Latest / The City of Frankfort Podcast / Ep 31: Back To School with FCPS Superintendent Mark Kopp

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Ep 31: Back To School with FCPS Superintendent Mark Kopp · The City of Frankfort Podcast

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From Capitol Halls to Bourbon Balls, this is the City of Frankfort podcast for the Frankfortians.
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We're swapping stories, spilling the tea, and celebrating the quirks that make
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Kentucky's capital the best hometown around.
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Welcome to the City of Frankfort podcast. I'm Alex, and today we have the honor
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of being joined by Franklin County Schools Superintendent Mark Kopp.
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Mark Kopp is in his 10th year as superintendent of Franklin County Schools and
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in his 33rd year in the education profession.
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Kopp is a native of Waverly, Ohio, and is certified as a school superintendent,
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as well as level two instructional supervisor and holds a rank one certification
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in secondary school social studies, middle school social studies.
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Mr. Cott has provided numerous professional development sessions at both state
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and national levels and currently serves on multiple statewide boards. Wow. Welcome, Mr. Cott.
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Thank you. It makes me sound a lot more important than I really am.
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You sound really cool. Let me tell you.
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Okay. So before I get into asking you all the deep, dark questions.
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Tell us a little bit about your background, kind of how you got to Franklin
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County and how you became the superintendent.
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That's a long story, and I'll try to make it as, you know, non-boring as I possibly can.
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But I was, like I said, I'm a native Ohioan, and I've had the opportunity and
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the blessings really to work in three different states in the field of education.
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Before I get into that background, And I'll just say that everything I do in
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my career is really a dedication to my mom.
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My mom was a first grade teacher for 32 years.
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And, uh, God rest her soul. She passed a couple of years ago.
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Uh, all I ever wanted to do was make her proud. Um, and, um,
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I used to love the conversations that we would have every year about getting
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a chance to, to teach the little ones.
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And she taught the wee little ones, you know, for, for 32 years.
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And, uh, I taught at the middle and the high school level and social studies.
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Basically that intro just means I'm an old history teacher and I've been doing
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this for a long time now and blessed to have been able to move up the ranks a little bit.
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And I've had the opportunity to work in administration at multiple levels.
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I've worked at the state level and I worked as a chief academic officer in Hardin County for eight years.
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And that gave me a really great experience in a school district before transitioning
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and becoming a superintendent.
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The first superintendent job I applied for was Franklin County.
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And the reason was, Franklin County was the first place in Kentucky I lived.
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I was just telling the story before we started the podcast. My wife and I moved
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here to Frankfurt in 2005 with a 10-day-old baby from Tampa, Florida.
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I moved up here. We moved up here for a job with the Department of Education. Yeah.
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And talk about a lot of chaos. Oh, wow. Move in the middle of summer with a
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10-day-old baby and move into a house that your wife's never seen.
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But, you know, because she couldn't travel because she was pregnant.
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So she was like, find us a good house. You picked the house. I think I did average.
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I wouldn't give myself much more than a six on that first house.
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But, yeah, it was a crazy time.
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And we lived here in Frankfurt from 2005 to 2009 when I worked for the Department of Education.
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Absolutely fell in love with Frankfurt. There's no other way of saying it.
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This place felt like home from the second that we were here.
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We moved away for, again, for an opportunity in Hardin County and we're gone for eight years.
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And as soon as this job opened up, I looked at my wife and we had just built
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our dream home in Hardin County.
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So for the second time in our lives, I approached her about this huge transition and she was supportive.
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And she said, you know, I love Frankfurt too.
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Let's go home. So we did. And we've been here for 10 years and hoping to stay many, many more years.
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Yeah, we're glad you're here. Oh, I'm tickled to be here.
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This place is wonderful. And I'm so glad you all do a podcast like this to let
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everyone know how great Frankfurt is. Sometimes it doesn't get the publicity that really it should.
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And Franklin County, Frankfurt, just it's an amazing place to raise a family.
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Yeah, we we all love it. Obviously, we all work together. We take it serious.
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We like raising our kids here. We feel like it's a community that we work hard to. You are correct.
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You ready for some questions? Let's go. So we're wrapping up summer break.
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Do superintendents get a summer break? How does that work? Yeah, not really.
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It's a little slower. I will say it's a little slower.
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Give us a day in your life in the summertime. Okay. So, yeah.
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During the school year, it's easier to frame this by saying during the school year.
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As any superintendent would know, the day is just crazy busy from the time you
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get up in the morning until you go to bed at night.
