Jefferson County Public Schools needs to increase security personnel and surveillance capabilities in their schools.
My children attend [High School Name Redacted] High School. On September 26 my daughter’s purse was stolen at school, along with her car. No thanks to the school or the police, we located the car, and were able to retrieve it with a spare set of keys. Her purse turned up at school minus the wallet and keys. A week later her license and student ID turned up at school – still no wallet or keys. Continue Reading
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If we think of the student as our customer, and teaching is the main thing, Who, then, is the most important person in the district?
Teachers!
And this should be doubly true for our persistently low achieving schools serving our most at risk students? Right?
Yet, our priority school lost another science teacher this week. A school that already has the highest teacher turnover in the district. A school that also has some of the lowest test scores.
Is the correlation of high turnover and low test scores a coincidence? No. Relationships matter. Momentum and institutional knowledge matter. Promises and goals matter. Like Christy Rogers said, “I’ve been with you for the past 3 years. I know you, I know your momma.” Teachers who stay know where students struggle. And they can help students achieve their futures.
Why did we lose this teacher? Did she quit? Was she fired? Did she move to teach in another school or district? NO. She was one of the good ones, in a key content area in a struggling school, you know, the main thing. You still with me?
To show her how much we appreciate her as a teacher WE PROMOTED HER out of the classroom.
Why are we rewarding the best teachers with “promotions” to leave their teaching positions? Seems counter intuitive. Paying them more to do less of something they are actually good at. Teaching. What we need the most of. Teachers. We are a school system. Our primary function is TEACHING. Those should be our highest paid jobs in the district, not the admin jobs.
And while I’m on the subject. The state audit revealed that our district is top heavy in high level district level admin jobs and so far, our district leaders have attempted to freeze teacher and staff salaries, eliminated numerous essential mid-level district staff, but as far as I know they have not touched the top heavy positions that the audit identified. In fact, by my calculations, they have added to those numbers. WHEN can we expect to see high level positions identified in the audit addressed?
Let’s remember to make the main thing the main thing. Let’s treat teachers like the mvps they are. Let’s reward them by paying them well to stay IN THAT ROLE. Let’s provide them the tools they need to be successful IN THAT ROLE, such as smaller class sizes and supports and interventions when their students struggle. Let’s create an environment that fosters collaboration over competition. Let’s give teachers voice and autonomy. Especially in priority schools. Let’s recognize them for the hurdles they’ve overcome, not demoralize them for the test score that didn’t move because of factors beyond their control.
If we make the main thing the main thing by putting teachers at the heart of what we do, then as a district we can get back to building relationships and reducing teacher turnover (which also generates costs savings, despite what was factored into the budget).
When talking about actual salaries vs cost to onboard new teachers. Does not take into account cost to relationships. Cost to momentum of programs. Cost to student learning successes. Cost to achieving vision 2020.
Shortsighted to only look at spreadsheets and not classroom dynamics. Without asking why these increased incidents are occurring. Without seeking teacher input, you are missing some very important nuances. If we preemptively and proactively spend money on tools and supports teachers and students need to be successful up front, we won’t have to spend even more money on things like metal detectors and other punitive measures.
First, you took away the bonus you promised me for being a National Board Certified Teacher. I had to fight to get that money back.
Next, you took away my step increase, which was agreed upon in our binding contract. I had to fight to get that money back.
Now, you are refusing to pay me my extra service pay on the dates promised (half in December and half in May). I guess I’ll have to fight to get that money in December, since I counted on it for Christmas shopping. To my knowledge, no reason has been given for this change. December is 3 months away. You really aren’t going to have my money by then?
I’m starting to notice a trend. I keep doing my part by teaching students but you don’t feel it’s necessary to do your part by paying me what you promised, when you promised (the fact that you also aren’t supporting me in other ways is a topic for a different letter).
