At the March 10 meeting, the JCPS school board announced the finalists for the School of Innovation, along with several other topics of discussion.

Of the 12 semifinalists, four finalists were chosen. These are: The Catalpa School, Louisville Reach Academy, Metro Museum Magnet School, and Next Generation Community School.

One of these four concept schools will be chosen to be adapted into a real school in JCPS as early as the Fall of 2015. This decision will be announced in June.

Brief summaries of the finalists concepts and their presentations can be found here.

Many of the creators behind each concept were in tears as the names of their respective schools were announced to be finalists. The road to being a finalist involved a rigorous application. From there, the 48 applicants were narrowed down to twelve semifinalists  before being narrowed once again to four finalists. The semifinalists and finalists were chosen by committees but anyone could voice their opinion on the decision through a survey.

The finalists were revealed during the meeting by way of a video being shown on the projector screens to everyone in attendance.

Aside from the School of Innovation finalists announcement, the board meeting also touched on several issues like personnel changes and field trip approvals. The meeting was kicked off with a Skype call from two GE Foundation representatives presenting an overwhelmingly positive review of the district. This was followed by the recognition of Ford awarding JCPS as an involved district in their Next Generation Learning Initiative.

The next board meeting will be held on March 24, at the VanHoose Education Center, in which MSA will present information about JCPS magnet schools.