The following letter and Title I/III surveys will go out to all Harrison County private/home schools this week:

This notice is our annual invitation for your school to participate in the Harrison County Title I, Part A program.  Title I, Part A is a federally funded program that provides supplemental instructional services to eligible children who are attending public, private, or home schools.  To be eligible to receive Title I, Part A services, a child must reside within the attendance area of a participating public school and be failing or at risk of failing student academic achievement standards.  Children participating in the Title I, Part A program must be identified through a multiple criteria assessment as having an educational attainment that is below the level appropriate for their age.  Certain other children who in the preceding two years had participated in Head Start, Even Start, Early Reading First, or a Migrant Education program.

The amount of the funds available to provide this service in each public, private or home school is determined by the number of low-income children living in the participating Title I, Part A attendance area.  For Title I, Part A purposes, low-income is defined as being eligible but not necessarily participating in the federally funded free or reduced lunch program.  For private and home schools, the funds generated are available to provide instructional services to eligible students, their parents and teachers.  The Title I law does not allow these funds or the equipment purchased with the funds to go directly to the private school or home school.

To ensure the Title I, Part A services are successfully meeting the educational needs of children, the Title I law requires that each participating child have a pre and post-test.

To facilitate Title I, Part A and Title III services to private and home schools, I would greatly appreciate your completing the short surveys and returning them to me by March 9, 2012.  I have enclosed a stamped, self-addressed envelope for your convenience.  If you have questions that you would like answered about the Title I, Part A or Title III programs before you complete the surveys, please call me at 859-234-7110.

School will be in session on Monday, January 30th.  This is due to the day missed on January 3rd. 

If you have any questions, please call 234-7110.

Like the students in the Harrison County school district, the members of its board of education must do their homework. This means sifting through complicated test data and financial reports while keeping abreast of the latest requirements handed down from state and federal governments, to name just a few “subjects.”

Mary June Brunker, Kristy Carey, Gary Lizer, Dr. Don Stephens, and Edwin Taylor conduct business at one or more meetings monthly, but you’ll often find them at ball games, school celebrations and civic events because they are the link between the school system and the community.

These responsibilities and others are the reason Kentucky and other states set aside the month of January to thank local school board members during School Board Recognition Month.

These five members of the Harrison County Board of Education oversee a $28 million budget and make decisions about multimillion-dollar building projects. All this is done in the face of shrinking state and federal dollars for education and tough economic times locally. But beyond those “macro” duties, they also make certain the individual child in the Harrison County school district gets what he or she needs to successfully learn in school and beyond.

So why do they do it? Here is what several school board members – no different from those here – from across the state recently said about their job on the occasion of School Board Recognition Month:

“You have to be willing to put in the extra hours to educate yourself. You cannot continually rely on other people to spoon feed you information. You actually have to read policy.”

“My background is in business management and I use these tools in dealing with people and making decisions and looking at budgets, focusing on the best possible outcomes considering the situations and constraints you have to deal with.”

“The very first skill – and I don’t even know if you could call it a skill – and that is you’ve got to have a true heart for children. If you don’t have that you don’t need to be on the school board.”

Members of the Harrison County Board of Education will be honored at the January 24, 2012 board meeting.  The meeting will begin at 7:00 pm at the Harrison County Board of Education/Central Office.

Harrison County Schools will have a guest on Coffee Break on Wednesday, October 26th.  The show begins at 8:00 am on WCYN 1400.  Tune in on the 26th to hear about the great things that are going on in our district!

Harrison County Schools' website received 1st place at the Annual OASIS (Outstanding Award in School Information Services) conference and 2nd place in Digital Citizenship. 

Fall Break is October 10-14, 2011.  The office of the Harrison County Board of Education will be closed during Fall Break.  We will reopen on Monday, October 17th. 

Harrison County is in need of substitute teachers! 

If you love working with children of all ages, have 64 college credit hours and a GPA of 2.5 of higher, this may be the job for you.  A good candidate will have had experience working successfully with students and have a proven record of maintaining excellent classroom management.  The candidate must possess characteristics of dependability and responsibility.  It is our desire to eliminate disruptions in the instructional process.  If you feel you are one who can walk into a school and pick up right where the classroom teacher stopped, you could be someone we are looking for!  

Substitute teaching is not a permanent job and is on an "as needed basis."  Our teachers must attend workshops and conferences to keep abreast of new strategies and practices and therefore need to be out of the classroom from time to time.  

If you are interested, please contact Gina Owsley at the Harrison County Board of Education, 308 Webster Avenue, 859-234-7110.

We welcome volunteers of all ages into our schools.  If you are interested in becoming a school volunteer or you would like to assist us with some of our many district-wide programs, contact Vicki Faulkner or Sheila Price at the Community Education Center.  They can be reached at 859-234-7160.  Sheila and Vicki are our district's volunteer coordinators. 

To participate in our Volunteer Program, you must successfully complete both a criminal background check and a volunteer training workshop.  These can be done at the Community Education Center.  Once you have completed the background check and the workshop, contact the schools' principals and let them know that you have an interest in volunteering at their school.

Certified and classified applications should be sent to Central Office, 308 Webster Avenue, Cynthiana, Kentucky 41031. All applications are entered on the district’s registry. Applications are reviewed and if qualifications are met, the applications are available to principals and supervisors. Applications are kept on file for three years.

You can find job vacancies on our website at www.harrison.kyschools.us or on Channel 6.  We recommend you check postings often and keep your application current.  Applications are available at Central Office and on our district website.