Do you feel this is a healthy working relationship? Are there other respected businesses and organizations that treat their employees like this but have amazing success? I hear the words you say about how important teachers are and how much we are valued but your actions are saying a very different thing. In a few years, when you have a serious teacher shortage, please don’t act surprised.
I’m a former Lunch Office Assistant. My first placement was the elementary school where my daughter was a student.
A big chunk of my day was spent in the cafeteria, monitoring the lunchroom, I helped younger students open milk cartons and ketchup packets, I cleaned tables and swept floors, and did my best to kept the cafeteria on schedule. During the mornings and early afternoons I prepared materials for 4th and 5th grade teachers, and assisted the office with various tasks. The copy room had three outdated copiers that jammed daily. Repairs were a constant issue. If all 3 were down, some copies could be made in the office where the newest copier lived.
It wasn’t a fancy job, but it gave our family some additional income. I enjoyed seeing my daughter and her peers every day. I enjoyed the creativity demonstrated by our teachers. I really loved preparing the materials they’d use to teach students various subjects. It was also a very workable schedule and allowed me to pick up my middle schooler at 2:30. (The middle school was closer to us than our resides school by nearly 5 miles but transportation wasn’t provided….another frustrated email entirely). I made $11 per hour and worked roughly 18.5 hours per week.
One day about 2-3 months prior to the end of the ’14-15 school year the principal informed me that the school chose not to fund my position. He said there were other things the school needed. He explained this, along with the overstaff process while I was in the cafeteria cleaning tables after the lunch period. While the plant operator swept floors and nutrition service workers closed up the kitchen and all were in ear shot. I was humiliated.
A few weeks later the office installed a Mack daddy bad-ass copier. I was thrilled because I assumed the office’s old copier could scoot on down to the hall to the copy room and be the New Copier. Except it didn’t. The copy room didn’t have the electrical support for that copier. Who knows where that one ended up? Certainly not in the copy room where a reliable machine could benefit teachers, who would need it more than ever because the person whose job it was to make copies and prepare their materials was overstaffed. It could have helped the instructional assistants who, in addition to their normal duties, were now tasked with cafeteria duty to cover for the newly-eliminated LOA.
Dr. Hargens and the Board’s short-sighted management culture of poor-planning and deferred maintenance is trickling down to every role and copy closet in the district .
Those little part time jobs like mine used to be available at district schools were largely staffed by parents. Parents who are involved. Who might get to work a few minutes early to put in some time in the PTA office or stay a few minutes late to volunteer at an event. Those piddly 18 hours I worked saved 6 dedicated teachers about 2 hours each per week. Those extra dollars every month made our family just a little more financially secure.
But hey! That school figured out a way to save elevens of dollars a week.
At Tuesday night’s community conversation, I brought to your attention that there were a number of schools that were having problems getting their copiers serviced. At your request, I have compiled a list of schools that we have heard from in just the past few days.
Added since original post:
Dixie Elementary
All three copiers are down and with no end in sight. This particularly affects special ed and ESL students who have trouble transferring what is written on the board to their blank piece of paper. It’s ridiculous to be a district without copiers. Hope Dr. Hargens and her close friend David Jones Jr. are happy with their ‘savings.’
Trunnell Elementary
As of yesterday, Friday, September 2nd, we have one working copy machine. The office machine is down, the upstairs copier is down, and one of the downstairs copiers are down. The only working copier jams often and there is a line of people waiting to use it all day long. Once the remaining copier goes, the office won’t be able to make copies of sign out logs, sub sign in sheets, afternoon announcement sheets, weekly parent newsletters, etc. Teachers won’t be able to make copies of assessments or assessment answer sheets, nor all the little booklets made for students who have no reading material at home.
Please also read this letter from a former JCPS lunchroom office assistant: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish.
All Schools
Copy repair folks were eliminated. They learned this from a letter signed by Dr. Hargens. Some of them were rehired as “field service techs,” thinking that they could address widespread issues. Did Dr. Hargens not realize what she was signing? What did district execs who made these decisions think would happen with chronic copier issues? Is this simply an effort to force teachers to try to find digital solutions to broken copiers? What about parents who do not have reliable technology at home?
