Director of Special Education Mandy Bird was all smiles Thursday night, breaking two bits of good news to Trigg County’s Board of Education.
First and foremost, the preschool has qualified for $100,000 through the Early Learning Bus Grant from the Kentucky Department of Education — in which an existing bus will be completely refitted to better meet special needs.
And secondly, a special education monitoring visit went extremely well this past semester — in which the district received a rare 100% compliance rating from state officials for three categories: individualized education plans, least restrictive environments and the transitions needed after 14 years of age.
Notified of the coming performance audit last fall, Byrd said her team answered the challenge.
According to Byrd and as of December 1, 2023, Trigg County Schools had 332 students with disabilities — an uptick of 31 from the previous year. Of those, 38 are on the autism spectrum, 14 suffer from emotional/behavioral disorders, 31 exhibit developmental delay, 28 have mild mental disability, 25 have other health impairments, 32 have a specific learning disability and 153 deal with some form of speech/language disconnect.
Byrd’s staff includes five preschool teachers with ICEC certifications, six preschool instructional assistants, 18 full-time grades K-14 teachers, 12 grades K-14 instructional assistants, and a handful of case-by-case nuanced practitioners and specialists.
Concerned parent, Kathryn Ballengee, opened Thursday’s meeting with an emotional plea for more safety on Trigg County’s campus. She believed last week’s incident, in which an unnamed student had a BB gun on premises, wasn’t handled as effectively as possible. She said she “didn’t appreciate receiving panic texts and phone calls” from her daughter, who was under a table in the cafeteria during the brief lockdown, and that she and her daughter didn’t feel secure at this time. She asked why metal detectors weren’t installed in the school, and questioned what discipline, if any, would come for the student.
Board members Charlene Sheehan, Gayle Rufli and Jo Alyce Harper all affirmed that money isn’t the concern, but more than $500,000 has methodically been spent on protected vestibules for each of the buildings and SRO’s for the district. Furthermore, none of the Fifth District schools possess entry metal detectors, but the trio did note that metal detectors had been previously discussed and would someday be addressed again for Trigg County.
A Marshall County native, Superintendent Bill Thorpe was working for the district in Draffenville that difficult 2018 morning, when Gabe Parker opened fire and killed students Preston Cope and Bailey Holt. He said Trigg County’s protocol, perceived chaotic, actually worked well.
All major disciplinary actions fall under the purview of executive session, and are not open to the public.
Trigg County High School teachers Matt Harper and Mikayla Hopson made their familiar pitch for “The Shake” competition, in which 200 freshman and sophomores are going to compete against each other in a series of soft-skill and interpersonal communications challenges for an ultimate prize. However, the three-day on-campus meet has been moved from April to May 7-9, in order to better accommodate the Cadiz Rotary Club and its members, who will provide a battery of support.
Delivering his annual STAR Summary Report, Trigg County Intermediate Principal Brian Futrell noted aptitude and learning has increased across the board in both reading and mathematics. From Fall 2023 to Winter 2024, reading proficient-distinguished rose from 52% to 58%, and mathematics went from 48% to 56%. Novice in reading dropped from 25% to 19%, and in mathematics from 32% to 21%.
The focus, he added, has been “gap” kids, or students that have been incrementally close from leaping one testing score to another. Twice-week tutoring with 40 students has helped.
Graduation was approved for 7 PM Tuesday, May 21, in Trigg County’s Wildcat Gymnasium.
And board members unanimously approved staying with their current insurance provider, Lake Barkley Insurance. This comes two weeks after three companies, including Higgins Insurance, reportedly made strong pitches to officials. Chief Finance Officer Holly Greene said all three presentations were effective, and thus left the board to decide not through recommendation, but themselves. Rufli, and others, agreed that local business would be the best fit, and opted to keep things as is.