Accountability – Page 16

Dear JCPS is in the process of aggregating responses from school board candidates as they respond to various groups in the district, as well as endorsements they receive. We will continue to add them here as they are brought to our attention. Be sure to check back after the candidates school board forum hosted by the 15th District PTA on Wednesday for a link to that video, as well. Our questionnaires and formal endorsements will be forthcoming. If you have a question you would like school board members to answer that you do not see on these sites, please email them to moderator@dearjcps.com.

Below are candidates for the upcoming school board elections, and links to their websites.

District 2
David Jones Jr. – Incumbent
James Fletcher
Chris Kolb

District 4
Benjamin Gies
Keisha Allen

District 7
Chris Brady – Incumbent
James Sexton
Scott Majors
Fritz Hollenbach

Below are organizations who have received responses from candidates:

FOR’s Aim Higher subcommittee advocates in Jefferson County Public Schools for improved outcomes for low-income students, immigrants, students of color and other marginalized students. As part of that work, we asked this year’s candidates in the three school board district races about their positions on important issues of policy and use of JCPS’ human and financial resources. Six of the nine candidates responded.

Go to https://louisvillefor.org/school-board-candidate-responses/ to find the 13 questions, background facts, the candidates’ responses, and what school district you live in.

For the last two election cycles, GLI and the Business Leaders for Education (BLE) have collected and shared information on candidates with our members and whoever wishes to access this information on our website. We believe this is a very important race and that it is critical that voters know the stances of all potential school board members.

While GLI is active in public policy and in education, we do not endorse candidates. We have posted candidates responses verbatim here and encourage our members and community members to read them.

A map detailing Jefferson County’s school board districts can be found by clicking here.

GLI 2016 JCPS School Board Elections

From JCTA’s Website

Endorsements from some groups, such as Bluegrass Institute, cause concern:

Two years ago, this story from WDRB, revealed that corporate interests may be driving some endorsements, and Dear JCPS encourages proceeding with caution when considering these endorsements. So far, they have backed David Jones and Fritz Hollenbach. This is a red flag to our group.

If your organization has endorsements or candidate questionnaire responses you would like to see added to this page, please send an email to moderator@dearjcps.com.

Accountability, Behavior/Discipline, District Boundaries, Privatization of Public Education, Standardized Testing, Teacher Shortage, Vision: 2020

In a Nutshell

October 14, 2016 jcpswatch

Something I threw together for my meeting with the Governor’s aides today.

Accountability, Behavior/Discipline, Privatization of Public Education, Standardized Testing, Teacher Shortage, Vision: 2020

Caution Urged With Release of State Test Scores

September 28, 2016October 3, 2016 jcpswatch

With the release of Kentucky schools’ test scores, parents, district leaders and legislators are cautioned to keep in mind that our schools (and our kids) are more than a test score. The notion that this single metric, which has been shown to correlate more closely with income (or wealth) than it does a student’s intelligence or potential, or a school’s ability to provide a quality education, is harmful to students, teachers and schools. This unhealthy overemphasis on state test scores:

results in a “test-and-punish” mentality that devalues students and demoralizes teachers for factors beyond their control, instead of supporting and acknowledging the hurdles and accomplishments of those serving our highest-needs populations,
promotes a competitive vs. collaborative environment that pits schools against each other, instead of encouraging nurturing learning environments that reward the sharing of best practices and resources,
forces legislators and administrators to place pressure on teachers to focus on short-term, adult-centered concerns instead of permitting highly skilled educators to use their training to teach the lessons that are truly in the best interests of students,
creates unnecessary anxiety, health and self-esteem problems for students, while simultaneously snuffing out their love of learning,
squeezes out meaningful subjects and activities, such as art, music, and extracurriculars, as well as time for lunch and play,
results in disproportionate emphasis on remediation for our high-poverty, high needs (GAP) populations as compared to mainstream populations, which comes at the expense of enrichment, interventions and meaningful instruction for high-needs students who might benefit from it the most,
contributes to excessive teacher turnover in persistently low-achieving schools or schools with higher needs populations,
increases incidence of behavior and discipline problems, and
leads to age-inappropriate activities and content, including teaching our children to properly fill in bubble tests as early as kindergarten!

