School is officially out for the summer and Jackson Public Schools can celebrate the fact that 1,147 students have graduated from the district’s seven high schools.
On top of that, JPS’s 2024 graduating class collectively earned exactly $43,659,224 in scholarships, according to Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. This year’s successes at JPS was the focal point of Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba’s Monday press briefing.
Enrollment at the start of the year was 1,208 seniors at JPS’ seven high schools, according to a report by the Mississippi Department of Education. That means nearly 95% of JPS’ class of 2024 graduated.
Of the 1,147 students graduating, 278 were awarded “academic endorsements.”
“In order to get an academic endorsement, they had to maintain a 2.5 or higher GPA, successfully complete one AP course and successfully complete one IB (international baccalaureate) course,” Lumumba said.
Lumumba also celebrated the 12 JPS seniors who scored a 30 or higher on the ACT test.
Last week, JPS officials announced the district received a grant of more than $9 million from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that will partially be used to buy 25 electric buses.
Lumumba cleared up what he called “some rhetoric that we noticed on social media” saying the funds were available because of JPS’ decision to close 11 schools and merge two others for the next school year.
More on JPS’ electric buses:JPS receives more than $9M from EPA to fund energy-efficient school buses
“We want to operate in facts: JPS was not choosing to use those funds for buses in lieu of taking care of facilities. That money was provided through a clean air grant by the EPA,” Lumumba said. “(JPS was) one of many school districts across the country that will ultimately receive some level of funding through this grant.”
The grant is part of the EPA’s Clean School Bus program, which has allocated funding to school districts nationwide to procure electric and low-emission school buses.
Lumumba continued to defend JPS after hearing of “comments that were speaking quite poorly of our our district and our graduates.”
“We know that the Jackson Public School District at one point in time had received several consecutive F grades where it was failing,” Lumumba said. “Well the district has made huge and significant strides to improve and our district, at our last opportunity to be graded, was one point away from a B (grade).”
In 2016 and 2017, JPS received an F-rating, from the Mississippi’s Department of Education’s accountability ratings. Those same years, the school district also dodged state takeovers due to underperformance. The takeover would have placed JPS into the state’s Achievement School District, a legislative mandate aimed at improving underperforming school districts by stripping their local control for a minimum of five years and absorbing them into a statewide district governed by the state Board of Education.
Instead of a takeover, former Republican Gov. Phil Bryant collaborated with Lumumba, a Democrat, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to create the Better Together Commission as an effort to transform the city’s schools.
The 2018-2019 and 2020-2021 school years both saw JPS move up from an F to a D rating. Since the 2021-2022 school year, JPS rating has risen to a C.
JPS is offering free breakfast and lunch to children under the age of 18 starting Monday, June 3, to Friday, July 12. Breakfast will be served from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Lunch will be served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The free meals are a part of the district’s Child Nutrition Department’s 33rd annual Summer Feeding Program.
The meals must be eaten on site at the schools. Below is the list of school’s offering the program:
