JCPS operates 167[1] schools with 96,000 students,[2] making it the 29th-largest school district in the United States. In 2020–21 the system had a $1.8 billion budget[3] and more than 18,000 employees. With a fleet of more than 1,500 vehicles, it operates one of the 10 largest transportation systems in the nation.[citation needed] Jefferson County's total population stands at approximately 760,000 — by far the largest in Kentucky.
Board of education
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The seven members of the Jefferson County Board of Education (JCBE) are elected by general election to four-year terms. Each board member is responsible for an area of Jefferson County and the schools contained therein. The Superintendent, Dr. Marty Pollio,[4] serves as secretary to the board at all meetings. The current board members are (in order of district number) Diane Porter, Dr. Chris Kolb, James Craig, Joseph Marshall, Linda Duncan, Rev. Daniel Corrie Shull, and Sarah McIntosh.[5][6]
The board was very proactive in year 2011 and into 2012 regarding the request for a curriculum management audit, and work on a much needed strategic plan. The results of the audit were published in January 2012. The board reviewed the report and with board support Hargens followed through on the recommendations. The Strategic Plan-Vision 2015 was approved by the board on May 29, 2012. The process beginning at a much needed board retreat in October 2011 resulted in this important document. In addition, in 2011 the board approved Board Operating Principles to improve board governance.
Public education in the Louisville area dates to 1829 and the beginning of the Louisville Public School District. In 1838 a separate county school system began operating. In 1975 the two systems were merged by court order.
Louisville Public School District (1829–1975)
On April 24, 1829, the City of Louisville established the first public schools for children under sixteen years of age. A board of trustees was selected, and Edward Mann Butler was selected as the first head. The first school began operation in the upper story of a Baptist church on the SW corner of Fifth and Green Streets (now Liberty Street). The next year, the first public school building in the Louisville Public School District was erected at Fifth and Walnut (now Muhammad Ali Blvd). This property was purchased from one of the trustees for $2,100. Though Louisville's charter called provided for the establishment of free schools, the school established at Fifth and Walnut charged primary grades $1.00 per quarter of instruction and all other grades $1.50. Tuition was waived if the trustees felt a child was unable to pay. Instruction was given using the Lancastrian system of teaching, wherein higher-level students taught the younger while the teacher and assistants supervised and instructed these higher-level students.
After a few years, the state granted half of the property of the Jefferson Seminary for use in constructing a "High School College." By 1838, the city of Louisville had a full-service school system. Tuition was abolished for all Louisville residents in 1851, and 1856, Male High School and Female High School opened their doors. From 1851 until 1871, 17 schools were erected on 20 lots. School enrollment grew from 4,303 at the beginning of that time period to 13,503 at the end. In 1870, the first public schools in the city for African Americans were established in the Center Street African Methodist Church and the First Street African Baptist Church. The first school building for African American students was dedicated on October 7, 1873. At the end of the 1896–7 school year, enrollment reached 26,242 (20,559 white, 5,683 black). Ten years later (1907–1908), the school system's enrollment was 29,211 (23,458 white, 5,753 black). In 1912, the Louisville Public School District began annexing property in Jefferson County which had already been annexed by city government, bringing enrollment to 45,841 (33,831 white, 12,010 black) by the 1956 school year, the last year of segregated education in the public schools. In its final year as a separate school district, enrollment was 40,939 (19,171 white, 21,768 black).
Common Schools of Jefferson County/Jefferson County School District (1838–1975)
The Common Schools of Jefferson County school district (CSJC) was established by an act of state legislature in 1838. As of an 1840 report by the Superintendent of Public Education for the state, there were 30 schools in this district. In this report, the "whole population" of Jefferson County was figured at 36,310, with 5,843 of ages 5 to 15 and 3,744 from 7 to 17. 626 was reported as the number of students "at school." In 1850, 561 children were listed as attending six-month schools and 130 were listed as attending three-month schools. In the 1876–7 school year, 58 schools were reported for white children and 10 for black children.
In 1884, a state Board of Education was created and a county superintendent elected by popular vote to replace the appointed commissioner. In 1920 21 22 23 24 25, the County Administration Law was passed by state legislature, requiring the appointment of the superintendent by the Board of Education. Enrollment in the Jefferson County Schools in 1956 (last year of segregation) was 36,308 (34,911 white, 1,397 black). In the last year separate from Louisville Schools, enrollment was 89,405 (84,666 white, 4,739 black).
In 1971, several civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit asking that the Louisville, Jefferson County, and Anchorage school systems be merged. This was because of the large concentration of African Americans in the city school district and extremely low concentration in the other two. The organizations felt that this created conditions similar to that of segregation. In 1974, U.S. District Judge James F. Gordon ordered the merger of the Louisville and Jefferson County school districts, an order followed up by the state Board of Education, which on February 28, 1975, made the merger effective on April 1 of that year. A merger and desegregation plan was created, which included mandatory busing and racial guidelines for school assignments. The initial plan was for black students to be bused 10 of their 12 years in school and white students to be bused 2 of 12 years. The court ceased active supervision of this plan in 1978.
