Accountability, District Boundaries, Pattern or Practice, Privatization of Public Education, Racial Equity, Student Assignment, Teacher Shortage

Anti-JCPS Task Force Holds First Meeting

The Anti-JCPS Task Force met for the first time on Monday, July 15, 2024. I call it that because of who the lawmakers, leaders and LRC have chosen to serve on it. It reminds me of the Board of Education that newly elected governor Matt Bevin appointed the minute he got into office by dismantling the current one illegally and unethically and replacing them all, including the commissioner, with people who wanted public education dead. Literally, they were that bad. And in 2019, our own Democratic US Congressman, Morgan McGarvey, played a role in the conspiracy to confirm the worst of them.

Now, not all of the members chosen to serve on the task force are bad, but I can tell you from personal experience, more than half of them cannot be trusted with our tax dollars or our children. That means that no matter how strongly the rest of the task force objects, they will always be in the minority, and our community’s concerns are likely to be disregarded and disrespected. That concerns me greatly.

In case you didn’t have time to watch Monday, here is a recorded video of the meeting, for the archives:

I posted about the War on JCPS prior to the task force committee application deadline and even made a 5-minute video for people to watch to see what was promised and what was still to be delivered, urging a diverse range of people to apply:

In addition, I put my money where my mouth was. I didn’t want to risk taking any seats from parents or teachers, so when I discovered that I qualified for the “business member” slot of the task force, I decided to apply. With a 30+ year business marketing background, large and small, local and national, I would argue that I am as qualified, if not more, than the person they chose. But there is no denying the fact that the already lopsided anti-public education task force did not need another “school choice” advocate, and especially not one who stands to benefit should the GOP agenda to divide and conquer JCPS succeed and the Constitutional Amendment pass in November. I would have added a voice of advocacy for hundreds if not thousands of JCPS stakeholders who have come to me over the past decade when their union or parent organization was nowhere to be found — or worse, actively silencing them. I promised to make my letter of intent public after the task force was announced, so I did that here. LRC refused to release the names of the other applicants, but I did hear from several other applicants who feel that they, too, would have brought a perspective missing from those chosen. This whole charade feels like “taxation without representation,” especially if it turns out the mostly white, male, GOP dominated task force’s decisions wind up usurping the authority of our duly elected school board.

And don’t ignore the fact that one of the unspoken intentions behind this fast-track task-force (say that three times fast) could be to “reset” past events, bury evidence, and make it impossible to hold those responsible accountable, especially as we discover the criminal behavior goes pretty high up, on both sides of the aisle, and ESPECIALLY AS WE HEAD INTO ANOTHER CRITICAL ELECTION FOR OUR COUNTRY AND FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION. Any major restructuring of JCPS would make it practically impossible to determine who should be removed from their positions, which would only allow their nefarious and criminal behaviors to continue unabated. We cannot allow that to happen!

Please sign up for our email alerts to learn how you can help #StopProject2025inKY and make a pledge now to Vote No on Constitutional Amendment 2 in November.

Accountability, Racial Equity, Student Assignment, Teacher Shortage

Is There a War on JCPS?

There’s been a lot of consternation over a “War on Louisville” that’s been waged by Frankfort lawmakers for years, if not decades. 

The 2024 resolution directing the Legislative Resource Commission to establish an “Efficient and Effective School District Governance Task Force” is the latest example. But is it really an assault on Louisville? Or couldn’t the majority of misguided, micromanaging solutions and unfunded mandates coming out of Frankfort really be considered a “War on JCPS?”

We think so. And what is it about JCPS that makes a bunch of mostly old, tired, white men with kids in rural or private schools, think THEY know what it takes to run a district with our challenges, personalities and history? Simply put, they don’t!

But maybe this time it’s different. Maybe this task force, established to take a look at considering how to help JCPS best serve its community by considering numerous options, including splitting the distict into smaller parts, or expanding the board, among other things. Could this exercise finally be an opportunity for justice? Or another political witch hunt? The answers to these questions could depend on us! First, we must make sure we have interest and applicants.

The Kentucky Legislature recently passed a law to create an “Efficient and Effective School District Governance Task Force,” which is clearly directed at  putting the state’s largest school district, JCPS, under a microscope. This is in addition to passing a $1.5 Million audit to look for examples of waste, fraud and abuse in the same district during the same session. The committee’s purpose is to examine whether JCPS is too large to be managed efficiently and to possibly recommend splitting it up. 

According to an article appearing in the Courier Journal, the task force will have a total of 13 members, four at-large members, and nine that have been appointed from state, local and district leadership. With the task force appointments from House and Senate Leadership taking up the first eight seats, what does that leave for us?

Here’s what we think that task force should look like after the first sets of appointments are placed, in accordance with the LRC’s carefully worded language in the resolution. It’s complicated, so we made a 5-minute video and you can pause each slide until you’re comfortable with what’s being presented. But whatever you do, don’t miss the deadline to apply this Sunday before midnight!

