September 2, 2015
Meeting the challenges in Jennings
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Brighten up breakfast
Community Voices
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By Dr. Joseph Davis
Jennings School District Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Anderson sits with students at a reading at Woodland Elementary School.
Photo courtesy Jennings School District
Superintendent of Jennings School District sees positive change in and out of the classroom By Sara Hardin An unmistakable passion can be heard in the words of Dr. Tiffany Anderson as she speaks about the challenges she has faced as Superintendent for Jennings School District. Anderson’s enthusiasm has more than paid off since her time at Jennings began in July 2012, when the district was threateningly close to becoming unaccredited. Under Anderson’s watchful eye, Jennings has been transformed into a district that has exceeded the fully accredited benchmarks, and continues to set expectations for further improvement of both the district’s schools and their surrounding communities. Anderson’s 22 years of experience as an educator in the public school system is decorated by various awards in response to the progressive changes she has made in each step of her career. By consistently focusing on specific goals, such as reducing achievement gaps and putting an end to the effects of generational poverty, Anderson has harnessed the ability to make lasting improvements on huge scales in areas that need the attention most. Anderson, who believes school systems hold the power to change communities, stresses that a school’s transformative powers exist beyond just producing scholars. A critical step towards improvement, she explains, is to develop a sense of understanding
throughout the community. Only then can the necessary strides be made toward making a sustainable change. A focus on poverty “We need to make sure that we understand poverty in our own community, and then be very outspoken about breaking the systematic oppressive systems that have caused young people to be in this never-ending cycle of generation poverty,” said Anderson. “This mentality really has transformed Jennings in some pretty powerful ways – for the first time in a number of years, enrollment has increased when the prediction was that it would decline, and had been declining for about five years. We are in a community that is changing in a positive way and improving as an entirety. New systems are being built, crime rate is down, and I believe that has a lot to do with what we’re doing as a school system.” Tackling the issues surrounding poverty in the Jennings community continues to be one of Anderson’s main focuses when making improvements in the district. By offering communityimprovement programs and volunteer opportunities, Jennings School District has played a key role in raising community expectations and organizing events to benefit those who need it most. Washers and dryers in every Jennings school allow parents to do one
load of laundry per day for free in exchange for an hour of volunteering, and approximately 200-400 Jennings parents get their groceries from Jennings’ food pantry, which gives out 8,000 pounds of food per month. These opportunities have been put in place partly to encourage parental involvement in the school system, and therefore their involvement in the advancement of the community and the long-term of success its young people. See MEETING THE CHALLENGES page 7
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