JMCSS celebrates success and prepares for a new school year at their leadership conference

JACKSON, TENN (WNBJ)-

Today, over 2000 employees of the Jackson-Madison County School System gathered at Oman Arena to celebrate growth and prepare for the upcoming school year.

This "Leadership Conference" included a roll call of all the school administrators, entertainment from students, a keynote address to encourage teachers, and a reason to celebrate.

“We've gotten test scores back and we have a great deal to celebrate. So we have gone from a district that was our growth score was at one, and we have moved all the way to a five, which is the highest that you can be," said Melissa Spurgeon, the Chief of Staff for the school system.

Jackson-Madison County School System Chief of Staff believes it is important to recognize the improvement, “I always think that we have to spend time celebrating the hard work that was done in the past so that we can be energized to begin the hard work that we have to do this school year,” Spurgeon said.

The district's Chief Academic Officer, Tiffany Spight, agrees, "It's important to celebrate, motivate and continue to encourage the teachers in the work that they're doing. And our school administrators.”

But Educators in Madison County are not "resting on their laurels." "The next step," Spight said, "is that we continue the work that we've been doing, but also we know that there were some areas that we want to do even better in. So for instance, our high schools right now are kind of. Plateauing in some of the areas we really want to focus on getting the increase in those areas in high school.”

Improving attendance is one of the goals. The district reports last year, nearly 30% of students were “chronically absent,”... Missing at least 10% of school days. Officials want to cut those numbers significantly this school year.

The leadership conference continues tomorrow with breakout sessions for the staff.

Spurgeon added, “We're excited to bring this to the community because we believe that the success of the community is based on the success of the school system.”

Administrators are hoping for even more successes this year, as school begins on Monday.