Worst of all, persistently low test scores have been linked to closing neighborhood schools that serve our most vulnerable students, while opening the door to privatizers and swindlers who are more interested in getting their hands on our tax dollars than they are in improving student outcomes.

“High-stakes test scores are the blood diamonds of public education,” says Gay Adelmann, co-founder of Dear JCPS and founder of Save Our Schools KY. “Well-meaning adults who buy into the hype that these test scores measure the success of a school, or the ability or potential of a child, unwittingly perpetuate the war on public education.”

With the passage of ESSA, local school systems have the opportunity to design a broader, more student-centered accountability system, such as a “dashboard” approach. Kentucky Commissioner of Education Stephen Pruitt said during a town hall meeting in April, “If we don’t come out with an accountability system focused on students, then we’ve failed. It can’t be about adults chasing points. The system needs to promote what’s best for students.” The new federal act requires the system to be in place by the 2017-18 school year, too late to mitigate the detrimental effects of this year’s test results.

Accountability, Admin, Other, Privatization of Public Education, Vision: 2020

UPDATED: Day of Prayer Over Students

September 19, 2016September 22, 2016 jcpswatch

UPDATE:
I received a call from my school board member, Steph Horne, explaining that the board does not set policy regarding these types of activities, and that principals are informed and the gatekeeper for what happens on their campuses. Although this event has been taking place for years, she said that I brought up a good point that principals or other staff may interpret the governor’s recent “overstep” as superseding the existing policy and state law, and agreed that it would be a good idea if building staff were reminded of the existing policy so that they are empowered to enforce that policy, should the need arise. Policy states that the event is to take place during non-school hours and that it was to be student led. Nowhere in the communications I saw did it state that this was policy, and if it had, it would not have evoked the response it did from many of our members in our private group of 1,500 parents, teachers and community members.

Ms. Horne sent an email to Dr. Hargens asking that a reminder be sent to building staff. I consider that to be an appropriate and timely response, as requested in my original letter. Thank you Ms. Horne!

(This message has been revised based on feedback from community.)

In response to this message from our Governor, and concerns raised by Dear JCPS members in our private group (made up of over 1500 parents, teachers and community members), I sent the following message to our board members:

http://www.kentuckyfamily.org/?page_id=980

Dear JCPS,

I am confident that our board is aware that any adult-led prayer activity should be prohibited from taking place on any JCPS campus during school hours. In case the activity centered around a single religion isn’t non-inclusive enough, attached is a snapshot from the organization’s brochure, which further exacerbates misconceptions about other faiths, behaviors and lifestyles:

Prior to the Sept. 27 board meeting, Dear JCPS would like to know what steps the district intends to take to publicly and proactively disavow such an egregious overstep of the Governor’s authority. We are looking forward to your reply.

Thank you,
Gay

Gay Adelmann
Co-Founder, Dear JCPS
Founder, Save Our Schools KY
Charter Member, Network for Public Education
260-633-0463

Accountability, Behavior/Discipline, Vision: 2020

#LongForTheTruth Response from Parents

September 12, 2016September 12, 2016 jcpswatch

On Friday, we posted this open letter from Brennan Long’s father who is seeking the truth about what happened to his son on Nov. 11, 2014. His open letter generated this response from a Binet staffer. Tonight, Dear JCPS received the following follow up letter in response to the information presented in response and on the Facebook posts.

Please note: Dear JCPS does not take a position on these letters and responses. Our intention is purely to provide an avenue for all sides and concerns to be heard.

Dear JCPS Community,

Our intentions are clear: We will pursue the Truth about what happened to Brennan and we will work endlessly to ensure this never happens to another child – ever. We are not out for Blood or Money – we are pursuing the truth.

Brennan is NOT violent.

Brennan’s Teacher of Record’s own words:

“Comparatively to other students at our school, he (Brennan) is a pretty easy student for the most part…he is typically not aggressive toward you or towards his peers, really, his worst behavior is when he bites himself and we only saw that two or three times”

Source: Seth Stillman, Binet School Teacher of Record, LMPD Police Interview, November 25, 2014.

