The legislature’s Office of Education Accountability on Monday presented a report on the state’s public education funding formula and how changes to the formula could affect equity at a meeting of the School Funding Task Force.

The report examined the SEEK (Supporting Education Excellence in Kentucky) formula and offered multiple possible changes that would create more equitable funding across the state.

Some of the options include creating an add-on for rural districts, giving more funding for special needs students, those living in poverty or those at-risk, or basing funding on district membership instead of average daily attendance.

Most of the hypothetical changes would shift state funding from property-rich districts to property-poor districts in most rural areas of the state.

The report, commissioned by the legislature, was designed to reallocate the current funding but researchers also included the cost to the state if certain scenarios were newly funded. One example of a change with additional funding is adjusting the SEEK base funding for inflation. That change would cost the state $613 million.

The report also includes an interactive tool that allows users to make changes to the SEEK formula and see the impact the changes would have on state funding for local districts.

The School Funding Task Force will meet on Oct. 18 to hear a presentation from the Kentucky Department of Education on non-resident student funding.

A Franklin Circuit judge ruled last week that a new law allowing private school tuition to be paid for by education opportunity accounts (EOA) is unconstitutional.

The law, passed as part of House Bill 563 in the 2021 legislative session, allowed $25 million a year in tax credits for those who donate to the accounts. The accounts in turn could be used to pay for private school tuition in counties with more than 90,000 residents and other educational expenses in the remaining counties.

The Council for Better Education, a nonprofit made up of Kentucky school districts, along with several public school parents filed the lawsuit in June. As of this week, 120 school boards have approved a resolution supporting the lawsuit.

Judge Phillip Shepherd said in his ruling that the law violates the state constitution in several ways including that state funds cannot be spent to support private schools without voter approval.

Shepherd also noted that allowing the EOAs to be used for private school tuition in some counties but not others violates the Rose decision which said the state must provide adequate and equal educational opportunities for all children.

“In this case, even if the funding of a private school tuition with tax credits could pass constitutional muster, the blatant geographic discrimination that limits such educational opportunity to children in the eight most populous counties of Kentucky cannot withstand even the most minimal constitutional scrutiny,” he wrote.

The decision stops the Kentucky Department of Revenue from awarding the tax credits. Proponents of the law, including the Institute for Justice, a libertarian-leaning law firm, and EdChoice KY, which lobbied for the bill, vowed to appeal the decision.

Board members who serve on the Kentucky Department of Education’s Local School Board Member Advisory Council (LSBMAC) will meet at 1 p.m. ET on Thursday.

The meeting will be the first time the council has met in more than a year. Education Commissioner Jason Glass has appointed four new representatives to the council, they are; Brenda Rose of Whitley Co., Johar Rajiv of Muhlenberg Co., Ruschelle Hamilton of Breathitt Co. and Brandon Rutherford of Madison Co.

The new members join David Webster of Simpson Co., Christina Dressler of Bowling Green Ind., Diane Berry of Nelson Co., Linda Duncan of Jefferson Co., Julia Fischer of Newport Ind., Larry Dodson of Oldham Co., Joanna Freels of Shelby Co., Carl Wicklund of Kenton Co. and Charlie Wise of Hardin Co.

The council is designed for locally elected board members to give the department feedback on how initiatives and decisions made at the state level affect school boards and districts.

The meeting will be held via video teleconference and streamed live. The agenda includes presentations on learning recovery and the future of public education in Kentucky.

Registration for board members and administrators is now open for the 2022 Winter Symposium (Dec. 3-4 at the Louisville Marriott Downtown). This event marks the last in-person training opportunity of the year. Click the button below to begin easy online registration. Visit the Winter Symposium page of KSBA’s website for access to special conference-rate hotel accommodations and more helpful information.

Download a full schedule of KSBA’s 2022 Winter Symposium (complete with hard copy registration form).

Nominations for KSBA’s inaugural School Board Member of the Year (BMOY) Award are currently being accepted. The new award honors exemplary service of association members and celebrates the critical roles school boards play in the advancement of public education in Kentucky. Serving as the association’s highest individual honor, winners will be selected based on their contributions in areas such as advocacy, leadership and student achievement. The 2022 winner will be honored on stage at KSBA’s 2022 Annual Conference in February.

Online nominations must be submitted no later than 5 p.m. (ET) on Friday, Dec. 10. View/download BMOY Award criteria and instructions.

KSBA is seeking interested candidates to fill four director-at-large seats on our board of directors for a three-year term. The four director-at-large seats are currently occupied by:

Members of the KSBA Board of Directors focus their efforts on the shared interests of all Kentucky’s local public school districts as well as the health and relevancy of the association. In keeping with the association’s bylaws, any Kentucky school board member in good standing may place his or her name before KSBA’s Selection Committee by completing and submitting the online application by Nov. 1. The committee will make selections based on application information and interviews.

