Harlan independent, county schools reach agreement on who goes where

This from WYMT (video):

Board members from both school systems reached a three year reciprocal agreement that will allow some students from the county to attend city schools if they choose.

“Our contract for non-resident students to attend our school district expired last June,” said Joe Meadors, the Harlan Independent School Board Chairman.

A fluctuating number was chosen that both districts are comfortable with.

“Basically every year that number will decrease from the 275 the first year to the 250 to the 225 for the non resident students,” said Gary Farmer, the Harlan County Board Chairman.

A yearly number had to be chosen because that dictates where state funding for the student will end up. If it is left unclaimed, it goes back to Frankfort. Those numbers do not include employees' students.

“Anybody that works in either district, their children can attend that school free of charge whether they are resident or non resident and the schools still get full funding,” said Meadors.

Meadors said that there were also siblings of some of those students who were “grandfathered in.”

Board members said that they had to meet in the middle, but they were glad to negotiate among themselves.

“This is a Harlan County issue that we needed to solve locally,” said Meadors.
“We did not need the state commissioner nor the state board of education to rule on this.”

Both agreed that the current economic status is weighing parents’ decisions enough.

“It is not something we both wanted, but it is something that we both compromised and both districts can live with,” said Farmer....

Quality Education means different things in Harlan High School Project

This from Roy Silver at the Harlan Daily Enterprise:

Both sides striving for quality education

On Oct. 3, the Kentucky Auditor of Public Accounts released a report on the "Harlan County High School Construction project." Since its release, locally, we have had one news article and two editorial responses.In response to these, it is important to review the findings of the auditor's report.

Although the review was conducted by the state auditor, it was not an accounting audit. The report does raise some significant questions about the management of this project by both our county school board and the state department of education.

This review was initiated, in part, because of a request by a concerned citizen, Benny Dale Coleman. It became clear that the final cost of the new Harlan County High School will approach $60 million, not the original $23 million.

How did the cost rise so dramatically? According to the auditor, the initial estimate "did not include site cost and architectural and engineering fees." (This problem was not unique to Harlan County.)

The county school board purchased 105.59 acres of land for the new school. This land was part of a tract of 488 acres. The 488-acre tract was assessed in 2003 by the Harlan County PVA at $90,350.

The land for the school was purchased for $1,075,000 or more than 5.5 times the assessed value. (The appraiser the board used was penalized because he was not a licensed commercial appraiser)

The state review found that the "school board did not always maintain original invoices for disbursements, the contractor did not mark his approval on all invoices presented for payment." School board policy stated that when selling surplus property they were required to use a certified appraiser. They used "a local vendor who was not a certified appraiser" to sell surplus pipe that was "initially purchased for $29,428 and was sold to a mining company for $14,400."

Although the projected number of students the school will serve has remained steady at 1,300, the size of the school was increased by 50,000 square feet or almost 27 percent.

Some have said that the increased cost was caused by Hurricane Katrina. According to the report, the hurricane added about 15 percent for each year the project was delayed. Based on the initial estimate of $23 million, three years later the cost should have risen to "only" about $35 million.

How has/will this significant increase in costs impact our education and county school system? In August of 2006 our school superintendent stated in a letter to the Kentucky School Facilities Construction Committee: "The county school system has exhausted its bonding potential, even to the point of bonding $3,245,000 of general fund monies." He went on to say that the county school board "had "no additional funds at our disposal to complete the building."

Then the county board estimated that they were nearly $13 million short of completing the project. Among the items they were looking to funding were $250,000 for a security camera system, $50,000 for basketball goals and $5 million for "athletic fields and facilities."

While additional funding has been found to open the school, without the athletic facilities, these higher costs have clearly placed a strain on the school system budget. According to documents obtained from the state, the new Wallins Elementary School has been "withdrawn" due to "lack of funds." Of the $1.6 million the board cut from the 2007-2008 budget, $400,000 was for staff.

