The City Council voted today to confirm Mayor Harvey Johnson's two additional nominees to the Jackson Public Schools Board of Trustees. After delaying the vote for weeks due to in-fighting, council members voted 5-0 to add Linda Rush and 4-1 to appoint Timothy Collins to the seven-member board.
Ward 5 Councilman Charles Tillman cast the lone vote against Collins' confirmation. Tillman has protested Johnson's selection of Tillman, saying that he felt excluded from the selection process for a representative of Ward 5 on the school board.
Ward 6 Councilman Tony Yarber, who is also principal of JPS' Marshall Elementary School, does not attend school board confirmation hearings, citing a conflict of interest. Ward 2 Councilman Chokwe Lumumba was also absent from today's meeting.
Rush, a Jackson State University administrator, is president of the Siwell Middle School Parent Teacher Association. She told council members that she would solicit information from a variety of perspectives—parents, teachers and students—before making her decisions.
Collins is executive director of the Mississippi Housing Partnership and president of Partners to End Homelessness. He said that he hoped to increase the district's attention on the issues of students living in poverty.
Both appointees told council members that they needed more information before forming an opinion on JPS Superintendent Lonnie Edwards, who is appealing a Dec. 7 decision by the board to let his contract expire at the end of this school year.
Previous Commentsshow
What's this?More like this story
More stories by this author
Support our reporting -- Follow the MFP.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.