The Math Ain’t Mathin’

Accountability, District Boundaries, EARN the People's Vote, Pattern or Practice, Privatization of Public Education, Racial Equity, Student Assignment, Teacher Shortage

Run for THEIR Lives!

Get ready for the blowback when they find out we’re having a candidate interest meeting on Wednesday afternoon. Exact time and location will be sent via email to those who complete our contact form. In the mean time, please read some insider tips on how to file for one of the four open JCPS seats, as well as one in Anchorage, and enjoy a little tea on me. If you want more of that delicious, righteous-tasting tea, look for another related story at the end of this one. We need people who  Not only will those who step up to run for JCPS School Board be running for our kids’ futures, they’ll be running for their lives. All of our lives. This situation is dire. June 4 is the deadline to file for school board or as an independent. Please contact us if you wish to know more. You can’t win if you don’t enter. What do you have to lose?

Run for JCPS School Board

Sorry for the duplication of the first few blocks in the page. There’s an error with the editor and I will have to look into it next week. If it sounds familiar, skim on down until you get to the map. Please consider throwing your hat into the ring. For the kids.

Accountability, Pattern or Practice, Privatization of Public Education, Racial Equity, Teacher Shortage

US Congressman Morgan McGarvey (D-KY) Has Some Explaining To Do

NOTE: There’s a 59-minute documentary video about this day’s events somewhere too, and somehow, both keep getting scrubbed off the internet. Luckily I keep backups of everything. 🙂

UPDATE: FOUND IT!

I honestly don’t remember what led me to look for this file recently, but when I realized evidence I had posted from a meeting some of us PTA moms had with Senator Morgan McGarvey in 2019 was no longer coming up on any of the websites and hosting services I use most frequently, and search engine results were proving unsuccessful, I remembered this wasn’t the first time I had run into a similar challenge finding these files, before finally locating an offshoot in an obscure location and resharing it in the appropriate spaces.
 
And that got me to thinking. What is in these clips that powerful people don’t want the public to know? It must be powerful people, because what other explanation could there be to explain these strange, repeated occurrences? So I located the files in my hard drives, and I listened to the 22-minute recording again for the first time in years. Immediately I knew. Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe something divine led me to listen to this recording, but it hits totally different today, after JCTA leadership manufactured lies against one of their own Black female members because she dared challenge their Dear Leader and his hand-picked successor for President of the largest teachers’ union in the state, and voted her off their board. A role a majority of JCTA MEMBERS elected her to fulfill. But a cult regime of just five people can apparently remove anyone who dares try to hold them accountable? ESPECIALLY given the audacious doubling down of lies, fraud, racism and retaliation currently coming out of JCTA Executive offices in the process.

Here is the hit piece the media was complicit in sliding into home on their behalf. Efforts to get the reporter to correct misstatements of fact that she had obviously simply regurgitated from the lying regime, instead of doing her own research, and to present a fair and balanced story, were met with so much resistance, I quit wasting my time trying, and decided to use my channels to do her job and tell the parts they want to keep buried and under the rug. They keep pointing me to their skeletons by manipulating the truth.
 
Here is a response I started to write shortly thereafter, but had to take several breaks from, because it was such a pressurized situation, by design by those who perpetrated it, and it was so overwhelming and exhausting and triggering — and I wasn’t even the victim. Plus, I had other things going on in my life when they demanded a reply on a Friday morning and moved forward before I could respond. I had to focus on family, health and safety due to the predicament my advocacy puts me in. Their crimes will be exposed in due time unless they unalive me first.
 
The fierce Black woman who JCTA discriminated and then retaliated against deserves justice and vindication, even if she doesn’t have a mean enough bone in her body to seek it herself. She is the President of the teachers union that JCTA members deserve, and you can’t prove to me she DIDN’T win. There should be an independent outside investigation and a correction of the error, as well as a PUBLIC APOLOGY and JAIL TIME for the criminals who were involved. These bullies felt threatened by her ability to captivate audiences and build member engagement so they pushed her out instead of inviting her to their table. They failed at holding themselves accountable when they got caught tampering with internal elections, again, most likely so they and their anti-feminist, white supremacist, closet secret swinginist, compromised cult friends can stay in power and maintain access to the riches of the kingdom.

DEBUNKING THE JCTA’S BOGUS CLAIMS

There are so many bogus allegations in this JCTA cult leaders’ petition. It is clear this highly qualified Black teacher, who has spent her entire JCPS career in Title 1 schools, and most recently as an ECE teacher no less, was retaliated against for challenging the election results after anomalies were reported by several other members. It is also clear that the anomalies occurred by a handful of white leaders who made up the tallies, (because who is checking them?), to make it look like they did nothing wrong and she is just being a sore loser (instead of acknowledging that they tampered with ballots and destroyed evidence,) and to make it to look like I have done something wrong yetthey haven’t done themselves times 100,000.  As if any of this is about me. Creepers! Get a life!
 

