East Jackson School Superintendent Steve Doerr joined WKHM recently, and discussed a few different topics related to the success of Trojan Nation.

Doerr first addressed concerns that educational leadership in the state had about the state budget, or lack thereof. “The past 8 years, under Governor Snider, we had a budget usually by the end of June. School districts in the state are required to get their budget around before the end of June. The state hasn’t always in the past, but in my first two years they have. Now, there’s a lot of uncertainty. It’s hard because you have to plan for staffing; we have 130 employees and we’re planning for contracts, and budgets, and adjustments with handbooks, and it’s hard to have some certainty on that, but we’re doing the best we can.”

Following a recent bond passage, there was a general outline of what would be on the list of things to improve around the district. This time around, the secondary building, which houses the Junior and Senior High Schools, will be the primary focus. “There’s a lot of improvements, most of it at the secondary building. The last go-round of capital improvements really upgraded the Walz Road location to make that the K-6 elementary school,” Doerr said. He was proud of the changes made, including an HVAC system that is monitored in real-time. “It’s a beautiful building, all the classrooms were renovated.”

When it came to the list thus far, there’s a couple of needs to address that haven’t been looked at in some time, as well as addressing parent concerns. “We’re going to do a lot of the improvements to the secondary building. The commons area are getting a whole new renovation. The locker rooms haven’t been touched in several decades, those are getting a face lift. We’ve got some outside site improvements, one complaint is the parking at the Elementary, and the drop off/pick up loop needs some attention.”

For more information on East Jackson Community Schools, visit their website.