Education

University of Louisville officials say a buyout plan under consideration could lead to the retirement of twice as many faculty members this year.

The university is offering the buyout program—being called the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program—to save the school about $2.5 million.

But the program first needs participants or U of L will decide not to offer it. Eligible faculty and staff have until March 15 to decide whether they want to opt in. The program would then need approval by U of L’s board of trustees.

FRANKFORT — Supporters of charter schools in Kentucky rallied Thursday at the Capitol Rotunda as a bill in the General Assembly makes its way through the legislative process. 

“I feel like the education isn’t good and they’re just warehousing kids to be on the streets, sort of like a daycare for kids.  We not getting any education, and I feel like a charter school would help that,” said James Yarbrough, a student at a school classified by the state as low-achieving and one of the rally participants.

Leaderships audits conducted for seven of Jefferson County Public Schools' 18 lowest-performing schools were presented to the district Wednesday and the results show principals in those schools have the capacity to continue leading their turnaround efforts.

The Kentucky Department of Education's leadership audits are performed every two years for the state's 41 "priority" schools, which are schools that have persistently performed at the lowest level statewide.

For the first time this year Kentucky will use a new formula to determine public school graduation rates, which officials say should provide schools and districts with better data to improve their support for student achievement.

The plan to improve connections between Jefferson County Public Schools and local community organizations has received a positive response so far, Superintendent Donna Hargens days.

JCPS has been developing an initiative called Louisville Linked to connect students with community-based organizations that could work with them outside of school. The idea is to house data from the area’s CBOs that should help the district manage and grow the efforts of dozens of organizations looking to improve education.