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And especially in the wintertime, you know, in the wintertime when we have to
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drive roads to make sure that roads are OK, those days start at three o'clock in the morning.
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And I'll go until 10 at night on most nights because we'll have ball games to
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attend and, you know, dances and, you know, different choir events and all kinds
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of extracurricular activities. And I try to go to as many of those things as I can.
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In the summertime, thankfully, we don't have to do that.
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So it's not as early of a morning, but it's getting to work eight o'clock in
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the morning in the summertime and answering emails, making sure that we go and visit our campuses.
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Because during the summers when we do some really heavy cleaning and we're doing
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a lot of maintenance in the summertime, making sure that our folks have everything that they need.
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It's a chance to also get some professional development.
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And, you know, it depends on when the summer, you know, which summer you're speaking of.
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But I'll tell you, this summer has, we have not slowed down one second because
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of something I'll talk about in just a little bit, which is pre-K for all.
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Yeah. And getting a call from the governor's office and having an opportunity
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to do that. So we'll talk about that in a minute. Yeah, that's exciting. Yeah.
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So Frankfurt is preparing for another school year.
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Today, we're talking about what parents, students, community members need to
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know as we head back to school.
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What do you get most excited about when you head back to school?
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What is the end of summer excitement like? Seeing children.
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I can't tell you how, you know, look...
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So any type of educational administrator, basically at the end of the day,
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you're a problem solver.
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Sometimes you have problems that a parent may have an issue or an employee may
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have an issue or there might be an issue with a child that you have to weigh in on.
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There's constant problem solving in addition to laying the groundwork and the
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vision for the year and all those things.
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So sometimes the weight of those problems gets very heavy.
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Oh, I imagine. And the very best thing about my job or about any superintendent's
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job, I would imagine, is getting to see kids.
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There are some days when, you know, you might feel like you've got to be in
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the office to handle these things. But I will just say, OK, I'm going out into
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the schools. I'm going to see children.
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I need to get energized. And so the summertime is really a great example of,
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thinking about that. And when you start to go to the back-to-school bashes here,
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they're coming up in another week or so, two weeks.
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As soon as you see the kids and the parents and their smiles on their faces
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and everyone's excited to be back, man, there's not a better, it's like adrenaline.
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You know, it's just a really, really great feeling. You know,
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those things are invaluable.
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And I'm most excited about welcoming our staff back, welcoming our kids in and
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starting a fantastic year.
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And, you know, we in our school district, we do something every year where we focus on one word.
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And in the past, that word has shifted. It's been different words.
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Last year, the word was courage.
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This year, the word is focus. Yeah. Which I just mentioned, focus.
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Because, you know, sometimes we ask our educators to spin a lot of plates.
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They're constantly spinning plates and our administrators and our teachers and
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our cooks and our custodians.
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They're always spinning plates. So what we're trying to do this year is to provide
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a level of focus on what is the most important plate that we can spin.
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My job as superintendent isn't to give more plates to our folks.
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My job is to try to take away the plates that they shouldn't worry about.
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Let's just focus on what's most important. And developing relationships with
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the kids, making sure we're providing them with the very best instruction we
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can. If we do those things well, everything else falls into place.
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It makes a good leader. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
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So a lot of the back-to-school batches are at the Aquatic Center,
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which falls in our park system. I'm the Deputy Director of Parks. Yes.
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And I know a lot of our seasonal staff at the pool are school administrators and teachers.
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So their favorite pool parties are the back-to-school batches.
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They love getting to see the kids a little bit, even if it's not their school.
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They get to see the kids early. They get to see teachers they haven't gotten
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to catch up with. The back-to-school batches are one of our favorites also. I agree.
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And mine too. And what people need to understand in this community is how amazing
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that resource is. Thank you. Seriously, Juniper Hills is just such a fantastic resource.
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We have great staff, so you know. Yeah.
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We have great staff. My daughter worked there for a few years.
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And so, yeah, I completely see it. And the person who's like in charge of the
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pool is one of our teachers. He is, yes.
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And yeah. He's one of the best. Yeah, he's great. He's great.
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Yeah. And we like to be able to say a lot of a lot of successful people in our
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community, their first jobs were in the park system or at the aquatic center.
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That's right. We get to hear so many fun stories about my first job was in a concession stand or.
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Oh, yeah. It's fun to hear. It's good to hear. Well, when I was 16 years old,
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I had to work multiple jobs growing up and everything. I started when I was 12.
