Jackson Free Press

Education was back in the spotlight at Monday afternoon's special meeting of the Jackson City Council. Although the agenda did not feature any items pertaining to the soon-to-be-vacant Ward 7 seat on the Jackson Public Schools board, the subject of Dr. George Schimmel's replacement came up.

At the meeting, Johnson raised concerns that a vote for confirmation of his appointment of J. Patrick Harkins to the school board was not on the council's agenda. He said it was supposed to be, and that he would bring the issue before the council at the next meeting, scheduled for June 25.

That set off a debate over the last-minute attempt to appoint Harkins, a local businessman, by a mayor who has less than two weeks left in office. Johnson's successor, Mayor-elect Chokwe Lumumba, sits on the city council, representing Ward 2, until July 1.

Deputy City Attorney James Anderson explained that the Mississippi Code states clearly that a new appointee must be named by the end of his predecessor's term, but could not say whether that appointee had to be confirmed by that time or if there were any penalties against the municipality that did not get the appointment through.

"My concern is a practical one," Lumumba said. "We are about to have a change in administration, and it doesn't seem to make any sense that the outgoing administration would appoint someone who will serve five years, but won't take office until two weeks after the old administration is out of office."

Johnson contends that it is his job to appoint a school-board member by the end of the month, and whether that appointment needed to be confirmed by the city council before then was not of concern.

"These 11th-hour appointments are always tricky," Johnson said. "But the code says what it says, and once I discovered that, I put his name forward. We probably should have done this earlier than now, but we weren't aware that it had to be done by this time. (Harkins is) a good guy, and hopefully (his nomination) will survive the process."

Lumumba should have an opportunity to replace at least five of the seven school board members over his four-year term. Benita Burt, who represents Ward 3 on the board, has a term that will end June 30, 2017, which will put Lumumba in a similar position to the one Johnson is in now, should he be defeated in the 2017 mayoral race or not seek a second term.

The other school-board members are Ward 4's Kisiah Nolan, whose term ends March 1, 2014, Ward 1's Monica Gilmore Love (March 1, 2015), Ward 2's Otha Burton (March 1, 2015), Ward 6's Linda Rush (March 31, 2014) and Ward 5's Timothy Collins (March 31, 2015).

Much has been made of Lumumba's comments on how to improve outcomes for Jackson's public education system, which currently graduates around 60 percent of black males.

At a debate, Lumumba implied that if black students were learning more about black history and their own African roots, they might be more interested in staying in school. He used the example of Christopher Columbus' "discovery" of America, saying, "America wasn't lost, Columbus was."

Lumumba believes, as many historians do, that both African and Viking ships made the trip across the Atlantic centuries before Columbus. Lumumba suggested JPS could tweak its approach by incorporating textbooks that properly reflect those subjects.

Outbursts on social media and then in headlines around the city immediately followed, filled with misconceptions that he wanted to "remove Columbus from the history books."

Harkins, 31, who could not be reached for this story, is a 2001 graduate of St. Joseph's Catholic School. If appointed, he would replace Schimmel, whose term ends June 30. Reached by phone Tuesday morning, Schimmel said he is not familiar with Harkins, but said that he had enjoyed serving on the board.

"I've got mixed feelings on leaving office," Schimmel said. "It's very rewarding work, but it certainly takes up time."

Ward 7's school-board jurisdiction includes eight elementary schools, Rowan, Whitten and Bailey APAC middle schools and Murrah High School.