Jackson Jambalaya

It is mind-blowing that Jackson Academy's Cliff Kling was making over $317,500 per year in total compensation. That is over $100,000 more than Jackson Prep's President and over $50,000 more than St. Andrews' Head of School. Jackson Academy's second in command was making over $224,000 total compensation. So in 2015 JA had over half a million tied up in two individuals. Simply unreal.

I was amazed at the salaries the heads of school earned. Wonder what the average teacher was paid? Prep’s head wasn’t there the whole year, so that’s why his may seem lower in relation to the others.

Prep and JA could save a lot of money by simply hiring a JPS principal to run the school.

If I was a JA parent, I’d be furious. If JA led the area in national merit finalists and sports, thats one thing... but they don’t in either. Those paying that tuition every month are suckers. Pyramid scheme.

Wow, the headmasters at all schools are overpriced, if you do the math at prep for instance...if you take out Waltons old salary and divide by the number of remaining employees it's an average of 36k.... teachers get screwed plus they get shot at and deal with teens everyday.. summers off aren't worth it.

8:55pm, you're mistaken. JA's job is to give Eastover and Ridgeland well-to-do parents a school they can attend with few or no black students.
Mission accomplished!

Mind boggling that these ceremonial positions are paid that amount of money. Something is way out of whack in the rationale of these board members or whoever makes these decisions. Defies logic.

"I was amazed at the salaries the heads of school earned. Wonder what the average teacher was paid? February 24, 2018 at 6:32 PM"

6:32; I helped you a bit with the wording of your post as follows:

*I was amazed at the salaries the heads of school were paid. Wonder what the average teacher earned?*

School administrators across the board are over paid. The whole thing is a racket. Why do you think so many teachers start working on online PhD's soon after they start teaching? It quickly goes from wanting to work with children to something else.

JA's job is to give Eastover and Ridgeland well-to-do parents a school they can attend with few or no black students.

Once again you demonstrate your ignorance.

Were these schools created before the dawn of Intergration?

Did you know Mississippi was created before integration?

7:16 -- These schools were created at the dawn of integration, precisely to avoid integration. Pretty much every private school in Mississippi not affiliated with a church was founded for this reason and this reason alone.

If I were to ask any of you 'How many private schools are there in Jackson, Mississippi?', how many of you could answer TWENTY SEVEN?

Jackson Academy, on Ridgewood, was founded in 1959.

https://www.privateschoolreview.com/mississippi/jackson

Agree 5:51. Absolutely mind blowing and really a travesty of leadership. With the departure of those two, the administrative structure has already been reorganized with the elimination of the President and Headmaster positions and formation of one Head of School. This will reduce administrative expenses. The new Head of School is proving to be an intentional leader with real leadership skills. Better days ahead for that school.

Agreed 9:54 am. Kling almost drove Jackson Academy completely in the ditch. Getting rid of him was definitely a step in the right direction. However I can’t believe he was ever making that much more than the other heads of school. What was their board thinking, especially with his complete lack of leadership.

What's an 'intentional leader'? Are there 'accidental leaders'?

Who are these people who constantly comment about every issue like they’re compete authorities on whatever the issue. Today’s issue just happens to be JA and Prep. This website is being driven down by continuous comments like this. Please Kingfish figure out a way to fix this before your website becomes completely unbearable. That would be a shame as this is a great source of news.

Piipanther, you're mistaken. In recent years, JA has enrolled many blacks. And it's becoming more and more each year. That's why myself and many others refuse to send our kids to JA. It's becoming a social experiment that has already been proven to fail.

Thank you KF for publishing these. For those of us who send their kids to these schools, it’s nice to finally be able to see under the hood. It is so frustrating to get the annual tuition increase notice WITH NO FINANCIAL EXPLANATION. Calls to Admin from parents to release this information has always fallen on deaf ears.

Please continue to do this on an annual basis, KF, as you are our only source of information from these institutions. Thank you.

School, % White Students

Jackson Prep, 95%
MRA, 95%
JA, 93%
St. Andrews, 79%
St. Joe, 73%

PittPanther,
Go to a JA basketball game. That is quite enough to prove your theory wrong.

2:06 - Please don't drag up short. Who knows what your demographic-strategy or data reflect. Are you leaving out Chinese, Indian, Other, Other, Other? Are you trying to make a point? Please be thorough. Are you suggesting you might have data that would reflect rejections by race? Of course not. That's why you're a troll.

- Jackson Academy was founded in 1959 as a grade school. It grew into K-12. Segregation, desegregation nor integration had any bearing on the school's founding. It was founded based on a progressive education idea by it's founder, Loyal Bearss.

