Louisville parents suggest charter school should replace 2 schools shuttered by JCPS budget cuts

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Community members in the Shawnee neighborhood held a small news conference Wednesday at King Elementary School, speaking out against the announced closure of two schools in the district and making a strong push for the opening of a charter school instead.

All of Betty Bailey's children attended King Elementary and, as a former parent the school, she said closing Zachary Taylor and King elementary schools hurts students, parents and the community as a whole.

"We are outraged," Bailey said. "This is our community. This is our school ... the only elementary school within the Shawnee community. This impacts all of us."

For months, the Jefferson County School Board went back and forth about whether to close Zachary Taylor and King elementary schools or keep them open. The board made the final decision on the closures at Tuesday night's board meeting.

Students at Zachary Taylor and King will finish out the year but they'll have new school assignments by next school year.

Families with children who attend King can choose between Kennedy and Maupin, or they can choose public schools further away in Doss, Fairdale, Iroquois, PRP and Valley zones. Magnet schools Brandeis, Brown, Coleridge-Taylor, Hawthorne, Lincoln and the Traditional Magnet are also options, but public school transportation wouldn't be available. 

Zachary Taylor families can choose between Brandeis, Brown, Coleridge-Taylor, Hawthorne, Lincoln and the Traditional magnet schools. Their public school options would be the following schools in the Ballard Elementary Zone: Chancey, Dunn, Norton Commons, Norton, Portland and Wilder.

Bailey and other Shawnee neighborhood community members said instead of closing King, a charter school should be put in its place.

Ray Barker, who has numerous board meetings, said he sees charter schools as a way for the Shawnee community to fund a school program that they care about.

"It gives this community, the Shawnee community of west Louisville, the opportunity to say 'Wherever you're short, we'll put in," Barker said. "So I'm looking forward to that day where we'll be able to flex and say 'We care enough that I'm willing to put my own skin in the game.'"

Charter schools are often funded with public dollars but operated privately with fewer regulations than public schools. Legislation passed in 2017 made charter schools legal in Kentucky. In 2022, lawmakers passed a law to allow state and local money to fund charter schools, but it was ruled unconstitutional. In 2024, voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have allowed state funding to be used for non-public schools.

Kentucky is currently waiting on a Kentucky Supreme Court decision that would amend the state constitution to make it legal for non-public schools to be funded with state money. There are currently no charter schools in Kentucky.

Board member Gail Logan Strange fully opposes the charter school idea.

"This would be taking away resources that public schools desperately need," she said. 

Rhyme and rhythm to JCPS budget decision-making 

Throughout the budget process, board members said they would try to cut administrative positions from the top, making every effort to minimize impact to student learning as much as they could. 

The board approved an early-stage budget that cuts $142 million, getting rid of some programs that support students.

Although positions were eliminated, there were a handful of new positions added. Those positions include a:

• Chief Business Officer
• Executive Officer of Communications and Community Relations
• Chief of Strategy & Innovation
• Executive Officer of Student Support & Community Engagement
• Executive Officer of Accountability, Research and Systems Improvement

And the Chief Equity Officer role will be renamed to the Chief Opportunity & Access Officer.

Additional positions in areas like finance, information and ECE will be created and report to new and existing chiefs.

Bailey said the board is juggling, renaming positions and creating positions rather than getting rid of them. She said the school closures do the exact opposite than what they told community members they would do.

"Anyone that's making over $100,000 annually — meaning you're making three times as much as our teachers, than anyone who is actually hands-on with our students — they could've taken cuts," Bailey said. "If we wanted to start anywhere, we could've started there."

She also said the district could have explored fundraising options.

JCPS spokesperson Carolyn Callahan said the district reviewed the overall physical condition of schools in the district and the operational cost it takes to run the buildings when deciding what schools would close.  She said academic performance wasn't a factor when deciding whether to close King and Zachary Taylor schools. 

The Kentucky Department of Education shows 9% of King students are proficient in reading and four percent are proficient in math. At Zachary Taylor, 27% of students are proficient at reading and 21% are proficient at math. 

Community member Richard Whitlock Jr. said the scoring is a reflection of JCPS' longstanding struggle to create stable learning environments and connect to students from low-income backgrounds. 

"JCPS is having a challenge teaching poor kids across the board, no matter what color they are: Black, brown or white," Whitlock said. "It's a social issue. It's something that's a whole lot bigger than our little students. It's a whole lot bigger than our great teachers and educators that we have. I think that it may be bigger than JCPS,. It's about exposing young people to a higher level of education."

Whitlock said resources are lacking, pointing out students can't even take their books home. He said the lack of arts, extracurricular learning and magnet and traditional programs all depreciate the quality of education that JCPS offers, resulting in limitations of academic exposure. 

In response to Whitlock's criticisms, Callahan wrote in an email, "JCPS has teams in place to work with all students and families throughout the district. Family Resource and Youth Services Centers (FRYSCs) are located in JCPS schools, and each center works to meet the needs of both students and families in its school community. FRYSCs focus on removing barriers to learning so all students can become academically proficient."

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