Superintendent Caulk Reflects on Growth at Fayette County Schools

by Emmanuel Caulk, Superintendent of Fayette County Public Schools

The 2019-20 school year is off to a great start in the Fayette County Public Schools. I am especially excited to share that we have reached a new record high in our enrollment numbers – with an increase of at least 650 more children attending our schools – pushing our district close to 43,000 students.

It is inspiring to see our action plans come to life as we expand opportunities for our students with the opening of our two Promise Academies and our 37th elementary school. Renovation is underway on a permanent home for both the STEAM Academy and Success Academy in a shared space on Georgetown Road, while we continue to work with community partners to ensure that all students are prepared for any future they imagine for themselves.

This year marks the beginning of my second year contract as FCPS superintendent. I am proud of the work we have done in just four years and I am committed to working with students, employees, families, staff and the community to accomplish even more.

For the past two weeks, I have been out of the office after undergoing surgery. Everything went well and I will return to work on Tuesday.

Every child born represents a promise. A promise to love, to protect, to guide, to nurture, to teach.

That is why our district has invested $12.1 million over the past two years to provide a high quality reading and math curriculum and state-of-the-art instructional materials for every classroom in every school in grades K through 12.

And why we have hired 60 more teachers to work with students who have special needs, students who have been identified as gifted and talented, and students whose home language is not English.

In just a few short years, our district has made unprecedented investments in advance equity and opportunity for every student. We have two moral imperatives – to accelerate the learning of our students who have not reached proficiency, while also pushing our already proficient students to become globally competitive.

We are accomplishing both.

At our recent State of the Schools event, I was able to recap some of the amazing accomplishments of our students, employees, schools and district over the past year.

Last year in America, less than .02% of the students who took the ACT scored a perfect 36. Our graduating class included 21 of them – five times the national rate.

While FCPS accounts for roughly 6% of students in the state, 30% of Kentucky’s National Merit Semi-Finalists attend our schools.

When you look at performance on Advanced Placement exams, 72% of Fayette County Public Schools students tested scored a three or better – and that success includes students of different races and socio-economic statuses.

If you compare white students in Fayette County to white students across Kentucky, Hispanic students in Fayette County to Hispanic students across Kentucky, or students living in poverty in Fayette County to students living in poverty across Kentucky, our students earn college credit bearing scores 1.5 times more often. For black students, the rate is 1.75 times greater.

Three times a year we administer a national assessment called Measures of Academic Progress –  known as MAP for short – in order to ensure that our students are mastering the content and skills for each grade level.

Results for last year show that in every grade level K through eight, our students scored higher than the national average in both reading and math.

Our students also posted growth higher than the national average in both reading and math, which tells us that FCPS teachers are helping our students achieve more throughout the course of the school year.

We are especially excited to see the gains made by our youngest students. Last year our kindergarteners showed more growth in math than 99% of the rest of the nation, and more growth in reading than 97% of the country.

Your support and advocacy also made it possible to invest $13.3 million in making our schools the safest place in our communities for students and those who educate them.

In just nine months, we have:

• Employed 24 additional police officers; upgraded equipment, uniforms and vehicles for the police department; and provided implicit bias and positive behavior intervention and support training for all officers.
• Hired 29 racially diverse Mental Health Professionals, who in just the second semester documented more than 6,000 interventions with children.
• Installed 1,700 exterior door alarms, 761 security cameras, 72 camera recorders and electronic door access points at 23 schools. Installed 46 walk-through metal detectors at four high schools, hired security ambassadors and fully implemented daily screening.
• Issued photo ID badges to all middle and high school students, employees and contractors.
• Added a full-time nurse in every high school.
• Designed secure vestibules for 28 schools that do not currently have them, started the capital construction process, conducted bids, and hired a contractor to begin construction in October of 2019.
• Contracted with a social media monitoring company to alert district staff to potential safety or security threats made publicly on social media across multiple platforms, and purchased a new crisis management system so we will be better prepared to handle emergency situations.
• Adopted social-emotional learning curriculums for the elementary, middle and high school levels; distributed more than 3,000 Student Safety and Security Guides for Families; and provided workshops and professional learning opportunities for staff, students and families on a range of safety topics.

The changes we have made in the past three years would normally take a district of our size a decade to implement. We’ve been able to move at this accelerated pace only because of the talent of our employees, the support of our families, the caliber of our students and the commitment of our community.

I look forward to working alongside all of you in the months and years to come to continue delivering on the promise for the students and families we serve.