Saturday, December 12, 2009

School News from Around Kentucky

State revenue up for 1st time in 11 months: Bucking an 11-month trend, state revenue was up in November from the previous year, but Kentucky's top budget official warned Thursday that the state is not out of its fiscal free-fall. General Fund receipts were up 2.4 percent in November compared to the previous November. Revenue was $722.3 million compared to $705.2 million for November 2008. This is the first time in 11 months that the state's revenue grew from the previous year. However, State Budget Director Mary Lassiter warned that November's uptick in receipts might be an anomaly and not necessarily a signal that the state's cash crunch is over. (Herald-Leader)

Buses collide on Chancey Elementary field trip: Two school buses collided Thursday afternoon outside the Kentucky Center, causing minor injuries to about a dozen Chancey Elementary third-graders. The children were boarding a bus outside the center on Main Street about 1:45 when it was rear-ended by another bus, according to Dr. Neal Richmond, CEO of Louisville Metro EMS. (Courier-Journal)

State begins work on new education assessment plan: The state board of education voted Wednesday to move forward with the assessments, which would be given to students after they complete courses in math, language arts, science and social studies. (C-J)

Ineligible player costs Dunbar wins: Paul Laurence Dunbar's boys' basketball team forfeited its 13 wins for the 2008-09 season after a Fayette County Public Schools investigation found earlier this year that the school violated policy by playing an eighth-grader who did not live in Dunbar's district. (H-L)

Is Education News Falling Off Front Pages?: Billions in federal economic-stimulus dollars are slated to be spent to help improve public education, but Americans relying on traditional news outlets are likely to find out little, if anything, about what that effort might mean for the schools in their communities, a new report suggests. That’s because education coverage of any type barely registered in newspapers and on news Web sites, on television news broadcasts, or on the radio airwaves in the first nine months of this year, according to the report, released here this week by the Brookings Institution. (Ed Week by way of KSBA)

2010 General Assembly - tough to find money but other opportunities may exist: Kentucky superintendents again heard Wednesday that the outlook for state funding for schools is grim for the 2010 legislative session. But those attending the closing session of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents’ winter conference in Louisville also were told that the lack of budget options may open doors on other education legislation...Wayne Young, who doubles as lobbyist and executive director for the Kentucky Association of School Administrators, added, “I think this session is going to be the greatest opportunity to affect school leadership issues, perhaps since 1990,” referring to passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act and its related selection of principals by school councils composed of teachers and parents rather than by superintendents. (KSBA)

Supts Decry No Ed Cut Lie: “Everywhere I go, I keep hearing, ‘Well, we’re not going to be able to spare education anymore. We’re going to have to take a cut,’” said Shelton, superintendent of Daviess County Schools. “I don’t know about you, but we haven’t been spared yet; in my district, we’ve been being cut for years. “It began with a trailing off of the percentage of the state budget for education. Then transportation funding was cut from 100 percent down to now averaging 67 percent,” he said. “We have got to get people to acknowledge that we have been cut. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t have been cut. But we can’t keep saying that (school funding) hasn’t been cut. (KSBA)

Budget cuts could halt Ky. preschool programs: Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday announced last week that the department of education would be cutting an additional $20 million from its budget for this fiscal year, but final decisions about what those cuts will affect won’t be made until January...The speculation about the cuts primarily centered on preschool. Jessamine Superintendent Lu Young said Holliday had told her that Kentucky preschools and family resource centers would be “on the chopping block for the first time.” But Young said people have been “coming out of the woodwork” against cutting preschool and that research has shown the economic benefit of preschool education. (Jessamine Journal)

Kentucky 6th in serving breakfast in schools: About 6 percent more students in Christian County Public Schools are taking advantage of its breakfast program this year, helping Kentucky become one of the best in the nation at providing children with an early morning meal.
A report released Monday by the Food Research and Action Center found Kentucky served breakfast to nearly 57 percent of students involved in the free and reduced lunch program for the 2008-09 school year, ranking it sixth in the nation. Participation slipped half a percent from the year before. (Kentucky New Era by way of KSBA)

Kenton County’s Tim Hanner chosen Kentucky 2010 Superintendent of the Year: A leader also known “as a learner and a passionate visionary” is Kentucky’s 2010 Superintendent of the Year. Kenton County Schools Superintendent Tim Hanner’s selection was announced Tuesday morning in Louisville at the winter conference of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents. (KSBA)

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