Page 68 - South Mississippi Living - December, 2019

FAMILY INTERACTIVE CENTER outstanding outreach
THE VISION
story by Susan Ruddiman photos by Donn Hupp and photos courtesy of Aaron Jones Family Interactive Center
The only limitation our children will have is the boundary of
their ambition. – Superintendent Wayne Rodolfich
The Aaron Jones Family Interactive Center (FIC) was conceived from the water sodden ruins left behind by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Wayne Rodolfich had been in his job as superintendent of the Pascagoula School District – now known as the Pascagoula-Gautier School District (PGSD) – for a few weeks when the hurricane struck.
“I’m riding around in a truck after Katrina making lists of things we need to do to return our district back from $28 million in damages with a very small insurance policy and a very small fund balance,” Rodolfich said.
A radio announcement stating what Todd Trenchard, executive director of the Bacot McCarty Foundation, was
doing at that time caught his attention. “During the course, I was also
thinking about this commercial that said, ‘we need a place for kids to play in Jackson County.’ I felt we could do that,” Rodolfich said.
On one of the new superintendent’s early mornings, he was in the office of technology director Dr. Doug Belk, who is now retired, where there was a white board for writing and drawing.
“I said, ‘Doug, we are going to build
a center like Lynn Meadows where children can come play for free, and
we will have special events there.’ So I drew out the diagram of what it would look like and the different types of rooms we would have,” Rodolfich said.
This center would be located in an
unused building located on Market Street between Skip and Tucker avenues. It had been known as the Annex, and had housed 10th grade before the Pascagoula High School was built on Market Street in the mid-1990s.
Also tied in with this center was the Excel by 5 program the school district was making preparations to join.
Rodolfich acknowledged that while he is the idea person, it takes a team who works for the school district
to bring the rooms into fruition. He named Belk, Weber Parker, director of maintenance; Debbie Anglin, director of communications; and the outside support of Trenchard.
With the blessing of the school board, Rodolfich used Katrina grant funds to
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