“Rain water just does not drain from our field. Last spring, our girls only got to play four or five home games because the field is almost always unplayable. We do not ask for anything better than the other schools have; just equal. As it stands now, we will have senior girls on the team next spring that have never enjoyed having any kind of home-field advantage during their high school careers. That’s just not fair.” Steve Worrell, president of the Henry Clay (Fayette County) High School girls softball booster club, on the 10 years of work, including a lawsuit, to resolve drainage problems at the ball field. From the Lexington Herald-Leader.
“We are trying to get each child 60 minutes of activity each day. We can give them so much at the schools, but then they can go home and continue it. Hopefully this will get more students moving and enjoying physical education instead of hating it. Each student will have a body analysis done and it will tell the teacher what needs to be sent home with this student.” Tyonia Sinclair, director of the new Clinton County Schools PEP (Physical Education Program) initiative, which has a broad variety of exercise, nutrition and health elements. From the Albany Clinton County News.
“We want all students to leave their comfort zone and try to push themselves to achieve more academically. The goal is to get our students ready for college and career and AP courses are a great way to inspire students to reach higher.” Western Hills (Franklin County) High School guidance counselor Janet Fox on the school’s participation in the AdvanceKentucky program that awards cash bonuses to students who earn passing scores on AP courses. From the Frankfort State Journal.
“I was 7. I remember my teacher getting a phone call. ... She flipped the TV on, saw it on CNN, then flipped it back off. We were all kind of scared. We didn’t know what was going on and whether everything was going to be OK. When I got home, my mom had to explain it to me. She was in tears. My dad was really solemn. My sister was in middle school, and she understood a little more than I did.” Marshall County High School senior Erika Darnell, who shared her recollections of Sept. 11, 2001 in a program for second-graders at South Marshall Elementary School. From the Benton Tribune-Courier.
“What better way to learn these Core Standards materials than by studying great stories and getting the opportunity to perform them, getting the opportunity to become a character from one of these classic works of literature?” Murray State University Associate Professor of English Dr. Barbara Cobb on the institution’s Shakespeare in the Schools workshops that teach K-12 educators how to use the Bard’s works to teach the new common core standards. From the Murray Ledger & Times.
“We all noticed that some students don’t get enough to eat at home over the weekend. In one case, there were two brothers; one was 10, the other five or six. On a home visit from another agency, the agency officials saw that the older boy had a stash of food under the bed that he’d brought home over time from school. He either was afraid his parents weren’t going to feed him or was being a caretaker for the younger brother, to make sure that his brother had some food to eat. That’s a sad situation and it happens far more often than you’d think.” Wingo Elementary (Graves County Family Resource Center) Director Tana Jones on the Snack Backpack program that benefits her students as well as others from the Mayfield Independent district. From the Paducah West Kentucky Star.
“Even then, as Scotty Graves stuffed a basketball down my throat, I thought, ‘This floor is hard and they need a new school. There is not a brighter spot or a bigger need to fulfill in education and it has needed to be filled for a long time. Deming students have done the best they could with what they had.” State Rep. Tom McKee (D-Cynthiana) during the groundbreaking for the new K-12 Robertson County School, replacing the existing Category 5 Deming High School. From the Maysville Ledger-Independent.
“It’s such a blessing to have great facilities, and we’ll continue to upgrade. Facilities are part of the program, but if the community people want to use it for other things, it’s here.” Fairview Independent High School football coach Nate McPeek on hopes that a $300,000 district-funded upgrade for the school’s stadium will become a resource for more than just his team’s home games. From the Ashland Daily Independent.
“So long as your grade averaged together is still above a 60, you still get credit for the class. Now, if your grade is low and you fail the test, then you’re going to be repeating the class and you’ll be repeating the end of the course exam.” Hopkins County Schools Director of Assessment Jason Clark on one of the wrinkles in the state’s new end of course tests in four high school subjects. From the Madisonville Messenger.
“We have 14,000 kids in the district, so we have to keep working on getting the word out. We’re already in school and there are a lot of parents who don’t know about the changes.” Kenton County Schools Superintendent Terri Cox-Cruey on a series of presentations she is making around the district about the new state assessment and accountability system, common core standards and end-of-course exams. From the Fort Mitchell nky.com.
“There’s nothing you can do about the weather and energy rates. But the two things we can change, energy-lowering projects and cultural change toward energy, are the two things we’ve put the least into. We need to start growing a culture of saving energy (and) these things will save a lot of money.” John Nipple, energy manager for several area school districts, explaining to the Carroll County school board how corrected utility rates and related refunds almost covered added costs due to a rate increase and higher bills due to extreme weather. From the Madison (Indiana) Courier.
College and career readiness
“With the new accountability model school districts face, the ACT plays a role that it didn’t in years past. It’s a good measure of new college- and career-ready standards because students nowadays are faced with economic and academic preparation choices that are different from what they were 20 years ago, and continue to evolve. So we’re using the ACT to make predictions about students’ success, not just in the traditional college role but in other career options.” Somerset Independent Schools Superintendent Boyd Randolph reacting to his district’s significant improvement in ACT math and reading scores. From the Somerset Commonwealth-Journal.
“What I’m seeing is that some of these students are not college material. The closest they’ll ever get to a college is just driving through the town where a college is. That’s nothing bad against the students, that’s just the way it is. They can be job-ready, career-ready, right out of high school. The new standards will put them not at a beginning level or entry level at that job, but it puts them at an advantage. It shows that employer they know what they’re doing.” Charles Neal, a welding instruction at the KyTech career/technology center in Ohio County, on how WorkKeys and other job skills tests measure students’ readiness for the workplace after school. From the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer.