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Jefferson County unveils new 'School Choice' proposal

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio has unveiled the district’s new School Choice Plan proposal. This student assignment plan is the first for JCPS in 40 years. 

What You Need To Know

Jefferson county public schools unveils new school assignment plan the plan offers parents and students choices in where they want to attend and keeps kids close to home if approved the propsal would take effect in the 2023-2024 school year a series of forums are set up to get feedback from the community, parents and students.

The proposal gives every student, particularly students living in West Louisville, a choice on what school they want to attend. In a release, JCPS says the plan improves access and opportunities to programs and resources; makes choosing schools easier for families; and ensures magnet schools and programs are “representative of the district’s diversity.”

“For far too long, only one community has borne the responsibility for ensuring diversity in our schools, and that’s predominantly students of West Louisville,” Dr. Pollio said. “It’s time for a change, and we are committed to co-creating a plan with our community that ensures all students have equitable access to high-quality school choice options within JCPS.”

According to JCPS, the new School Choice proposal would help students and parents by aligning school feeders systems so students could stay with their friends all the way through graduation if they want. It would increase access to magnet school. JCPS says this plan also fosters a sense of belonging for students. They hope it also improves parental participation and because schools are close to home, especially in West Louisville, JCPS hopes more students will take part in after-school activities.

Pollio said in a news conference, "We  took a look at our high school students in what we call our choice zone. That satellite area right now that is predominantly West Louisville where kids are leaving the community and it’s not their choice. 1 out of every 2 students is chronically absent. 50%.”

Pollio says at the middle school level, 40% of West Louisville students traveling outside their neighborhoods are chronically absent.

He added, far too often families want their child in a school close to home but are required to attend classes many miles away.

Amanda Averette-Bush is a 1995 PRP graduate and the Executive Administrator of School Choice. 

Bush says having children attend schools closer to home wasn’t for her family.

She said, “Speaking from my own personal experience, I grew up in the choice zone. I did not have an opportunity to attend a school close to home so this actually adds additional choice for families to either attend a school close to home or a school in the suburban area.”

Pollio’s plan would take place for the 2023-2024 school year for children entering kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades. Other students can stay at their current schools if they want.

It has taken almost five years of work by the student assignment committee and others. JCPS wants the community to weigh in on the proposal and ask questions. They are planning several public forums to address the proposal. Two are scheduled now and a virtual forum is also being scheduled. The current forums are:

• Tuesday, March 22 at 6:30 p.m.: Louisville Urban League & Courier Journal forum at the Norton Healthcare Sports & Learning Center, 3029 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd.
• Tuesday, March 29, 6:00 p.m.: Jefferson County Board of Education Community Forum at The Academy @ Shawnee Auditorium, 4001 Herman St.

JCPS has set up a new website, and it describes the Choice Zone and answers many questions parents might have. You can access that website here . Parents can also fill out a survey to help assist JCPS.

Approximately 96,000 students attend JCPS.

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In New JCPS Student Assignment Proposal, 'Choice' Is At Odds With 'Diversity'

There are a lot of problems with the way Jefferson County Public Schools currently assigns students to schools, according to the Student Assignment Review Advisory Committee. The committee of teachers, community members and district staff met virtually Wednesday evening to evaluate the current plan for how well it promotes racial equity.

JCPS' current student assignment plan is nationally recognized for creating more racially integrated schools than most other large districts, like Chicago or Detroit. Research shows Black, Latino and Indigenous students who attend integrated schools benefit because they have greater access to the funding and political power that follows their white classmates. But many argue the plan is unfair, because it places the onus on Black students in the West End to leave their neighborhoods to attend schools in majority-white suburbs.

"About 95% of our Black students leave the community," JCPS Superintendent Marty Pollio said. "And only about 5% white students. And I think that is incredibly inequitable."

Committee members brought up several other related issues. The student assignment plan is hard to understand, especially for families with language barriers, JCPS Director of School Choice Cassie Blausey said. Pollio said the current plan benefits families with "social capital," who can apply to magnet programs early, navigate the system and attend open houses. He said the current plan harms students' sense of belonging.