The racial guidelines used have seen several revisions since that time. In 1984, a plan was instituted for middle and high schools that involved a system of zones and satellite areas. In 1992, Project Renaissance was implemented in the elementary schools, a program that achieved desegregation by allowing parents some choice in school placement. A mandatory 15–50% African-American population in all schools was established in 1996. Two years later, six parents sued to remove the upper limit from Central High School, a traditionally African-American school. On June 10, 1999, U.S. District Judge John Heyburn II ruled that the 1975 desegregation order was not dissolved in 1978 when court supervision ended. Some elements of that original ruling were still in effect. Additionally, it was ruled that JCPS could use racial classifications to prevent emergence of racially identifiable schools. These proceedings resulted in the use of racial quotas at Central being banned and the school system being required to redesign its admission procedures by the 2002–03 school year.
The desegregation order was lifted in 2000, but JCPS maintained the 15–50% guideline in most schools. In 2002, Crystal Meredith filed a lawsuit on behalf of her son, whom she claimed was denied enrollment in a school because of race. In 2002, school board members Steve Imhoff and Larry Hujo first suggested that the board consider that the criteria of the plan be based upon the income of parents and not race (SES). The purpose was to maintain diversity with the thought the U.S. Supreme Court might strike the then current plan based upon race alone. There was resistance, but income did become the focal point of the plan adopted in 2008. In October 2005, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Meredith. In June 2006, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, the first time the high court has elected to rule on a school district's use of a voluntary desegregation plan. The case was combined with a similar one from Seattle, Washington, involving that school district's use of a tiebreaker system for school assignment based on race.
In June 2007, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, holding that the school district plans in Louisville and Seattle violated constitutional guarantees of equal protection, and race could not be the only factor to consider. The Jefferson County Board of Education then amended the plan in 2008 to consider the income, education, and minority status of parents in two geographic areas of the county, which was later amended to apply to census tracts, based upon the 2010 census.
Recent superintendents
Donna Hargens was hired as superintendent in July 2011. Hargens was previously the chief academic officer for the Wake County Public Schools in North Carolina. Hargens resigned effective July 1, 2017, in an agreement with the Jefferson County Board of Education.[7] Hargens was the second female superintendent for public schools in Louisville. The first was Rosa Anna Phillips Stonestreet, who served in this post from 1898 to 1910, when the structure for governance was changed with no more elections for the post.
Previously, Sheldon Berman was hired in 2007. Upon his termination, he accepted a position as superintendent of the Eugene (Oregon) School District. Before Berman, Dr. Stephen Daeschner had been superintendent since 1993. When his contract was not renewed by the board of education, he accepted a superintendent position in Naperville, Illinois.[citation needed]
The current superintendent is Dr. Marty Pollio, who is the former principal at Doss and Jeffersontown high schools. Pollio was named acting superintendent in July 2017 when Hargens resigned amidst a great deal of public pressure.[8] In February 2018, Pollio was offered a four-year contract and was able to drop acting from the title.[9]
COVID-19
When a Louisville man sought to attend a public Jefferson County Board of Education (JCBE) board meeting at a Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) building during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kentucky in August 2022, officers asked him to put on a mask, and the man refused.[10][11] Alternatively, the man was offered a face shield, or a COVID-19 test, or the opportunity to request a waiver, all of which the man also refused; accordingly, he was not granted entry into the building.[10][11] Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron claimed the district had violated Kentucky's "Open Meetings Act."[12] JCBE argues that at the time, masks were required to enter the building, not the meeting itself, as part of the board's July 2022 Health Guidance Plan, which requires that when community spread of COVID-19 is ranked "high" in Jefferson County (which it was at the time), masks must be worn to enter JCPS property.[10][13] The man had previously filed unsuccessful claims against the Board alleged that among other things it had violated the Nuremberg Code by "participating in human experimentation, and "sexually exploited minors."[10] In January 2023 the board appealed Cameron's decision in Jefferson County Circuit Court.[10][11]
2023 busing problems and school cancellations
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Following significant systematic overhauling to the school transportation system, such as staggered start times, changed bus stop locations and increased bus drivers, severe delays in the JCPS busing arose immediately. On August 9—the first day of school—students initially faced delays in the morning of up to an hour after the final bus transfer was supposed to happen alongside some reports of students being dropped off at the wrong school. While Superintendent Mark Pollio initially dismissed these issues as "very similar to any other year we've had", widespread issues with busing became much more severe when students were dismissed. It took until 9:58p.m. for JCPS spokesperson Carolyn Callahan to announce that all students had been dropped off.[14]
Due to the severity in these delays, JCPS schools were closed until August 18.[15]
Initiatives
The school district is engaged in a number of initiatives, some of which have been considered more successful than others.
Every 1 Reads
Every 1 Reads is a community-wide literacy program that was started in the fall of 2003 as a partnership between Greater Louisville, Inc., the Louisville Metro government, and the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) in an effort to get every student reading at grade level by the fall of 2008.
