JCPS celebrates the last day of school looking ahead to 'the most important summer' in nearly 50 years

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Jefferson County Public Schools students left Thursday afternoon for the start of summer vacation. When they return in August, things will be a bit different across the district.

Superintendent Marty Pollio outlined some of those changes during an end-of-the-year news conference Thursday at Johnson Traditional Middle School. New schools, a new student assignment plan, new start times and a weapons detection system will all go into effect at varying levels by the end of the summer.

"The summer of 2023 is the most important summer in JCPS since 1976," Pollio said.

He said through all the changes, the district is working to make the transitions as seamless as possible.

"I know we will step up to make those changes and meet the needs of our kids," he said Thursday. "And I have no doubt that, as a result next year, we will become a much better district with what we're doing over this summer, moving into next summer."

Here is a brief rundown of the changes students and parents can expect for the 2023-24 school year:

Student Assignment Plan:

A new student assignment plan will be in effect next school year with "choice zones," giving families in and near west Louisville and the central business districts options to send their children to middle and high schools closer to their homes. The plan will also align school boundaries with high school enrollment borders to better streamline student progression and expand magnet offerings to a more diverse population of students.

The changes will take begin in August, when the first classes of kindergarten, sixth-grade and ninth-grade students will begin in their new schools based on the revised student assignment plan. But Pollio said the district is aware of some side effects of the plan, and they're preparing for it.

"We've had to build in a support plan because we know there could be concentrations of poverty," he said Thursday. "We want to make sure that those kids who don't have the resources in their home are going to have them in their school."

New Start Times

Pollio said the new start times will help the district with a bus driver shortage and chronic absenteeism. The district said more than 21,000 students have missed classes due to a late bus, adding up to more than 3 million minutes of instruction time lost.

"We know there's gonna be challenges along the way with about 80% of our schools having new start times," Pollio said. "... It's gonna better support our kids when it comes to transportation but also when it comes to making sure our adolescent students — about 30,000 of them — get to sleep a little bit later, which research shows has positive impacts."

Right now, middle and high school instruction starts at 7:40 a.m., while elementary schools start at 9:05 a.m. The plan includes nine different start times ranging from 7:40 a.m. to as late as 10:40 a.m. Most schools would start at either 7:40 a.m., 8:40 a.m. or 9:40 a.m.

Below is the layout of the JCPS proposal:

Weapons Detection

Most high school students will walk through the front doors of school in August to find new weapons detection systems. The district will have them at all middle and high schools by the start of the 2024-25 school year.

It's different from metal detectors in that it uses artificial intelligence-based technology to detect weapons. It allows people to walk through without removing their bags or emptying their pockets. A guard monitors the system on a tablet, and is alerted when a weapon is detected on a person.

JCPS said its decision on what schools will receive the systems first was decided by high school administrators. They factored in the number of incidents where weapons have been found in individual schools, and how to have a vast approach.

The technology is already in use in Louisville. The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts uses a system called Evolv. The school board has explored Evolv as a system it could use, which could cost an estimated $17 million for a five-year lease.

New Schools:

Echo Trail Middle School will open in a brand new building adjacent to the Parklands of Floyds Fork in east Louisville. Perry-Wheatley Elementary School will open in a new building at Broadway and 18th Street attached to the new YMCA in west Louisville. And Dr. J. Blaine Hudson Middle School will open in the old Wheatley Elementary School building, a temporary home until the district can break ground on a new building.

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