The Christian County School Board approved a new logo and new mission statement for the district, and heard the draft budget for fiscal year 2020-2021 at Thursday’s meeting.
Director of Finance Jessica Darnall explained that the draft budget is the first step in a three-part budget system the school system utilizes, and a lot is still in question for this draft budget. It will become clearer as they start hearing more about a budget being passed by the General Assembly, grant funding starts being approved and it remains difficult to predict revenues due to COVID-19. For now, she says SEEK funding appears unchanged from the previous year and the carry forward amount of approximately $7 million.
No approval was needed for the draft budget, but she will bring back a more fleshed out budget for approval in both May and September. The board also heard the audit report for fiscal year 2019-2020, with Anna Herr with Duguid, Gentry and Associates saying the district received a ‘clean’ opinion on their audit.
The new branding and logo were unveiled at the meeting, which the administration is hopeful will help relay to the community their desire to make CCPS the best district it can be for both students and the community. Secondary Instructional Supervisor Kadi Ralston says it was time to create a new mission statement for the district and hopefully it will become recognizable in the community.
Superintendent Chris Bentzel gave an update on the reopening plan—students returned to in-person learning Tuesday—and says that this week was focused on catching up on missing assignments to help students get back on track.
Bentzel says there are too many failing grades in the school district, especially in middle and high schools, which is a problem facing all districts in Kentucky as they work to correct loss of learning due to the pandemic and the issues caused by remote learning. He says there could be possibilities for education during the summer, if a student needs it to get where they are supposed to be to go forward into the next school year.