When the Kentucky Board of Education holds a rare Saturday special meeting this weekend to find a new commissioner, the outcome will have implications for every Northern Kentucky school district.
Issues of testing, funding formulas and student assessment will be at the forefront of the new commissioner's to-do list.
The problem is, finding a new commissioner has been an arduous process, thrown back to square one recently when the board's hire, Barbara Erwin, resigned three days before she was to start her new job...
..."The next commissioner's top issues will likely be student assessment, student and school proficiency, school funding, facilities and all of the related items that go along with those," Department of Education spokeswoman Lisa Gross said Wednesday.
Gross said it's unclear whether the board is leaning toward filling the position on an interim basis or finding a permanent commissioner who can play a more significant role in the next state legislative session in Frankfort.
...An interim commissioner would "have very limited ability to do a lot of things," said Boone County School Superintendent Bryan Blavatt, who has been trying for years to get changes to the school funding formula that puts fast-growing districts at a disadvantage...
...He wants the state to change its basic school funding formula - known as SEEK. Currently, it ties funding to enrollment from the year before...
..."I would like to see a commissioner that was familiar with Kentucky and our system of education," said Ludlow School Superintendent Curtis Hall. "And the funding is always an issue in smaller districts, the SEEK formula penalizes small districts. One of the concerns I have is, can the new commissioner work with the legislature and identify those programs and address them?"
Kevin M. Noland has served as interim commissioner since November, succeeding Gene Wilhoit, who served in the post for six years.
"He was great," Blavatt said of Wilhoit. "It's a real void to fill. (The new commissioner) is going to be barraged by people with all sorts of different agendas."
This from the Cincinnati Post.
2 comments:
Do I read this correctly? According to Lisa Gross in this KY Post article, it is now "unclear" if the Saturday appointment is permanent or only interim.
After all the comments otherwise in earlier communications, one wonders what to believe.
That's my read.
Unless I've missed something, I don't recall any definitive comments saying what direction the board hopes to go in. It seems to me they have left all options open including naming a permanent person tomorrow and being done with it.
Let's hope for better.
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