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Autumn Geraghty, a functional mental disability (FMD) teacher at Ahrens Work Transition Program, has been selected as one of three finalists for the 2016 Kentucky Special Education Teacher of the Year Award. The award is one of the highest honors available to Kentucky’s teachers of students with disabilities.
Geraghty, who began her teaching career as an FMD teacher at Fairdale High School, has served as a Special Olympics coach in basketball and cheerleading and helped develop a Peer Tutoring program for high school juniors and seniors, some of whom are now teachers.
Geraghty said she developed a love of teaching as a young girl while helping in her mother’s classroom. “Each time I see a student reach a goal that they thought they couldn’t reach, their success motivates me to be a better teacher,” she said.
As a teacher in the Ahrens, she works with students ages 18 to 21, connecting them with employers, social contacts and community resources to help them transition to post-school adult life.
The recipient of the Special Education Teacher of the Year award will be announced Monday, Nov. 21 during the fall Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children conference being held in Louisville.
The initial period for students to apply for enrollment in the Jefferson County Public School (JCPS) District for the 2017-18 school year is now underway. The application period launched October 31 and ends January 6.
Applications should be submitted for the following students:
- All children entering kindergarten
- Elementary school students who wish to apply to an optional/magnet program or school
- Students entering or currently in middle school or high school who wish to apply to an optional/magnet program or school
- Students for whom an application was previously submitted but whose family has since moved, thus creating a need to resubmit using the new address
- Students entering a Jefferson County public school for the first time
Families should register by visiting the JCPS website and clicking Register & Apply on the homepage. Applications can also be submitted at the JCPS Parent Assistance Center at 4309 Bishop Lane.
For the first time, JCPS has also launched a predictability tool for families to use when making their choice among elementary schools within their cluster. Parents can answer a few questions online and receive information on how likely applicants with similar circumstances received their first choice in the past.
Additionally, the JCPS Mobile Registration Bus will hit the road this week in an effort to help students and their families register for the 2017-18 school year.
The bus, which is equipped with laptops and Internet access, will make its first of 16 stops on Tuesday, Nov. 1, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., at the George Unseld Early Childhood Learning Center (5216 Ilex Ave.). A complete list of JCPS Mobile Registration Bus stops is available online here.
Families also have the opportunity to tour prospective schools during an open house or tour. The schedules for elementary, middle and high schools are available here.
Parents who have questions regarding the school registration process may call the JCPS Parent Assistance Center at 485-6250.
Doss High School faculty and students joined local manufacturers and community leaders last Friday to announce the creation of the school’s new Manufacturing Engineering Technology program. The program aims to expand the manufacturing workforce pipeline with students who understand emerging technologies, and exposes young people to the significant career opportunities available in advanced manufacturing.
Anchored by the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council’s (MSSC) Certified Production Technician Training Program (CPT), students completing the program will earn certifications already identified by nearly 100 local industries as the skills and knowledge needed by front-line production technicians.
“Very few high school programs exist that are dedicated to preparing students with the variety of skills needed to directly enter manufacturing upon graduation, and even fewer high schools partner with local businesses to match learning with workforce needs,” said Doss Principal Marty Pollio. “This project offers training and advancement opportunities for student who want to work, learn and earn in a manufacturing field.”
Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow, a member institute of Manufacturing USA, along with local manufacturing companies GE Appliances, Republic Conduit and Louisville Ford Assembly Plant, as well as local United Auto Workers with Ford, have committed both financial and in-kind support to develop and implement the program.
“Doss High School and JCPS are showing great leadership by implementing this program which directly ties education and training with workforce needs,” said Chip Blankenship, GE Appliances president & CEO. “Programs like this are essential to providing manufacturing companies in Greater Louisville with the talent we need to run and grow our operations while providing good career opportunities for our citizens.”
The partnership with these organizations, as well as with KentuckianaWorks, will enable Doss to offer students who choose this program of study:
- a four-course program of study in Manufacturing Engineering Technology Technician;
- development of a hands-on laboratory equipped with trainers that align to the skills required for MSSC-Certified Production Technician certification;
- experience and training that develop employability skills for personal success and safety, as well as manufacturing organizational skills;
- opportunities to complete a work-based learning experience with a local manufacturer before completing the program of study; and
- opportunities to earn industry-recognized certifications, including MSSC-Certified Production Technician Certification and the National Career Readiness Certificate.
Manufacturers in the United States are facing a steep skills gap. According to a recent Deloitte study, as many as 2 million manufacturing jobs may go unfilled by 2025, a trend being experienced in the Greater Louisville area.
George Ella Lyon’s term as Kentucky Poet Laureate has only a few months remaining, but the Harlan County native’s story collection project, “‘Where I’m From’: A Poetry of Place,” will live beyond her tenure as the state’s literary ambassador.
Lyon’s goal with the project is to collect, from each of Kentucky’s 120 counties, individual stories fashioned on “Where I’m From,” her iconic 1993 poem that has been used as a model for poetry writing in communities around the world.
Groups in several Kentucky communities have accepted Lyon’s challenge with enthusiasm. Janine Musser of the Appalachian Heritage Alliance in Campton has collected a dozen poems from women of a wide range of ages and backgrounds. She also leads a group of senior women that meet once a month to collaborate on a group poem.