Members, if this is not reflective of your views on how members who advocate and speak the truth should be treated, you should let your objections be heard. LOUDLY and IMMEDIATELY!

So, here is the revealing audio recording from our meeting with Morgan McGarvey for Congress before Gary Houchens, a known charter school predator, was confirmed to the KY Department of Education on the FINAL DAY of session in 2019. We had a chance to stop it, but we failed to stop it by one vote.

My, my, my. Why do #JCTA leaders keep doubling down on their white supremacist ways, when they know I keep receipts??? This is so telling in hindsight. So performative. Everyone involved in these plots and schemes deserves an Oscar!

But seriously, thank you JCTA crime ring leaders. These most recent events and the lies associated with them just have me shaking my head in disbelief. How can they continue to be so brazen in their grift? Am I misremembering things? That’s what sent me looking for cues, that ultimately led me to noticing I could not find this recording on the internet, AGAIN. It occurred to me that someone very powerful must be trying to keep this evidence from being seen/heard. I went to my backup files and found this conversation we had with Kentucky’s highest ranking Democratic Senator in between sessions before SINE DIE. Listening to it again now that their plan is almost complete, has opened my eyes to the entire scam you all have been pulling.

Funny how my story has been consistent for years. And JCTA Leaders keep showing us who they are. Damn, this is kryptonite all the way to the end! Listen to me ask this man how I can help him whip the votes of the senate (his job) to try to stop this resolution from passing. Lol. I’m just a PTA mom. This was five years ago. He tells me to reach out to rural republican senators who have been sympathetic to public education, so I do.

Sadly, the resolution we needed Senators to stop only passed by one vote. A JCTA endorsed senator from Jefferson County, the one and only, mamma traitor, Senator JULIE RAQUE ADAMS, left her seat to make a call to find out what to do and came back in and did us dirty. She could have been the deciding “no” vote. But instead you can see her panic. Working the room, begging to swap votes with her colleagues, so she can come out smelling like a rose.

Why did she betray us? Who did she talk to that day? Who is calling all the shots? Was it Mitch? Trump? Bevin? McKim? McGarvey? Taxpayers deserve to know. People need to go to jail for what these leaders have conspired to do. Why have they done it? Because our schools don’t look like their grandkid’s private and rural schools? How horrible.

Now, lemme go dig up that video. Please listen and share. Make these co-conspirators go viral. They don’t want a scandal because a lot of them are compromised and up for reelection. Who do you report these crimes to when law enforcement and media are complicit or worse, in on it?


#IGotReceipts#DontTryMe#CanIGetAWitness#SaveJCPS

NOTE, this is part of an ongoing independent audit of JCPS. A first draft timeline of events, including this one, can be found here:

Accountability, Mayes, Racial Equity

“What’s All This Fuss I Keep Hearing About God Hating Cigarettes?”

We recently became aware of a cult family’s hate group out of Kansas and their plans to demonstrate their bigotry in front of Manual and Male high school next month. In gathering information to share with our followers, I became aware of the group’s website and primary target, and it left me feeling nostalgic.

Remember Gilda Radner’s Saturday Night Live character Emily Litella, who would provide an “opposing editorial viewpoint” by going on and on about a controversial subject she completely misunderstood?

Ironically, some quick research revealed that this character debuted in 1975, when she confused the word “busing” with “busting,” while apparently attempting to mock the public’s resistance to desegregation of public schools (an episode I am still trying to locate). The most memorable might be this episode where she begins with, “What’s all this fuss I keep hearing about violins on television?”

Instead of violins, it turns out the topic she was responding to was “violence” on television.

This is when Chevy Chase gently interrupts the sweet, elderly woman who misunderstood the assignment to explain the miscommunication, whereupon Ms. Litella would respond,

“Oh! Well that’s different.

Never mind!”

Instead of trying to dance around the offensive word choice a certain hate group has selected for their website and campaign, I’d like to draw upon the Emily Litella character to demonstrate the ridiculousness of Westboro Baptist Church‘s entire argument. 

“What’s all this talk I keep hearing about ‘God hating cigarettes?’ There is a group coming to Male and Manual high school in Louisville, KY to demonstrate, and that’s what it says on their website. I looked the word up on vocabulary.com and it says it’s a cigarette, especially in England? God hates English cigarettes?

Well. That may be true. I hate them too. But I’ll let you in on a little secret. If I don’t like them, I can just not have one. So can you!

And if you are still bothered by them, you can simply avoid them. And whatever you do, don’t go to Britain, because apparently they are everywhere!

If people are so bothered by cigarettes that you feel the need to protest other peoples’ rights to have them, then you really should examine that with a mental health professional. Because I think they would help you figure out that it’s not God that hates cigarettes, it’s just you.”

In the case of Westboro Baptist Church, it’s really just Fred Phelps and nine of his children who hate cigarettes. And Fred has been dead since 2014!