In September 2007, the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions (BIPPS) published an article which documented that the scoring system used by the school district's Every 1 Reads program conveys that children who cannot read "at grade level" are instead doing so. As of fall 2007, Every 1 Reads reports that 87.1% of all JCPS students are "reading at grade level," while the state system reports (at the end of the 2005–2006 school year) only 54.25% are at least proficient at reading.[16]
GE "College Bound" program
In late 2005, the GE Foundation announced that it was providing the school district with a four-year $25-million grant, the largest non-governmental grant received by the district. This was part of the foundation's College Bound program, started in 1989 in an effort to increase the number of students going to college.[17] This program includes a revamped Math and Science curriculum in a holistic K-12 approach involving the superintendent, the board of education and the teachers' union.
Race-integration busing was a failed attempt to diversify the racial make-up of schools in the United States by sending students to school districts other than their own. While the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, many American schools continued to remain largely uni-racial. In an effort to address the ongoing de facto segregation in schools, the 1971 Supreme Court decision, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, ruled that the federal courts could use busing as a further integration tool to achieve racial balance.
Louisville Male Traditional High School is a public co-ed secondary school serving students in grades 9 through 12 in the southside of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. It is part of the Jefferson County Public School District.
The Fairfax County Public Schools system (FCPS) is a school division in the U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. It is a branch of the Fairfax County government which administers public schools in Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax. FCPS's headquarters is located in the Gatehouse Administration Center in Merrifield, an unincorporated section of the county near the city of Falls Church; the headquarters has a Falls Church address but is not within the city limits.
Ballard High School is a high school in the eastern suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky, and is a part of the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) school district. The school opened in the fall of 1968. The first students were in grades 7-9, and a grade was added each year as the building was expanded. This kept the school system from having to transfer upper class students from other high schools. The first class graduated in 1972. From its founding until the mid-1980s the principal was Patrick Crawford. Sandy Allen served from the mid-1980s to the 2003–2004 school year. The principal from 2004 through 2013 was Jim Jury. Staci Edelman was the 4th and shortest standing principal, from 2015 to 2017, with a term marked by racial tension and controversy. The current principal is Jason Neuss. The school offers grades 9-12.
The J. Graham Brown School, usually called The Brown School, is a small magnet school located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, United States. It has approximately 750 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and attracts students from all over Louisville. It is a part of the Jefferson County Public Schools system. The school is noted for its liberal arts curriculum and emphasis on student independence.
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Jefferson Community and Technical College (JCTC) is a public community college in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System and the largest college in that system. JCTC was formed on July 1, 2005, by the consolidation of Jefferson Community College and Jefferson Technical College. Jefferson Community College was originally chartered in 1968 and Jefferson Technical College was chartered in 1953. JCTC is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).
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Butler Traditional High School is a high school in Louisville, Kentucky, United States.
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, 551 U.S. 701 (2007), also known as the PICS case, is a United States Supreme Court case which found it unconstitutional for a school district to use race as a factor in assigning students to schools in order to bring its racial composition in line with the composition of the district as a whole, unless it was remedying a prior history of de jure segregation. Chief Justice Roberts wrote in his plurality opinion that "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."
Suzanne Post was a civil rights activist in the struggle against discrimination and social injustice in Kentucky. She was born to Morris and Betty Kling in Louisville, Kentucky on March 19, 1933. She joined a student branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People while a student at Indiana University, and continued her student activism at the University of California Berkeley. In her long career, she advocated for social justice and led the way in the battle for civil rights, women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and equity in housing and education. Her Uncle Arthur Kling helped found the Kentucky Civil Liberties Union in 1955 and served on the Board of the Louisville Urban League. Michael Aldridge, a former ACLU director, in an article for the Louisville Courier Journal, wrote "the Kling family 's own personal experience with bigotry, and a shared memory of historic oppression and violence, made them fight all prejudice and restrictions on the civil liberties of others".
The desegregation of Boston public schools (1974–1988) was a period in which the Boston Public Schools were under court control to desegregate through a system of busing students. The call for desegregation and the first years of its implementation led to a series of racial protests and riots that brought national attention, particularly from 1974 to 1976. In response to the Massachusetts legislature's enactment of the 1965 Racial Imbalance Act, which ordered the state's public schools to desegregate, W. Arthur Garrity Jr. of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts laid out a plan for compulsory busing of students between predominantly white and black areas of the city. The hard control of the desegregation plan lasted for over a decade. It influenced Boston politics and contributed to demographic shifts of Boston's school-age population, leading to a decline of public-school enrollment and white flight to the suburbs. Full control of the desegregation plan was transferred to the Boston School Committee in 1988; in 2013 the busing system was replaced by one with dramatically reduced busing.
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References
↑ "JCPS Facts | JCPS". www.jefferson.kyschools.us. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
↑ "JCPS 2020–21 Budget". Kentucky School Board Association's Public Portal. September 14, 2021. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved December 6, 2021.
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