School boards scolded for lack of cooperation on reciprocal agreement issue

While stressing to Corbin and Knox County Schools officials that they should negotiate in good faith to find a permanent solution to the dispute over the Knox County School Board’s decision not to renew the non-resident student agreement, members of the Kentucky Board of Education Tuesday amended the state Education Commissioner’s decision to permit siblings of Knox County students who are currently in grades K-12 at Corbin Schools to do the same during the 2010-11 school year, while precluding any other new students from going to school out of district without paying tuition.

During the comment process at Tuesday’s meeting in Frankfort, the board members took turns admonishing Corbin Superintendent Ed McNeel and Knox County Superintendent Walter T. Hulett for not negotiating or seeking mediation as Education Commissioner Terry Holliday strongly encouraged in his ruling on the matter last month.

McNeel and Hulett have previously said with no common ground upon which they could build, mediation would be pointless. However, Tuesday, both men indicated they were willing to try.

Board member Wilburn Joe Brothers said based on the documentation and testimony, he saw nothing to indicate the two sides had even attempted to reach some type of solution.

“I wish the adults had not fumbled this so badly,” board member Austin Moss added in agreement. “There wasn’t any collaboration in how the boards handled this.”

The board members questioned why the Knox County School Board elected to end the agreement with Corbin but continued similar agreements with Clay County, Bell County, Whitley County, Barbourville Independent, Williamsburg Independent schools.

Hulett explained those agreements involve a similar number of students, while the agreement with Corbin involved 405 students going to Corbin and 38 Corbin students coming to Knox County.

“Those are revenue neutral” Hulett said of the other agreements.

Board member C.B. Akins Sr. said the common denominator in both arguments appears to revolved around which school system would receive the state funding for the students attending school through the reciprocal agreement.

“I’m not hearing anybody say it is about kids and who should make the decision about where the child could be best educated,” Akins said.

The board members noted the discrepancy in test score and graduation rates at the neighboring schools systems, asking Hulett about Knox County’s plans to improve the scores and wondering why the school systems had not collaborated to improve education throughout the region.

“A better solution is to go back and collaborate at home and find out how you can get 100 percent of them to graduate,” Brothers said, noting Knox County’s graduation rate is about 85 percent while Corbin graduates close to 100 percent of its students.

In looking at Holliday’s decision, the board members noted that it would only prolong the problem without negotiations or mediation as anything the board did would only be applicable for the upcoming school year.

In issuing his ruling on March 3, Holliday included a list of potential mediators who meet specific requirements including:

• listing on the Administrative Office of the Courts Mediator Roster

• status as a retired/former judge in the Commonwealth

• residence in an area other than that of the vicinity of Corbin/Knox County, Kentucky

Holliday ordered the initial mediation to take place on or before Sept. 1

Lisa Gross, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Education, said if the two sides fail to reach an agreement, the process could begin again in 2011 if one of the school system appeals to Holliday to intervene.

“One of them would have to instigate the process, but then it would come back to the commissioner,” Gross.