Wednesday, September 4, 2024

House Approves Power To Close Public Schools

 "House Approves Power To Close Public Schools", By Charles M. Hills, Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS, Wed, Apr 9, 1958, Page 1

Four acts, primarily designed to maintain segregation in the schools of this state, including one which allows boards of trustees to close classrooms, were unanimously approved by the lower house of the legislature here Tuesday. Voting laws are included. 

The House of Representatives also approved almost unanimously, by a vote of 100 to 5, two bills which tighten the welfare laws of this state to exclude assistance to "unsuited" families bearing illegitimate children and putting pressure on persons deserting their children. 

Rep. Joe Hopkins, Coahoma, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, steered the school closure bill and three other companion measures to passage in the House. 

Under terms of House Bill 934. approved 107-0, authorization is given the board of trustees of any school district, as supplemental to other authority vested in it, to close any one or more or all schools of the district, when, in its discretion, such would be to the best interest of the students and the community. 

The closure would be in order to preserve the public peace, order or tranquility of any school or the district. Provided also are causes for appeals.

ALLOW ASSISTANCE 

Another act. House Bill 937. authorizes the attorney general upon request and in his discretion, to render such services as he may deem necessary to assist in advising or representing any officer or employee of any school district, any agricultural high school and junior college district or institution of higher learning, and, any state official, should they be sued or prosecuted or proceeded against in any manner, in any state or federal court. 

This would be in case the ultimate purpose of the suits challenges or seeks to invalidate any statute or provision of the constitution of the state of Mississippi, dealing with the establishment, maintenance, operation, control, financing or determining who shall attend such schools. 

Still another measure, HB.9.1R, unanimously approved 110-0, authorizes the attorney general to render similar services to any circuit clerk, registrar, or any officers of a county or municipality prosecuted by the federal government in race cases. 

House Bill 935, the fourth anti-integration measure approved 114- 0, provides that the attorney general may investigate any organization seeking a charter in this state and determine whether such should be approved. 

FOUR BILLS SET 

The house set for special order at 2:30 p. m., Wednesday, four bills on the non-controversial calender, which would regulate foreign corporations doing business in this state; provide for incorporation of non-profit, non-share organizations; allow the attorney general to examine all records of corporations and require that foreign corporations appoint a resident agent ki the state. 

The House tabled a motion to reconsider the Mississippi Securities Act and also an act clarifying certain provisions of the employment security law.

It also refused to reconsider a bill passed last week, which allow trainmen and bus drivers to vote on absentee ballot. Rep. Barron Drewry, Alcorn, sought to get reconsideration to amend the act but failed. Rep. George (Doc) Carruth.

Pike, author of the act, saw the measure sent to the Senate for further action. Several other non-controversial measures were approved at the morning session of the House..

St. Andrews School May Get New Site

 Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, Fri, Feb 11, 1949, Page 2

St. Andrews School May Get New Site 

A decision on the St. Andrews parochial school bid to purchase a tract of state land for the erection of a new school was reached late Thursday night when Mr. Sherwood Wise, a member of the board of trustees, said that a bid of $125 per front foot was "entirely out of reach" in regard to 'the purchase of the tract of land which adjoins the Jewish Synagouge on the north side of Woodrow Wilson Drive. The five-acre tract is 350 feet wide and 520 feet deep.

Plans now by the school leaders call for the construction of a series of new buildings to provide the needed space for the school. First project planned is a main building of seven classrooms. Another building, to serve as combination cafeteria, gymnasium, auditorium, would be built later. Estimated cost of the long range program would be $80,000. Mr. Wise said Thursdzy that the school enrollment has grown so rapidly that existing school facilities in the St. Andrews parish house have proved inadequate. The school was started in 1947 with four grades and 45 students. This session, another grade has been added and the enrollment has jumped to 106 students. The faculty now includes Mrs.