Please note that many elementary students do not use textbooks for lessons. (This is not due to teacher’s choice.)For example, our math resources are online.Or, some require worksheets to supplement a text, such as Social Studies Alive . We are not just using copiers for “busywork”.
My understanding is that if your laminator stops working, the school is responsible for scheduling and paying for a service call from the company who makes the laminator. It’s ridiculous. Lamination helps protect displays, manipulatives, and center activities which are often hand made or bought with personal money! Obviously the people making these decisions haven’t put any thought into the instructional impact of their “money saving” choices!
All work in our building. But aren’t they required to provide teaching materials by contract? I would think grievable …..
Agreed! This should not be your responsibility and it should not be any teachers responsibility to have to travel and pay even more to have the basic resources we need for our students!
And this (picture) is supposed to be the “back-up plan” for bigger jobs for teachers.
My belief is that JCTA should insist that the CBA be followed to the letter. If not followed and not grieved, JCPS could argue that a specific provision of the contract has been waived by common practice.
Atherton
We had no copiers at all the first two weeks of school. I took my syllabi to Kinkos. We have one copier out of four that pretty consistently copies front and back and staples. The others jam non-stop. Our STC came in this afternoon while I was using the good one and was trying to fool with the other one. Keeping this thread in mind, I asked him if he was now in charge of copiers and he laughed and said somebody had to try and keep them running. We have one color printer in the library, but we have to email our librarian and ask her to print whatever and she usually says it’s too much ink and asks us to send it to Gheens instead.
This definitely seems like a working condition issue. I try to use class sets and a document cam/projector as much as possible, but paper and copies are just a necessity.
Barrett Middle School
We were informed Friday that we will no longer have a laminator-because JCPS will no longer service them.
Not only pay out of pocket but drive across town to Gheens for the privilege
Breckinridge Franklin Elementary
Our entire teaching staff is operating with one working copier.
And our highly used laminator is broken.
Chancey
In regards to our copy machine situation at my school, we have 4 that are currently working, however have been told they will not be fixed or replaced if they break. Our only color copier is about to die and it will not be replaced.
We were told that once one of our copiers quit working it wouldn’t be replaced. The same with 2 others.
Coral Ridge Elementary
We had only one machine working up until last week too. Seems like they weren’t working more than they were…can’t wait to see what the situation is like this year.
Copiers are still going to be serviced by IT. Laminators, VCRs, tube TVs, and duplicators are not. IT is looking for vendor to service Laminators. STCs are NOT responsible for fixing any of these items.
Got out of faculty meeting a few minutes early, so went to make copies in an attempt to differentiate work for some of my learners…all 3 in our workroom are out right now
..no white paper for a while either…smh.
Someone needs to put in a HEAT ticket.
oh I’m sure they have, but how long will that take now that the trained repair people are gone??
And I quote, “We are working as fast as we can to answer the hundreds of work orders ……” maybe 2-3 weeks! That’s how long it took for warranty to come out and fix a computer that I cancelled the ticket 2 weeks before…..!
From the head of IT…..
Last Friday in the weekly principal email the following was sent out from operations. Nowhere does it say that STCs are now responsible for Laminator, Duplicator, VCR or TV repair. And nowhere does it say that JCPS no longer repairs copiers. We will continue to repair copiers and are working hard to reduce our backlog on copier tickets.
STCs are not responsible. They are still servicing copiers but they cut their staff so they can’t keep up with tickets like they used to. That’s the problem.
They are still servicing but they cut the staff so they can’t keep up with all the tickets.
Our principal also mentioned that JCPS will no longer service laminators. Apparently they are considered “outdated technology”.
so what do we replace lamination with?? there simply is no replacement!
