Blackburn Middle School at JSU: KINDA


jstate83

jstate83

GOAT FARM!
I like the way they blended this school into the North Side of campus. To get a fix on where it is located, it is behind Alexander North, on the land that used to be Cage Field where the BOOM used to practice. If you didn't know it was a seperate middle school, you would think it was part of JSU.


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The new Blackburn Middle School is scheduled to open when students return Jan. 3. The school is located on west Pearl Street next door to the old school and will offer students technology, art and science labs, library/media room, athletic facilities with showers and a gymnatorium. / Vickie D. King/The Clarion-Ledger

Blackburn set to ring in 2012 in a new building

When classes resume Jan. 3, Blackburn Middle School students will start the new year in a new school building.
"Most importantly, our core business is student learning, so the reason I'm so thrilled about it (the new building) is because of the excitement I see from the students," Principal Marietta Carter said.
Said Jessica Stewart, Student Council president: "I like how we have bigger classrooms and how they have jaguars everywhere."
 
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Only about 400 students and 11 million to build? They should have given the land to JSU and bused the students to other schools. I think Ronald Mason wanted the school built there when he was JSU's President.
 

JSU said:
Only about 400 students and 11 million to build? They should have given the land to JSU and bused the students to other schools.
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Totally agree. :tup:

That land could have been used for much-needed additional parking.
 
Styles said:
So muck a brand new middle school for the kids, this guy rather have a parking lot.
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My friends and I have discussed this before.

Option #1: It would have been better for the school to have been built closer towards downtown Jackson near the new hotel down from the round-a-bout.

Option #2: Blackburn has a small enrollment. It would have made more sense to bus them to a closer middle school or just have consolidated Blackburn and another middle school and built the new facility. An $11 Million facility for 400 students is a waste of money.

The land that the new and old Blackburn currently sits on could be used as an prospective spot for a much-needed parking deck, indoor practice facility, and/or academic facility.
 
Blackburn Middle School shouldn't be there anyway. As the previous posters stated, that should be our property. I don't like the idea of a Middle School basically on our campus anyway.
 
Nonchalant said:
My friends and I have discussed this before.

Option #1: It would have been better for the school to have been built closer towards downtown Jackson near the new hotel down from the round-a-bout.

Option #2: Blackburn has a small enrollment. It would have made more sense to bus them to a closer middle school or just have consolidated Blackburn and another middle school and built the new facility. An $11 Million facility for 400 students is a waste of money.

The land that the new and old Blackburn currently sits on could be used as an prospective spot for a much-needed parking deck, indoor practice facility, and/or academic facility.
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Cosign.
 
jsupop33 said:
I don't like the idea of a Middle School basically on our campus anyway.
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I agree. You should hear what they yell out of the bus window to JSU students near the new student union and Liberal Arts Building. :shame: but :lol:
 
I understand some of your points, but I'll say this - Blackburn was, has and will forever sit on 16th section land. Cade field sits on 16th section land, as does most of JSU. They weren't going to move it. Now, you can continue to argue that 11million could've been spent better elsewhere. But as hard as it is to get funds to replace aging public schools, I'm not going to argue against anything involving the new Blackburn. The Deer Park neighborhood has lived with Sally Reynolds and Blackburn. They deserved a new school. There's a lady who lives on Isiah Montgomery who worked in the cafeteria at Blackburn forever. I know she's glad she loved long enough to see a new building.

I'm just waiting on somebody to make the statement 'the school is too nice for the kids in the neighborhood', like they did when the new Galloway elementary was built. :smh:
 
They demolished Sallie Reynolds so they could have demolished Blackburn. At one time the new Blackburn was going to be built somewhere off Highway 18. Bad decision for a an under performing school system to build the new Blackburn there, most of the residents in the Blackburn district were displaced by the metro parkway. I say, a major waste of 11 million dollars.
 
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It would behoove Jackson to start consolidating some of their schools like other school districts (Detroit and in Georgia). There are too many schools (middle and high schools) that are in close proximity of each other.

BTW, where in the world did they get the $11 million to build a new Blackburn Middle School? Half of that should have been used for teachers' salaries.
 
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Nonchalant said:
It would behoove Jackson to start consolidating some of their schools like other school districts (Detroit and in Georgia). There are too many schools (middle and high schools) that are in close proximity of each other.

BTW, where in the world did they get the $11 million to build a new Blackburn Middle School? Half of that should have been used for teachers' salaries.
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bond issue
 

The mindset in this thread is flawed. Putting money into K-12 education in the neighborhood around JSU can and will benefit the community as a whole. Better K-12 means in the long run means higher property value. But aside from all that. The kids in that neighborhood deserve that. And if you lived in that neighborhood you would be excited that your child was getting to go to such a school.
 
jstate83 said:
When classes resume Jan. 3, Blackburn Middle School students will start the new year in a new school building.
"Most importantly, our core business is student learning, so the reason I'm so thrilled about it (the new building) is because of the excitement I see from the students," Principal Marietta Carter said.
Said Jessica Stewart, Student Council president: "I like how we have bigger classrooms and how they have jaguars everywhere."
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Mannnnnnn ya'll always hating on them jaguars! :lol:

I'm with Toi though, a good environment will foster a better learning experience...as long as the educators are educating.
 
JSU*Toi said:
The mindset in this thread is flawed. Putting money into K-12 education in the neighborhood around JSU can and will benefit the community as a whole. Better K-12 means in the long run means higher property value. But aside from all that. The kids in that neighborhood deserve that. And if you lived in that neighborhood you would be excited that your child was getting to go to such a school.
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I am not against the school being built, I am against the school being built at the location it is being built. The new school will lead a rise in property values but so would extra development at JSU or building anything, etc. I do think the kids deserve a new school cause Blackburn was horrible but would rather see it elsewhere.
 
