Federal grant to assist Marshall Count recovery
Marshall County Schools has received a $460,064 federal grant that will go toward recovery efforts following last year’s shooting.
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Gov. Matt Bevin presented the grant to district officials on April 17. The School Emergency Response to Violence (Project SERV) grant from the U.S. Department of Education will go through June 2020. SERV grants fund short-term and long-term education-related services to help institutions recover from a violent or traumatic event.
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy Devos meets with Marshall County High School students at the school
while announcing a federal grant designed to help in the school’s recovery from the 2018 shooting.
(Photo courtesy of U.S. Dept. of Education)
Marshall County plans to use the money to add two additional resource officers at the high school and for continued funding of current hall monitors and resource officers. The funding will also pay for teaching positions for the “MC at Home” program that allows students who felt uncomfortable returning after the shooting to continue their school work at home. About 90 students are enrolled in the program.
Marshall County received a $138,213 Project SERV grant in August 2018.
State board meets in Ashland For the first time in several years, the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) met outside of Frankfort. The board held its April meeting at the Kentucky Educational Development Corporation in Ashland.
At the meeting, Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) Associate Commissioner Robin Kinney and Division Director Charles Harman provided an update in preparation for the department’s 2020-2022 Biennial Budget request. KBE members will discuss priorities for the budget request at the next two meetings before voting on the final budget request at the October meeting.
KBE Chairman Hal Heiner requested that staff create a detailed analysis of both KDE’s budget and the operating budget for districts throughout the state to analyze how rising health care and pension costs have impacted classroom spending. Board member Kathy Gornik also asked for a breakdown of districts’ local funding versus state funding.
The board also approved a statement of consideration on the new social studies standards. The standards will now go to the legislature for review.
In his report to the board, Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis explained that he believes most people do not understand the Novice performance level on the K-PREP assessments.
“A student scoring at the Novice performance level is in a state of academic emergency,” Lewis said. “Similar to finding a child in a medical emergency situation, an immediate, intentional and skilled instructional response to the student’s academic emergency situation is necessary for recovery.”
Video of the meeting is available
online. The next KBE meeting is June 5 in Frankfort.
Be on the lookout for annual policy updates State law requires districts to keep their policies up to date by filing annual amendments by Aug. 15 each year. KSBA policy staff is working to update approximately 50 polices and 30 procedures that are the result of revisions to state and federal law. The annual update will be sent to superintendents and policy contacts by the last week of May to ensure that boards can have two readings prior to the start of the school year, said Katrina Kinman, KSBA director of policy and emeeting services. Unless a completely new policy or procedure is involved, the update will include changes marked in edit mode so that reviewers can see what has been being added or removed. There will also be a checklist that must be signed by the superintendent and board chair and returned to the district’s KSBA policy consultant.