I have no idea. She mentioned it Friday afternoon. Laminators along with tvs and VCRs (which I agree are both outdated). I’m not sure what replaces the laminator.
Glad I have my own laminator…though I can’t do anything other than regular page size, and as XXX reminded me, pay for out of my own pocket.
Foster Elementary
all 3 copy machines are down. 2 of those have not been working for at least 2-1/2 weeks. The third one stopped working this week.
Frayser Elementary
At my school we only have one copy machine that we can actually print to, and that has been out for two weeks I think. The other two copiers have been out as well, very frustrating! We are supposed to have all of these detailed lessons that engage the students and we can’t even get copies printed for them!
They were finally fixed yesterday, but our only copier with printing capabilities is still acting up
Hawthorne Elementary:
We have 2 copiers that teachers are allowed to use. They both went down during the first week of school and were not fixed for over a week. Our principal made daily phone calls, but they just did not get fixed. Not a good first impression for parents.
Iroquois
None of theirs have worked for a while. The attendance clerk’s works and they can get permission from an administrator to use that one, but obviously there is usually quite a line of people wanting to use it.
No homework or classroom work that can’t be done on the smart boards
JCTMS
One of the two office copiers are down. Teachers submit their originals with a request and our office staff runs all copies in between all their regular duties. Having only one working copier for the whole building is sure slowing things down.
Johnson Elementary
One working machine for more than 60 teachers….several broken in building….ridiculous.
We had an email from our principal about having a small allowance for copies set up at gheens. I’m not sure when we are supposed to be able to go over there.
Kammerer
This is why we don’t have a copier?
All of our teacher copiers are down
There is this really slow one the office staff allows the teachers to use… The other morning one of the office staff ladies let me use their big fancy one..
Liberty High School
Only one copier for all teachers. It has been unable to double side for more than a week. This means we are using twice as much paper. There is no alternative when it goes down.
Office copier also awaiting service.
Luhr Elementary
ours says call 3552
That is the district help desk. I first reported to that as well. They said copy repair was “a couple weeks out.”
Maupin Elementary
Oh wow! I didn’t realize that! Both of ours have been broken and we haven’t been able to use the one in the office.
We’ve already had the board called on us for not sending home a hard copy of the class newsletter and weekly spelling words. The lead teacher was trying to send everything electronically. This mother apparently doesn’t have access to email. What exactly are we supposed to do? We wrote a note explaining that we didn’t have working copiers to her after she complained to the school, but she called the board anyway. I wasn’t even aware it was a bigger problem than just our school until this post. So maybe that call was a good thing.
When asked for a copy of a child’s work-sorry no copy machine. When asked for a copy of anything-sorry-no paper. DO NOT buy any. It’s time we stop and let parents and the community know- Dear mom-sorry I can’t send you a copy of ______. we have no paper or a working copier.
Noe Elementary
My school got literally the last laminator service….our STC teaches full time, so our Librarian is going to attempt to take care of the copiers and laminator. I believe we have four machines and they are all currently working, though there was a time a couple of weeks ago when they were all down. They are old cantankerous machines.
Ramsey
Guess my art won’t be getting laminated.
We have 2 all in one copiers that we print to. One per floor. We have two ricohs that are mass copiers. We have 2 laminators.
We have 1 stc who teaches tech who is brand new to it this year.
We are energy efficient therefore not allowed to have our own copiers.
Mind you most of us are smart enough to unjam it but when it cannot be a work order must be put in.
Rutherford Elementary
OMG copier repair guy was at my school once or twice a week. No way a teacher can keep up with this.
We have three broken in our copy room and we were able to get a copier and rizo repaired but the days are numbered for when they will go out again. We have had one in the room since last year that has a sticker on it stating that it is “beyond economical repair.”
I am STC at my school. I have no training in copy machines. I am a full time teacher of all K-5 students in my building and can barely keep up with the printers and computers and other duties. Typically the office is the one who is supposed to fix a jam or whatever. Although our office staff is changing so not sure they know either. We just got ours working this past week after having any (including office) working for over a week! They happen to be working at the moment.
