July 14, 2014 Board Meeting

As always, these are my opinions only and not the opinions of the Pendleton County School Board or any other individual board members.

 

Director of Special Programs Pam Harper addressed our board tonight regarding the Pre-school program.  Because of the elimination of mid-day transportation, our Pre-school student enrollment has gone down significantly.  This elimination of mid-day transportation was done to save the district $50,000.  To get enrollment back up, Ms. Harper suggested that we implement a Four-year-old Pre-school Wrap-around Program.  Essentially, Pendleton County Schools would provide instruction to the students for a half-day.  Then students would be transported to local contracted day care programs for the remainder of the day.  Transportation would be provided to the day care program through the school bus system.  Some of the students may start their day at the daycare facility, and then they come to Pre-school in the afternoon.  I strongly support early Pre-school education and this is why:  Research strongly supports that early learning plays a crucial role in helping students prep for kindergarten.  Many of our students in Pendleton County (68.5%) are not kindergarten ready.  In our March meeting, Ms. Harper mentioned that Pendleton County scored 13^th from the bottom of all districts on kindergarten readiness.  The only districts in Northern Kentucky falling below Pendleton County are Gallatin County, Newport, Dayton, and Augusta.  The children in our county are coming to school with great needs.  It is difficult to catch them up if they enter kindergarten already behind.  If we don’t reach these students early, it impacts each and every one of us.  When these students fall behind, they become disruptive in the classroom.  This disruption prevents every child from learning, not just the disruptive student.  If they fall behind, they are more likely to drop out of school.  Dropping out of school puts them at risk of earning less income.  Over a lifetime, they will earn an average of $375,000 less than high school graduates, and roughly $1 million less than college graduates (Center for Labor Market Studies, 2007).  This ultimately impacts the tax base in our county.  High school dropouts are more likely to get in trouble with the law.  If they are incarcerated, who pays for it?  We pay for it as taxpayers.  Therefore, I strongly support Pre-school education because of all of these reasons and more.

 

During board comments, I mentioned my school board training in Lexington this past weekend.  I heard one of the most inspiring messages I have ever heard at our board trainings.  Dr. John Draper shared with the audience that students should be able to nominate successors, someone who has supported their success.  I recommended that a program be established that allowed students to do just that.  A successor program would allow employees to feel valued and appreciated.