At Wednesday night's meeting of the Newport Board of Education, Kristy McNally, Homeless Coordinator for the District, reported that 145 students in four schools are homeless.

She related the story of a family who had 8 children, the oldest of which was in kindergarten, and they were doubling up at first, or living with another family. That situation did not last, and they were moved to a motel while McNally tried to put the family in contact with as many services as she could. The result is that that family is now in a home.

Another story was that a middle school student was living with his father, who was sent back to Guatemala and told his son that the boy had to handle the situation. This student lived on his own for two weeks before his situation was discovered, and he was sent to live with a relative.



Board Chair Ramona Malone said that this was something that concerned not only the school board, but also the entire community, and everyone needed to work together to find the situations and try to find a resolution. "If we don't know the story, how are we going to help?" she asked. "We want them to know that this board cares and we want them to be successful. This is what we got, now how do we fix it? This is reality, and it is a community issue."

Jeanetta Stacy gave a report on how the four schools are doing academically, and distributed papers to the board which showed graphs and numbers about how many children are in intervention programs for reading and math.

Board Vice Chair Dr. Julie Smith-­Morrow asked Stacy to confirm that 48 percent of the district's seniors are currently in intervention programs for reading, and 65 percent for math. Stacy confirmed the numbers, but said that it is possible that some of the numbers are duplications and that some of the students could be in both programs and counted twice.

Mike Wills, who is affectionately known as 'Colonel' Wills at Newport Independent Schools, and is the assistant superintendent for the district, was honored with a cake and balloons on Wednesday, Veterans' Day. Malone asked him to tell a little of his history of service.





"I enlisted in the Marines in 1966 and served for 26 years, 10 months, and some days," he said briefly. "I served in Vietnam, and served with some real heroes. I rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. I was shot at on three different continents. It is a joy to come to work here at Newport Public Schools."



"As a city we owe so much to those who sacrificed for us," said Malone. "We want to say thank you." Wills also participated in the Veterans' Day programs in the schools during the day.



The board recognized Candace Young, physical education teacher for the elementary school, who received the 2015 Kentucky PE Teacher of the Year award. Several students stood to tell why she is an important teacher to them.





The middle school student council was commended for its efforts. The school revived the student council, and two teachers, Sarah Rinehart and Allison Sherick, became sponsors and began to advise the council on projects they can do, which has resulted in several community-minded projects.

Written by Patricia A. Scheyer, RCN contributor