Fact: Brennan is not violent. The narrative that is being presented is merely an attempt to justify the actions of Binet Staff to restrain Brennan. Brennan should have never been restrained. None of his behaviors that day warranted any type of a restraint. Furthermore, Brennan’s Behavioral Intervention Plan or BIP, that was fully adopted by Binet, identified every reported behavior and what positive behavioral supports should be used to re-direct the behavior. It was not followed.

Sadly, Brennan does know what it feels like (physically and mentally) to suffer from Near-Fatal Child Abuse from the hands of a Binet Staffer. The violent behavior that resulted in Brennan’s near-fatal spiral fractures to BOTH of his femurs is what should be in question. Not a disabled teenager who was biting his arm while sitting in a chair.

accident-report

Source: Binet Accident Report Dated 11/11/2014, Completed immediately after Brennan’s Injuries

Fact:

We are not from West Virginia nor have we lived there. I am from KENTUCKY – born and raised here. My wife is from INDIANA. We have lived in three other states and have NEVER sued or filed any type of law suit against those school districts.

We did file a due process complaint against JCPS in 2015.

Fact:

Brennan does NOT have any form of bone disease now and he did NOT when he was injured on 11/11/2014. Brennan does not take any medication that causes “bone density issues”. At least three medical doctors, including his orthopedic surgeon, assert that Brennan does not have any bone disease.

The only issues that Brennan has with his bones now are the fact that he has titanium rods in the center of each of his femurs that are held in place by set screws at each end of each femur. Brennan’s femurs were reamed out with a cordless drill to make the cavity large enough to insert the rods. Brennan will have to live with this medical hardware inside of his femurs for the rest of his life.

Brian & Kim Long

Accountability, Behavior/Discipline

Response to #LongForTheTruth Post

September 12, 2016September 12, 2016 jcpswatch

This is a response we received (sharing with permission) to the #LongForTheTruth post.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Ok, this has got to stop. No one has done any research on this, everyone is posting the same stuff over and over. Children come to Binet for a reason. Yes most of our students are autistic. ALL of them have extreme behavioral disabilities. They can’t just come to Binet. They have to be placed there because no other school can handle them. Brennan was violent. He was violent that day. His family is money hungry and out for blood. They SETTLED. Then after they got their money they started talking about their poor baby. Well we had Brennen for 43 days. DAYS..

Other students have been there for years with no problems. The Long family has sued the school district in West Virginia where they’re from, they tried to sue the government for giving Brennan the flu shot, which they think “caused” his autism. The medication Brennan takes has been proven to cause bone density issues. My principal was told she could make this all go away if she would just fire [the teacher’s assistant]. She has refused because he’s innocent. We have been interviewed by every child protection agency in the state and found innocent. The board won’t say anything about any of that and we aren’t supposed to respond. Then to top it off the news, Courier-Journal and now dear jcps are doing one sided pieces. Where’s the good that Binet does? We’ve been dealing with this for over 2 years, we just lost a coworker last week. We just want to do what we do, which is love and support the kids no one else wants, but that also means we have to keep them from hurting themselves and others. We use SCM, NOT JUDO or aikido or anything crazy. I hope you remove the post. We are so tired of fighting the good fight and the ONLY people that understand are the people who work in our environment.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you have any additional information about what happened to Brennan that day, please contact us at moderator@dearjcps.com. All responses will be held in the strictest of confidence.

Accountability, Behavior/Discipline, Vision: 2020

Parents #LongfortheTruth, Don’t You?

September 9, 2016September 9, 2016 jcpswatch

Dear JCPS Community,

On November 11, 2014, Brennan Long, an autistic teenager who was a student at the Binet School, suffered near-fatal injuries while being restrained while seated in a chair, by Sherman Williams, an instructional assistant. Brennan suffered comminuted and twisting spiral fractures to both of his femurs. Brennan spent 8 days in PICU and another 25 days in the hospital. He nearly died. Witness accounts of those who were reported to have been in the room at the time of the restraint describe the restraint as a textbook cradle restraint.