Pollio and Blausey are on the verge of presenting a new student assignment plan to the school board for approval "in the near future." The plan has been in the works since 2017, and was originally scheduled to be voted on in July. But Pollio has said he won't proceed unless he has support from the advisory committee. The new plan, called "dual resides," would allow all middle and high school students in Louisville's majority-Black West End to attend school in their neighborhood for the first time since the 1970s. Students could also still chose to attend an East End school.

Because of segregated housing patterns, the new plan would likely increase racial segregation in one of the few districts in the country that has largely avoided segregated schools. All of the district's middle and high schools are currently meeting the required "diversity index" targets. Elementary schools, which allow for more parent choice, are more segregated.

Questions About A New Plan

WFPL News has made multiple requests for data showing how the proposed changes would impact demographics across the district. JCPS has denied those requests, saying the data is "preliminary" and not subject to open records requests.

Members of the advisory committee had questions about how the district would measure diversity at schools under the new plan. Committee member and teacher Stephanie White asked if there would be a "remedy" for schools that fell outside diversity targets. White teaches at King Elementary, which falls short of the district's diversity index with more than 90% Black and Latinx students.

Pollio said Louisville's racially segregated housing patterns would make achieving diversity difficult under the proposed plan.

"Diversity is critically important," he said "But, you know, we have to decide how much we can manufacture that."

Pollio said the remedy to achieving racial equity in schools with high concentrations of Black, Latino and poor students, will be changing the funding model.

"We really don't fund different between a school that has 95% free-and-reduced, and a school that has 85% free-and-reduced. They're essentially funded the same way, when they necessarily shouldn't be," he said.

Asked when those funding changes would occur, Pollio said they would bring the changes to the board in January.

"We're working on that part of it now," he said.

Education activist and founder of Dear JCPS, Gay Adelmann, said the district needs to be thinking bigger.

"We're in a pandemic and we're in a movement for Black lives," Adelmann said. "Everything's back on the table now."

Adelmann said if the district wants to allow students to go to school in the West End, it also needs to bring parents from the suburbs into those schools.

"Give everyone a dual reside," she said. "Why wouldn't you have everyone else in the district have their current school that their assigned to, plus a school in the West End?"

Adelmann, along with many Black parents in the West End, are not convinced that the district will bring enough resources to the West End schools to make them attractive to white families.

The committee plans to meet next week to discuss a proposal for supporting The Academy @ Shawnee and a new proposed West End middle school.

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Jefferson County Public Schools hosted a job fair Wednesday evening to highlight the benefits of teaching in the district's new 'Choice Zone.'

The 'Choice Zone' is part of the district's new student assignment plan that was passed last year. It is made up of mostly west Louisville neighborhoods.

It was designed to give students living in the 'Choice Zone' the option of attending a school closer to home.

Director of Choice Zone Programs, Jamiera Johnson, says the idea behind the job fair was to allow prospective teachers to get in front of principals and educators already working in the 'Choice Zone.'

"I've worked in the Choice Zone and I know that we have amazing schools and amazing students and amazing leaders in these schools," Johnson said.

Johnson is hoping the job fair will help spread that message and get more teachers interested in teaching in the 'Choice Zone.'

"We want amazing teachers in our classrooms on the first day of school. So this is a proactive strategy we are using to address the teacher shortage and to attract teachers to the choice zone," Johnson said.

Dezaray McClain has never taught before but has always thought it could be a good fit. She has a degree in psychology and communications and currently does some teaching at her church.

"Seeing people change and knowing that you can participate in that. Letting people know they can make it and there are beautiful opportunities for them. So they don't have to look at their current situation but they can look ahead and know they can make it," McClain said.

After talking to representatives from each school, she believes the 'Choice Zone' may be the perfect place for her.

"Hearing about the things they go through at those schools, it actually encouraged me to make me feel like I could make a difference there," McClain said.

To make sure they're getting the best talent possible, the district is offering an extra $8,000 to teachers in the 'Choice Zone,' and that stipend will increase each year they remain in the zone.

"Our students in the choice zone deserve great schools and they deserve great teachers and this is the opportunity right now where we can address that need," Johnson said.

While McClain hasn't made any official decisions yet, she is taking the first step towards a potential future in the 'Choice Zone' by filling out an application.

"With talking to them, it really refreshed me and gave me a new mindset on teaching," McClain said.

The new student assignment plan also includes several other major investments in west Louisville schools as well as caps on class sizes.

