Residents and community leaders gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center on Thursday evening to share ideas on how to improve McComb’s public schools.
P3 Strategies, a Jackson-based education consulting firm, organized the meeting as one of several that will take place over the next 30 days to develop a strategic plan for the McComb School District.
The district established three focus groups of about 30 people from across the community, including teachers, parents, professionals and civic leaders, to help develop the plan.
“We are in the process of attempting to develop a world-class school district,” Superintendent Dr. Cederick Ellis said. “I’m smart enough to know that I can’t do that by myself. We try to get a cross-section of people from the McComb School District community.”
Several members of the public, including parents and students, attended Thursday’s meeting to propose ideas for the initiative.
Some of the ideas included more extracurricular activities, foreign language programs that begin at lower grades, a wider variety of foreign language programs, and even better-tasting cafeteria food.
One theme, however, remained fairly consistent among the proposals: The need to increase parental involvement in children’s education.
“An educational environment starts at home and in the community,” McComb High School junior Jasmine Baylor said. “It does take a village to raise a child.”
Greg Gilmore, the district’s security liaison, held similar feelings.
“Growing up in this community, I saw my teachers, I saw my principal all the time in my community,” he said. “They came out and they talked with us and they corrected us.”
Some gave ideas on how to attract parents and community members to the school district.
Dwight Martin said he’d like to see a mandate that teachers must visit every one of their students’ homes and meet their parents.
“Most of our parents want to be involved, but they don’t know how,” Martin said. “They’re sort of intimidated by the school district.”
A first draft of the strategic plan is scheduled for review on Oct. 6 and the final plan will be ready for publication by Oct. 15.
