No Quorum At JPS Board Meeting

Ellen Collins

Supporters of a discontinued music program spoke to only two board members, both supporters of the program themselves, at a JPS board meeting.

by Ward Schaefer
November 3, 2009

Only two board members appeared at this evening’s meeting of the Jackson Public Schools Board of Trustees, not enough for a three-member quorum. Board members H. Ann Jones and Jonathan Larkin were present and listened to public comments, many of them from parents protesting the board's Oct. 20 decision to discontinue a music education program. Both Jones and Larkin favored renewing the Strings in the Schools program, which brings Mississippi Symphony Orchestra musicians into schools to perform and teach.

Absent are board members Delmer Stamps and Ivory Phillips and President Sollie Norwood. Norwood also missed the board’s Oct. 20 meeting, at which a tie vote between the remaining four members failed to renew the district's 43-year-old, $300,000 music education contract with the MSO.

Phillips and Stamps voted against renewing the contract; Larkin and Jones voted in favor of renewal. Board secretary Vicki Mumford told the Jackson Free Press around 3 p.m. today that Phillips would be unable to attend the meeting due to a family emergency.

Reached by phone at 6 p.m. today, Stamps said that he had notified Superintendent Lonnie Edwards that he would be unable to attend. He did not provide a reason for his absence, however.

Many parents of children participating in the Strings in the Schools planned to speak in support of the program at the meeting. Romaine Walker, president of the Mississippi Youth Symphony Orchestra, told the Jackson Free Press earlier today that she expected an “overflow crowd” of the program’s supporters for the public comment segment of the meeting.

The music program was not listed on the meeting agenda, but, with a quorum present, a majority of the board could have added the issue to the agenda and reconsidered the contract.

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