Nonchalant said:
My friends and I have discussed this before.

Option #1: It would have been better for the school to have been built closer towards downtown Jackson near the new hotel down from the round-a-bout.

Option #2: Blackburn has a small enrollment. It would have made more sense to bus them to a closer middle school or just have consolidated Blackburn and another middle school and built the new facility. An $11 Million facility for 400 students is a waste of money.

The land that the new and old Blackburn currently sits on could be used as an prospective spot for a much-needed parking deck, indoor practice facility, and/or academic facility.
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That is CITY OWNED PROPERTY........NOT STATE.
The reason that school was rebuiilt exactly where it is located was because people was about to get tared and feathered. The community was not having their school moved. Damm near every kid, (top end of the 80% range), go on to college. it would have been a damm shame if that school would have been closed or moved now that the entire arera has been redevoloped.
 
JSU*Toi said:
The mindset in this thread is flawed. Putting money into K-12 education in the neighborhood around JSU can and will benefit the community as a whole. Better K-12 means in the long run means higher property value. But aside from all that. The kids in that neighborhood deserve that. And if you lived in that neighborhood you would be excited that your child was getting to go to such a school.
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Outsiders mentality of people that don't live in that area. Blackburn was not going anywhere. After all the land the city of Jackson has turned over to JSU, they dang sure was not going to close or move a middle school for them. If anything, people at JSU need to work out some kind of deal where students at Blackburn can use some of the technology resources at JSU. :smh:
 
Nonchalant said:
Ah. Its still a waste of money for a school with such a small enrollment.
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Ain't like the school is going anywhere. 400 students today can turn into 800 tomorrow. The OLD Blackburn could not handle any new students because of its small size. Blackburn is not the only Middle School that has been built. You need to see the size of the new Henery Kirksey Middle School behind Callaway Highschool. That thing make the new Blackburn look like a one bedroom apartment. :lol:
 
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Blackburn Middle School Ribbon Cutting
1/3/12 6:00 PM - 1/3/12 8:00 PM

The ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Blackburn Middle School will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, January 3, 2012. Construction of the school was funded by the November 2006 school bond referendum.

The new school - located west of the old school at 1311 West Pearl Street and adjacent to Jackson State University - has the capacity to serve 650 students and includes a two-story education building and a one-story support building. The education building includes 24 regular classrooms, 5 science labs, 2 technology labs and an administrative office. The adjacent support building has a gymnatorium with boys' and girls' athletic facilities (including locker and shower rooms), a cafeteria, library/media room, band room, choral room, strings room, art lab and administrative offices.

The school has three architectural design features requested by the school's site council to help capture the legacy and rich history of the old school -- a replica of the architectural pediment from the original school in the exterior courtyard, a miniature model of the same pediment as an entrance to the library/media room, and a memorabilia wall in the library that was constructed from brick from the old school.

The old school will be demolished this spring and a tennis court, practice field, and walking trail built in its place. Design professionals for the new school are M3A Architects, PLLC.

The ribbon cutting ceremony will be held in the gymnatorium. Tours of the school and a reception will be held after the ceremony. The public is invited.

Blackburn Middle School is named for William W. Blackburn (1873-1957). A native of Port Gibson, Blackburn attended Natchez, Hampton and Benoit Colleges. He served as teacher of mathematics at Alcorn and as a teacher and a principal in the public schools of Claiborne, Covington, and Grenada counties for more than 20 years.

In 1918, he organized and served as principal for the first county training school for African Americans in rural Mississippi near Mount Olive. In 1925, he was appointed the Rosenwald Agent in Mississippi by the State Department of Education. In the position, he traveled widely, endeavoring to improve education for African American children through the construction of schools funded by plilanthropist Julius Rosenwald of Sears, part-owner of Sears, Roebuck and Company. As an organizer and president of the Mississippi Teachers Association, Blackburn devoted more than 30 years to the organization, as executive secretary and editor of its journal.


http://www.jackson.k12.ms.us/content.aspx?eid=484&url=/page/calendar&
 
jstate83 said:
Outsiders mentality of people that don't live in that area. Blackburn was not going anywhere. After all the land the city of Jackson has turned over to JSU, they dang sure was not going to close or move a middle school for them. If anything, people at JSU need to work out some kind of deal where students at Blackburn can use some of the technology resources at JSU. :smh:
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co-sign! Some people can't think outside their own selfish box.
 
jstate83 said:
Outsiders mentality of people that don't live in that area. Blackburn was not going anywhere. After all the land the city of Jackson has turned over to JSU, they dang sure was not going to close or move a middle school for them. If anything, people at JSU need to work out some kind of deal where students at Blackburn can use some of the technology resources at JSU. :smh:
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Mason discussed the feeder school during a young- lawyers meeting a few years ago. A jsu lab-type school was a part of the whole revitalization plan he had for the jsu area. I thought it was an excellent idea, but I don't think the new prez has the same vision.
 
jstate83 said:
Ain't like the school is going anywhere. 400 students today can turn into 800 tomorrow. The OLD Blackburn could not handle any new students because of its small size. Blackburn is not the only Middle School that has been built. You need to see the size of the new Henery Kirksey Middle School behind Callaway Highschool. That thing make the new Blackburn look like a one bedroom apartment. :lol:
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As more people move downtown and if the university park neighborhood development ever comes to fruition, Blackburn would expand in a hurry. And be a sought after school. I'm happy for my alma mater, although a small part of me will miss the old school. All my siblings ran those same halls and I still reminisce with old man Gentry every opportunity.
 
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