It is no secret Jenkins Middle School has closed, causing their students to have to come to Doherty High School and Russell Middle School. The problem at Jenkins has to do with the structure of the building, and how it was built. This structural issue has persisted there for 26 years since the school was built. So here is the important question out of all of it: Who here messed up to cause it to break down so soon?
Governance, at least in our country, is by the people for the people, and under our democratic system, this is how it works. So what should be done in the situation when our school board fails us in the use of our tax dollars? The answer is clear we vote them out. As I talked to people at the Jenkins Welcoming Night, I started to hear a similar sentiment. Jenkins is not an isolated incident. This is a common phenomenon in D11.
They wait until their schools are on their last leg, then put money into them for repairs. Jenkins, a school with obvious problems for years, has been pushed aside for nearly two decades by D11 because instead of doing the exact thing they were elected to do, which is to improve our district, they have focused on other priorities which is making our district worse overall.
With our schools degrading, they can throw as many fancy programs at students as they want, but that will not save schools from degrading or collapsing. This causes already crowded suburban schools such as Doherty and Russell to become even more crowded, making life at these schools for staff and students harder.
Many students seem to think overcrowding in schools has led to decreased student performance. In a study authorized by the Tennessee legislature 40 years ago called project STAR, for Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio done in Tennessee elementary schools and ran by Harvard University found students in smaller classes, and schools perform significantly better on academic tests, then those in bigger classes and schools.
Although data for high school and middle school students is almost nonexistent, a University of Kentucky found that overcrowded high schools and middle schools, with a high student teacher ratio “do have a negative effect on ACT composite scores.” This is not even the biggest problem here, which truly goes down to the lack of transparency from the district.
From the get-go, the district was lacking in communicating information about the school’s condition for parents, almost trying to hide it as best they could while assuring those that did that it would be dealt with in the summer of 2027. For many, this was an outrage.Amber Hardy a Jenkins parent, said, “I feel betrayed by how this has been handled, I feel like my child’s life has been gambled with this year at the very least we should have been notified about the modified fire watch, staff and students at all locations have now been done a huge disservice.”
When I asked Doherty’s principal for information about the situation, she said, “The problem at Jenkins has existed since 1999, when the building was built.”
The question that came out my mouth next was not as easy to answer as I thought it would be. What was the problem? They just kept pushing promises to get it done in the future, while the school’s condition worsens. They have been aware of an issue as early as 2009, 16 years ago.
When I spoke to D11 board member Parth Malpakam, he said the current plan is to: “Send in an engineering firm into the school to assess structural issues, and find the specific problem, then to put whatever resources into the school are needed including 12 million dollars set aside for this and more if necessary.”
To me, the level of thought here is lacking, but I honestly think it can work, but won’t work. This is a very risky situation and any mistake could make it fail, and will fail, whether structurally with the building, or accidental creating problems by mixing of student bodies. There’s so many moves and with a D11 board that has messed up on this level, is it really worth trusting their plan?
