EMBDC Addresses Concerns of Teachers from around MS

Meridian, MS- Twenty-five teachers from around Mississippi visited Jeff Anderson Regional Medical Center, Air National Guard, NAS Meridian and Sanderson Farms before they gathered at the MSU Riley Center on Friday, July 17, to discuss vital issue facing the Public School Districts.  Wade Jones, President of the East Mississippi Business Development Corporation (EMBDC) spoke to the teachers, outlining the keys to educational success and the programs that are in place locally through the EMBDC's education initiatives. 

As Mr. Jones expressed that parental involvement is key to educational success, teachers nodded their heads in approval.  The teachers spoke interactively about the lack of student proficiency in ethics, conflict resolution, discipline, math and science skills, and conversational skills. Teachers can teach these skills to an extent, but ultimately they have to be reinforced at home and in the community.  The old adage "it takes a village to raise a child"� stands true because it takes parents, teachers, and business and community leaders to provide skills and set specific guidelines that ensure student success.  When the business community engages the youth and parents of school -age children, high school retention and higher education ensue due to the cultivation of basic life skills and motivation.  As such, EMBDC helped start the Meridian Chapter of Parents for Public Schools in order to equip parents with information they need and empower them to take part ownership of the public school system.

"There is an emphasis on education in Meridian and within the EMBDC.  Our mission is to empower a diverse leadership culture to achieve economic wealth through excellence in education, new investment and the nurturing of existing business and industry,"� says Wade Jones. "Our education programs like School Counts, Business Orientation and Head of the Class display the business community's commitment to this cause. 

School Counts is a program for students in 10th, 11th and 12th grades who make a commitment to have 97% attendance, at least a C average in every class, no more than 1 discipline referral and to be on track to graduate.  If this is achieved, businesses in the community have made a commitment to offer these students preferential job interviews.  The need to bring the business community back into the classroom is addressed by the Business Orientation initiative.  About 50 volunteers from the business community will be entering the public school systems in the 4th, 7th and 10th grades to make presentations on the importance of life skills, work ethics and career exploration.  For students who plan to go from high school into the workforce or get vocational training, there is a program called Head of the Class.  The Head of the Class Award exemplifies the achievement of career and technical students in grades 10 through 12.

"Through our education initiatives, we have been able resolve some of the issues that businesses are finding in the students entering the working world from high school,"� says Jones.  Then he asked the teachers what they thought was the biggest obstacle for companies during the hiring process.  The majority of the teachers said that lack of motivation was the leading obstacle.  In fact, many area businesses say their largest obstacle is that they cannot find people who can pass a drug test.  The second factor is that they cannot find people who will show up to work on time.  Other workforce problems are poor quality of work, poor time management and discipline. 

The group of teachers attributed the workplace obstacles as somewhat of a generational problem and correlated factors such as parent absenteeism and a lack of ability for teachers to enforce consequences because of "red tape"�.  Wade Jones encouraged the teachers to contact their governmental officials to help reduce some of the obstacles and take this information to their communities and use it in the classroom.  He adds, "ultimately, it takes everyone working together to produce the readily available workforce of the future."�

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