Staff report
GLASGOW — The Barren County Board of Education called a special meeting Thursday night to take care of two items of business.
The first was to approve a memorandum of understanding for the “Race to the Top” grant application. This federal grant is an effort by the state of Kentucky to secure up to $175 million of which half will go to districts to work on such important issues as: benchmark standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the workplace; recruiting, developing, retaining and rewarding effective teachers and principals; building data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practices; and turning around the lowest-performing schools.
Senate Bill 1 that was passed in the 2009 session of the Kentucky General Assembly, enables Kentucky to address many of the aspects of the “Race to the Top” guidelines and this grant would probably go a long way in providing for this work, according to Dr. Jerry Ralston, Barren County Schools superintendent.
Ralston, along with board chairman Robbie Toms and local education president Kelley Ross, signed the document Thursday night.
“If funding becomes available, it is the district’s full intent to involve everyone in a collaborative effort to develop the scope of work in the grant proposal,” Ralston said in a district release.
In other business, the board conducted two student hearings that were related to a disciplinary situation. At the request of the parents, the hearings were conducted in closed session and any actions taken by the board remain confidential.
