Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky)

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Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) is a public school district located in Jefferson County, Kentucky. JCPS has more than 97,000 students attending 150 schools, making it the 28th largest school district in the United States. The school district employs more than 18,000 personnel, located in the schools and in a number of other facilities, including office buildings, bus compounds and workshops. With a fleet of more than 1,500 vehicles, it also operates one of the 10 largest transportation systems in the nation. The JCPS is administered by an elected seven-member Board of Education, responsible for administering a $890 million budget (2006-2007 projection). It additionally selects and hires a Superintendent to act as the chief executive. The current Superintendent is Dr. Stephen Daeschner, hired in 1993. In 2006, the Board of Education voted to not renew Daeschner's contract beyond the 2006-2007 school year.

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[edit] Board of Education

The seven members of the Jefferson County Board of Education (JCBE) are elected by general election to four-year terms. Each board member is responsible for an area of Jefferson County and the schools contained therein. The Superintendent serves as secretary to the Board at all meetings. The current board members are (in order of district number) Ann V. Elmore, Stephen Imhoff (vice-chair), Patrick O'Leary, Joseph L. Hardesty (chair), Linda Duncan, Carol A. Haddad and Larry Hujo.

[edit] History

[edit] Louisville Public School District (1829-1974)

On April 24, 1829, the City of Louisville established the first public schools for children under sixteen years of age. A board of trustees was selected, and Dr. Mann Butler was selected as the first head. The first school began operation in the upper story of a Baptist Church on the SW corner of Fifth and Green Streets (now Liberty Street). The next year, the first public school building in the Louisville Public School District was erected at Fifth and Walnut (now Muhammed Ali Blvd). This property was purchased from one of the trustees for $2,100. Though Louisville's charter called provided for the establishment of free schools, the school established at Fifth and Walnut charged primary grades $1.00 per quarter of instruction and all other grades $1.50. Tuition was waived if the trustees felt a child was unable to pay. Instruction was given using the Lancastrian system of teaching, wherein higher-level students taught the younger while the teacher and assistants supervised and instructed these higher-level students.

After a few years, the state granted half of the property of the Jefferson Seminary for use in constructing a "High School College." By 1838, the city of Louisville had a full-service school system. Tuition was abolished for all Louisville residents in 1851, and 1856, Male High School and Female High School opened their doors. From 1851 until 1871, 17 schools were erected on 20 lots. School enrollment grew from 4,303 at the beginning of that time period to 13,503 at the end. In 1870, the first public schools in the city for African Americans were established in the Center Street African Methodist Church and the First Street African Baptist Church. The first school building for African American students was dedicated on October 7, 1873. At the end of the 1896-7 school year, enrollment reached 26,242 (20,559 white, 5,683 black). Ten years later (1907-8), the school system's enrollment was 29,211 (23,458 white, 5,753 black). In 1912, the Louisville Public School District began annexing property in Jefferson County which had already been annexed by city government, bringing enrollment to 45,841 (33,831 white, 12,010 black) by the 1956 school year, the last year of segregated education in the public schools. In its final year as a separate school district, enrollment was 40,939 (19,171 white, 21,768 black).

[edit] Common Schools of Jefferson County/Jefferson County School District (1838-1974)

The Common Schools of Jefferson County school district (CSJC) was established by an act of state legistlature in 1838. As of an 1840 report by the Superintendent of Public Education for the state, there were 30 schools in this district. In this report, the "whole population" of Jefferson County was figured at 36,310, with 5,843 of ages 5 to 15 and 3,744 from 7 to 17. 626 was reported as the number of students "at school." In 1850, 561 children were listed as attending six-month schools and 130 were listed as attending three-month schools. In the 1876-7 school year, 58 schools were reported for white children and 10 for black children.

In 1884, a state Board of Education was created and a county superintendent elected by popular vote to replace the appointed commissioner. In 1920, the County Administration Law was passed by state legislature, requiring the appointment of the superintendent by the Board of Education. Enrollment in the Jefferson County Schools in 1956 (last year of segregation) was 36,308 (34,911 white, 1,397 black). In the last year separate from Louisville Schools, enrollment was 89,405 (84,666 white, 4,739 black).

[edit] Merger and Desegregation

In 1971, several civil rights organizations filed a lawsuit in court asking that the Louisville, Jefferson County and Anchorage school systems be merged. This was because of the large concentration of African Americans in the city school district and extremely low concentration in the other two. These organizations felt that this created conditions similar to that of segregation. In 1974, Judge James F. Gordon ordered the merger of the Louisville and Jefferson County school district, an order followed up by the state Board of Education, which on February 28, 1975, made the merger effective on April 1 of that year. A merger and desegregation plan was created, which included mandatory busing and racial guidelines for school assignments. One of the byproducts of this plan was mandatory busing. The initial plan was for black students to be bused 10 of their 12 years in school and white students to be bused 2 of 12 years. The court ceased active supervision of this plan in 1978.

The racial guidelines used have seen several revisions since that time. In 1984, a plan was instituted for middle and high schools that involved a system of zones and satellite areas. In 1992, Project Renaissance was implemented in the elementary schools, a program that achieved desegregation by allowing parents some choice in school placement. A mandatory 15-50% African-American population in all schools was established in 1996. Two years later, six parents sued to remove the upper limit from Central High School, a traditionally African-American school. On June 10, 1999, Judge John Heyburn II ruled that the 1975 desegregation order was not dissolved in 1978 when court supervision ended. Some elements of that original ruling were still in effect. Additionally, it was ruled that JCPS could use racial classifications to prevent emergence of racially identifiable schools. These proceedings resulted in the use of racial quotas at Central being banned and the school system being required to redesign its admission procedures by the 2002-03 school year.

The segregation order was lifted in 2000, but JCPS maintained the 15-50% guideline in most schools. In 2002, Crystal Meredith filed a lawsuit on behalf of her son, whom she claims was denied enrollment in a school because of race. In October, 2005, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Meredith. In June, 2006, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, the first time the high court has elected to rule on a school district’s use of a voluntary desegregation plan. The case will be combined with a similar one from Seattle, Washington involving that school districts use of a tie-breaker system for school assignment based on race.

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