From Education Commissioner Fletcher

 

Dec. 18, 2024

 

Dear Principals,

We are excited to announce the upcoming Kentucky United We Learn Council Town Halls, which will provide an opportunity to engage communities across the Commonwealth and allow us to gather valuable feedback on the current version of the Assessment and Accountability Model Framework.

Below, you’ll find:

• A flyer showcasing the full schedule of town hall events across all regional cooperatives and one in Bowling Green for the Spanish-speaking population; and
• An agenda outlining the topics we’ll explore during these sessions.

Your superintendent will be sending you an additional invite specific to your region.

We kindly ask for your support in sharing the event details with your networks, including students, families, teachers, school employees, community members, business leaders, and any other groups or individuals you feel would benefit from participating. Additionally, please post the invite around your school, as it will contain a QR code for registering for the event. The QR code also will be clickable for those who receive it via email.

We deeply appreciate your help in fostering meaningful community engagement as we work together to reimagine education in Kentucky.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please don’t hesitate to contact KDE’s Chief Performance Officer Karen Dodd.

All in,

Dr. Robbie Fletcher
Commissioner of Education
Kentucky Department of Education

Canned Food Drive Winner

 

Good morning!

I have received canned food numbers from 22 teachers! The top five are below:

Fifth Place - Ms. Strader with 152 items

Fourth Place - Ms. King with 176 items

Third Place - Ms. Mudd with 237 items

Second Place - Ms. H. Spalding with 298 items

First Place - Ms. Hanson with 361 items

From the 22 reporting teachers, we contributed over 2,470 items - and I know there was more, too! Thanks for your work on this. Ms. Hanson, we will be in touch about scheduling your party in January!

Rank Change

 

See this note from our Co-Op, CKEC:

 

Time is running out to register for CKEC's Rank Change Teacher Leader Pathway beginning in January with a Community of Practice based on Dr. Mike Rutherford's Artisan Teacher. For more information, see below and attached.  This is a special cohort with a limited number of spots.  Applications are due by Jan 3 - visit https://bit.ly/CKECtci for more information and to apply. Please share this with your teachers and anyone else who would like to pursue a Rank II or Rank I.  

For more info on The Artisan Teacher, check out https://rutherfordlg.com/the-artisan-teacher-an-introduction/

Feel free to reach out to me or Mark Helton (tci@ckec.org) if you have any questions!  Thanks!

David

Announcement: New CKEC Rank Change Community of Practice: The Artisan Teacher by Dr. Mike Rutherford

We have been given the opportunity to partner with Dr. Mike Rutherford to offer a CKEC Rank Change Community of Practice (i.e. emphasis area) built on The Artisan Teacher.  It's an asynchronous course, coupled with a few virtual sessions hosted Dr. Rutherford and CKEC CEO David Young.  

In the program, participants will complete CKEC's Core 7 Modules and an action research capstone project (with access to coaching from CKEC staff throughout).  The Artisan Teacher will serve as the content, the area of expertise that participants will develop within, and the lens through which they will view their work.

I've attached a flyer with information about the program.  Also, here is a link to our Rank Change webpage for application materials.  Applications are due January 3, 2025.  This is a firm deadline, as the first session will be January 16 at 4:00 pm ET (via Zoom). Again, please share this flyer with teachers and others who may be interested in a rank change program. Thank you!

Field Trips

 

Directions for Requesting a Field Trip

Download the Field Trip Request from the BES Tiger News Blog quick links.

1. If the field trip will be:
1. IN THE STATE of KENTUCKY, please complete page 1
2. OUT of STATE or includes an OVER-NIGHT stay, complete page 2. It will need Board approval and should be submitted to Josh a minimum of six weeks before the event to get on the Board of Education Meeting Agenda.
2. Complete page 3 if you need bus transportation for the trip. Tina will scan and send this form to the bus garage. You do NOT need to scan and send this form. If you are walking somewhere, you do not need to complete this page.
3. Complete page 4 if you need sack lunches. Tina will scan and send this form to the cafeteria. You do NOT need to scan and send this form. If you do not need lunches, you do not need to complete this page.
4. Submit the permission slip you will be using for the trip. It can be the samples on page 5 and 6. Most teachers use an event specific form. If you do this, however, it MUST contain all the information on page 6.
5. New laws require that school employees are aware of cardiac emergency plans at all the destinations visited on a field trip. When booking a field trip, the sponsor or team lead should complete pages 7 and 8 and turn these pages in with the completed packet.
6. Complete page 9, sending rosters of all students going on the trip with the final packet, starring any pupils on medications. The sponsor/grade level team lead will be responsible for working with our nurse to secure any student medications that need to be administered on the trip.

 

 

 

Student Discipline Policy

It is time to update our Student Discipline policy as an SBDM council. At our last meeting, we decided to convene an AdHoc committee to review and discuss this. Below are link to our current policy and a sample KASC policy.  

If you would be interested in serving on this group, we would meet 1-2 times to review and revise our policy. Please let Josh know if you can help by 4 PM Friday, 12/6.  

1. Current Policy 

2. Sample KASC Policy