The Superintendents Advisory Council met on March 15 to hear updates from Kentucky Department of Education leaders about ongoing district and school support efforts. Photo by Wallace Caleb Bates, March 15, 2023
The Superintendents Advisory Council (SAC) met on March 15 to hear updates from Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) leaders about ongoing district and school support efforts across the state.
Tara Rodriguez, director of the Division of School and Program Improvement within KDE’s Office of Continuous Improvement and Support, discussed KDE’s efforts to monitor how districts use their Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding.
KDE monitored 17 districts in 2021 and 14 districts in 2022. Rodriguez said her division plans to monitor 14 additional districts starting this summer, for a cumulative total of 45 districts.
She said districts are selected for monitoring through a risk assessment.
She mentioned some of the common findings in ESSER monitoring and reiterated KDE’s commitment to ensuring accountability with public funds. Among the positives found was districts were using funds to enrich students learning and engaging with communities to determine needs and figure out how the funds will be spent.
“We’ve just seen a real interest in addressing learning loss,” she said.
In other business, the council:
- Received a legislative update from Brian Perry, director of government relations at KDE;
- Received an update regarding construction, facilities and related legislation from Chay Ritter, director of the Division of District Support within KDE’s Office of Finance and Operations; and
- Received an update from David Millanti, assistant director of the Division of School and Program Improvement within KDE’s Office of Continuous Improvement and Support regarding the department’s monitoring protocol.
The council plans to meet again on May 17.
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