Common Good for the Common Wealth: Igniting Possible: Building a Better Future for Northern Kentucky’s Kids

And I think often now, uh, especially because we have so many of those districts and you look at a local community, they've become community hubs of source, of sorts, and I think that, um, the federal funding is intended to c- encourage that, that you have the, this concept of, um, engaging families and making sure that they're engaged in education so the locus of that activity does become the school.

When you are gathering different, I think of different constituent groups to become part of that work, it- it's nonprofits, it's community leaders, it's business, it's higher ed, um, certainly educators, administrators.

Um, what, what's a challenge in doing that? Uh, because they all have very different cultures.

In my prior work, um, at the Northern Kentucky Education Council, we recognized that.

You recognize that, that there's different language, different cultures that, that are having to be bridged.

So what is the challenge that maybe comes with working with those diverse groups, and what's really the biggest opportunity?

Well, I mean, y- you had mentioned that Northern Kentucky has the greatest concentration of school districts in the Commonwealth.

Mm-hmm.

That's true.

There are six in Campbell County, five in Kenton County, and then two in Boone, but, uh, Kenton and Campbell are one and two-

Yes

... as far as school districts.

And I think there's, you know, small is a superpower.

Mm.

Like I, I, in a former life, uh, in Maryland, I was a mayor, uh, of a small town for-

You too are a recovering politician

... for-

Yes.

[laughs]

For 11 years of my life, I did like talk about my youthful indiscretions.

Uh, and I see the value of having small cities, small school districts.

The challenge of that is, is scale.

Mm.

And so where it's amazing when a superintendent can know the name of every single student in their school district, that's a real value, and I think the level of personalization and attention you get is great.

But being a small school district, you may not have the capacity-

And I think often now, uh, especially because we have so many of those districts and you look at a local community, they've become community hubs of source, of sorts, and I think that, um, the federal funding is intended to c- encourage that, that you have the, this concept of, um, engaging families and making sure that they're engaged in education so the locus of that activity does become the school.

When you are gathering different, I think of different constituent groups to become part of that work, it- it's nonprofits, it's community leaders, it's business, it's higher ed, um, certainly educators, administrators.

Um, what, what's a challenge in doing that? Uh, because they all have very different cultures.

In my prior work, um, at the Northern Kentucky Education Council, we recognized that.

You recognize that, that there's different language, different cultures that, that are having to be bridged.

So what is the challenge that maybe comes with working with those diverse groups, and what's really the biggest opportunity?

Well, I mean, y- you had mentioned that Northern Kentucky has the greatest concentration of school districts in the Commonwealth.

Mm-hmm.

That's true.

There are six in Campbell County, five in Kenton County, and then two in Boone, but, uh, Kenton and Campbell are one and two-

Yes

... as far as school districts.

And I think there's, you know, small is a superpower.

Mm.

Like I, I, in a former life, uh, in Maryland, I was a mayor, uh, of a small town for-

You too are a recovering politician

... for-

Yes.

[laughs]

For 11 years of my life, I did like talk about my youthful indiscretions.

Uh, and I see the value of having small cities, small school districts.

The challenge of that is, is scale.

Mm.

And so where it's amazing when a superintendent can know the name of every single student in their school district, that's a real value, and I think the level of personalization and attention you get is great.

But being a small school district, you may not have the capacity-