JCPS superintendent recaps the 2023-24 school year, looks towards future

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - Friday was the last day of school for JCPS students and while the kids are excited to go home for the summer, the district is gearing up for major changes going into the new school year.

Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio talked about the year’s challenges while also taking a look at some of the positives.

Despite the transportation woes, Pollio called the academic and school success the best of his seven years in his position. And while he couldn’t commit to staying past next year good or bad, he did commit to saying next year’s first day of school will be better than this years.

The last day of school can bring a lot of excitement and cheers.

Students at Cochrane Elementary in Jeffersontown were cheered on as they left the school for the final time in the school year and for some forever.

Some students like fifth grader Leila, got a chance to reminisce on their time.

”You could just really engage with the teachers and the counselors whenever you’re going through something, you can just go to them and you know you could just trust them,” she said.

The last day of school also puts the year in perspective as JCPS tries to move past the year’s challenges.

”The amount of time clearly that I’ve had to focus on transportation, which you know I’ve learned a lot over the past year in transportation and so that was without a doubt the biggest challenge and I think the biggest challenge I’ve faced among many challenges over the past seven years,” explained Pollio.

Those transportation woes were shown by the new plans approved to only bus most students to their resides schools, with three newly approved start times.

Pollio says they’ve already started a process to improve their practices and have asked parents to let the district know how their students will be getting to school to finalize their plans.

”The quicker we get everyone to verify if they are going to be a bus rider, car rider or walker, we are able to solidify all of those,” Pollio said. “Our goal is to by the end of June to have all of the routing completed and by mid July have it available to families.”

The school year also came with some positives.

The JCPS Police Department and the weapon detection systems in high schools helped curb behavioral issues and weapons found in schools.

The graduation rate reached 87% for seniors with 16% of seniors actually graduating early.

And while Pollio says he can’t commit to a lot for next year, he says he will commit to one thing.

”I can commit to next year’s first day of school being better than this year’s. If not, then we will have somebody else up here,” Pollio said.

Pollio said a record breaking almost 7,000 students will be graduating from JCPS during more than 20 graduation ceremonies over a three day period.

And they will be working on their bus driver issues by having a hiring blitz on Saturday June 1.