Saturday, February 06, 2010

Henry County Supt says "no way" his high school is among "Dirty Dozen"

This from the Henry County Local:

‘That’s a mistake, there’s no way’
Abrams says HCHS placed on ‘Dirty Dozen’ list,
but is not facing closure or state takeover

It was news that stopped Henry County Public Schools Superintendent Tim Abrams in his tracks.

Working out on his treadmill after putting in a full day at the office on Jan. 7, Abrams received a call from a fellow superintendent. That colleague had just left a meeting of the Kentucky General Assembly’s House Committee on Education, in which Henry County High School had been identified as one of the 12 “persistently low-achieving schools.”

“That’s a mistake, there’s no way,” Abrams remembered telling his colleague. He immediately called assistant superintendent Kricket McClure, who started crunching numbers.

The next day, Abrams was on the phone with the Kentucky Department of Education and the new education Commissioner, Terry Holliday.

“They knew why I was calling,” Abrams said...

As knowledge of that list, only semi-affectionately referred to as the Dirty Dozen, worked its way into the public, parents, teachers and students were concerned that Henry County High School was in danger of being shut down.

Variations of the rumor included statements that the state would remove principal and half of the staff with the state taking over, that the state would close the school or that all athletic programs would be stopped until the school’s performance improved.

None of those rumors are true...


Hat tip to KSBA.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I find it coincidental that the rest of the article is omitted. It continues to quote the superintendent saying that the school actually is facing issues; that one of four things could happen. He then says that the school is well on its way to being where the administration wants it to be, although there have been no significant improvements lately. Why will the administration at Henry County not stop accusing the CATS testing of being inadequate? Why not just accept that the school is falling short, and fix the problem?

Richard Day said...

No coincidence. Omitting part of articles is necessary under the copyright law and "fair use." Sometimes I stretch that bit already, but try not to. That's why I always link directly to original sources. Those authors deserve the traffic.

As for Henry County, I must assume that any school in that circumstance has enough wrong that a major overhaul in needed. But I have no idea what measures may be underway.

You ask a good question.