School News from Around Kentucky

Glasgow schools adopt all-day preschool: Preschool students in the Glasgow school district will begin attending all-day classes in January.School board members voted unanimously Monday night to approve the expansion of the preschool programs at Highland and South Green elementary schools. Effective January 2011, both schools will go to five-day-a-week, all-day programs for 3- and 4-year-olds attending preschool. (Glasgow Daily Times)

Four candidates for JCPS District 1 share major issue: Raising student achievement, increasing the quality of instruction and maintaining diversity in schools are the top issues for the four candidates in the District 1 race on the Jefferson County Board of Education. (C-J)

Council Makes Recommendations to Close Achievement Gaps: The Commissioner’s Raising Achievement/Closing Gaps Council (CRACGC) has issued a set of recommendations and strategies to help close achievement gaps between all groups of Kentucky’s public school students. “I’ve directed the Kentucky Department of Education’s leadership team to immediately begin to incorporate these recommendations and strategies into the agency’s core process work,” said Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday. “The vital work of closing achievement gaps can’t be done by educators alone – community members, parents and others must become involved.” The recommendations cover four major areas:

• Recommendation #1: Provide information about the overall academic and social status of Kentucky’s schools and districts in a format that is useful and accessible to the general public.
• Recommendation #2: Ensure that all students, regardless of race, gender, ethnic background or socioeconomic status, have access to a rigorous curriculum and get the support necessary to be successful in a rigorous curriculum.
• Recommendation #3: Create an environment of high expectations, with administrators, teachers and staff taking ownership for meeting the needs of all students.
• Recommendation #4: Create open, honest communication about the work of the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE), individual districts and schools with all stakeholders. (KDE)

Teen jailed for refusing principal: A Rineyville teen was jailed Monday morning after allegedly refusing to comply with directions from his principal and then demands of police.
Court records show Vine Grove police responded to Brown Street Education Center at about 8:30 a.m. Monday in response to complaint that 18-year-old Gabriel James Partlow refused to follow the principal’s directions. Police state in their criminal complaint against Partlow that they had to forcibly remove the teen from the cafeteria after his refusal to comply with their commands and his use of profanity in front of other students. (News Enterprise)

Former Bullitt schools employee files harassment suit: A former employee is suing Bullitt County Public Schools, claiming she was threatened and harassed after reporting alleged irregularities involving the use of grant money in the district's Adult and Community Education Center. Paula Ratliff filed suit in Bullitt Circuit Court Sept. 22. Her suit says she was employed from September 2007 to June 2010 to help monitor grant funds for the Jobs for America's Graduates or JAG program. Her supervisor was Jim Boswell, the former administrator of the Adult and Community Education Center. (C-J)

KY Registry of Election Finance investigating school board complaint: WAVE 3 News has confirmed that the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance is now investigating a complaint filed last week by a Jefferson County Public Schools board member. Board Chair Debbie Wesslund is crying foul over a meeting that the Jefferson County Teachers Association President had with her opponent. At Tuesday night's PTA School Board Candidates Forum, Wesslund told us, state law was broken during the October meeting that included her District 3 opponent, David Toborowsky, JCTA President Brent McKim and JCPS Superintendent Dr. Sheldon Berman. (WAVE)

Man jailed after gun was found on school property: An unemployed Ekron man was jailed Monday afternoon on criminal charges that he brought a gun to North Hardin High School in Radcliff after threatening to shoot a teenage girl who attends the school. According to a criminal citation filed against Kyle D. Thompson, 20, police responded to a report that Thompson drove onto school property after sending a female student threatening messages a day earlier.
The report stated that inside the console of the green Ford Thompson was driving, police found a .38 caliber handgun. (News Enterprise)