Jackson-Madison County School System Responds to Budget Misinformation

JACKSON, Tenn. - A letter from Madison County Commissioner Mike Taylor has been reported to be misinformed, and the Jackson-Madison County school system has released a letter in response.

The school system took immediate action and did not want to wait until today, Monday, and released the letter Saturday.

The misinformation regards the school system’s submitted budget and requests from the Madison County Commission’s Budget Committee.

“There are several platforms in place for collaboration between our school board and county commission… whether it’s our general meetings, or it’s the education vision committee meeting, where board members and county commissioners come together and talk about a number of different issues.”

Chief of Public Information, Greg Hammond, reports the school system wants to bring clarity to the misinformation that has been spread.

The letter from Taylor reports he believes there has been some inaccurate spending, lack of course of action, and misuse of resources.

He states in the closing of the letter, “It is imperative to reevaluate the spending priorities of the Jackson-Madison County School Board and ensure that taxpayer dollars are used responsibly.”

“Our school board has done a great job in keeping our county commissioners and stakeholders up to date with a number of different items, whether it’s Oman Arena, whether it’s the Pope School project, we update our stakeholders on a monthly basis of what’s going on.”

Hammond hopes the letter from the school system sheds some light on the situation.

Towards the conclusion of the letter, the school system reports, “We have begun the process of working with the County to ensure misinformation and a negative light is not shed on the school system.”

As of this moment, there has been no response from county commissioner Mike Taylor.