On Aug. 26, Superintendent Dr. Brian Yearwood addressed the public at Jeffersontown High School in one segment of his Community Conversations series.
The first part of the affair consisted of Yearwood commending his cabinet for helping arrange the event and their strive for the betterment of JCPS. He then addressed Jeffersontown High School’s ability to prepare students for their lives after high school, celebrating the high graduation rates of the previous year.
Yearwood next discussed his past with teaching and administration around the district. He plans to tie that into his ideas of improvement for JCPS students, mainly surrounding his first experience in a lower income school.
“I knew the children in that school were capable of achieving more,” Yearwood said. “You can’t tell me that because of geographical location or skin, they can not be the best.”
Before opening the floor to the audience, Yearwood discussed the challenges JCPS is facing this school year, mainly the budget deficit of around $150 million. He explained that the school board is meeting with his cabinet as well as other teams to help return to where it has been in previous years. He additionally went into detail about what would be off limits to budget cuts.
Yearwood then transitioned into the public forum part of the function. Three main concerns arose from the crowd: transportation, library affairs and communication between staff members in differing positions as well as parents.
To start out, a member of the crowd expressed her issues with driving her child to their respective magnet school and the problems that entails, such as missing pick up times for her other kids or making the student wait prolonged amounts of time on school grounds. Yearwood responded that after the budget situation surrounding teachers’ pay is addressed, then the school board will work with him to help reinstate transportation to all schools. The member ended her comment with a request for Yearwood to examine the transportation clusters around JCPS.
Following this, a librarian from Camp Taylor Elementary School explained her ideas, allowing for students to come to the library during free time, for increasing library time for elementary students to help promote literacy. Yearwood agreed with these.
“It is critical that our students are exposed to literature,” Yearwood said. “We need to have more discussions about how our libraries are used.”
Lastly, Kimberly Coleman, a JCPS bus driver, described her experience with behavioral issues, such as threatening and absenteeism. Yearwood requested more information for his cabinet to deliberate on before taking action of her situation, but he explained that his cabinet is working towards improvement on behavioral issues and absenteeism as a whole through bridging relationships between staff and students.
By the end of the forum, the audience was met with answers that are sufficient for some and less than satisfactory for others.
“I believe if they start communicating with the bus drivers it would be better, and then also if the community would get with teachers,” Coleman said. “Teachers hear, they see things, and I think if they will communicate with the community, I think that will reduce a lot of things that is happening with our students in JCPS.”
The next Community Conversation with Yearwood and his cabinet members is Sept. 4 at Shawnee High School.
Della Kay Jacobs • Aug 27, 2025 at 7:28 pm
This is a very through and informative story. It is well written and with excellent photography!
Dr. Yearwood seems to have a wonderful vision for JCPS!