The Longs were never told that Binet School used restraints and had no idea what SCM or Safe Crisis Management was at the time of Brennan’s injuries. To this day, none of the reported witnesses have provided any truthful explanation as to how Brennan’s broken femurs occurred. The teachers and teaching assistants are all still employed by JCPS and most still work at the Binet School.

perfect Brennan’s parents continue to be asked why no one has been held accountable for Brennan’s injuries. Their answer is both simple and tragic; no one pursued the truth. They believe, as most do, that Truth enables Accountability. Brian & Kim Long are committed to pursuing the truth about what happened to Brennan and they will do everything they can to ensure this type of injury never happens to another child – ever. Over the last two months, some courageous teachers, administrators, former employees and parents have come forward to share information and details regarding Brennan’s injuries and the Binet School in general. We are asking that our Dear JCPS community to do the same – please come forward, and help the Longs find the truth about what happened to their son as well as help our JCPS school system become safer and better for our children, especially those with special needs. You can make a difference!

All responses will be held in strictest confidence.

#LongfortheTruth

Media Links

WAVE3 – CBS
http://www.wave3.com/story/32265753/parents-of-teen-severely-injured-at-the-binet-school-speak-out
http://www.wave3.com/clip/12540172/parents-of-teen-severely-injured-at-school-speak-out
http://www.wave3.com/story/32474295/outside-panel-calls-jcps-students-injuries-abuse
http://www.wave3.com/story/32492523/state-to-review-jcps-management-due-to-issues-in-reporting-of-restraints
http://www.wave3.com/story/32690794/kentucky-public-schools-to-stop-the-use-of-aikido-control-training
http://www.wave3.com/story/32709145/jcps-tudents-restrained-more-than-8000-times-in-2-years
http://www.wave3.com/story/32724199/jcps-board-approves-new-crisis-intervention

WHAS11 – ABC
http://www.whas11.com/news/local/state-panel-finds-abuse-caused-jcps-students-injury/276476010
http://www.whas11.com/news/local/state-lawmaker-wants-investigation-reopen-after-students-legs-broken/277342878
http://www.whas11.com/news/education/jcps-hires-former-fbi-agent-to-review-cases/307248421
http://www.whas11.com/news/investigations/iteam/iteam-new-report-cites-abuse-of-students/308213613

WDRB
http://www.wdrb.com/story/32693561/commissioner-orders-immediate-halt-to-use-of-aikido-martial-art-as-form-of-student-restraint-in-public-schools

KMOV – Saint Louis
http://www.kmov.com/story/32474295/outside-panel-calls-jcps-students-injuries-abuse

Accountability, Admin, Budget, Vision: 2020

“Community Advisory Team” ORR Response

May 9, 2016March 27, 2017 jcpswatch

The following email was received from JCPS Communications in response to a series of questions (in bold) from a member of the community.

From: Brislin, Jennifer F. <jennifer.brislin@jefferson.kyschools.us>
Date: Mon, May 9, 2016 at 6:29 PM
Subject: OPEN RECORDS REQUEST: Information and public records request
To: “XXX” (Redacted for privacy)
Cc: “Horne, Steph” <steph.horne@jefferson.kyschools.us>

Good evening,

I wanted to follow up with you on your request for records and information regarding the recent classification and compensation analysis, which was forwarded to my office for a response.

When was the CAT formed? How were applications solicited or if not by application, who participated in the selection of the members.
The Community Advisory Team (CAT) was assembled in early February 2016 for the purpose of reviewing the consultant’s report and discussing the necessary steps to present the information. This was an informal group; members were invited to participate by Tom Hudson, chief business officer for Jefferson County Public Schools.

Pursuant to KRS 61.872, Please provide all dates of meetings of the CAT, information provided to them and notices of meetings since, as I understand it, these committee meetings were public meetings in compliance with Kentucky’s Open Meetings law.
The CAT met on April 1, 2016. This was not a meeting of a group as defined by the Kentucky Open Meetings Law.

