Our Story
Tom and Tammy Winstead founded Jackson Day School, formerly known as Mountain Island Day, in 2009. The school opened as an extension of Early Beginnings CDC, a local preschool center also founded by the Winstead's. JDS operated as a Christian private school for nine years before converting to a public charter school in 2018. The school initially operated out of a leased facility in Coulwood until the school outgrew that location. JDS moved to its current location off Fred Alexander in 2016. We renovated the existing facilities on the 25-acre campus in 2016, and JDS recently constructed a new 55,000 square-foot education building and gymnasium that opened in August 2021.
JDS has acquired and continues to acquire land surrounding our campus to expand our facilities further. The construction of a new student parking lot is underway (2021). Construction will continue with extensive renovations to existing buildings and new athletic complex with an expected completion date of August 2023.
JDS received accreditation from Cognia/AdvancED in 2014 and graduated its first senior class in June 2018. In 2009 JDS opened its doors as a private school with 42 students in TK-3rd grade and grew the private school to roughly 220 students before converting to a charter school. Since our conversion to a charter school, we have grown to over 800 students (2022/2023). We will continue to add 100-120 students each year until we reach our final growth of 1076 students K-12th grade.