Franks, principal; five-grade teachers; music teachers; and a Christian education director. School leaders hope to eventually expand to a full 12-year school by gradually adding one grade each year. However, the plans depend upon the acquisition of a new site and the construction of new buildings. The board of trustees includes Dr. Vincent Franks, rector of St. Andrews, chairman ex-officio, Charles H. Russell, Dr. Eva Linn Meloan, Mrs. Fred Hodge, Mrs. J.W. Barksdale Jr., Lester W. Dawley, Dr. Charles Bowman, Mrs. Rees R. Oliver, and Mr. Wise..

Kirby Walker Retires

Clarion-Ledger - Jackson, Mississippi - Thu, May 1, 1969


KIRBY WALKER CONCLUDING LONG CAREER
By BILLY SKELTON Clarion-Ledger Staff Writer 

"This is Kirby Walker. May I help you?" The voice was businesslike but friendly as the genial superintendent of the Jackson City Schools answered the telephone in his offce at the school headquarters at 662 S President Street.  He listened for a moment and said, "Well, I'll try. What's on your heart, old fellow." 

Kirby Pipkin Walker talks to many, many people, but he also listens a lot. Superintendent of Mississippi-pi's largest school system which is about three times larger in enrollment than the next largest system for 33 years, Walker will retire July 1.

What are his plans? "None. None. Absolutely none," he answers. "Nobody's come rushing to me offering me a job, and it won't take me long to catch up on fishing, hunting, checkers, and chess." The response invites skepticism. But the superintendent who has planned so well for his school district insists he has no plans for his retirement except to stay in Jackson "where I know my friends and my credit's established." School He reckons he'll have to find to something, though.

"My wife can't stand three times as much husband and one-third as much income." 

NO BOOK 

One thing he will not do is to write a book. He has no great observations to pass on, he argues.

However, from 1954 to 1964, Supt. Walker did keep a log on school desegregation. He won't discuss it, however, except to say he'll turn it over to the school board for whatever use it may be to them. School board records fascinate Walker. He said the Jackson school district has its minutes ever since it became operative in 1888 as now constituted and adds that "I've read every blessed entry." 

Although" Walker deals .with, school work on an executive level, he asserts that what happens "in the classroom between teacher and pupil" is what is important. 

"As long as you can keep that relationship good, then you'll have a good educational system," he said.

OPEN DOOR 

The door to Walker's office is always open, and likely as not he'll answer the telephone if 'someone calls his office. A recent interview was interrupted by the arrival of a woman who poured out her troubles to the administrator in an adjoining office. Walker listened, counseled, and once came back to his desk for some Kleenex for the tearful patron. The superintendent's resourcefulness is illustrated by one technique that has pulled him through more than one tough session in his office.

When confronted by a group that wants him to do something which he in good conscience cannot do, he listns respectfully, then reaches into his desk, removes a rod of reinforcing steel, slips it down his back and says, "no." 

"Sometimes it works," he 'says. 

DIRECT APPROACH 

Dr. Walker says he tries to meet things head on and to be as objective as it is humanly possible to be. "I've found people generally willing to listen to fact and logic. I think folks have to be heard. You may not be able to resolve their concerns, but you lhave to share them," he comments. 

One might wonder how the superintendent of a school system with 41,000 students escapes from the pressures of the job. Well, says Dr. Walker, if you're tired, you don't have much trouble relaxing.

He does get away for a fishing or hunting trip now and then but he's the type of man who can get a lot of "mileage" out of a few outings. He also plays an occasional game of Bridge "for my amusement and my partner's amazement." 

If Walker sincerely has no plans for the future, "he has a big job of planning ahead for the has many hours to fill. ''During his school years, he has started work about 7 a.m, then met evening commitments on school business for two of three nights a week. The other nights he has spent reading and writing reports to the board, school memoranda or talks he was to give before various groups. 

"COUNTRY BOY" 

Dr. Walker he received an honorary doctorate in education from Southwestern University in Memphis in 1953 like to call himself a country boy, although he was graduated from Hattiesburg High School in 1918. 

Born in Dunn, N. C. 68 years ago this coming June , he began school at Magee in 1906 and moved to Hattiesburg the next year. 

"I've been in school the last 63 years," he observes. His father's people were from , Miles Creek in Simpson County) and his mother's people, the Pipkins ("mean little earthen pot," he explains) were North Carolinians.