Pursuant to KRS 61.872 Please provide minutes or, even better, transcripts or recordings of all meeting in which any CAT member participated in which the compensation information was reviewed or discussed.
There are no minutes or recordings of this meeting.

How were the comparative districts selected? I would like to assume that the comparators face the same challenges as JCPS does with respect to poverty and homelessness. Is that an accurate statement based on the information the Board was provided and upon what information did you rely in reaching that conclusion?
In terms of district selection, the consultants used their knowledge of comparison districts, Auditor Edelen’s study and advice from the hiring team. As you can see from the study, 6 of the 10 districts that were compared were our own benchmark districts. JCPS is reviewing internally to determine if the district wants to revisit some of the districts that were compared. In addition, Mr. Hudson has indicated that he’s requested a more detailed explanation from the consultants about the algorithms and methodologies used in the district-to-district comparison, and he will be happy to share that information when it’s received.

Why were there only administrators on the panel and no classroom teachers or certified staff?
Why were there no community members or parents of JCPS students who are of more modest means on the panel? How could there be no people of color on the panel who were not also administration employees? What was the alleged expertise of the various panel members? I like Mr. Smith but his expertise is in combating unions -not in education and I am pretty sure his children attended private schools and not JCPS. In any event, they would have attended many years ago and so his experience as a JCPS parent would likely be of marginal relevance. The other attorney represents the District Board in litigation – certainly he cannot provide an impartial view. If he participated merely to ensure the committee did not run afoul of the law I would like to see documentation that he did not participate in any votes or other decision making, pursuant to the Kentucky Open Records law.

For this initial review of the salary study, Mr. Hudson sought expertise and advice from individuals with a broad range of experience in legal, financial and human resource matters. Members included:

•Tiffeny Armour, Director of Human Resources, JCPS
•Roger Cude, Senior VP of Human Resources, Humana
•Attorney Mark Fenzel, Middleton Reutlinger
•Dr. Rita Greer, former Director of Human Resources, JCPS
•Chuck Haddaway, Board Member, JCPS
•Cordelia Hardin, CFO, JCPS
•Donna Hargens, Superintendent, JCPS
•Dr. Blake Haselton, Superintendent in Residence, U of L
•Tom Hudson, CBO, JCPS
•Allison Martin, Chief Communications and Community Relations Officer JCPS
•Angie Moorin –Finance Work Group Member
•Tom Quick, VP of Human Resources, General Electric Appliances
•Attorney Jim Smith, Smith and Smith Attorneys

Intentionally, this group was kept small with the understanding that representatives of all constituencies would be at the table and able to weigh in once the study was presented to the Board and to the public. We intend to study this over the next year, giving JCPS time to meet with impacted parties, hear concerns from all sides and negotiate with the unions. We want and need your feedback.

I would like a copy of all drafts or versions of the report of the Management Advisory Group which was received by JCPS. This includes the earlier draft which was sent back in early 201 5. The PDF of the document appears to have been removed from the JCPS website.
The final report is now available at https://www.jefferson.kyschools.us/file/jcps-final-report-classification-and-compensation-study. The final report is 1,098 pages; you may also inspect a copy of the report at my office in the VanHoose Education Center, 3332 Newburg Road, during regular business hours. If you wish to take a copy of the report with you, it is available at a cost of 10 cents per page, or $109.80. If you are unable to come to the office, we can mail you the report; regular copy charges of $109.80 plus postage charges will apply.

No draft of the report is available. Pursuant to KRS 61.878(1)[(i)-(j)], “Preliminary drafts, notes, correspondence with private individuals, other than correspondence which is intended to give notice of final action of a public agency; (and) Preliminary recommendations, and preliminary memoranda in which opinions are expressed or policies formulated or recommended” are exempt from disclosure.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

JENNIFER BRISLIN
Deputy Communications Director
Jefferson County Public Schools
3332 Newburg Road
Louisville, KY 40218
Office: 502.485.3551
Cell: 502.744-7478

www.jefferson.k12.ky.us

Accountability, Admin

Dear JCPS is Raising Up the Voices of the Stakeholders

October 12, 2015November 23, 2016 jcpswatch

Greetings Dr. Hargens, Chair Jones and Board Members:

I’m here on behalf of a new organization called Dear JCPS. You may have heard of us. 😉 We represent hundreds of parents, community members, and another hundred or more teachers across the district. The list of supporting members is published on our website at dearjcps.com, and it grows daily.