Why Manual?

You may remember Manual High School was also recently targeted for a SWATTING incident. Is it possible the same group is behind both incidents? This activist thinks it’s a possibility. Why haven’t we heard anything else about that incident, anyway?

You may also remember the time Manual’s principal, Jerry Mayes, fell into controversy and was eventually forced into retirement after an outraged community demanded the district investigate complaints of racist and anti-LGBTQ sentiment by him. By allowing Mayes to remain in the building during the investigation, the former coach was able to continue gaslighting witnesses, targeting victims and spreading toxicity.

Due to the length of time it took before he was removed from the building, many more students, parents and alumni came forward to share their experiences. This is not to say EVERYONE in the building agreed with the victims. In fact, we received more reports of bullying, intimidation, retaliation and threats against those who were believed to be involved with the events that led to the investigation. It’s entirely possible that some of the same unsavory individuals involved have not moved on, and in fact may be connected to the upcoming demonstrations.

Manual is not the only high school targeted. But then again, it wasn’t the only school targeted during the SWATTING incident, either. Perhaps it’s to distract from something else going on. Or, perhaps they are also targeting Male because of the rivalry between the two most prominent high schools in Louisville. The image to the right is an email sent out from Male’s principal about the upcoming threat.

 

What Would Gilda Do?

In my parody, Chevy gently taps Ms. Litella on the shoulder and explains that these people are bigots. He then whispers the hate group’s message in her ear, and a look of horror appears on her face, as she responds,

“Oh, well that’s even worse.

“We are not talking about cigarettes. We are talking about people!

God doesn’t hate people. God loves us all!

Then, both she and Chevy look straight back at the camera and say,

STOP THE HATE!

Please comment on our Facebook post if you wish to share your thoughts about this impending disruption to learning and threat to safety of our students. No hate speech will be tolerated. Thank you.

 

 

Accountability, Privatization of Public Education, Racial Equity

None of This Is New, Unexpected or Unavoidable

COMPLETE DEAR JCPS’s “FIRST DAY BACK ON THE BUS” SURVEY HERE

Below is an email that was sent to the board by a JCPS employee back in March, 2023. We originally posted it last month.

To members of the Board, or whomever else it may concern,

What are your thoughts about the proposal?

First, since I was only allowed to select one role in the previous question, I do want to point out that I am also a School Staff member as well. I have been a teacher in JCPS for 14+ years. I am also a father of 2 JCPS students, a 7 year old and 5 year old. And I live in Louisville, and I am a Community Member. So I’m not sure why we had to choose just one that we most identify with, because my reaction to the proposal isn’t just through one lens, but through many. I chose to identify more as a parent/family member because in the end, personally, I believe this proposal will affect my family more than it will affect me as a teacher in my specific situation. But I think it will affect the community as a whole more than anything. I think all 3 of those roles need to be considered when taking into account my response.

On to the proposal…I have A LOT of thoughts, and could very easily turn this into an emotional venting session. However, I will attempt to keep my thoughts organized and respectful in the hopes that this is not just for optics, and will not fall on deaf ears, but will actually be taken into account before this proposal is considered, voted on, and implemented.

If I had to summarize my thoughts, again, without getting too emotional, and trying my best not to just sound like I am venting, I truly think this proposal is a joke. I can’t think of a better, more professional word, so unfortunately that is what I am sticking with. I think this could be a disaster for the entire community and city of Louisville, let alone JCPS. I think there were so many factors that were not considered when making this proposal, which I will detail in the questions below. I think the district set out to solve one very specific (and admittedly one very important) problem. They believe they have found the solution to this problem, but are so narrow minded in their solution, they do not see how negatively this will affect so many people, both immediately and well into the future. In the end, this looks more like an ill-advised attempt to just cover up a major underlying problem instead of actually solving the problem as a whole.

What do you see as benefits of the proposal?

The only benefit I see to this proposal is that it is bringing to light a very real, very unfortunate, and very important problem that absolutely needs to be solved. The issue of students getting to school late, or being stuck at school late, is truly unacceptable, and needs to be addressed swiftly and decisively. Any student, parent, and family member, along with the bus drivers, who are all having to deal with this on a daily basis, deserve to have this issue brought to light, and solved in a realistic and effective manner. That cannot be denied.

What do you see as challenges that need to be considered?

I am going to attempt to organize this into subheadings, to make sure it is easy to follow and I don’t miss anything. I don’t necessarily think there is one issue more important than the other, so I will just try to organize this in a logical way. Every item touched on below I believe has equal importance and needs to be considered.

