Members of Jacksonville’s Exchange Club got to hear a report on the current state of our schools at its last meeting. Jacksonville City Schools’ Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey was the guest speaker and gave the Exchangites a look of what is going on at the schools as well as potential problems if funding issues are not addressed.

“We are out of a recession, believe it or not,” said Mackey, “But the recession was pretty deep and had a vicious outcome on school budgets, public budgets, and the city’s budget.”

Mackey said he has had many talks with Jacksonville Mayor Johnny Smith about the city and schools.

“We talk a lot because the whole city, like every other city in this state except for a couple, are going though tough financial times that we have to work together to get though,” said Mackey. “He has been wonderful to work through this with us.”

Jacksonville High School’s new softball field is an example of that teamwork. According to Mackey, this is the first time the girls’ softball team has had its own field.

“This city had only two softball fields at Henry Farm, and it was very difficult to schedule times,” said Mackey. “So the Mayor and Rudy Abbott (County Commissioner) got together and through mostly a lot of volunteer effort, put together a really nice softball field. They tell me it will be ready by March 11th.”

Academically, Mackey says the schools are still improving even in the recession.

“We have been accepted into a program called A+ College Ready,” said Mackey. “It is a grant program that started out in Huntsville with Grissom High School. We are the smallest school – the only 4A school, they ever accepted. Essentially it is an expansion of our advanced placement classes with lots of support and professional development for our teachers.”

Mackey said that the program was reluctant at first to accept a 4A school, but after observing the teachers, the quality of educators changed their minds. JHS students can now expect to see more advance placement classes available in the future.

“In addition we started a pilot program with JSU to offer an engineering class for three years,” Mackey said. “We have kids going up to the university and taking engineering classes. They will come out of the program with six hours of college engineering. Now, we only had three students sign up for it, but it is a pretty good step in the right direction.”

Mackey said that because of the partnership with JSU, he thinks the program will continue to grow.

“JSU has been wonderful to work with,” said Mackey. “It has not been cost effective for JSU. If you see Dr. Meehan or Rebecca Turner, tell them how much you appreciate what they do. It is hard for them to create a class for three people who aren’t even full time students. JSU is essentially losing money by doing this, but they see the potential for this project to grow. Now, they are opening it up for students in the county schools as well.”

Mackey then presented the financial problems Jacksonville Schools could face if nothing is done.

“We have the age old problem of costs going up and the money has gone down,” he said. “This is the fourth year in a row that the state of Alabama has not been able to balance its budget. So this is an old problem. We were already going into a hole way before the recession started, but it got a little deeper.”

According to Mackey, proration hit schools hard and many schools had to cut back on programs, teachers, extracurricular activities and other things while others had to dip into their savings in order to continue to provide.

“We kept everything going,” said Mackey. “But in order to do that we had to dip into our savings. This year we dipped again. The problem is that if this thing doesn’t turn around and we provide the same courses and services, then some time around late 2011, we are going to have nothing in our savings.

“There will be school systems to bankrupt. There is no doubt about that. We are not there yet, but we have to be watching where we are going.”

Mackey says that while the county sales tax has helped, poor predictions made a bigger hole for schools to climb out of.

“The county sales tax has definitely been a savior,” said Mackey. “If we did not have that, we would be facing bankruptcy right now.”

According to Mackey, since 2008 the state was short a little over $80,000 a month than what they promised to send. When the sales tax money came in, the funds were enough to cover the lost funds.

“The real issues is the state overestimated revenues again for 2010,” said Mackey. “So, the state actually built in an increase for expenses, but had to go into proration again on October 1st. Now, instead of being shorted $84,000 dollars a month by the state like we were in 2009, we are now being shorted $138,000 a month. People think we passed the one cent sales tax for the county and everything should be fine, and it would have been fine if the state would pick up its portion.”

“It is a serious issue, an issue faced across the state that schools have not faced since 1937. I don’t know what the answer is, but something as got to be done. It’s a long term problem that needs to be fixed.”

“We have two choices. Either we keep providing the best program we can realizing that we are spending more money than we are taking in and hope something happens before we hit zero, or we cut our programs and just offer the very most basic kind of education. I am talking about cutting all electives, going from 17 or 18 students in a classroom to 25 or 26, and cutting out sports. We are not there, but if nothing changes, we are headed that way.”

The Jacksonville Exchange Club is participating in the “Eat Big” campaign to raise money for the Calhoun Cleburne Children’s Center. Members will be selling groups and individuals Outback Steakhouse meals for $10 each with the proceeds going to the charity. To get the meals for your group or yourself, see a club member or call David Glass at 256-591-6462. For more information on the Calhoun Cleburne Children’s Center, visit: www.cchildrenscenter.org