We started our organization because we looked for a parent advocacy group and realized that there was not one in JCPS. When we have spoken with people moving in from other communities, they were surprised to learn that there is no independent group to advocate and present feedback from the stakeholders’ perspective.

We know that you are busy and get a lot of input from a lot of sources. Yet, when big decisions are being voted on, sometimes valid concerns and great suggestions we have heard on the ground were not making their way up to the persons making recommendations to the board — feedback that we knew could improve the outcome for the students of JCPS — Our goal was to find a way to give those voices wings.

We started as an open letter forum so that more stakeholders would have the opportunity to have their ideas and concerns heard before important decisions were made by the board. We’ve also come to discover that parents and teachers are sometimes hesitant to share their suggestions and opinions with those higher up out of fear of retaliation. So we also have started listening to the feedback we get on social media, in pri erin-intro vate messages, and in person visits. We plan to research and vet that information into concise message points for the board to consider.

Our group has met and begun selecting the topics that we will include in our agenda for this year. These topics revolve around supporting public education, while advocating for equity, narrowing achievement gaps, reducing effects of standardized testing, investing in students in poverty, reading recovery, more enrichment and less test prep for kids in poverty, customer service breakdowns and transparency within the district. We also seek accountability from JCPS after items have been voted on by the board. Examples, Closing of Myers Middle School, bringing in an outsider operator for Challenger, and will be keeping an eye on the progression of the Vision 2020 document, and the exit strategy for the priority schools.

We have representatives in every one of your districts. Each of you will have a member on our team who will be available to you, if you need us to look into something for you. That person will also provide you with regular
updates from our meetings. Hopefully as we grow we will have representatives in every school, as well.

We know the district is looking ahead five, ten years down the road. Sometimes when you turn the boat around, some kids get caught in the wake. While overall, numbers may be improving, often it’s the same, kids year after year, who feel the greatest impact from these changes, which is what can propagate learning gaps. Long term goals are great, but a sense of urgency and collaboration with the folks in the trenches is also important to minimize collateral damage. We feel like we can help provide you with Information that can lead to better short term details without derailing the long term plans. These two concepts are not mutually exclusive.

We would rather see the district invest more early on than let needs fester. It costs considerably more to bring a 9th grader up from a 3rd grade reading level than it does to bring a 4th grader up from a 3rd grade reading level. Those investments will pay off tenfold.

Every child deserves and education, and regardless of the obstacles a child faces, the goal is for every student to be successful in their life after graduating from JCPS. We are here to support and raise up the voices of the stakeholders for the betterment of our children’s futures.

Accountability, Admin, Budget, Challenger Learning Center

The Academy @ Shawnee: A History of Disparities Never Corrected

October 12, 2015November 23, 2016 jcpswatch

Dear JCPS,

My name is Gay Adelmann, and I am here speaking as a parent of a student at the Academy at Shawnee.

This letter is intended to help you understand a real world challenge that has been happening at one of our lowest performing schools for nearly a decade, maybe longer.

In 2008 after the McFarland v. JCPS ruling and the student assignment was revamped, Shawnee was the only school in the district not to receive any accommodations from that decision. The story that made the front page of the Courier Journal. The Board unanimously voted to make the school K-12 to compensate for this disparity, but it was never implemented. Nothing was done to correct this disparity.

Three years later – School named to Cohort 1 and labeled a priority school – the school lost its SBDM

The school was ranked in the #1 percentile. I wish that was a good thing. It was the worst performing school in the state.