“‘Where I’m From’ is a beautiful way to realize that each of our personal stories is a poem, and the simplicity of the format gives the encouragement to write it,” Musser said. “In my community, where the oral tradition is the standard of remembering, ‘Where I’m From’ has served as a reminder that it is important to write it down to preserve a way of life that is no longer common. It also reminds us that you don’t have to be a scholar to write your own story.”
Suszanne Jones, a paraeducator for the Morehead Youth Development Center, which serves at-risk young women between the ages of 15 and 18, said the poem has been helpful to her students. Jones herself wrote a “Where I’m From” poem, adding hers to the 11 contributed by young women at the center. The exercise was enlightening for students and staff.
“In the students own words, their lives were a touchy subject, and for others it forced them to remember things that they had forgotten, and it made them cherish them even more,” Jones said. “Our greatest and most appreciated responses, though, were from our staff. It opened a door for many of them into our students’ backgrounds.”
The project has been helpful in educating the community at-large about her students, Jones said.
“Many people, though I cannot speak broadly for all, see our students as criminals, truants and sometimes bad kids. This project isn’t going to change that overnight, but it did allow some people to see, through their written words, that these students are just like any other teenager. They remember sweet memories of where they came from. It also allowed us to see a small glimpse of the hurt and feeling of being unwanted.”
People interested in participating in the “Where I’m From” project can do so by emailing their county contact. If there is no contact listed for your county or you are interested in being the county contact, email Tamara Coffey, individual artist director, at tamara.coffey@ky.gov.
Louisville’s adult population has set a new record for college attainment, according to 2015 data released this week from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Highlights of the data include: The percentage of working-age adults with at least an associate degree now stands at 44.7 percent, up 3 percentage points over the previous year.
The percentage with at least a bachelor’s degree was also up to 35.7 percent, a 2.4 percentage point increase.
In addition, in the annual ranking of 15 “Peer Cities” tracked by the organization, Louisville moved up to the No. 9 position for adults with at least an associate’s degree, passing Greensboro, N.C. These are the most significant gains since 55,000 Degrees was created in 2010.
“This is the kind of news we’ve been working toward,” said Mary Gwen Wheeler, the executive director of 55,000 Degrees, Louisville’s education movement. “We are optimistic for the future as our partners continue to make positive progress toward our community goal. Louisville is continually developing the type of workforce we need for a 21st Century economy. There is still work to be done – we can’t get complacent.”
55,000 Degrees started six years ago, with a simple goal: By 2020, 50 percent of working-age adults in Louisville should have at least an associate degree. In 2010, just 40.1 percent of Louisville adults had a college degree.
“To compete in today’s economy, you need a highly skilled workforce,” said Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, chairman of the 55,000 Degrees board. “We are encouraged to see progress being made, but we know we have to keep working.”
Education attainment has become a key measure of whether cities have the skilled workforce needed for a 21st Century economy. Growth in college attainment comes from increasing the percentage of high school graduates who go on to complete college degrees, from encouraging adult workers to return to school, and from attracting college-graduates to the region because of quality of life and work opportunities.
Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) will hold its annual Showcase of Schools this weekend, offering parents and students a convenient opportunity to visit with JCPS staff and representatives of each school and get information about optional and magnet programs before deciding which school the student will attend next year.
The Showcase will feature all grades – elementary, middle and high – during both days of the two-day event. The Showcase will be held from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28, and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29. This year, the Showcase will be held at the Kentucky Exposition Center, South Wing B, 937 Phillips Lane. The Showcase is relocating temporarily while the Kentucky International Convention Center in downtown Louisville is under renovation.
Representatives from the Optional, Magnet and Advance Programs Office; Student Assignment; Transportation; Parent Teacher Association (PTA); and Demographics will also be available to answer questions and explain application procedures to parents.
“We’re proud of the many choices that JCPS offers and we want all of our students engaged in the choice process,” said Dr. Donna Hargens, JCPS superintendent. “The Showcase is an excellent way for parents and students to learn about JCPS, get an overview of the district and compare the program offerings designed to address the varied interests of our diverse student population.”
The online registration/ application period for the 2017/2018 school years is Monday, Oct. 31, 2016 to Friday, Jan. 6, 2017.
Regular day-of-event parking rate of $8 per vehicle will apply. For more information on the Showcase, call 485-3323. For more information on the online application process, call 485-6250.
The Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) today announced six new research fellows. Each fellow will receive monetary support to conduct research for a time of one to four weeks at KHS in Frankfort.
Recipients include:
Fall 2016 Scholarly Research Fellowships
- J. Matthew Gallman, University of Florida, “Kentucky Democrats and Family Politics: The Strange Case of ‘Willie’ Weller
- Robert P. Murray, Mercy College, “Slavery Times in Kentucky Redux”
- Jonathan W. White, Christopher Newport University, “Abraham Lincoln and the Slave Trade”
2016 Oral History Research Fellowship
- Rebecca Hasselbeck, University of California – Irvine, “Behind the Tracks: Social and Labor Relations in the United States Horse Racing Industry”
2016 Churchill Weavers Fellowships
- Ricki Dwyer, independent scholar, “Weaving in Contemporary Culture”
- Maggie Leininger, University of Louisville – Hite Art Institute, “Churchill Weavers and Textile Industrialization”
The Research Fellowship Program is funded by the Kentucky Historical Society Foundation. The program encourages and promotes advanced research on all aspects of Kentucky-related local, regional, national, transnational and comparative history using KHS collections. More information is at history.ky.gov/research-fellowships/.