  1. Lack of an interdisciplinary committee of stakeholders: The lack of an interdisciplinary committee in the formation of this plan is very disturbing. This survey is asking Community Members, District Staff, School Staff, Parents, Family Members, and Students for feedback, all of whom are important stakeholders in what is being proposed. However, if I’m understanding correctly, there was little to no stakeholder involvement in the formation of this plan. Instead, it was outsourced to “MIT coders,” who used an algorithm, apparently, too advanced and complex for us to understand, to solve our problem. After seeing the presentation made to JCPS staff, and then watching Dr. Pollio’s press conference, what became very evident to me is that these coders were paid, probably a good deal of money, to solve what ends up being a complex math problem. What can we do, using math, to solve the “transportation crisis?” It looks like they took into account bus routes, bus employees, the physical layout of the city, locations of the schools, and start times. With all due respect to the incredibly smart people who solved this problem, the district could have paid mathematicians, scientists, and engineers here to solve this problem, and they could have come up with a similar solution. However, no evidence has been presented to us whatsoever to show that they took any other information into account, or how this plan could have a cascading negative effect on the entire city of Louisville, its economy and its community, as I will detail below.
  2. Teacher Transfers: As a teacher, selfishly, the one thing that stood out to me, and all of my peers, was the point made in the presentation to us and in Dr. Pollio’s press conference about Teacher Transfers. If the new start times don’t work for you, then you can put in to transfer to another school for next school year. I am one that is not easily offended, but to me, that is incredibly insensitive to those of us who have stuck around through the mass exodus of JCPS teachers (and bus drivers) over the past few years. Many of us have worked very hard to have the opportunity to work where we are now. We have built relationships with our peers, our administrators, and most importantly our students. It doesn’t seem like this was considered in the proposal. 
  3. JCPS Employee Morale: The previous two points logically lead into this. In my almost 15 years working for JCPS, I would say that employee morale is at an all-time low. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know personally, my responses in the Comprehensive School Survey have gotten more and more negative as the years have gone on. And it doesn’t seem like that matters to anyone, because teachers and staff members continually get dumped on. Optically, how does it look that we weren’t included in this proposal? Optically, how does it look that we are being told if the proposal doesn’t work for us, then we can move. Has anyone actually analyzed WHY we have a transportation and why there has been a mass exodus of teachers out of JCPS (more on this later)? In what other profession are employees consistently treated the way we are treated, without addressing why there is so much discontent? 
  4. Staffing Shortage (Teachers and Bus Drivers): While it is obvious that this proposal does not at all address the reason behind the staffing shortage, it is possible that it could make it even worse. Were bus drivers consulted about this proposal? Does this help the hours that they are expected to work, or the overall distances that they are expected to drive? That was not very clearly addressed in the press conference. Don’t we have a transportation crisis because of our bus driver shortage? Is the district not concerned with the REASON behind the staffing shortage across the district (again, more on this later).
  5. Student Transfers Logistics: Similar to the proposal’s plan for teachers to have to transfer if the new times don’t work for them, the proposal and press conference also made it clear that students can apply to transfer as well, and the district will work with every single family to make it work. Were the logistics of this considered by the MIT coders? I’m not going to speculate on how many students will actually need to transfer, but let’s assume that there are some. Does the algorithm take into account how those kids will get to school? How those bus routes will work? On the district side, do we realistically think we have the capacity and manpower to solve these problems, on the fly, just over the summer? And if a parent can’t justify or make it work that their student can get to a new school, is the district ok with parents pulling their students out of JCPS to attend Catholic or Private schools, or even worse, forcing families to have to consider moving to other counties or states? I know this seems a little extreme, but I can promise you it will be a reality for some families.
  6. Adolescent Sleep Schedule and Chronic Absenteeism:  When this topic first came up, it was to use the research on the adolescent sleep schedule to help solve the problem of chronic absenteeism. While these buzzwords and phrases were still used in the proposal and press conference, the reality is that this proposal is not really solving that problem. It is only concerned with making the bus routes more efficient. If this truly was about older students getting more sleep, which in turn would guarantee that they get to school more often, wouldn’t the most logical solution be to just swap the high school and elementary start times?  This plan only changes some high schools, and makes some elementary schools later than they already are. It is very inconsistent, the message that is being sent. In regard to chronic absenteeism, as a teacher and parent, I would very much like to see the research that was done specifically in our city of Louisville showing the main causes of chronic absenteeism. Is it truly sleep related? Is it transportation related? Is it safety related? Is it demographic related? Is it related to a student’s home life? All questions don’t seem like they were considered, or at least answered by the proposal.
  7. Working Parents: Dr. Pollio mentioned in his press conference that families are going to have to figure out how to make this work. Well let’s think about that logistically for a minute. If you have one parent who works and early job, or works the night shift and is sleeping, or is a teacher at a different school, and then you have another parent who works a traditional 9-5+, how exactly are they supposed to make this work? Previously, and elementary school student could be dropped off at 8:45 AM, letting the other parent get to their 9:00 AM job. Now, let’s assume that their employer is not ok with them getting to work 30-45 minutes later, every day. Parents are now going to be strong armed into paying for CEP. What if the CEP site is not close to where the family lives, and causes even more of a morning inconvenience? What if a family hasn’t budgeted for this and can’t afford it, but they also don’t qualify for government aid for the CEP program? I also don’t see how using CEP as a solution solves the problem of kids being at school for too long. If a parent has to drop their kid off at CEP early, then have to pick them up, possibly later than before at a CEP site, which will now be affected by a newer rush hour traffic pattern, kids can still be at school many more hours than they should be.
