Posted 2:17 am Sunday, February 21, 2010
Jacksonville ISD Demographics Shift Toward More Hispanic Students
By KELLY GOOCH
Staff Writer
JACKSONVILLE -- Officials with the Jacksonville Independent School District are weighing in on results from a recent demographic study and looking at what those results mean for the district's future.
Staff Writer
JACKSONVILLE -- Officials with the Jacksonville Independent School District are weighing in on results from a recent demographic study and looking at what those results mean for the district's future.
JISD hired School District Strategies to perform the study in November. The Dallas-based company is being paid $24,000 for its services, with Jacksonville Economic Development Corp. putting $5,000 toward the survey and JISD funding the remaining $19,000.
Among the findings is the student population has become much more Hispanic, going from 26 percent in 2000 to 43 percent in 2009. At the same time, the white population fell from 51 percent to 36 percent.
Judy Terry, JISD assistant superintendent of instruction and curriculum, attributed the increase in Hispanic students to Jacksonville businesses bringing in more Hispanic workers.
"We have some basket factories and some manufacturing businesses, and we've had an influx of them needing workers and they've moved into the community," she said.
According to the demographic study, half of the top 15 employers in Jacksonville are companies with manufacturing-based jobs and the overall health of the city's economy "is clearly dependant on the strength of the manufacturing sector."
School Board President James Houser called the Hispanic population growth an "interesting statistic." He said he does not know what specifically caused the increase.
The district's economically disadvantaged population has also grown.
The demographic study found 78 percent of the student population is considered economically disadvantaged, a 19 percent increase from 2000.
Houser said the percentage of economically disadvantaged students could perhaps be attributed to the many entry level positions in the community where people are making minimum wage.
Even with a high number of economically disadvantaged students, he said the district is "beating the norm" and doing well academically.
JISD has three campuses rated as exemplary, two rated as recognized and two rated as acceptable by the Texas Education Agency for 2008-09. Exemplary is the highest rating given by TEA.
Besides the increase in economically disadvantaged students, the demographic study shows JISD is over capacity at its permanent facilities.
According to the study, the district is over its permanent capacity by 663 students and is only meeting capacity by using 33 portable buildings.
Ricky Richards, who has a daughter at Nichols Intermediate School, said no one can go to school in Jacksonville without realizing the facilities are not up to standard with other cities.
"Numbers in the study show there must be more facilities in Jacksonville, and if we don't pass (a bond), facilities will deteriorate and it will hurt not only the school district, but (also) the city as it struggles through these difficult times," he said.
Katie Royon, who has twin sons in kindergarten and a daughter in third grade at Fred Douglass Elementary School, agreed.
"They need the new facilities desperately. The population is growing so rapidly. Without those new facilities, they'll suffer …," she said. "A lot of my friends send their children to private Christian schools or another school district … I think it all falls back on not getting school bonds passed. I think if we could get some facilities that are up to date, it would attract more students and more parents would send their kids here."
Because the district is over capacity at its permanent facilities, some students do attend schools they are not zoned for, Ms. Terry said.
According to the study, the most serious overcrowding issues are expected to occur at West Side Elementary School and East Side Elementary School in the next five years.
Ms. Terry attributed that finding to the fact that there have been housing additions in those areas.
Although the district needs new facilities and is facing overcrowding issues, Richards commended district teachers and administrators on how they are handling the situation.
"In general, we have had a tremendous effort by the teachers and administrators to educate the kids, even though the voters have not made them have adequate facilities. In spite of that, educators have worked around that," he said.
Now, district officials hope to help find a long-term remedy to the situation.
"We are moving in the direction of having bond elections. This demographic study shows us all facilities are crowded," Houser said. "Whether we build new ones or remodel, we'll take the data and start working with architects."
Superintendent Dr. Joe Wardell has said he also believes the study is a vital tool for the district.
"We need to, as a district and as a community, look at 10 years from now, where will we be and what do we need to do to get ready for that. It's important to look at what we'll need … The better planning we do, the better job we do of taking care of the district funds. So I think planning for the future is extremely important," he said earlier this week.
After trustees look at the results of the study, the district will put a long-range planning committee together.
Wardell has said the group can help the district plan how it will address future needs and what order to address them in.
"This will be really important, not only to get a long-term plan in place, but also … on an annual basis, to get this group together and see are we still on track …," he said. "It's something that you come back to annually and still look at 10 years from that point."
