Allison Ross

@allisonSross

Kentucky's commissioner of education is launching a full-blown management audit of Jefferson County Public Schools, a move that is unprecedented for a district anywhere near the size of the state's largest school district.

At its most extreme, the results of the exhaustive, top-to-bottom audit could lead to a state takeover of JCPS, with the Kentucky Department of Education handling finances, administration, operations and other responsibilities that would ordinarily be handled by the superintendent and the school board.

At the least, though, the audit signals that Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt has significant concerns that JCPS' management may be critically ineffective or inefficient.

"We’re coming in with the intent that we’re going to kick over any ant hill we need to to find where the issues are," Pruitt said in an interview Tuesday, although he added that the point of the audit is to also provide support to JCPS.

Read the audit here

Pruitt said he was particularly "bothered" by issues related to student safety, including with the use of restraint and seclusion. But he noted several other main areas of concern, as well, including problems with data discrepancies, disproportionate punishments to certain groups of students, poor district communication and a "complicated" district culture that in some cases has led to ineffective supervision or staff being afraid to speak up for fear of reprisal.

He stressed that this is an audit of district management, saying that "we've got some teachers that are doing some great things in Jefferson County."

Pruitt's announcement that he is ordering the extensive audit comes after he and department officials first conducted a monthslong management review of JCPS.

Pruitt said that "early indications" from that review — which included interviews from more than 140 JCPS staff members and led to an eight-page report with more than 30 findings — showed "systemic issues that are preventing students from getting the education they deserve."

He said that "as we dug deeper across the board, we see some things that are concerning, in some cases alarming."

The review, which was announced in July, was triggered largely over concerns about how JCPS conducts and documents physical restraints and seclusion of students. The Courier-Journal had reported only months before that JCPS underreported to the state thousands of cases in which students were physically held down or confined to a room in schools — and that the district knew it had done so.

Over the past year, the Courier-Journal has also uncovered several stories of students being seriously injured during restraints, including a 16-year-old disabled boy who suffered two shattered thigh bones after a teaching assistant restrained him at the Binet School and a girl whose head was slammed into a table by a school security monitor.

JCPS Superintendent Donna Hargens, during a media availability Tuesday afternoon, said the district will work with the Kentucky Department of Education on the audit. But she also said that "frankly, reading the majority of this audit feels like stepping back in time," saying that the report does not recognize some of the work JCPS has done since the state first came to visit as part of the review.

Hargens said the district had just gotten the report on Tuesday and needed time to review it and pull data and documents relative to the findings before deciding how to respond to some of the findings.

She did address concerns raised by the state review that some district staff told department officials that they had witnessed inappropriate physical restraint by colleagues but refused to give specifics, citing fear or reprisal from district administration.

Hargens said Tuesday that such a "code of silence" — as it was called by the district's own internal auditor several months ago — was not acceptable.

"What we insist upon is absolute transparency and accuracy in data reporting," Hargens said. "We have made that absolutely, perfectly clear to our employees, that we expect them to report and to fill out referrals accurately … Again, our numbers of referrals would indicate that they are taking us very seriously."

Hargens also stressed Tuesday that safety is the district's top priority. "When something happens, I guarantee you that we will take action and hold people accountable. … I can’t guarantee you that nothing will happen, but I can guarantee you that we have done everything in a proactive way to make sure that it doesn’t, and if something does happen, that we will hold people accountable.”

It is unclear exactly how long the audit will take, especially given that one has never been done on a district the size of JCPS, which has about 100,000 students and is among the 30 largest districts in the country. Pruitt said Tuesday that he hopes to start the audit in about a month and to finish it by the end of the school year. He added, though, that he also does not want to "release a report that was half-baked" so he may not follow that timeline.

Pruitt said the audit will probably be conducted both by department staff and outside experts who have experience with large urban districts. He said the state will spend a minimum of 10 to 14 days on the ground in JCPS as part of the audit.

The audit can lead to a report with a list of recommendations for the district. Or Pruitt could recommend that the Kentucky Board of Education put JCPS under state assistance or state management.

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There are currently three districts in Kentucky under state assistance: Caverna Independent, which has fewer than 700 students; Fleming, which has nearly 2,300 students; and Robertson, which has about 350 students.

Breathitt County's 2,000-student school district and Menifee County's 1,000-student district are under state management.

