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Kentucky School Advocate

January 2019

Caulk named superintendent of the year
Fayette County’s Manny Caulk has been named Superintendent of the Year by the Kentucky Association for School Administrators.

The Fayette County school board hired Caulk in 2015 and since then “he has led Fayette County Schools through a dramatic turnaround by intentionally engaging students, staff, families, and community members in a top to bottom examination of the district and building systems necessary for sustained success,” according to a KASA news release.

Caulk led the effort to enact a $13.5 million, 10-point safety plan funded by the board’s decision to add a 5-cent property tax to Fayette County property owners. The plan includes adding mental health professionals, social media monitoring, building upgrades, school resource officers and metal detectors.

Caulk’s award includes a $2,000 scholarship for a Fayette County student.

The superintendent finalists included Sherry Horsley of Greenup County Schools, Steve Miracle of Trimble County Schools and Patricia Sheffer of Union County Schools. Caulk will now be a candidate for National Superintendent of the Year at the American Association of School Administrators conference in Los Angeles in February.

New leaders chosen at KSBA
Russellville Independent school board member Davonna Page has been selected to lead KSBA’s board of directors.

Page, who has served on Russellville’s school board for 15 years, is slated to become KSBA’s president-elect, a two-year term after which Page will become KSBA president. Page is completing a three-year term as a director-at-large on KSBA’s 27-member board of directors.

Ronnie Holmes, a Graves County board member and current president-elect, will become president of KSBA at the association’s Annual Conference Feb. 22-24 in Louisville, taking over for David Webster who will become immediate past president.

In addition to Page’s nomination, a KSBA committee selected several school board member candidates to fill expiring director-at-large seats. Once complete, the selections for new directors-at-large will be submitted for ratification at the general business session of the annual conference.

At its board meeting, KSBA also honored four at-large members whose terms will expire: Joe Brown (Garrard County), Larry Dodson (Oldham County), Ramona Malone (Newport Independent) and James See (Lawrence County).

Transportation underfunded by $255 per pupil

A recent report by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence showed that Kentucky is currently underfunding Kentucky’s student transportation by an average of $255 per pupil.

According to the state’s formula for funding transportation, the state allocation should have been $360.4 million for the 2017-18 school year. However, the biennium budget provided $225.4 million.

The report found that the $134.9 million deficit was not evenly distributed among districts. In 15 rural districts, the deficit was $300 or more per pupil; in 16 independent districts it was $100 or less; in 105 districts it was $200 to $299 and in 37 districts it was $100 to $199. (See chart above)

The discrepancy occurs because transportation costs more in rural districts, but cuts are the same percentage for each district.

See the full report here.