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People Are Talking

Kentucky School Advocate

December 2016

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“The kids don’t understand how historically significant the town is and I thought this would be a good way for them to learn a little bit about the history of the town and also see that, ‘Hey, there was stuff going on hundreds of years before we were ever here.’ Back in the 1920s and 1930s, Camp Knox was across what is now 31W and it had moved from here because this was Camp Young. When they moved Camp Knox from the site it was on up to the present-day Fort Knox, they donated the officer’s canteen to the school and it actually sat where the footprint of the tennis courts are.” West Point Independent School Principal Karl Olive on an archaeologist-aided artifact dig by his students around the campus. From the Elizabethtown News-Enterprise. Click here for full story

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“There is a lot of pressure here because of the numbers on the scores of the high school testing. I just feel that it is a war on Small Town, USA. Some people are out there doing everything they can to promote ‘mega.’ Bigger isn’t necessarily better. It is discouraging.” Silver Grove Independent Board of Education Chairwoman Melanie Pelle on discussion of options – including eliminating the high school – in response to low scores from this year’s K-PREP assessments. From the Covington River City News. Click here for full story

“(The Language Line) has put the power back with the families. They are less reliant on us for language support. Schools can go directly to the families for things like permission slips for field trips or setting up parent-teacher conferences.” Lucy Vose, youth and family services coordinator for the Kentucky Refugee Ministries in Lexington, on the Fayette County Schools contracting with a foreign language interpretation service for non-English speaking families. From the Lexington Herald-Leader. Click here for full story

“It’s hard to make a difference in a community as a broke 22-year-old, when you are fresh out of college. I couldn’t come home and start a business, there was no avenue for me to come back, there are no jobs here for college graduates, unless you make it yourself.” Teach for America educator Colby Kirk on the opportunity to work in Martin County Schools afforded by the multistate educator recruitment program. From the CN/2 News of Louisville. Click here for full story

“Currently we require our teachers to pursue their master’s degree or start within a certain time period from becoming a teacher. We require them to spend $30,000 to get a master’s that we don’t pay for and I don’t think that’s right considering what we pay them. We don’t require that in any other state jobs. We should still keep all the incentives for getting a master’s, such as pay increases, but make it voluntary since we don’t pay for them and we don’t pay them as much as a kid getting out of high school with a welding certificate can make year one with no debt.” Senate Education Committee Chairman Mike Wilson (R-Bowling Green) on legislation he hopes to have considered in the 2017 General Assembly. From the Bowling Green Daily News. Click here for full story

“He’s like the hero of the hallway to us.” Nancye Daniel, Lyon County Schools Drug-free Communities coordinator, on the hiring of school resource officer Jason Young after a two-year effort to gain grant funding to support the position. From WPSD-TV in Paducah. Click here for full story

“Normally when we’ve had kids who’ve been in fights … we’ve sent them home for three days. What do they do for those three days? We started the SOS (save our students) program where instead of them being suspended … they go to a program at the alternative school, that is separate from the alternative school, and they do the work they would have done at school. They’re continuing to get their education, they have a consequence, the parents have to take them and pick them up so that there is parent involvement and with that program alone, last year we saved over 1,000 instructional days for kids that would have been suspended.” Christian County Schools Discipline Coordinator Kim Stevens on the success of a district initiative. From the Hopkinsville Kentucky New Era. Click here for full story

“We want to amp up the opportunities for our students with exciting, hands-on experiences that allow students, and their families, to extend their learning and, as we like to say at MCPS, dream big. The opportunity to partner with the area technology center is a plus as students will also have the chance to visit and explore that facility while attending Crown Center events.” Troy Benningfield, Marion County Schools’ special programs director/instructional supervisor, on the opening of a site to serve the district’s gifted and talented students. From the Lebanon Enterprise. Click here for full story

“We’ve got to make some decisions in the next couple of weeks about what we want to do with football next season. We have to decide if we want to stay in the playoffs, get out of the playoffs, or go to a junior varsity schedule. We have got to build the program up. We can’t keep playing freshmen and sophomores against these junior and senior teams. We can’t do it. It’s not fair to our kids. We have talent coming. We have a good group of middle school players and our junior league had 65 kids. The future does look bright, but we have to catch up.” Fulton County Schools Athletic Director Rick Lang after the football team’s second consecutive winless season. From the Hickman Courier. Click here for full story

“What they do is pull in key leaders in our district that work with finance and spending, which – over a three-year process – will help us make sure that our budget is matching what our academic goals and expectations are. And unlike other school districts, we don’t have a site based council. So this gives us another step and another way of checking that we’re doing the things that we should be that a site based council would normally take care of.” Barbourville Independent Schools Superintendent Kay Dixon on her district joining the “Smarter School Spending” cohort of school systems. From the Corbin Times-Tribune. Click here for full story

“It has changed to so much more. We provide after-school programs that enhance what they learn in the classroom. We have become part of the planning process on the education level. We work with them to get all the tools they need for success – clothing, school supplies, social support.” Fairview Independent Schools Family Resource and Youth Services Center Director Brenda Hale on the evolving role of FRYSCs after 25 years. From the Ashland The Independent. Click here for full story

“Inevitably, that’s something (raising taxes) that nobody likes to tackle, especially in an area where we’re struggling so badly economically. And our board has been great. I’ve been superintendent for nine years and I think we may have raised taxes once, and that was a few years ago. And we’re criticized for that sometimes. The Kentucky Department of Education, the state, criticizes us for that. I can tell you we’d only recommend that to them if we start having to cut opportunities for the kids, then we would have to make that recommendation.” Floyd County Schools Superintendent Henry Webb commenting on data included in the new state-issued district report card. From the Prestonsburg Floyd County Chronicle. Click here for full story

“So far this year we have had 2,010 doctors’ notes and 860 parents’ notes and those are all excused absences. We always focus on unexcused absences, but we can’t just look at the muddy part. It’s all absences.” Magoffin County Schools Director of Pupil Personnel Brian Conley on how the district is trying to improve student attendance by reducing all kinds of absenteeism. From the Salyersville Independent. Click here for full story

“People will come up to our teachers and sometimes us and say, ‘You’re blind, you must know sign language.’ (I write) to kind of prove that I am human and have the same thoughts and go through the same situations as sighted people.” Shane Lowe, a student at the Kentucky School for the Blind in Louisville, co-author with several classmates of a book, We Can Hear You Just Fine, on living with a visual impairment. From the WDRB-TV in Louisville. Click here for full story

“I’m very outspoken. I’m loud; my energy’s loud. I thought I would be a good person to come from my school to help make sure that these kids are getting what they need and what they want and to see how we can make it a better place.” Nia Ralston, a senior at the Kentucky School for the Deaf in Danville, on being selected as a member of the Commissioner of Education’s Student Advisory Council. From the Danville Advocate-Messenger. Click here for full story