Monticello Independent was also put in state assistance in 2012, but it later merged with another school district.

Before those school districts, it had been several years since a district had been placed under state management or assistance, according to the Kentucky Department of Education.

The management audit of JCPS will be the first under Pruitt as education commissioner. Pruitt was hired by the Kentucky Board of Education in 2015, only months before the commonwealth elected Matt Bevin as governor.

Bevin recently called the district an "absolute, unmitigated disaster" and said that while JCPS has some of "the finest schools in the state," others have "failed generation after generation."

Bevin's comments prompted backlash from teachers, parents and others. On social media, the hashtag #notadisaster began spreading, with people extending invites to Bevin to visit schools to see some of the successes.

Pruitt said his decision to start a management audit with JCPS is in no way tied to the governor's statements, noting that he is "not tied to the political establishment."

He said his decision was based purely on "ensuring quality education for our students." He said this is not a "witch hunt or about us coming after JCPS."

Bevin on Tuesday said in a statement that he applauds Pruitt's decision, saying that "we must ensure that our education system provides true opportunity for every Kentucky child to succeed. For far too long, JCPS has failed to do that. This is unacceptable."

Kentucky Board of Education member Rich Gimmel, a Louisville businessman, also weighed in Tuesday, saying that it's "an absolute shame that the Kentucky Department of Education seems more concerned about the problems plaguing Jefferson County Public School(s) than is Louisville’s own local leadership. Where is the local outrage about this litany of problems?"

Gimmel noted that this is not the first time state officials have brought up issues with JCPS, noting, for example, sentiments made by former Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday in 2013 when he derided the lack of progress at some JCPS schools as "academic genocide." (Holliday in later months applauded gains made at some of those schools.)

"The reaction of Louisville’s civic leadership has generally been painful silence. Or worse, defensiveness," Gimmel said. "And that’s a horrible disservice to many of the students in JCPS."

JCPS board chairman Chris Brady said Tuesday afternoon that some of the issues in the state's eight-page review were the same concerns that JCPS board members have noted to district leadership, including concerns about student safety and how quickly the district moves to address them and the district's "code of silence" around certain issues.

"I hope this leads to more systemic change," Brady said. He said this "absolutely" signals that JCPS needs some leadership changes.

"JCPS can do this. The board can provide adequate oversight to do this," Brady said. "But the organization needs to adopt change at a more rapid pace than it is."

When asked if he had concerns about a possible state takeover, Brady said that his concern right now "is making sure we have a safe environment for our students."

School board member Ben Gies said the report makes it clear that changes are needed.

"The review confirms that JCPS has reached a time for new leadership," he said. "The Hargens administration must be held accountable for this scathing report given by commissioner Pruitt. The school district is in need of stronger leadership to manage the issues plaguing the district. I represent a district with among the largest number of priority schools. This must end. Now."

Board vice-chair Lisa Willner said that, speaking as a board member, she is grateful to the state for "shining a light on some of the issues that are of concern to me, particularly around student safety, disproportionate suspensions by race and data integrity."

In his letter to Hargens, Pruitt said he understands that "this type of action can be demoralizing to staff and students. On the other hand, this effort can reap many positive results if we work together to build upon the positives of JCPS while creating a plan on how to correct the deficiencies so that all children can be successful."

One issue that is noted specifically in the management review report is data from the 2015-2016 school year showing that black special-needs students in JCPS were more than five times as likely as non-black special-needs students to be subjected to out-of-school removals for more than 10 days.

"That's something to be concerned about," Pruitt said.

Brent McKim, president of the county's teachers union, said Tuesday morning that he had not seen the state's report but that he thinks many teachers and others will look forward to getting answers on issues, including concerns about disparate outcomes for different groups of students and discipline issues.

"My experience with the commissioner is, first and foremost he thinks like a teacher," McKim said. "I’m sure his leadership approach to this is to see that the teachers are getting the support to help their kids succeed from the management of the district. I have a high confidence that his No. 1 goal is going to be to understand how the management can support the classroom teachers to be effective with their kids."

Reporters Kirsten Clark and Justin Sayers contributed to this article. Reporter Allison Ross can be reached at 502-582-4241. Follow the Courier-Journal's education team at Facebook.com/SchooledCJ.