  8. After School Activities – JCPS Related: I heard a few times during the press conference about it only ever being an hour different than it was before, or the latest it will be is 4:20 PM. However, was it really taken into account how much of an impact that hour, or the 4:20 PM end time would affect students and staff alike? And I’m not just talking about the problem about high school sports starting later, and at different times, and how that could be perceived as unfair for the athletes with different practice times, game schedules, travel times for away games, etc. What about the JCPS employees who coach, or lead clubs, at different schools or even different districts? What if they do that, not just because they are passionate about it, but because they also need the additional income? What about the JCPS employees who have a second job immediately after work to support their families? What about the high school students who have jobs immediately after school, whether it is just something they do to prepare for the real world, or because they also have to support themselves and their families? This cuts into work hours, which in turn cuts into income, which may be the difference between being able to pay rent and afford food or not. Does the proposal take into account all of these employers probably not being ok with this new schedule (more on community impact later)? Do we really think these students will be able to retain their after-school jobs with the time changes? WHERE IS THE EQUITY IN THIS?
  9. After School Activities (Non-JCPS related) and Community Impact: First, I want to acknowledge that I am in a very fortunate situation, that my wife and I worked hard for, to be able to afford our kids the privilege and ability to participate in non-JCPS after-school activities. I want to give an example of our situation, and how that will not only affect our kids’s ability to participate in these activities, but how it also will impact local businesses and the community. Our kids have played soccer at Mockingbird Valley Sports Club. It is the after-school choice that we made, because it is relatively close to our home, with a schedule that worked for us. We would pick our kids up from school, and get them to their lesson at 4:00 PM. With this proposal, that will no longer be an option for us. So let’s extrapolate this situation to other families who are also in similar situations at Mockingbird. If they, Mockingbird, are unable to adjust their hours to accommodate these changes, then they will be losing a lot of business due to something completely out of their control. Then we, as the parents and families, have to look into other options for our kids. An example of another option for our age group would be Javanon Football Club, which is a rival of Mockingbird, that has a similarly aged lesson available at 6:00 PM. So this could work for our families. But Javanon is about 15-20 minutes away, so then you have to take into account the small influx in traffic this will cause, during rush hour. Again, this is a very small, very specific example of a very small demographic of JCPS students and families. But now, extrapolate all that data to every single activity that many JCPS students participate in, all of the changes that will have to be made due to this proposal, and how that affects the community and local businesses at large, both economically and logistically. 
  10. Traffic/Rush Hour: I have now mentioned a few examples for a potential increase in traffic closer to rush hour. Did the MIT coders take that into account when coming up with this solution? Was it considered what life is like in larger cities with worse rush hour traffic than what we have now? How that impacts other professionals leaving their jobs, less time spent with family due to getting home later, how the increase in later after-school activities would all be impacted? Not only that, but more new high school drivers and more staff members would be leaving schools and after school events and activities later in the day. Is it safe for these new drivers to be on the road in heavier traffic conditions?
  11. Budget and Government Money: I will admit that I am not as well versed or researched in this area, but from my understanding, JCPS receives a pretty sizable amount of money from the government every year, and that has not decreased in recent years, even with the mass exodus of teachers, bus drivers, and students in some cases. If this proposal goes through, and causes even more of an exodus of teachers, bus drivers, and students, how will that affect the budget going forward? Also, is it fair for me to ask, if JCPS is still receiving the same amount of money each year, where is all the extra money going that used to be paid to the teachers and bus drivers that have left these past couple of years? There is another topic I would like to discuss in regards to money, and its allocation. I’m sure this issue has been beaten to death, but hear me out.
  12. Busing: Again, I am admittedly not the most well versed or researched in the history and reasoning for busing in Louisville. What I do know is that it has been going on in this city for a very long time, and was originally initiated in an attempt to desegregate our schools due to geographic location, provide equal opportunity and equity to all students of all races and demographics, and to help close the achievement gap. In my opinion, that was truly a valiant attempt at solving a very serious problem in our city at the time. But can we objectively analyze the climate of our city and schools today and say that it has worked? In reality, busing is a large part of the reason why we have a transportation crisis in the first place. Now let’s look at our schools, and what busing has caused. Is the achievement gap really being closed, or is everyone just normalizing to the median, rather than everyone being raised to the higher outliers? Does busing kids all over the city truly promote equity and provide equal opportunities to all students? Or is it causing more resentment in our community? What does this outdated busing plan imply about the schools they are busing away from? Are we more concerned with getting the underprivileged kids to the “better schools” than we are about lifting up all of our programs and schools to an equally high level?I think these are important questions that need to be discussed and answered.
  13. The Real Problem: I have been beating around the bush for some time now, so let’s talk about what the real problem is in our district. What is it that has caused our staffing shortage of teachers and bus drivers, which has led us to have overpopulated classrooms, and a “transportation crisis” due to too few bus drivers? Student behavior and lack of discipline leading to a general overall feeling of JCPS schools and buses no longer being safe for all students and staff members. I can attest to this as a tenured JCPS teacher, a parent, and a community member. JCPS has allowed itself to become a victim of modern, “woke” society, and its employees and students are the ones paying the price. Fifteen years ago when I first joined JCPS, administrators ran the schools, took care of their employees, and demanded respect from the students.They received support from the district. Students were disciplined in a variety of ways, which to today’s modern “woke” society might seem archaic, but the results were clear. The students respected the staff members, their elders, and if they didn’t, they learned to. This lead to a healthy and positive work environment, where, for the most part, students and staff members felt safe and cared for. It also prepared students for the real world of college and careers where they couldn’t just do or say whatever they wanted with no repercussions. Over the past 15 years, as society changed, JCPS began to slowly start enabling problem students (AND problem parents) until we got to where we are today. Enabled students led to more enabled students. Now, students think they are invincible, that there are no repercussions for their actions, because there truly are not. Not any more. I have seen, personally, violent acts between students, violent acts directed towards staff members, gang violence in many schools, extreme destruction of school property, excessive bullying, complete disrespect and insubordination from students in the classroom, that is literally being live streamed to Facebook or YouTube. How are these kids disciplined? They aren’t. They don’t even get a “slap on the wrist” any more and sent back to class. They get spoken to kindly and with empathy and are sent back to class. No lessons are learned, and our problem continues to snowball. I know some will argue that there are other reasons why there is a staffing shortage, including COVID. I don’t want to generalize and say that is not the issue, because for some it definitely is. But a large reason why students are choosing to attend Pathfinder School of Innovation virtually, or are leaving the district all together, is because they feel unsafe in their “home” schools due to violence, bullying, and lack of discipline. A large reason why teachers and the poor bus drivers are leaving in droves, is because of the extreme behavior exhibited by our students that is met with silence, indifference, or even worse, the blame is turned back on us. We don’t believe we feel heard or supported by our administrators and district, and in turn, JCPS has become a toxic work environment for many staff members. I have spoken to friends who work at other schools around the district, schools that at one time felt safe, and where the adults in the building felt like they were in control. What they say now is that the students run the building, and they are just there to collect their pay check and get to retirement. How sad is that? That teachers who once held a high passion for teaching now feel like they are just trying to survive. Over the past 15 years, I have witnessed the shift in JCPS from the adults being in charge and running things, to some problem students beginning to hold certain schools hostage, to our modern problem of an entire generation of enabled, undisciplined students and parents holding an entire school district, city, and society hostage. Seriously, what is it going to take for not only our district, but society as a whole to recognize how bad things have gotten in public education? Students are already killing other students. And I’m not talking about mass shootings, I’m talking about gang violence or neighborhood violence that has now been allowed to leak into many schools where it never was before, where problems are exacerbated and perpetuated without swift and decisive intervention from school and district officials. What happens when a student eventually kills a teacher? There already has been a recent report in this country of an ELEMENTARY school child bringing a gun to school and shooting a teacher through the hand. What is it going to take?
  14. Possible Solutions: As I think I have made abundantly clear, I don’t think this time change proposal is going to solve the real underlying problems. Sure, it may solve the problem of decreasing the number of bus routes so that our students can possibly get to school or leave school on time, regardless of our massively understaffed bus drivers. But as I’ve mentioned, this will create a slew of new problems that will affect many people in the entire city, and will not solve the real problem. So what can we really do to exact real and lasting change? First, consider stopping busing, and go back to at least a hybrid of the neighborhood school model. And if the district doesn’t trust its own stakeholders to help put together a proposal, ask the MIT coders how this would affect bus routes, start times, and attendance. Secondly, discipline kids, both in school and out. Make alternative schools matter again. Every child has a right to free public education. That is irrefutable. But every child does not have the right to a free public education at the “better school” all the way across the city, where they are causing so many problems that they are negatively impacting the safety and learning of others in the building. The same goes for the buses. Dr. Pollio even alluded to this in his press conference. Free transportation to school can go away. And in my minimal research, I found that State and federal laws don’t require schools to provide transportation, except for students with disabilities. So if that is the case, and a student is misbehaving on the bus, they are no longer allowed to ride the bus. If the district feels obligated to provide them with another option, if they are old enough, give them TARC tickets. If they are not old enough, it should be the responsibility of their parents or guardians to get them to school. That is what is being asked of us with this new bus proposal anyway. It is up to the family to figure out how this is going to work. If misbehaving students were kicked off the bus, maybe bus monitors and bus drivers wouldn’t leave JCPS. Now, we can use, what I understand to be, a significant amount of money saved on busing to fill other buckets. Pay JCPS bus drivers and teachers more in general. Offer monetary incentives to bus drivers and teachers willing to work in these more difficult areas at the more difficult schools. But I also don’t believe we should offer more money to work in those schools and let that be the end of it. I know the district has identified difficult schools and areas, so let’s be a little more proactive in the recruitment, application, and interview processes in choosing the right candidates to work in those schools. Make the monetary incentive to work in these schools enough to attract a large number of applicants, but be deliberate in who is selected. Who will be good in these schools long term? There would probably still be enough money leftover to upgrade and update these schools, and make them more attractive, modern, and progressive for students and staff alike. Have MIT do the math and come up with an algorithm of that. How much money could be saved, where it could be allocated, and how that will positively affect buildings, students, and staff in our district. I think this next point is very important; instead of constantly playing catch up and trying to match what other “large districts” are doing around the country, we could lead the way in educational reform. Does it really matter if we are one of the only large districts in the country not doing staggered start times? No, it doesn’t. But instead of solving our own, not very unique problem, we are just playing catch up to what other districts are already doing. What if instead we addressed the real problem, discipline in and out of schools, and how that has affected school and bus staff numbers? Then other districts around the country could model their reform after us. Because let’s be honest, we’re not the only district with a discipline problem. It’s a nationwide, societal problem. In the end, no one asked me for my opinion. No one asked any of us who still work for JCPS, who stuck around despite everything continually going against us. No one asked us as parents of JCPS students, who are constantly impacted by these decisions made for us. No one asked us as active, invested members of the Louisville community. But the reality is that there is a lot more that needs to be addressed here than just solving the bus route transportation crisis. I know I speak for many JCPS employees, parents, guardians, and community members in saying that I hope the issues and possible solutions I have brought up do not fall on deaf ears. That at least we can be active participants in a conversation before this proposal is voted on and mandated. Thank you.

