With the first month of the school year in the books, work is continuing to transform Henry F. Moss Middle and Jennings Creek Elementary Schools to better serve their students and communities. The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence announced last October that both Moss and Jennings Creek will join the Kentucky Community Schools Initiative.
KCSI seeks to improve schools such as Moss and JCES by turning them into “community schools.” That same month, WCPS was awarded $1.5 million to implement changes at the two schools to expand partnerships with the community and businesses over the next five years.
Forty schools in 20 districts across Kentucky have been selected by the committee, with each one receiving $65,000 per year to implement the “community school” model. A slew of programs and improvements are on the way to both schools this year. Ben Kirtley, Family Resource and Youth Services Centers coordinator for Warren County Public Schools and community schools director for KCSI, said during a Thursday night meeting of district staff and parents that one change coming to Moss this year is the inclusion of “enrichment days” for students.
“(For) many of our students, if it wasn’t baseball, basketball, football, any of the major sports, they often didn’t have the opportunity to participate in other recreational types of things,” Kirtley said. He said the enrichment programs happen “every single day of school,” and currently have a focus on social an.