Seneca High School
Duplicators, laminators, and tvs won’t be serviced… That is still a huge impact to many schools. Also they went from 9 people who service the machines to 3 so the wait time is crazy now because their workload is so large.
I’m really at a loss:( I’m in the library and now knowing they don’t service laminators or duplicators is a huge problem! We just started a copy center and I’m terrified that this will hit us hard☹️our stc is a full time teacher so there’s no way he can fix those machines. Even if he had time he doesn’t have the training.
Shacklette Elementary
Teachers have access to 2 copiers.
They are old. They jam. Don’t copy correctly. Always require service. Service takes forever.
When both copiers are down (which happens all the time). We are not allowed to use the office copier that is brand new and high tech. Teachers go to stores to pay for copies or print duplicate copies of what they need on their home printers, which is very time consuming and costly. Ink is expensive!
Shawnee High School
We have two broken copiers and also computers that are still waiting to be imaged with flight software. In this high-tech day and age, the STC needs to be a full time, dedicated position.
Just went to Shawnee copiers out
Now I know why our copiers aren’t working! We also don’t even have anyone who is willing to fill the STC position within the building…
It needs to be a full time job.
Southern High School
Not only down a copier, but all copy paper is on back order…had to buy my own…again…and again…and again
Wellington Elementary
We have one working copier for our whole school.
Western Middle
Oh great, our laminator just died. Guess we won’t be getting a new one
Oh my goodness, we had ONE copier working for two weeks, and that one was in the office. TWO WEEKS. Office staff was scared to death that that one would die. STCs are not equipped or taught to do serious work on them. My clerk and I can un-jam and clean and simple stuff, but we’re not trained to break them down, or know when to order parts and so on.
Westport Middle
This new plan for copier repair is terrible.
Westport has over 1200 students and over 70 teachers sharing 1 copy machine that works. We have 4 more that are all broken. 1 more might be operational but it is unavailable during the day because it is in a conference room.
15th District PTA
All I know is that the copier for the 15th District PTA went out this week. I’m not a copy repair tech, but I played one this week. After a call to the district help desk and the knowledge that copier repair was “a couple weeks out” I watched a YouTube Video.
Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. We will continue to update this list should we continue to hear from other schools.
Thank you,
Gay Adelmann
Note: If your school is having copier issues and you are having trouble getting them serviced, please send an email to moderator@dearjcps.com.
Also, this list was compiled at Dr. Hargens’ request. If anyone who submitted comments receives even the slightest bit of negative consequences from doing so, please let me know.
I’m an STC at a JCPS school and I prefer to remain anonymous but I would like to clarify the STC and copier issue:
At a recent STC meeting we were told that due to department cuts, Technology Support Services would no longer be servicing VCRs, CRT TVs, duplicators (different than copiers) or laminators. We were told an email would be sent to our principals on Friday. This is the content of the email:
Operations Division
From Michael Raisor, Chief Operations Officer
· INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY — DISCONTINUED SERVICES
Information Technology constantly reviews its technology services repertoire in an effort to improve the service to its customers. We have added some new services in the recent past, but we have also identified certain services that have to be discontinued in order to keep up with changes in new, cutting-edge technology. Effective September 1, 2016, we will no longer service the following non-IT/outmoded equipment.
1) Laminators (this includes refilling laminators)
2) Duplicators
3) Televisions with CRT
4) VCRs
STCs were not given responsibility for servicing these items. It was mentioned that they are working on a bid for people to repair laminators (the one at my school and the one at my wife’s school are currently not working). They will also be sending out a video on the proper way to refill a laminator.
