From the superintendent’s desk…Restoring Confidence in the Tiger’s Roar

Dear Friends,

The Jefferson County Public School system is committed to cultivating positive relationships and continuing the school's focus on meaningful action steps toward our district’s goals for school improvement. Overcoming decades of systematic and academic failure has proven to be a challenging task.
Currently year one into Jefferson County's reorganization back to a public-school entity, the community's state of mind teeters between newfound optimism and unsettling thoughts of yesterday's broken promises. The overwhelming number of disadvantages plaguing our newly reestablished public school district is cause for concern.
To some measure, partaking in a reflective process provides significant insight which allows stakeholders to gauge quantifiable outcomes. At the start of this most recent school year, our data suggested we were seeing signs of significant levels of delayed learning. There was an entire process of just getting students re-acclimated to being in an environment conducive to a quality education. Jefferson County school leaders, teachers and students are engrossed in a transformational course of action designed to generate positive shifts in school culture for the benefit of all students.
The gap between current achievement and historic achievement shows the pandemic’s perpetual impact in addition to drawbacks resulting from Somerset’s fragmented system as relentless reminders of Jefferson County’s need for perseverance.
The good news is student achievement is increasing. Jefferson’s data indicates that our students have surpassed the state average in CTE with a 55% pass rate in ServSafe, 78% pass rate for AEST and a 97% pass rate for Word Press. Additionally, Jefferson County’s high school seniors started the 2022-2023 academic year with a 23% graduation rate which is now projected to be at least 72% by the end of the school year.
Steady growth is evident. While remnants of the seismic disturbances to our children’s development and education haunt us, our confidence is restored by what we have accomplished thus far. When we examine the differences, improvements within Jefferson County’s Public School district are apparent.
As always, I welcome your input and ideas. Please reach out to my Executive Assistant, Taryn Bellflower, with your questions and concerns at: tbellflower@jeffersonschools.net.