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Dear Colleagues:
On Friday I celebrated my first year as Kentucky’s commissioner of education by co-teaching a class of students at my alma mater, Meade County High School. Driving the roads that took me home gave me time to reflect.
Spending a day in a classroom fuels my passion to do what is best for each one of these students and reminds me of the overwhelming responsibility we place on teachers. When I began my first year at Hazard High School, I was teaching during the day, coaching football and track in the afternoon and returning home at night to plan the next day’s lessons.
I remember the lessons that went well, where it just felt like magic. The kids were engaged. I was engaged. The world might have been spinning around us, but we were all in the moment. It was tons of work - challenging and humbling work - but exhilarating at the same time. Of course, I had my share of struggles as a new teacher. I had to learn almost daily from my mistakes.
Throughout my time as an administrator, I have made an effort to keep that connection to students by co-teaching in a classroom at least twice a year. Friday was a wonderful chance to reconnect with the reason why I became a teacher in the first place. I want to thank Jonathan Mangin, the 9th-grade science teacher who was kind enough to share his classroom with me for the day. He is just one example of the great teachers we have working across the Commonwealth.
While I have been looking forward to sharing my experiences in Meade County with you, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention something we are – unfortunately – seeing more and more of these days. COVID is taking aim at our educators and staff members and we are seeing valuable members of the education community being taken too early by this horrible virus.
I am urging all of you to encourage your teachers and staff members to get vaccinated if they have not done so already. I know there are many people in the Commonwealth who are hesitant to get the COVID vaccine. They wanted to wait it out and see what happens.
Unfortunately, we know exactly what will happen, with the dozens of deaths and thousands of our fellow Kentuckians hospitalized each week. All our educators and staff are important to our students. We cannot sit by and let this virus claim more lives without trying to turn the tide.
That’s why we at the department recently announced that we will use up to $8.8 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds to provide reimbursements to districts that have rewarded and acknowledged the time, energy and effort staff members took to get vaccinated. All full- and part-time employees of public school districts are eligible for a one-time vaccination incentive payment of $100 after being fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
This reimbursement is for employees who previously have been vaccinated, as well as those who have received their full vaccinations by Dec. 1, 2021. There will be enough funding to reimburse districts for approximately 88,000 local school district staff.
Districts must pay employees first in order to receive reimbursement from KDE. I would strongly encourage you to consider providing additional funds that match the amount provided as reimbursement by KDE, but a financial match is not required for participation. For questions regarding the vaccination incentive payment, send an email to KDE’s COVID-19 mailbox.
We know that getting more people vaccinated is our only way out of this horrible situation COVID has placed us in. And believe me, I understand the difficult conversations that can occur when you talk about the COVID-19 vaccine, but we must do what is right to save the lives of our colleagues.
Sincerely,
Kind regards,
Jason E. Glass, Ed.D.
Commissioner & Chief Learner
Kentucky Department of Public Health Releases SB 1 Guidance on Test to Stay
During the recent 2021 General Assembly Special Session, Senate Bill 1 was enacted to address various public school operations that have been impacted by the continuation of the coronavirus pandemic. In Section 4 of SB 1, the Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH) was directed to develop a COVID-19 “Test to Stay” model plan that may be implemented by school districts – in whole or in part – to minimize the impact of quarantining non-symptomatic students and staff, allowing them to stay in the classroom.
DPH has released “COVID-19 Prevention in K-12 Schools,” dated Sept. 17, 2021, which includes “Test To Stay.” A school district’s local health department shall provide assistance in implementing a school district’s test to stay plan or any other local school board-approved COVID-19 plan for masking, contract tracing and quarantining, including the location and procurement of resources. The DPH shall provide support to the local health departments in assisting the school districts.
Test to stay is not a separate program or model, rather it is a form of diagnostic screening under the normal K-12 testing program. Test to stay is a “modified quarantine” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
When a student/staff self identifies as positive through outside testing or is identified as positive through the screening program, those who are identified as “close contacts” (per CDC definition) have one of three choices:
- Quarantine at home for 10 days, monitoring for symptoms and returning to normal activities after day 10 if asymptomatic, no test required.
- Quarantine at home for 7 days, testing on day 5 and returning to normal activities on day 8, if negative test and asymptomatic the entire time.
- Quarantine at home for 7 days, and participate in test to stay, testing each day via rapid antigen or every other day via PCR. The student or staff member must remain asymptomatic. If each sequential test is negative, then the individual is allowed into the classroom for school each day of modified quarantine. However, they MUST remain in normal quarantine at all other times outside the classroom, wear a mask when outside of the home and conduct continuous daily monitoring for symptoms. Test to stay is ONLY ALLOWED for classroom exposures.
Questions regarding test to stay should be emailed to Jim Alford or he can be reached by phone at (270) 291-2330
Get more information by reading K-12 School COVID Testing Program (Update).
