The head of Lexington’s public school system says the district is definitely heading in the right direction. Fayette School Superintendent Manny Caulk offered his first “State of the Schools Address” Thursday.
Caulk spoke to a large group of government, business, and civic leaders.
The superintendent spoke of high marks in student ACT scores, blue ribbon schools, and the value of college career coaches.
But, Caulk, who’s led the district for two years, admits there’s work to do to close the academic disparity among groups of students. He envisions a five to seven year process to meet district goals.
“Any time you do transformational change, it takes time. You got to integrate systems and to make them sustainable,” said Caulk. “And so, we’re looking at closing both the opportunity and achievement gap.”
Following his talk, Caulk said no urban school system the size of Lexington’s or larger has closed the achievement gap, even an all charter school district in Louisiana.
Among the hundreds gathered for the talk was Urban League President Porter Peoples, who chaired Lexington’s first school equity council. Peoples says he’s been asked to come to an equity council workshop on July ninth.
“I think they are going through a transition, but I’ll tell you what I plan to go there to do is challenge them to stay the course,” Peoples noted.
Lexington Mayor Jim Gray also attended the event sponsored by the Lexington Board of Realtors. The mayor says the city and schools work together day in and day out. Gray cited the family care center and partners for youth program as examples.
“It illustrates that the city is working together and he commented on that. He commented on all the places that he’s been Lexington is the most enthusiastic and supportive of the schools,” said Gray.
Manny Caulk told the group about 90% of school-aged children attend public schools in Lexington.