- There are more black students enrolled at Jackson Academy than any other private school in Mississippi.

- "intentional leader" is exactly what it sounds like. Leading with intention instead of reaction. Google it. If you are still confuse, just give up because deliberation eludes you.

- Cliff Kling's college buddy is the current Chairman of the Board of Trustees. They remained close friends and have had standing movie watching nights together. I can not say whether or not that had any bearing on the exorbitant compensation, but that compensation cost Jackson Academy way more than the dollars paid for his position.

- from the 990 - "The Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, comprised solely of independent board members, reviewed and approved the contract and compensation of President Clifton Kling. The Committee reviewed comparison compensation data of schools in the Jackson Areas as well as throughout the Southeast. The compensation data was obtained from the schools' Form 990's. The Committee documented this process by keeping detailed minutes of the meeting."

There are more black students enrolled at Jackson Academy than any other private school in Mississippi.

Link?

The link was provided by the poster at 9;37am

JA is the largest private school, by total enrollment, in the state

Link @9:37 doesn't support the statement @5:28.

I have 3 kids at JA. I don’t live in Jackson and make two round trips past other private schools, daily. Academically, I find JA to be superior to our former school. I don’t care much about sports, nor do my kids. Hopefully, the new administration is a move in the right direction. The only thing I dislike about JA is the location. It’s fine for my high schoolers, but I fear that I will need a bulletproof Hummer to drive my baby to school, over the next decade.

5:28 is a box-head. Hangs on buzz words and enjoys finding a new one to throw into the convo. You know, like 'convo'.

"Intentional Leader"...I know what that is but you don't so, har, google it and pretend to be well-versed like I am.

Forever those of us who dealt with them called them, simply, 'wage and salary surveys' or 'benefit/wage surveys'. Now we need to call them 'comparison compensation data', according to 5:28.

But, if your focus group is intent on setting an outrageous monetary figure for your leader, you never use a word like 'wage'. Wage carries a low-class connotation, obviously connected to a member of the proletariat handed a few shillings based on hourly labor rates in the ghetto. You have to use compensation and you really need to use lots of hyphens...like progression-table and situational-accomplishment-enrichment paradigm. Catching on yet?

Sign up for some seminars. Read books online during break. Get the 'word of the day' app on your phone. A Belhaven bumper sticker and you're all set. One day you'll be a intentional leader. That means you really, really intend to lead. And you're focused. And well compensated.

How many black kids were enrolled from 1959 to 1979?

St.Joe and St.Andrew are the highest ranked schools in the state, and their school leaders don't make this kind of money combined.

@ 5:37
Why does 1959-1979 matter? Quit living in the past. It's gone.

Responding to Feb 26, 2018,5.47 AM

St. Andrews head of school made $260,000 total compensation in 2016.

Prep just hired a lawyer with no education degree, employment history or background to be it's head of school. Awful hire. Hartfield is about to clean Prep and JA's clock. As good a school, at half the price

The racism of today is rooted in your pass, you can't erase your roots, until you come to grips with racism, you can never eradicate it. Remember the people voted and they wanted to keep a racist flag as their state banner, where does line of thinking come from. We really wood like to move forward, but you insist on waving the pass in our face.

@9:45 AM. St. Andrews Associate Head is a former WorldCom line level accounting "manager" with no experience in education. Nada. Zilch. But he's damn good at jacking up tuition costs beyond belief.

That's why the state legislature pushing school choice, to funnel funds to these private segregated academy's

I don't have an issue with people sending their kids to private schools, really do not have issue with people sending their kids to private religious schools.

But I do have an issue when public dollars start going to these private schools instead of public institutions.

To 9:45 am. From the Prep press release “Lawrence graduated from Jackson Prep in 1992. He attended the University of Mississippi where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, double majoring in English and History. After graduation, Lawrence worked at Prep as an American Literature and History teacher, assistant High School Principal, and football and track coach. Lawrence received his J.D. from the University of Mississippi in 2001 where he finished 4th in his class of 123. He practiced law in Mississippi from 2001 to the present.”
Obviously Coco will have to perform but he worked as teacher, coach and administrator at Prep, served on their board and has a kid there. Basically he has been involved at all levels. I understand you have strong feeling for Hartfield and those feelings have strong support as it is a fine institution and Head of School Horner is a great administrator and even better person. However your charge against Coco simply isn’t factually accurate.

@9:57

The English language is rooted in the past. Maybe you should look into it.