School Report Card – Embargo Period Begins Sept. 27
The district embargo period for the School Report Card (SRC) begins Monday, Sept. 27. During this embargo period (Sept. 27-28), district and schools may discuss results internally or with the media, but not in public meetings.
During the embargo, a secure URL/password will be shared. Districts will be able to see their own data as well as other districts’ data. During the embargo period, no data can be changed. This is the final week to review data and update the superintendent message or other collector data before public release. This also is the last week to print School Profile Reports from the approval tool before public release.
The timeline for public release is:
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Sept. 27 – District embargo begins
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Sept. 28 – Media embargo begins (working media only)
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Sept. 29 – Public release of the SRC
The Education Opportunity/Career and Technical Education (CTE) data is now available in the School Report Card Approval Tool for review. The Kentucky School Report Card (SRC) Data Approval Tool remains open. Schools and districts that already have approved the Education Opportunity domain only need to review the data; there is no need to approve again. Flags can still be set within the tool if issues are found. If the Education Opportunity domain has not yet been approved, please do so after verifying the accuracy of the data.
During this last week before public release, schools and districts should:
- Prepare for media and community questions. All data has been previously reviewed in either the SRC approval tool or the Student Data Review and Roster. Updates still can be made to the collector items or superintendent message this week. However, no changes can be made during the embargo period. The embargo period will be the first opportunity to see Academic Performance and Transition to Adult Life data in the SRC site.
- Develop a local plan for sharing the SRC, including updating school and district websites. Previously posted URLs may need to be updated to reflect the direct link to 2021 data. School Report Card sharing requirements are available on the SRC Resource Page.
- Ensure that the School Profile Reports have been printed and signed. The School Profile Report should be available in the district board office by Oct. 1. Instructions for completing the School Profile Report are available on the SRC Resource webpage. Once the SRC is public, the School Profile Report also will be available from the school’s Report Card landing page (bottom right).
Additional information is available on the SRC Resource webpage. This includes timeline, prior communications and resources.
Contacts:
Transportation Finance Trainings Offered Monthly
KDE’s Pupil Transportation Branch will be conducting Transportation Finance trainings for transportation directors and finance officers on the third Wednesday of each month from 10:30 a.m. to noon ET. Registration requests will be sent for each training. Superintendents and assistant transportation directors also are welcome.
The format has been updated to allow for more people to interact with the presenter. Attendees will be able to use their microphones and the chat area.
The trainings will provide 1-1.5 hours of Finance Officer Hours and Effective Instructional Leadership Act hours, depending on the length of the training. The Oct. 20 training will be a follow up to the Sept. 15 training and a deeper dive into SEEK transportation given by Jody Maggard, finance officer for Perry County.
Register for the Oct. 20 training online. After registering, a link to the meeting will be provided. There will be an attachment to the confirmation to add the meeting to your calendar. Please email Elisa Hanley with any questions.
Comprehensive District and School Improvement Plans: Phase One – Deadline is Oct. 1
Continuous improvement planning for districts and schools is underway. In Phase One of the planning process, districts and schools are required to complete and submit the Continuous Improvement Diagnostic in the Continuous Improvement Platform (formerly eProve). The deadline for submitting the diagnostic is Oct. 1.
When completing the diagnostic, districts should open and complete the “Continuous Improvement Diagnostic for Districts,” while schools should complete the “Continuous Improvement Diagnostic for Schools.”
It is important to remember that every district and school must have a plan completed in the Continuous Improvement Platform (CIP). Independent districts and districts with only one school must complete separate plans at both the district and school levels.
By completing this diagnostic, districts and schools make a commitment to implementing continuous improvement processes that support student achievement and student growth and to eliminate achievement gaps among groups of students. The diagnostic also serves as a friendly reminder of the planning phases and accompanying timeline.
For additional information regarding creating new diagnostics, consult the CIP (formerly eProve) User Manual or email Ruth Swanson
Save the Date: Cybersecurity Training Scheduled for 2 p.m. ET on Oct. 21
In observance of October being National Cyber Security Awareness Month, the Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is partnering with the U.S. Department of Education (USED) to offer online training for state, school and district staff. USED Chief Information Security Officer Steven Hernandez will be the featured speaker along with KDE Chief Data Officer DeDe Conner and Bob Hackworth, KDE chief information security officer. They will share information about resources to help Kentucky districts.
In the past 18 to 24 months, Kentucky’s education agencies have made great strides in cybersecurity measures, but we need to be even more prepared going forward. In the coming year, our federal counterparts are anticipating an 86% jump in cyberattacks against K-12 school systems. Please join in this training opportunity to be prepared with strong security practices in place.
Any one employee can open a door to a threat. To ensure ongoing operations are not jeopardized, it is necessary to increase awareness of all staff about the threats and share best practices to mitigate cybersecurity risks. In coming weeks, watch for more details about the Oct. 21 cybersecurity training.
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