View full director-at-large criteria and complete an online application.

While KSBA’s 2022 Annual Conference (Feb. 25-27) is still months away, association staff members are hard at work planning another meaningful weekend of training, networking and collegiality. Visit KSBA’s 2022 Annual Conference page for regular updates and important event information.

District involvement is at the heart of what makes KSBA events successful. We invite school districts and education leaders to participate in one or more of the following ways:

KSBA is now accepting breakout session proposals for the 2022 Annual Conference. Topics should relate to the roles and responsibilities of public school board teams. View/download our session proposal form. All submissions must be received by Nov. 29.

Student performances throughout KSBA’s Annual Conference provide districts a unique opportunity to showcase the talents of students in front of hundreds of our Commonwealth’s board members, administrators and public education advocates. View/download a 2022 student involvement form. Submissions must be received by Nov. 29.

Arguably our most popular annual conference tradition, KSBA will once again display banner artwork depicting the conference theme. We invite each district to submit a student-designed banner for display in conference materials and in the banner gallery area. The banners serve as a powerful reminder of schools’ primary focus – learning and learners.

View/download banner instructions and artwork specifications. Following the success of the 2021 banners and overwhelming positive feedback, we are once again requesting all banners be submitted digitally for the 2022 conference. Rather than mailing in a physical banner, we are asking districts to send us a digital version that can be used in communications, displayed around the convention center, included in the app and so much more.

KSBA's 2021 Regional Meeting tour is well underway. Your association hits the road for the final five meetings beginning Oct. 19. The remaining meetings include:

More details, including meeting times and locations are available via the Regional Meeting page of KSBA's website. Districts receive emailed invitations to their respective regional meetings from the host district/regional chair in the weeks prior to each meeting.

Not sure which region your district belongs to? View a listing of districts by region. If you have a conflict on the date of your assigned region’s meeting, you may request to attend another region’s meeting by contacting the host region directly.

Nominations are now open for KSBA's 2022 First Degree Scholarships. Once again, the association will provide four college-bound high school seniors each with $2,500 scholarships for the pursuit of postsecondary degrees. As the name suggests, scholarship recipients will be the first in their immediate families to complete a postsecondary degree.

New this year, KSBA is excited to announce we will also be awarding at least 24 career and technical education (CTE) scholarships to Kentucky public high school students (one male and one female student in each of KSBA’s 12 regions). CTE scholarships will fund Industry Certification assessments for students still in high school. Eligible nominees come from immediate families whose members (parents, guardians, siblings) have not previously earned a postsecondary degree.

In total, KSBA will award approximately $22,000 in scholarships for students.

Questions about KSBA's scholarship opportunities? Contact Josh Shoulta.

The First Degree Scholarship program is made possible by the generous support of our members, partners and education leadership like you. If you wish to help KSBA strengthen our scholarship offerings, please consider a meaningful gift to the KSBA Educational Foundation. Learn how to give.

KSBA’s final Learn and Earn of 2021 will be at noon (ET) Wednesday, Nov. 10. Join us for “Board Leadership Essentials: Your Public Image,” a one-hour virtual training that meets mandated ethics training requirements for board members.

About the webinar: It’s not just the decisions you make as school board members that impact your district. How you do your job also influences the success of your school system. The image you project depends largely on how the governing body – your school board – conducts its public business. Do you inspire your community, or do you provide regular examples of dysfunction? Being a public official is not easy; often thankless. We can make the experience better by adopting productive habits and focusing on becoming a healthy team.

Districts across the state have struggled this school year to find enough school bus drivers to get students to and from school. See how districts are trying to fill the void in the October issue of the Kentucky School Advocate.

Also in the October Advocate:

KSBA recently wrapped its eight-week guided member book study of "How Not to Be a Terrible School Board Member,” but now all members have an opportunity to discuss topics covered in the text. At noon (ET) Wednesday, Oct. 20, KSBA will present “Breaking Terrible Board Habits,” a free one-hour webinar to discuss several of the themes identified in the book.

Author Richard Mayer, a longtime local school board member and educational psychologist, takes an often-humorous approach to identifying behaviors that impede the important work of school boards. Examples of Mayer’s “terrible habits” include humiliating a district employee in public, coming unprepared to board meetings, arguing with a hostile speaker and taking political stands.

This short webinar, facilitated by KSBA trainer and former Jefferson County school board member Debbie Wesslund, is open to all members, not just those who took part in the association’s book study. Participants can earn one hour of elective board training credit for taking part in the webinar. Click the button below to register. Registration is required and space is limited.

This edition of KSBA Aware is made possible in part