Jackson City Council approves the partnership for a new Madison Academic and JCM

The Jackson City Council approved the public-private partnership to build a new Madison Academic and Jackson Central-Merry high schools.

The city council voted 5-3 to approve the deal, with an amendment that the city will hire its own representative on the project to work with the project's developer — Healthy Community, LCC — to make sure cost doesn't escalate further.

Councilmembers David Cisco, Paul Taylor and Ross Priddy voted against the deal and councilmember Gary Pickens (District 1) was absent from the meeting. 

The council's vote is the final local government hurdle for the project. The last hurdle is approval from the Tennessee Comptroller on the new version of the deal. 

The public-private partnership is a deal between the city, Madison County, the Jackson-Madison County School System and the Jackson Community Redevelopment Agency. 

What's the deal? How the public-private partnership changed and its effect on Jackson-Madison County

As part of the partnership, the city will pay for the new $14 million Madison Academic High School on the University of Memphis Lambuth campus, and the county will pay $22.9 million to renovate and reopen JCM. 

The city council joins the Madison County Commission, JMCSS board and the Jackson CRA in approving the deal.

The approval comes despite the city's own budget committee's refusal to recommend the project because of its $6.6 million taxpayer increase since June 2019 and concerns about Healthy Community's management of the design and construction process. 

In June 2019, Healthy Community, LLC estimated the cost to build both schools at $31.8 million, but by January 2020, the price increased to $37 million. Healthy Community also secured $1.4 million less in federal tax credits than it initially projected. 

JACKSON FINANCES:Can Jackson afford to build a new Madison Academic High School?

The price includes the construction of the buildings, but not the over $5 million in equipment and furniture costs that will be required to get the buildings ready for students.

Last-minute contributions get price down 

At the last minute, the University of Memphis Auxiliary Foundation stepped up to offer a "last-resort" funding of $227,000 a year for the first four years of the project. The contribution is only for the city, must be requested each year and didn't define what last-resort meant.

Jackson Mayor Scott Conger said the projection of the city's looming deficit, shown at a February city budget committee, serves as documentation of the "last-resort" need for the money.

He added that he felt good about the commitment, but that the city will have to go back to the foundation every year for the next four years to ask for the $227,000. 

West Tennessee Healthcare also agreed to a $1.35  million contribution for each school through the CRA.

All of the contributions combined drive the price down of Madison Academic $11.6 million or $100,000 more than the price the city council approved in 2018, under former Mayor Jerry Gist. 

Reach Adam Friedman by email at afriedman@jacksonsun.com, by phone at 731-431-8517 or follow him on Twitter @friedmanadam5.