I learned something today. Thanks goodness these covenant schools are pushing other religions away from possibly learning more about Christianity!***
OT: Jackson Private Schools
- Thread starter ZombieKissinger
- Start date
The recruiting for high school sports is the weirdest damn thing to me. I get coaches wanting to do it, but who is so caught up in high school sports that they want to watch a high school sports team with players that don't have any connection to the school other than being recruited? I get the same applies to college to an extent, but that's at least high level sports even if it's not quite professional.
That's pretty damning if everybody at NWR takes the ACT. Just having everybody at school have a parent or relative willing and able to spend an extra $7k a year on tuition should knock out a ton of your worst performers. Even if a school like Hartfield can't attract the highest performers from NWR because of a lack of AP or whatever reason, even at the best public schools in Mississippi those lower tier scores by kids with dysfunctional home life are hard to overcome. Now if those students don't take the ACT at NWR, it's hard to compare averages.
Yep.
It’s not just grades.
It’s connections and perceptions.
I’ll break out the RSFC schtick and say that St. Andrew’s has the MARQUEE VALYOO ($1) that Germantown and Biloxi don’t possess.
Clinton has some marquee value— which is based on a longer history that Germantown doesn’t have yet and that Biloxi hasn’t publicized.
I think it's because there's not much else to do, and people get sucked into that vortex. 'win at all costs' is appealing to many Mississippians, no matter the next step, or the development that happens. That market is huge, and they've discovered big money to be spent on people's competitive edge, ESPECIALLY when you can tap into people's defensiveness or fear (of being left behind, of being left out, whatever) and that runs rampant in Mississippi.
Canton Academy is almost in Gluckstadt as it is and has plenty of space in its current location for expansion if needed. I’m not seeing them buying land at north Madison county prices when they are fine where they are.
MC will fight new schools as much as possible because anything else built north makes the Flora tie make no sense. MC athletics is done without Flora especially post-Ridgeland & Gluckstadt split. Most of the upper-end millennial demo that’s moving north from Canton to Flora are what’s driving Tri County & Canton Academy.
Also in that discussion is the explosion of Pisgsh in Rankin Co which is just over the 43 bridge from GHS district in that’s unincorporated Canton.
Yes, I am. I hate the current system. The trophies don't mean anything.
There does not need to a distinction between public and private schools athletically. Everything needs to be based on enrollment numbers. It really is that simple.
Agree....but with a multiplier for the private schools, to cancel out the recruiting.
About five or six years ago, the church I used to go to in Madison was offered some land to build a private school on Highway 22 between Canton and Flora. The church opted not to do that at the time because of some other issues that were relevant, but that does seem to be the next spot for a private school.
As far as public schools go, Madison County Public Schools built the Madison Crossing campus with a high school in mind. For those of you who don't know where that is, it is east of I-55 towards Deerfield. They could build and open that school without any governmental oversight * if it did not change any of the attendance zones.
* for those of you have kept up, the Madison County Schools were under consent decree since the late 60s/early 70s and finally got out of it in the early 2000s. (I don't know the details of why the system was under the decree. Maybe somebody else does.) While under the decree, EVERYTHING had to be run through the justice department and they always had a better idea.
Since getting out from under the decree and since the school system has adequate cash, they can do pretty much whatever they want to, witness the massive expansion of facilities at Germantown High in Gluckstadt. A member of the school board told me that since they did not have to bond out the projects, they could do it as needed. He added that a bond issue will be advanced for Madison County in the next few years to address other needs.
FWIW.
PS - My ranking of Private schools
St. Andrews - Berkley - smart but weird
J. A. - Ole Miss - Style over substance
Prep - Georgia - pretty smart; pretty good
MRA - Oregon - used be be nowheresville and now are relevant
St. Joe - USM
Hartfield - Jones CC
Tri County - U W Whitewater - small but good
Canton - West Alabama - they compete
As far as public schools go, Madison County Public Schools built the Madison Crossing campus with a high school in mind. For those of you who don't know where that is, it is east of I-55 towards Deerfield. They could build and open that school without any governmental oversight * if it did not change any of the attendance zones.
* for those of you have kept up, the Madison County Schools were under consent decree since the late 60s/early 70s and finally got out of it in the early 2000s. (I don't know the details of why the system was under the decree. Maybe somebody else does.) While under the decree, EVERYTHING had to be run through the justice department and they always had a better idea.
Since getting out from under the decree and since the school system has adequate cash, they can do pretty much whatever they want to, witness the massive expansion of facilities at Germantown High in Gluckstadt. A member of the school board told me that since they did not have to bond out the projects, they could do it as needed. He added that a bond issue will be advanced for Madison County in the next few years to address other needs.
FWIW.
PS - My ranking of Private schools
St. Andrews - Berkley - smart but weird
J. A. - Ole Miss - Style over substance
Prep - Georgia - pretty smart; pretty good
MRA - Oregon - used be be nowheresville and now are relevant
St. Joe - USM
Hartfield - Jones CC
Tri County - U W Whitewater - small but good
Canton - West Alabama - they compete
Automatically? Automatically wouldn’t be fair because I can guarantee you schools like Bayou or Manchester don’t have the funds to recruit.