I just wanted to suggest the story not be about STCs or Technology Support Services. It looks like these cuts come from the top (I heard they cut the copier repair guys from 8 to 1). JCPS is once again putting the cost of doing the things necessary to teach on the schools and the teachers. They know the dedicated teachers will go to Kinkos for copies and Gheens for laminating (at $1 a foot). And they know these teachers will pay for this out of their own pocket because it’s become too difficult to get reimbursed (laminating at Gheens can be billed to the school with principal permission).
I hope this clears up the issue. Keep up the good work.
Thanks,
Anonymous STC
Dear JCPS brought this concern to Dr. Hargens and Ms. Porter at last night’s community conversation. At Dr. Hargens’ request, we are collecting a list of schools that have copier repair needs to send to her. Please email your comments, which will be kept anonymous, to moderator@dearjcps.com.
“Fun” automated transcript provided by You Tube (since I didn’t have a prepared speech that night.)
good evening dear JCPS my subject tonight is for me thrice I don’t know
0:10how many times I’ve been fooled actually I know it’s been at least more than
0:15three but you know how the joke goes for me once shame on you fool me twice shame
0:20on me
0:21what happens when your full 3 times 4 times 5 times a hundred times at what
0:27point do you take things to the next level
0:31I’m gonna give you three examples of times that I’ve been fooled the first
0:37one pertains to my son school ever since I set foot in that school I recognize
0:43the goldmine that it is and I’ve been trying my background is marketing so
0:47I’ve been trying for the last three years to help recruit students to that
0:51school because that’s where priority school or failing school one way to
0:55change our scores is to recruit students to the magnet and help grow this horse
0:58and every single year I’ve had obstacle after obstacle after obstacle thrown at
1:05my feet
1:08i sent an email to all of you but last week with some of my concerns and dr.
1:13organs appreciate your response and I appreciate your response
1:16dr. Huggins wrote everyone agrees that sean is a shining star and that it
1:20provides a great opportunity for JCPS students there’s a disconnect
1:25not everyone does recognize that that’s my point that’s what we’re trying to do
1:29is change perception and so if we think that we have that everyone already
1:34recognizes that then we’re not even admitting what the problem is my second
1:40concern is Challenger Learning Center a year ago when you voted to allow
1:44Kentucky science center to operate it
1:46you promised us that the new operator their proposal said they would 550
1:51missions we flew hundred and fifty missions last year so no interruption in
1:54service was the promise they flew 42 i think it was so we went to a third of
2:02what we had been doing before and yet we’re paying them we just renewed the
2:06budget for ninety thousand dollars to pay them when the reason we cut it was
2:09because it was costing us $250,000 without any return
2:12but 8,000 students went through the program that’s a return
2:16where’s the value put on that there’s no that there’s been no value put on that
2:18and here we are renewing the contract for even more this year and it’s dark
2:23most days
2:25what do we need to do to send all of JCPS sixth and seventh-graders through
2:29this investment that we’ve already made we spent the $MONEY million dollars to
2:32install it at Shawnee and it’s it’s dark
2:35let’s put kids back into that program and the third issue is the hair policy
2:40and you’ve already heard speakers and I know it’s been talked to death but I was
2:45disappointed that the letter indicated that the person who brought it to the
2:49attention should have asked first instead of admitting that we made a
2:52mistake we made a mistake there should be a review process that says you cannot
2:56violate law and you cannot violate board policy and it should be reviewed it got
3:01changed by a couple of people who’d probably meant no harm just weren’t
3:05familiar with the terms and it became a big stink because there wasn’t a policy
3:09in place so my question to you is what do we do when I’ve been when it’s for me
3:14once fool me twice for me thrice what are those next steps
3:18Thank you Thank You muscleman
WHISTLEBLOWERS: If you would like to confidentially report examples of student abuse or you experienced retaliation for reporting these types of incidents to your employer and/or appropriate agencies, please email us at moderator@dearjcps.com. Use subject #MakeItStop!
The most revolutionary thing you can do is educate yourself.
Huey P. Newton
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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 
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.
Dear Dr. Hargens,