For Many Schools, It’s Back to Distance Learning. Let’s Make It Better.

Schools have been under enormous pressure this summer to reopen as soon as possible—from families, from data showing the learning students lost this spring, even from the White House. And system leaders have been working tirelessly to solve the dizzying array of logistical challenges to open school buildings safely.

FRANKFORT, KY) – School districts throughout the Commonwealth were informed June 24 that the state is taking steps to provide unlimited non-traditional instruction (NTI) days during the 2020-2021 academic year.

This announcement came in the form of a memorandum submitted by Interim Education Commissioner Kevin C. Brown and signed by Lt. Gov. and Secretary of the Education and Workforce Cabinet Jacqueline Coleman. The memorandum temporarily suspends the statute capping NTI days at 10 and indicates that Brown will recommend an administrative regulation to the Kentucky Board of Education providing for unlimited NTI days for the next school year. It came on the same day Gov. Andy Beshear announced the release of the Healthy at School guidance during his daily press conference on the COVID-19 pandemic.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – In preparation for the reopening of school for the 2020-2021 school year, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) would like to better understand families’ and caregivers’ experiences with distance learning last school year due to COVID-19.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is seeking feedback on the new Kentucky Academic Standards for Library Media Elective (K-12).

1. Select a video teleconferencing* platform that will be easily accessible to your members, the public, and candidates.
2. Send out notice of a special called meeting clearly stating the meeting is a video teleconference,* and make a link available for interested parties to attend. Notify the media if you have requests on hand.
3. Since you will start and end the meeting in open session and go into closed session for interviews and discussion of candidates, you can create two links/logins. One will be for the open portion of the meeting that you share on the agenda/notification with members, the public, and media. Estimate the earliest time you will return to open session and be sure the open meeting isn’t reactivated BEFORE that time; after is understandable.
4. Schedule a different Zoom (or other video platform) log-in link/login for the closed portion of the meeting and share that only with the council members (and any additional person who is an official part of the interview).
5. When returning to open session, record in the minutes that you interviewed and consulted with the council if they were part of the interview.

 If the interview committee doesn’t include the council:

• The interview committee will still need to follow all of the above.
• You will need to have a council meeting for consultation after the interviews.

FRANKFORT, KY) – Kentucky is searching for its next commissioner of education, who will make a difference for the state’s more than 648,000 public school students and support its more than 42,000 teachers.

Nominations and applications are being taken until May 31. Kevin C. Brown is currently serving as interim commissioner of education until a new commissioner is named. Brown has been serving in the role since Dec. 18.

FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) released a new guidance document on May 15 about questions schools and districts should consider when they are making plans for how to restart school for the 2020-2021 school year.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) released two new guidance documents on April 30 to help districts work through how to safely handle graduation alternatives and other end-of-school procedures during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

April 20, 2020 -- KASC advice is in accordance with the KDE email to SBDM Coordinators on 3/26/20; this version has been improved based on discussions with PTA and feedback from member schools.

The General Assembly adjourned last night on April 15 and will not come back into session until January 2021, unless called into special session by the governor. Most of the laws enacted will take effect in mid-July except for a few bills that had emergency effective dates.

KASC has received several questions about whether/how to change policies in regard to grading during this NTI period. This is a complex issue that may or may not involve SBDM councils.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Association of School Administrators (KASA) recently sent out a survey to 260 Kentucky principals seeking their feedback on the two options about how high school graduation requirements will be met for seniors during the 2019-2020 school year.

Please join the Virtual Parent Café brought to you by Kentucky Collaborative for Families and Schools
(it’s a lot of fun and great way to connect to other families)
Fridays March 20 - May 8 @ 1:00pm

(FRANKFORT, Ky.) -- Amid the challenges of COVID-19, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) announced today that all K-12 students and teachers in Kentucky now have free access to an online portal of educational resources that can support learning and lessons at home.

(FRANKFORT, KY) – The Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE) Education Continuation Task Force met virtually on March 23 to receive an overview on the Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) Program and discussed questions that are being raised by districts and education shareholders related to this type of instruction during COVID-19.

In response to the urgent need for at-home learning resources while Kentucky schools are closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, KET has created an online toolkit for families and educators at KET.org/learnathome. The toolkit provides families free high-quality educational resources for children of all ages. 

On Friday, the College Board released an update on how the Advanced Placement (AP) program is supporting this year’s AP exam administration. Within this email, College Board called out a few bullets that are within the AP Central update page that you can find College Board website. Please be sure to read the entire update, as I’m only including a snippet below.

KASC Advice on Conducting SBDM Council Meetings

Update: 4/2/2020

Student understanding and teacher focus have grown dramatically over a two-decade improvement drive, leaders say

A clear handle on fractions is the goal for fourth-grade math students one January morning at Gamaliel Elementary, a small school perched near the Tennessee border in Monroe County. Teacher Shelly Buck asks her students to concentrate and visualize: “Make up one-fourth in your head,” she says. “If you were to visually picture one-fourth, is it more or less than one half?” She asks students to think and be prepared to take a position or to agree or disagree with classmates who volunteer an answer.