Junior Deaton wrote on Nov. 3, "the school bus drivers, maintenance workers and cooks etc. were rallying for public support on their behalf toward convincing the board of education to recognize their need for occasional raises in their wages." Do these increasing costs for the new school provide another obstacle for these workers to gain a living wage?

From the beginning, one sad by-product of this project has been the response from the central office when questions are raised. In the above-mentioned letter to the state our superintendent says: "I think it would be worth mentioning that our goal of providing a quality education for our students in a modern facility has not met with countywide approval."

Unless it can be proven otherwise, why can't we all assume that we all have "quality education" as a goal? We differ on the means to achieving this goal.

Ten Commandments cases have varied results

Harlan display allowed; 2 other counties blocked

A federal judge has rejected a bid by two Eastern Kentucky counties to revive displays of historical documents that included the Ten Commandments that were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer B. Coffman did refuse to issue a permanent injunction against displays by McCreary and Pulaski counties, which had posted the displays in their courthouses.

She also granted a victory to Harlan County Public Schools, which wants to restore similar displays in school buildings, dismissing a lawsuit over the displays because the student who filed it eight years ago no is longer enrolled in the school system...

..."It's a prayer answered, for not just Harlan County but for America," said Johnnie Turner, an attorney for Harlan County Public Schools.

He maintained the display was purely educational. "Let history be history," he said. "That's all we ask."

He said he'd discuss the case with other lawyers and officials involved before any decision is made on whether to put the exhibits back up.

All of the displays at issue involve an exhibit called "Foundations of American Law and Government," which displays the Ten Commandments along with other historic documents, including the Magna Carta and the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner."

The Supreme Court ruled the displays in McCreary and Pulaski counties were unconstitutional in 2005, saying the county governments were improperly sponsoring religion, as county officials had stated in official resolutions their intent to honor Jesus Christ as the "Prince of Ethics."

They also erected the Foundations of American Law and Government display only after court rulings against earlier displays of the Ten Commandments on their own, or grouped with other explicitly religious documents.

But the Supreme Court's ruling only upheld a preliminary injunction against the displays. The court said the counties' actions didn't "forever taint any effort" to post the Ten Commandments if officials could prove they had "purged" themselves of their original religious intent and were now trying to display the commandments strictly for secular, educational purposes.

Because of that possibility, Coffman denied the bid for a permanent injunction on the displays, sought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which brought the lawsuits against the counties...

This from the Courier-Journal.

Harlan "felt like doing a new high school" @ $23 million. Now costs doubled, KBE expresses concern.

"We felt like doing a new high school.

It's been over 40 years since we've had a school (built)."

- Harlan Superintendent Tim Saylor

Cost of Harlan school doubles Materials blamed for $27 million jump

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- State Board of Education members yesterday expressed shock and concern that the price tag of a high school under construction in Harlan County has more than doubled since the original cost estimate.

The 220,000-square-foot high school, which is expected to open at the beginning of the next school year, is now expected to cost $50 million, up from the original $23 million estimate.

"Where I work you can't run a business this way and stay in business, much less employed," said board member Joe Brothers at a board subcommittee meeting yesterday. "The surprise and shock factor of this is really frustrating."

The Harlan County school board estimates it needs about $8 million to $9 million to complete the project, but state school board officials warned not to come looking for a handout.

...A report issued by state Auditor Crit Luallen's office ...raised many questions, including:
Are overruns occurring in other school projects currently under construction?

Would the state legislature have approved $13.6 million in state funding if it had known the project was going to cost $50 million instead of $23 million?

Could Harlan County actually afford a project of that magnitude given its declining enrollment?

...[Former Board] Chairman Keith Travis said the board doesn't know if any of the projects currently under construction across Kentucky -- at a total cost of about $700 million -- are within their original budgets. He said he wouldn't have known about Harlan County's problem had a concerned citizen not brought it to his attention.

This from the Courier-Journal.