Biloxi Public Schools will begin classes at the end of next week, with a new multi-million-dollar junior high school and an upper elementary school awaiting students.
“We just finished online registration,” said David Nichols, director of personnel services for the Biloxi Public Schools, “and right now, we are on target with our enrollment numbers.”
Registration for schools – five elementary schools, an upper elementary, junior high and high school – ends Friday at 3 p.m., and Nichols says school leaders expect to exceed pre-Katrina enrollment, which was 6,100 students.
The new, state-of-the-art 195,000 square-foot junior high, located directly west of the high school on Richard Drive, will house seventh and eighth grade students, and the upper elementary school, in the old junior high building on Father Ryan Avenue, will house the 5th and 6th graders.
Visit the Biloxi Public Schools website
See this year’s Biloxi public school calendar
Keesler land-use study meetings are next week
The public will have a chance to comment on a public draft of the Joint Land Use Study with Keesler Air Force Base during two public sessions next week.
The meetings, the third and final of the months-long process, will be Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the D’Iberville Town Green, at 1004 Central Ave., and on Thursday at the Community Development Building on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Biloxi.
Residents of either city can attend either meeting.
The goal of the JLUS is to protect the viability of current and future missions at Keesler, while accommodating community growth, sustaining the economic health of the region, and protecting public health, welfare, and safety.
The workshop is part of the ongoing development of the study to address compatibility planning between Keesler AFB and the impacted communities surrounding the installation.
The land-use documents were published earlier this month at www.keeslerjlus.com. Comments can be made at the public meetings, submitted on the project website, or by email to the JLUS Project Manager, Elaine Wilkinson, at egw@grpc.com. Deadline for comment is by Aug. 11.
Read the draft of the Joint Land Use Study
Print the flyer about the meetings
At MML, City Desk goes ‘One Coast’
Social media, namely Facebook, is where it’s at in communicating with residents of a city, that’s the word from this week’s City Desk guests, Mario King, the newly minted mayor of Moss Point, and Chris Vignes, the Public Information Officer for Gulfport.
The two city officials appeared on the City Desk podcast Wednesday at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center, where more leaders from 295 city and towns from across the state gathered.
Social media was on the minds of both Vignes and King.
Said Vignes: It’s about getting out information as easily as possible for people to see and be able to contact their elected officials to get things done.
For King, it’s a matter of using social media to be transparent with residents, especially on vital issues.
“My biggest surprise on the ground has been our finances,” said King, who took office two weeks ago. “And my biggest surprise at MML is that there are other cities in much worse condition than Moss Point.”
Holloway, Wall honored: Former Mayor A.J. Holloway and a former councilman, the late Tom Wall, were inducted into the MML Hall of Fame this week.
City Desk: Hear from nearby city officials
Photo Gallery: Hall of Famers Holloway and Wall
