LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Along with JCPS, students in Hardin County headed back to class Thursday for the first day of the new school year.
Hardin County Schools Superintendent Teresa Morgan told WDRB that administrators are expecting a great year for students and teachers alike. She said she counted about 400 excited kindergarten students at North Park Elementary.
"Our goal is to continue this excitement on to middle school, and you can see that we have a full crowd here creating that excitement, Morgan said.
She said there have been no issues with transportation.
"We are fully staffed with both our bus drivers and monitors, and I will tell you I've had no phone calls, which is always an indication of great success. "I was able to drive in this morning and see students getting on buses."
There won't be a lot of change for students as they get back into the swing of things, Gordon said.
"At Hardin County Schools, we've been working on our 'Portrait of a Learner,' and refinement of what we're doing. So we told our staff we're not going to start any new initiatives. We just want to continue to refine the ones that we had and really put those into place for student success."
More students have needed to take advantage of speech services in the district, Morgan said, and she attributes that to young children spending too much time in front of electronic devices instead of interacting with humans.
"When you put a screen in front of your children, just keep in mind they are not seeing your mouth move and they're not having that two-way conversation -- they're doing a lot of listening, but not a lot of talking," Morgan said. "So we just encourage our parents to increase that two-way communication. Make sure to smile with your children, talk with them, and give them the opportunity to talk with you -- incredibly important for their foundational skills."
Students need the "human factor" that has been replaced by machines, Morgan said. "They need that up close and personal -- you know, read books to your children, discuss vocabulary with them. Just have those positive interactions. I think that will make a huge increase in the preparedness we have for our students."
Staff at Bluegrass Middle School in Hardin County was "excited to welcome about 615 students back," principal Mark Webster said Thursday morning.
As for the new statewide cellphone policy prohibiting students from using phones during classes, Webster said they are ahead of the game on that issue.
"Really, that's old hat for us," Webster said. "We started a cellphone ban as a site-based policy three years ago. Students are not allowed to have their phones from 8 o'clock to 3 o'clock, which is the time that school is in session. And it took about two weeks for our classes to get really acclimated to that. And it's been smooth sailing ever since."
The school will continue to instill "our three core values of family, success and respect and they can start living those out, and then they know what our expectations are," Webster said, adding that fostering a culture where every kid feels like they belong has led to an average attendance rate of 95 percent.
"That's why family is our number one core value," Webster said, adding: "our little tagline for that is you belong here. So we've created an environment where about 95% of our students on average come to school every day."
For the students who are chronically absent, "we intervene with our family resource coordinator, our counselors and one of our assistant principals and really reach out and make sure that they know that we miss them and we're excited for them to come back," Webster said, adding there are high expectations from students for the coming year.
Related Coverage:
Thousands of JCPS students return to class Thursday on first day of school
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