When the July/August edition of the KSBA magazine Kentucky School Advocate reaches board members, superintendents and others next week, you may see some changes. And there will almost certainly be changes you won’t notice without comparing the new look to previous editions.

Editor Madelynn Coldiron and Publications Coordinator Jennifer Wohlleb have spent several months in redesign and restructuring of the magazine. It started with a survey of board members and superintendents to ascertain readers’ priorities on content and regular features. That input was used to make changes in some of the regular features: length, design, more “white space” to improve readability.

A new addition to the magazine is a feature called “Board Room.” Each edition will include a short look into the “nuts-and-bolts” of being a school board member in Kentucky.  Another school board-focused feature added about a year ago, “Board View,” continues to provide the insights of a local board of education member on a topic covered in a longer related article.

In the July/August Kentucky School Advocate, staff writers take an in-depth examination into superintendent turnover in the Commonwealth’s districts. In the past four years alone, more than 100 superintendent’s positions have changed hands. Four articles, including this edition’s In Conversation With…and interview guest Dr. Dot Perkins, Gallatin County Superintendent and immediate past president of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, spotlight this major issue on Kentucky’s education landscape.

Another article looks at the growing use of Wi-Fi-equipped buses by districts attempting to create new avenues for “anywhere, anytime” learning for students as they travel from field trips to extracurricular activities

This edition of the Kentucky School Advocate also provides coverage of the recent KSBA Summer Leadership Institute and this spring’s Safe Schools and Communities conference.  (The July/August magazine is combined to allow for a quick turnaround in coverage of the Summer Leadership Institute’s array of speakers and seminars.)

All of the regular – and according to our readers, very popular – features return, with some of the improvements noted above. People Are Talking, Take Note, Get Your Message Out and the first Executive Insights column by interim KSBA Executive Director David Baird are in the issue.  

Look for the magazine in your mailboxes around Aug. 1 and online at www.ksba.org that same day.