For information on how to apply, click here .

JCPS board members set to choose new start times for dozens of schools

Regan Paige, a Jefferson County Public School parent, drew a blank when asked recently what she will do next year if her daughter's school moves to a far later start time. She hasn't thought of a single backup option — aside from moving to another school district.

Board of Education members are set to choose between two new bell schedules during Tuesday's meeting and Paige, along with countless other families, are hoping they choose the first scenario, which keeps more schools at their current start time.

Paige's daughter is a third grader at Smyrna Elementary in southeast Louisville, which currently starts at 7:40 a.m. The second scenario — which appeals to some board members because it promises more efficiency with busing routes — would move Smyrna to the latest time slot of 9:40 a.m.

"The biggest issue is that I have to be at work at 8 and I work in downtown Louisville," Paige said. "I’m already late to work by taking her to school, but only by 15 minutes, so it's not a big deal."

Financially, morning daycare isn't an option, nor is a later work schedule because she has multiple mandatory 9 a.m. meetings throughout the week, she said.

Given many parents have to work in the morning, Paige questioned why the board would choose to have so many elementary-aged kids at the latest start time rather than older students who can be home alone.

"I get that high schoolers have sports and stuff but my 9-year-old — I can’t leave her at home by herself and expect her to get herself on the bus," Paige said "I'm just not comfortable with that and it doesn't make sense to me to have the young ones being by themselves."

More: JCPS has two proposals to change school start times. Here’s what you need to know

If Smyrna is moved to 9:40 a.m. — which would be its third consecutive year starting at a new time — Paige said she will likely move.

"I would almost rather move out of Jefferson County," than have the new start time, she said.

How do the two scenarios compare?

In both scenarios board members are weighing, more elementary schools will start at 9:40 a.m., though the second scenario moves a greater number of new schools into this slot.

Board member James Craig, who represents much of east Louisville including several of the schools that would move to later start times, said he likely won't vote for the second scenario but is waiting to hear Superintendent Marty Pollio's recommendation.

"Moving a significant number of elementary schools to later start times would have negative impacts on student outcomes," Craig said. "I don't want that for any schools but especially my East End elementary schools."

It is unclear which scenario Pollio will recommend to the board, though he has said the second scenario would be "more sustainable" to maintain in later school years.

Currently, 40 elementary schools start at 9:40 a.m., and seven others start at 9:30 a.m. Here's a look at how the two scenarios differ in terms of how many elementary schools have a significant change to start times:

Scenario 1:

• Total elementary schools starting at 9:40 a.m.: 58
• New elementary schools moving into the time slot: 20

Scenario 2:

• Total elementary schools starting at 9:40 a.m.: 57
• New elementary schools moving into the time slot: 29

Beyond concerns for the district's youngest students, Scenario 2 is poised to disrupt far more household schedules. Scenario 1 shifts 48 schools into a new time slot while the second scenario would shift 86.

Board member Sarah McIntosh told The Courier Journal she is struggling to decide how to vote. On social media, she said her vote will be based on "creating the least amount of community disruption possible, getting the greatest number of students to school on time, and implementing consistent and sustainable services."

Achieving each of those factors, though, seems unlikely with the choices the board has been given.

Scenario 1 would fix "major pain points" in the current system and would increase the rate of students getting to and from school on time, but it has less emphasis on geographic regions than the other scenario, which will cause driver fatigue. This is problematic because JCPS is already struggling with a driver shortage and many current drivers are nearing retirement age.

More: Does JCPS have a culture of fear and retaliation? What some employees and officials say

Additionally, the first scenario would only have 20% to 30% of routes mirrored — meaning students ride the same bus with the same driver in the morning and afternoon — and students would get home later than if the board chooses the second scenario.

Board member Chris Kolb said he is leaning toward the second scenario, though he "will have some questions I'd like answered before committing to vote a certain way."

Other board members did not respond to questions about their upcoming vote. The board meets at the Van Hoose Center at 6 p.m., 3332 Newburg Road.

For families who would like to switch schools due to a changed start time, JCPS' transfer opened Monday. Applications can be submitted online, with directions on the district's website. Families without internet access can call the Office of School Choice at (502) 485-6250 for assistance.

Contact Krista Johnson at [email protected].