Chairman Jim Wurth welcomed participants and Superintendent Kim Dublin thanked them to close the meeting. In between, each of the other board members presented part of the district's story.
Long-time board member Ronnie Holmes addressed the past, saying when he first was elected in the 1980s, the district's school buildings needed significant improvement. Then, the Graves County Schools benefited from additional income through the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 and then-Superintendent Bobby Miller's prudent management of funds.
From there, the district's students and schools achieved tremendous academic progress, ranking for several years in the top 7.5 percent of Kentucky schools on the Commonwealth Accountability Testing Systems assessment. Like many districts, Graves County had to adjust to the Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress assessment, which replaced CATS in 2012. The district and six of its elementary schools earned the status of Distinguished, the highest designation available, on the 2014 K-PREP.
Board members Kelly Whitaker and Susan Barton addressed the present and Julie Moffitt spoke about the future, touching on issues ranging from academics to school safety.
Amanda Henderson, who oversees the district's technology integration among other duties, explained Graves County's participation as one of only 44 districts among Kentucky's 173 this year implementing the new "Non-Traditional Instruction" initiative. It provides an alternative instruction plan for all students to complete lessons at home via computers or paper materials on designated days when inclement weather or emergency situations prevent schools from opening.
When the floor was opened for discussion, several participants spoke, summarizing their thoughts afterward.
"I'm real encouraged that the school board is being proactive, making the community more aware of what's going on," said Cynthia Elder. "I like that they are telling us academically how things are going and safety-wise, but I think it needs to go even further. What does all this mean to our community? Like test scores, I know as a parent what that means to me. My kids don't have a choice. They have to do well in school and finish college in four years. These are the rules (in my family). But, what (do the test scores) really mean to us as a community? I'm hoping this group is able to say, 'this information is great, but just sending a note home doesn't get it.' Some people don't understand why the lunches are free for everybody at all the schools except the high school and that hasn't been explained."
"I think (the task force is) needed. You get different people and different perspectives," said Spence Pate. "Our school system is doing great overall. It's a different day and time, with a whole lot of different problems and expectations and 20 minds together are better than five.
Communication has to be as open as possible. Maybe that (high school not participating in no charge meals) was a situation that could have been addressed that was not."
(The percentage of GCHS students qualifying for no or low charge meals currently is not considered high enough for sustained participation through the "Community Eligibility Provision" government offers, in part, because eligible high school students often choose not to claim their eligibility.)
"I think other issues most of the time, though, are addressed," Pate continued. "I don't see too many surprises. In my family, we've been mostly in Sedalia all these years. When you have an elementary student, they come home and tell you everything. I have one in middle school now and I'm probably going to hear less and less."
"I think we need more meetings like this, to get more people involved," said Graves County judge/executive Jesse Perry. "I said (in the meeting) that perception is everything, that we need to take pride in what we have, to show the positives that are going on, and not dwell on the negative. This community can change with that, but I think we're going to have to take it just one step at a time, like we are here tonight."
"I think (the meeting) was very informative and something we need to do more often to support our school system more," said Brad Hall, who spoke during the meeting. "I just wanted to point out that to battle the negative perceptions in and about our communities that we see sometimes on social media, it's important to highlight our strengths. That includes our teachers, our staff, our administration, and our schools. Teachers are being asked to do more with less now days and they're very stressed. We need to encourage them, support them, and let them know how important they are."
"I think it's a step in the right direction to get feedback from valuable community members and parents who see things from a different perspective than we do," said Superintendent Dublin. "We're not going to improve until we look at things holistically and I think this group empowers us to do that."
"I think it was good discussion. The board presented well and Kim Dublin made good comments at the end," said board vice-chairman Holmes, "but the people here made some awfully good comments and talked about the things that needed to be talked about. I hope it grows and that we have a lot more people involved in the future."
"I think things went well and this group will move forward," added board chairman Wurth. "It's just like anything else – it takes some pushing to get it off the ground, but it will get off the ground."
