challenges.

Attending the chamber event were two of the school’s reading specialists, Judi Braxton and Tammy Johnson.