We knew that when we selected the school from the Choices catalog. But my son wanted to be a pilot. We visited the school and we realized the potential that was there. It had a dynamic principal. We saw the promise. The potential. Everything was in place for a turnaround. The resides population is high poverty (90% free and reduced lunch), high transient population, high truancy, high special needs. These gap kids are not keeping up across the district. And we still have the disparity I mentioned earlier.

The Board approved adding a magnet-only middle school to help grow the high school and raise the scores organically. But that would take time, and the magnets currently only made up about 10% of the total school. “Maybe if we could grow the magnet, we could raise the high school test scores sooner,” I thought.

Summer of 2013

Principal Resigned

However We met our goals – went from 1 percentile to 9th percentile. Wow!

Then Beginning of the school year, the District Came out with “The Plan,” went thru 2 interim principals, but with no ownership, there was no one on the ground assessing what would help us meet our goals.

We came before the board. We Said “Wait, Principal before plan,” and you listened.

A New Principal was in place by Christmas

With new principal comes More Teacher Turnover, more changing the way we do things, even if it’s working

Myers Shut down – Our brand new magnet only middle school in its first year, suddenly had to absorb a population that we weren’t ready for and that wasn’t ready for us, and increased our MS population by more than 50%. Moreover, the resides middle school students who are assigned to Shawnee MS were not our resides HS students. So we’re working to grow them, but then we’re going to lose them.

Bad recruiting year with uncertainty of “plan and no principal” looming

End of 2014 School year – We heard, We’ll do better Next Year

2014-2015

Following year, more teacher turnover, went from 5 Nationally Board Certified teachers down to 2.

Yet we Flew an Experiment on Intl Space Station

I made “recruiting” my GCIPL project. Went to various events, recruited students interested in aerospace, which is an 8 billion dollar industry and is the #1 export in the state of KY.

Middle school scored highest in the district.

Added 6 more AP courses and a contract with NASEI for next year. More rigor. Now if we could get consistency in leadership and teaching staff, we could grow the scores

Now, if we could just get more magnet students here, we could grow the scores.

Summer of 2015

Middle school scores dropped 24 points.

Challenger was put on hold and defunded before a new plan was in place.

Principal on leave 2 weeks before end of school year, GCIPL project came to screeching halt. Leads dried up. Open house fell thru. Another lost recruiting year with uncertainty of no principal, and loss of challenger looming.

End of 2015 School Year We’ll do better next year

This summer, Went from 2 natl bd cert teachers now down to 1,

Another 50% teachers left

Asked for consistency. Promote from within.

Principal from another school named 1 day before school starts even though the position had been open all summer.

With new leadership comes more change, more staff turnover.

Lost another AP last week. How is that consistent?

10 weeks into the school year and we still need 3 critical teacher positions filled. Math and English.

Met our AMO. Went from 9th percentile to 16th percentile.

But that is the locked percentile, so we are still labeled priority, because we’re still in the bottom 5% of the state. Because this number is a moving target, based on a single metric, so no matter how well we all do, there will always be a bottom 5%. Another school has to fail for us to succeed

On my son’s 5th principal. Every time someone new comes along turn the ship around. Unfortunately kids get caught in the wake. No consistency in a school where consistency found more than anything.

Priority schools should come first. Yet it’s nothing more than a label. There’s no sense of urgency. Don’t want to keep waiting until next year. More kids are caught in the wake every year. We are being held accountable for things beyond our control. Don’t have an SBDM. Parent and teacher input is heard but ignored. Don’t have KDE $ or support. Our staff know what they are doing but every new administration comes in and tells them to do it different, just when we start to gain momentum, something cuts us off at the knees.

Our kids can’t wait until next year.

The school and staff are amazing. We don’t regret a minute of our decision. But we feel like the red headed stepchild. But we are really the best kept secret.

Aerospace is growing. The time to act is now. With loss of Challenger, we are no longer part of the conversation, no seat at the table in the aerospace industry.

With no more funding and no more KDE support, HOW WILL WE EVER GET OUR OF PRIORITY STATUS? NEXT YEAR OR EVER?

There is NO EXIT STRATEGY

What is the district going to do differently willing to do to truly make us a priority?

Category: Accountability

School Board Candidate Responses from Various Sources