"Piipanther, you're mistaken. In recent years, JA has enrolled many blacks. And it's becoming more and more each year. That's why myself and many others refuse to send our kids to JA. It's becoming a social experiment that has already been proven to fail. "

That's odd - the relatively high percentage of non-white students hasn't kept St. Andrew's from being the 15th-ranked private school in the US, or having the highest percentage of National Merit Scholarship Award winners of any school in Mississippi.

"The racism of today is rooted in your pass." In your WHAT?

"We really wood like to move forward, but you insist on waving the pass in our face." You WOOD? Waving the WHAT?

It's a shame you were allowed to exit high school. Perhaps you should have spent less time polishing the chip on your shoulder and more time learning basic grammar and spelling.

All of the private academy's in the Jackson Metro area have been enrolling more blacks. In my opinion, because many of them want to push school choice and know damn well they have to improve the optics and feel-good success stories of a few impoverished black kids attending the private academies to gain more public support. People that are sending their kids to those private academy's are tired of paying those rates and they want the vouchers to offset the cost.

Once again, its a free country send your children to whatever private school you want, long as it's on your dime. Not mine.

Public schools work great, they are truly what made America great. But with the way the state legislature treats it in Mississippi, it's a shame.

So 12:33 you are saying that only "impoverished black kids" are attending the metro area private schools? You are clueless.

Link @9:37 doesn't support the statement @5:28.

February 25, 2018 at 9:36 PM

Please explain how it does not support my statement. I followed the link and did the simple math.

The only reason they are enrolling more kids of color is because of sports, just wait until somebody wants to win the Soccer championship, and Hispanic kids will be taking over.

Good to see the spell check police are out, maybe they should have been guarding some school today.

Paul, St. Joe just won the soccer championship a couple of weeks back. Some of their best players are black. Another inconvenient fact, their coach is black too. He's led them to eight soccer titles in the past 17 years.

But of course in your warped world the only good soccer players are Hispanic.

@11:36

St Andrews enrolls a lot of non white students. But not very many black ones. There is a difference.

10:45. So working as a teacher and an Asst. Principal almost 20 years ago qualifies you to be a head of school. I'd expect it to be someone with a graduate degree in Education who had actually worked in a school the last 15 years.

They could have saved the $30,000 for search committee if they were going to give it to a board member.

I'm sure JA and St. A are quaking in their boots on this hire.

I'm sure he's a nice guy. Worked at four different firms the last 15 years, so he'll be at Prep for 2 or 3. Should have held on to Walton.

Sorry, not everyone agrees with your view.

You need some remedial help 1:00 PM.

@ February 26, 2018 at 12:59 PM

Of course, there are a few bourgeoisie blacks from the Metro area sending their kids to those academy's as well. BUT a few impoverished black kids, are helping the narrative of "school choice" and pushing the narrative for those vouchers too.

2:20 the recruiting at the academy schools is rampant.I coach in the public schools and I have lost 3 players in the last 5 years. The Hispanic kids just have a harder time adapting otherwise they would have taken over Soccer

Two things

#1 - shocked there aren't more Hispanics on soccer teams around the state?

#2 - the private schools need to compete against public schools more often. Nothing wrong with good healthy competition between the two leagues.

The "Contributions/Grants", "Revenue-Expenses", and "Net Assets" lines show a stark difference. Comparatively, St. A is flush (at least in 2015), but that didn't stop a tuition hike.

Dang, it hurts to (try to) read posts like 9:57.

3:42 pm, 3 players per year for 5 years or 3 players over 5 years? Would make a difference in my definition of rampant. If it’s a problem, why don’t the public schools require the MAIS to implement and enforce a public to private transfer rule requiring a kid to sit out of athletic competition for a year before you schedule anymore public vs private athletic events. Public school kids transfer to private schools for the superior education anyway right? Don’t know all the issues, will hang up and listen.

@ 9:57 who are "We" and "Your" and what does "Pass" mean?

I'm black, and I attended a public, integrated high school in north Mississippi. All of our class reunions are integrated. We are friends. Racism is a learned behavior, and we refused to fall prey to Mississippi's segregated idealism and scare tactics.

I also have white friends here in Jackson who attended all-white private schools. We all went to Ole Miss and ended up with the same jobs with the same salaries. Several admit that their parents wanted to keep them away from black students. Sometimes you have to ask yourself how much money should you pay for an education that gets you a job that pays $70,000 per year, and you will still end up working along side black people.

@10:38

At some point, affirmative action will end, and companies will go back to hiring the most qualified individual.