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'Not the answer': Proposed resolution would create task force to review, possibly split JCPS

The newly filed House resolution would create a task force to review districts with more than 75,000 students.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky lawmakers are proposing an oversight task force for Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS).

The newly filed House resolution would create a task force to review districts with more than 75,000 students.

JCPS is the only district in the state that would meet that qualification.

It would be called the Efficient and Effective School District Governance Task Force and made up of lawmakers, someone from the state auditor’s office, the Louisville mayor’s office, and appointed members who live in Louisville.

The resolution would also explore options to create new school districts from a district with that number of students.

"There is a lot of big challenges, a lot of big issues around JCPS," Former JCPS School Board Member Sam Corbett said. "But in my opinion, breaking up the school system into two or three school districts is not the answer."

Corbett said the ideas of breaking up JCPS may seem simple on paper, but two main issues jump out to him. The first is how to make it equitable for all 96,000 students, and the second is how to divide up the money.

"JCPS is funding primarily through property tax and occupational tax," he said. "Based upon the different values of properties around the county, one part of the county has higher priced values than the other parts of the county, so it's clearly going to be a challenge to make sure the funding and the entire model is equitable."

This past December, Rep. Jason Nemes said legislators have not called for the splitting of JCPS but wants a group of experts to study it.

Republicans had penned a letter in August suggesting the district be split after the district shut down more than a week to address busing issues during the first week of school.

A spokesperson for JCPS responded to the possible creation of the task force stating:

"We are fine with an objective, unbiased study of JCPS and how we might better serve students. We have been repeatedly studied, audited, and evaluated since Dr. Pollio took office. However, this task force is obviously stacked in a way to come to a pre-ordained conclusion, that is, to split up JCPS. Dr. Pollio, and anyone who truly understands education governance, is excluded from the task force, and that says it all."

"I think people realize how important it is to have the most successful public school system that we can," Corbett said. "The question I have is: would an action like this, if in fact this went forward and there was serious discussion about breaking the district up…would Dr. Pollio choose to do something different?"

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