Pattern or Practice, Racial Equity

Coach Donnie Stoner Was Arraigned Yesterday!

Please help spread the word so this message gets seen by more folks while it’s still current. Thanks!

We’ve been tracking the Stoner twins’ cases and we were virtually present for Donnie’s arraignment yesterday.
 
Coach Donnie was temporarily removed from his position as head coach at JCPS’s flagship high school, duPont Manual, following allegations that he committed 20 counts of rape, sodomy and sexual abuse against a minor student in his school’s care, both on campus and at his home, between 5/30/23 and 7/11/23.
 
Here’s a 3-minute video I put together featuring the arraignment, along with a link to the latest details and timelines of both Stoner’s cases. This story will be updated.

Watch the video below and then click the link to read the full story. Enjoy!

<<Latest story here.>>

Pattern or Practice, Racial Equity, Teachable Moment

Going Thru The Motions

Join us on Wednesday, July 26 at 10:15 am as we show up IN PERSON and ON ZOOM to support Dr. Kimberly Mucker-Johnson during her hearing in Civil Court Division 6 to overturn a settlement agreement she made with JCPS in 2022. Sign up to receive our emails using the form below and we will email you a link with a reminder and updates. Watch the video to learn more.

Do you have something you’d like to blow the whistle on but don’t know where else to turn? Send an email to moderator@dearjcps.com with a link to your testimonials, evidence or anything else you’d like the public to know that qualifies for whistleblower protection, such as exposing waste, fraud and abuse.

By using this service, you agree to hold Dear JCPS, its entities or assigns, harmless for any consequences that may come out as a result of this information being made public. You also testify that you’ve followed all applicable laws and that you’ve consulted legal counsel if these records are sensitive or private in nature, as we are unable to provide anything of the sort.

We just want people who do bad things using taxpayer dollars or public trust to first be stopped and then held accountable, to have corrections made to the system and repairs made to those who were harmed. The only way we can ever hope to do that is to make sure the public knows what really happened and how our tax dollars are spent.

If you know of any significant examples of waste, fraud and abuse in JCPS, please report it publicly, to proper authorities, and the media. If you feel you have exhausted all of these avenues, but you have reason or evidence to prove the story has been covered up, people have been retaliated against, denied employment or promotion or otherwise discriminated against or harassed, we would like to hear from you. If you have been silenced due to a settlement with JCPS, we also want to hear from you. If you are an attorney interested in providing counsel in this area, please reach out. We would like to make some introductions.

This site is run by a volunteer. There is much more evidence and stories waiting to be told, including yours! I could use some help in order to speed things up, so if you’re technically inclined or have good social skills and want to put them to good use, please contact me at moderator@dearjcps.com. Donations also gratefully accepted at our PAC, Justice for the People. Please help us rid Kentucky of Daniel Cameron and get Mitch McConnell’s knee off our necks. Thank you for your understanding, patience and support.

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