Magnolia Speech School moving to Madison

Mitch Stringer of Madison said Magnolia Speech School changed his niece’s life and helped her go from struggling with speech to singing in her school’s Christmas play. 

Stringer, past chairman of the Magnolia Speech School Board and a current board member, said he couldn’t be more excited about the school moving to Madison. He looks forward to Magnolia helping more children with speech like they did with his niece.

“Early on, my niece Byars struggled with speaking and communication,” Stringer said. “Her parents noticed her struggles, and my wife recommended she come to Magnolia. They identified a few learning and language disorders they specialized in, and Byars spent around three school years there. We noticed an almost immediate change, and she went from not speaking at all to being quite vocal, even singing in her school Christmas play after she graduated and went back to her school in Simpson County.” 

Executive Director of Magnolia Speech School Valerie Linn said bringing the school to Madison has been an amazing journey over the past couple of years. 

“We officially started our capital campaign in October 2019, and we had to do a lot of fundraising in the middle of the pandemic,” Linn said. “Despite that, the community was still so generous and supportive, and we’re grateful for all the support.” 

Linn, the executive director at Magnolia since 2014, said the idea of moving the school to a different location was one of the board’s dreams years before she arrived there. 

“We plan to move to Madison and sell our current facility here in Jackson,” Linn said. “We love this campus, but we wanted to be more visible and accessible in the community to families in need of the work we do. We studied places around Jackson and looked at where growth is happening and where families are going. We ultimately decided on Madison on Bozeman Road.”

Magnolia purchased the property in December 2019, and construction has moved along smoothly. Linn said the school opens to the public this August, the beginning of the fall 2022 school year. The cost of the project is roughly around $12 million. Linn noted that it came down to two spots for the new school location: Bozeman Road and 1585 Mannsdale Road right around the corner from St. Anthony Catholic School. 

Stringer said he has been with the project from the beginning and said construction on the new facility is moving along nicely. 

“We’re looking good on the schedule,” Stringer said. “All of our students will be starting their 2022 semester in the new facility, and we couldn’t be more excited. We do think the new location will allow us to help and affect even more students than we do now and have the ability to take in more students than we did before.” 

Stringer said although their site on N Flag Chapel Road off W Northside Drive in Jackson has been a wonderful home to Magnolia for 50 years, he can’t wait to move to the new state-of-the-art facility. 

“We feel the accessibility of this new school will be beneficial to students now and in the future for years to come,” he said. “Madison was the clear favorite for the new location.” 

Linn said Magnolia is not only grateful for the financial support, but also the hard work from Brassfield and Glory Construction, the company building the school. 

“Our children are getting excited, too,” Linn said. “Some of them live around where the new school is going up, and they go check out the progress occasionally. I’ve had them ask me if I’m excited about the new school, so they’re seeing how important it is. We’re also very close to Madison Public Schools and multiple churches.”

Magnolia is still around $2 million short of closing the project, and Linn said every donation is appreciated. 

“We’re doing our absolute best to help children who have communicative disorders,” Linn said. “We do charge tuition but try to keep it as low as possible. Every donation helps us, and we’re excited to serve children in a better way.”

For more information about Magnolia Speech School, and if you would like to donate, visit magnoliaspeechschool.org.