JACKSON -- A whopping 308 students enrolled in Jackson's kindergarten program for 1995-96, an increase of at least 40 students over last year.

The Jackson public school system also screened 24 more kindergarten students for Immaculate Conception School, students who likely will end up with Jackson in later grades. Even more students may enroll on the first day of school.

To accommodate the school district's growth, the school system will hire another kindergarten teacher. That will put 22 students in each of 14 sections of kindergarten, assistant superintendent Fred Jones said.

The new teacher will take over the Parents-As-Teachers room in the Kindergarten Annex, and PAT will meet at Jackson Middle School. Jones said more classroom shuffling might be on the way.

He made the announcement at Tuesday night's Jackson Board of Education meeting, not long after the board set goals for the 1995-96 school year. Its top priority is establishing a facilities review committee to figure out what the school system is going to do with all the new students.

Some other goals included: reviewing teacher salaries and extracurricular stipends; studying how to provide additional planning and preparation time for elementary teachers; and studying progress in the computer science curriculum for grades 7-12.

"We discussed some other things to look at in the future, but the things we have prioritized will be plenty for us to accomplish," Board Vice President Fred Jones said. "If we can get through these goals, we will have a good year."

The only goal recommended by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education was to reduce the student-teacher ratio in elementary art, physical education and music classes. Jones said it wasn't unusual for there to be an excess of students per teacher.

But amid all the talk about an excess of students to teachers at Tuesday's meeting, there was good news for students who have problems reading.

The school district will qualify for more Title 1 federal funds than expected -- enough to hire another Reading Recovery teacher for this year. Reading Recovery teachers deal with early elementary level students who have difficulty grasping basic concepts of reading.

Some parents complained last year that there weren't enough teachers to deal with all the students who needed help.

Jackson Board of Education

Tuesday, Aug. 8

Action Items

A. Adopted board of education goals for 1995-95 school year.

B. Established school cafeteria lunch prices for 1995-96. Student lunches will be $1.20 per day.

C. Awarded the milk bid to Prairie Farms, the tire bid to Crader Tire and the oil bid to Eagle Oil Co.

D. Set the cost of a half-pint of milk at 20 cents for 1995-96.

E. Elected Jeanette Bollinger as the delegate and Vicky McDowell as the alternate to the annual Missouri State School Boards Association Delegate Assembly.

F. Accepted the resignations of bus driver Shirley Sides and disabled-student aide Gay Smith.