If you allowed public school choice you could eliminate any modifier. I lived in a community in Colorado for a while and the school choice worked. If you were a football player, you went to public school A. Basketball player public school B and so on. If you were a musician, public school A, happened to correspond with the strong football school. If you were smart and tested well, you could choose to go the smart kid public school C, which didn’t have much athletically at all.
“If you allowed public school choice you could eliminate any modifier.” This.
The bottom line with the private schools is they are competing for families and the dollars that follow them. Bayou Academy is an example of that. They are substantially growing because parents weren’t happy with what was happening at Washington School.
It’s off topic but I’m also in favor of eliminating certificates of need for medical facilities.
Hartfield is in Flowood and has all those Christians going there.
Not that there is anything wrong with that, except they don't teach science correctly.
I thought Bayou was growing because a wise and benevolent judge decided letting public school students choose their own high school was basically segregation if it resulted in a 60% black school and a 99% black school rather than two schools that are 80% black. Is Bayou actually growing because they are getting former Washington school students?
I suppose you prefer the current govt school version of science?
I don't have any personal knowledge to dispute this, but it seems far fetched to me that anybody at a place like Duke or Vandy really sees a St. Andrews resume and takes note. I can believe that when they are trying to decide which students with a 32 ACT score they should take there may be somebody that can tell them a 4.0 at St. Andrews means something but not somebody that can tell them whether a 4.0 at Biloxi means something, I am just skeptical that it means enough to allow somebody to predict that it's going to be the difference in two otherwise equivalent resumes. I could see semi-selective liberal arts colleges giving a ton of weight to students from a place like St. Andrews b/c they need the pipeline of students badly and want to maintain relationships (so milsaps, hendrix, rhodes, sewanee, etc.). Maybe I'm ridiculously wrong but I probably would be skeptical unless I heard it from somebody in admissions at those places or unless there were examples of somebody with a 30 from St. Andrew getting into a school like that without a family member cutting a check, checking a diversity box, or being an athlete.
It’s not just resumes— it’s — as I mentioned— connections and perceptions.
High school students tour colleges and universities.
And with them are parents— and possibly more importantly teachers and counselors many of whom have professional relationships with admissions people & recruiters and know what the universities want or would like in students.
And at the same time, the admissions & recruiting people wonder what high school students are like and what they want— there is an enrollment cliff after all— and what they can offer to them that they like.
That’s part of the reason why they go to high schools.
Those Flora ties make no sense right now. If the kids are from Flora proper, Kearney Park or west of 49, they essentially drive right past GHS on their way to MC.
It's for the same reason that an elite law school would pick an applicant from an elite college over an identical one from a state school. Maybe the elite institution is better, maybe it's not, but they believe it to be. And St. Andrew's is seen as elite in that way.
ETA: also, elite snobbery. They're the "right" kind of people. Plus, you get to appeal to both types of recruiters. Elite, but also a DEI/podunk candidate (not really, but kinda) because Mississippi.
That's definetely true it just gets worse if they expand. If you go to the creation of MC is 1992, it was all about closing down East Flora which was a 1A powerhouse and consolidating with MR which was never that great of a sports schools and creating a super power school. It gave Madison County an elite sports factory and gave the Flora kids a much better academic and school environment with much better access to money and academic opportunity. I'm biased but I don't think you'll see the late 90s to mid early 2000s run of athletics in Madison County ever again at one school. You had 3 junior highs feeding a behemoth. Old Towne (Ridgeland) was big and had players, Rosa Scott (Madison/Gluckstadt) was big and had players plus money, and then what East Flora lacked in size was made up for with a crazy high % of stone-cold athletes.
After reading all this, I think SixPack should start a private school in Jackson. All profits go to NIL
edit: I think we could put together a staff that’s better than St Andrew’s
edit: I think we could put together a staff that’s better than St Andrew’s
We could combine the worst of St Joseph athletics and Hartsfield academics.
And become Hillcrest. Or, dare I say, Woodland Hills
55% of last years graduating class at JA made a 29 or above on the ACT. I think too many of y’all assume football success equals school success. JA has about 115 in this years senior class and has had increased enrollment the last 3 years. It’s doing very well. Maybe look beyond the box scores next time.
Sounds like JA 'gets' it.
Hartfield folks are too busy patting themselves on the back for winning the 'state championship', LOLOLOL, to worry about academics. Championship of 4 private schools. I wonder if Grand Slam sanctioned it??
I have two kids at Hartfield and agree with this, especially high school academics.
School success is how much profit a school is making. It’s a business. You marketing your sports or academics or art?
I agree with this for sure, that high level academy ball here is like winning a travel ball tournament, there is only a few good ones. Wanted to point out unfortunately the public system is heading down that path since the additions of 6a and now 7a.
This was our take when we were visiting elementary schools for our kids. Seemed kinda backasswards to me….so they don’t go there
I haven’t been back to the Jackson area in over 15 years. How bad is Lakeland now?
Latest posts
Get unlimited access today.