He was graduated from Southwestern in 1922 and was married in 1925. Dr. and Mrs. Walker have a son, Dr. Kirby Walker Jr., a Jackson dentist, and two grandsons. 

The schoolman began his career as a teacher at Forrest County Agricultural High School of . Brooklyn, and three years later was named superintendent, a post he held for seven years. 

IN CITY 36 YEARS 

He served as supervisor of agricultural high schools and junior colleges for the Mississippi State Department of Education for two years, and took a year out to obtain his master's degree at the University of Chicago.

He joined the Jackson Schools in 1953 as assistant to the superintendent, a year later was named acting superintendent and another year later superintendent. 

A man who looks somewhat taller than his 6 feet, one and a half inches and considerably younger than he is, the neatly dressed Dr. Walker is characterized by not only an efficient manner but by efficiency in his work. 

A principal who has worked with him commented on the superintendent's "comprehensive knowledge and attention to detail." "No one can come anywhere near as close," he said. "It's a mystery to me how he does it all." 

PUPILS FIRST 

But the thing that impresses the principal most is Dr. Walker's insistence that the interest of the pupils in the schools always come first. Mrs. Howard Nichols, a member of the school board, sees Dr. Walker as an administrator, teacher, businessman, philosopher, and humorist. She thinks he is "very warm and enthusiastic personality" has contributed greatly to his skill in the art of human relations.

Board members feel, she said, that Dr. Walker "has given us his all." 

"It's been such a pleasure to work with him. His keen sense of humor has helped so many of us at so many times. It has been a privilege to see him work," she said. One associate declared he was "one of this age's exceptional men." 

47-YEAR CAREER 

Now in his fifth decade of teaching, Walker has shepherded schools through the Depression. World War II shortages, building programs and integration crises. 

As he steps down, Dr. Walker sees the 70s as no period for the faint hearted in school administration. The superintendent of the future must be an innovator, an expert in planning and budgeting, a mediator, a negotiator and a skilled "political economist" a respectable euphimism for a lobbyist," he says. Looking back, he reports that "every year has been exciting, filled with an abundance of activity." 

The years ahead appear no less exciting to Walker.

Tax credit bill sends session into 12th week

 The Delta Democrat-Times, Greenville, Mississippi, Mon, Oct 6, 1969

Page 12Tax credit bill sends session into 12th week 

JACKSON (DPI)-The 12th week of the special session of the Mississippi legislature began today with the controversial Income tax credit bill still a problem. The Iawmakers began a three day recess Friday morning after a futile effort to push the session to final adjournment. At one point, it seemed the legislators were on the way home. But late Thursday night the hangup over the tax credit bill developed. 

The lawmakers gave Final approval earlier Thursday to the $300 million highway program, and then agreement was reached on the Medicaid conference committee report.

The Senate Appropriations Committee reported on a $3.4 million appropriation to cover the state's share of Medicaid costs for the first six months. With little opposition, the appropriation passed in the Senate and was sent over to the House Appropriations Committee. However, the House committee tabled the bill, which killed any chance of adjourning last week. 

The House committee's action apparently was a power struggle in an effort to force the Senate Fiance Committee to take another look at income tax credit. The Senate committee voted to indefinitely postpone action on the measure, which would leave it hanging with adjournment.

The House already has passed the bill allowing tax credits for persons who donate to public or private schools. It was part of the package recommended by Gov. John Bell Williams to aid private schools in the face of stepped up desegregation of the public schools. Some lawmakers apparently felt the plan, which allowed tax credit of 50 per cent on a maximum of $500 in donations, was too costly and might endanger the public school system. Others apparently feared its passage at this time would be unwise.

The chief private school bill, providing $200 loans to children attending private, parochial or other church schools was approved earlier in the session but already was under court attack. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday to block disbursement of the loan funds until the law can be checked in court. Private school forces apparently joined with a number of senators to get the House committee to table the Medicaid appropriations bill, according to Capitol sources. A number of other appropriation bills were awaiting final disposition, including $5 million grant to assist in rebuilding hurricane - torn Gulf Coast.

Official Ted Lasso