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.