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Again, Gen X. We just we we've worked since we were born, basically.
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But once I turned 16 and passed the lifeguard test, I became a lifeguard at
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our pool and eventually moved up to assistant manager.
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It's one of those things that teaches you responsibility. And it teaches you
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about leadership and it teaches you how to solve problems.
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Maybe you're a great leader, but you started as a lifeguard.
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You know, I'll just throw that out there that it's a fantastic resource,
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Juniper Hills is. Yeah, I appreciate that.
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What are some of your personal goals this year? Do you have any kind of personal
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internal goals that you think about? I do.
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And again, most of them,
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relate to one very important thing, and that's the promise that we made to this community.
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There are a lot of, you know, the vast, vast, vast majority of school districts
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do mission and vision statements.
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And we eschewed that. We were just like, you know, we're, we,
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who can remember what a mission statement is? Who can remember what the vision statement is?
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I think sometimes that becomes compliance and we wanted to move away from that.
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So instead we crafted a promise statement
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where we all came together as administrators, as teachers, as cooks.
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We had everyone in our system, including students, play a role in developing.
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What promise do we want to make to the community.
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And the thing that's most important to us is our promise statement that everyone
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can remember is very simple. Every student succeeds.
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So everything that we try to do, whether it's geared towards behaviors or geared
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towards instruction or geared towards career transition, whatever those things
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are, everything is geared to that promise.
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Everything is related to that promise. And every decision that I make as superintendent
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has to be focused on, are we doing everything we can to make sure that every student succeeds?
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So when I set personal goals. It's all about making sure that every student succeeds.
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So, you know, we do have some things we are starting this year.
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I want to mention one, just, I'll mention a couple, but one that's super exciting.
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We've hired a new media arts teacher in our district. And so we've created a.
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Media pathway for our students at the high school level.
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And as part of that media pathway, they're going to learn camera work,
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they're going to learn filming, they're going to learn editing,
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sound, lighting, production.
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And we have partnered with the Frankfort Plant Board.
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They've been a great partner with us. They've donated a trailer to us.
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And most importantly, they have donated a channel.
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And on, I'm not sure what the channel is yet. It's like 10 point whatever.
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We're going to have our very own 24-7 Franklin County Schools channel that will
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be produced content by Frankfort County students. Wow.
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And it will be 24-7 so people can view it and watch their kids,
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whether it's band, choir, quiz team, volleyball, archery. Yeah, that's a great idea.
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Every bit of that content that our families can watch 24 hours a day on that
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channel will be Franklin County Schools. Oh, that's great. So we're super excited about that.
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Just actually came from a meeting with our new teacher. And so we're very excited
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about that. That is exciting. Yeah. I also want to mention something that just
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happened this week. Now, we've known about it for a while, but we had to keep it on the down low.
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The governor's office reached out to us, and they received some money that had to be spent.
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And they asked us to implement a pre-K pilot in Franklin County Schools. So exciting.
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Oh, we couldn't be more excited. And so we're one of four districts.
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We're the largest of the four districts.
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It's Rock Castle, Robertson, Glasgow Independent, and Franklin County Schools,
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that will be providing free preschool for all four-year-olds in our county.
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That's amazing. Whoever wants to sign up.
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And it's going to do several things for us.
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Number one, it's going to help us improve our kindergarten readiness numbers.
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It's going to help us improve instruction for kiddos and get them ready so when
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they come into our kindergarten classrooms, they're ready to roll on day one.
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It's going to, obviously, it's going to help parents' pocketbooks because they
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won't have to pay for daycare.
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And the third thing that's, I think, the most important is it's going to enable
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some of our parents who have to stay home to take care of their children.
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It's going to enable them to get back into the workforce. Right.
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So it's a win-win-win. It's a domino effect. It affects everyone.
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It is. And couldn't be more. That's so exciting. Yeah. Couldn't be more excited
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and more thankful. Governor Beshear has been a leader in this endeavor, and.
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We're going to make him and his administration proud. We're going to do everything
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we can to make this a successful pilot.
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So for the next two years, we are set up to provide this, and hopefully,
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Moving forward, the legislature will see how impactful this is going to be and,
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we'll make this a universal effort.
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Yeah, I have no doubt this is going to be a success. I agree.
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I have no doubt. I think within 10 years, I think nationwide,
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you're going to see a push for normalizing pre-K education. It's just the right
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thing to do. Right, right.
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Speaking of that, because I have an incoming kindergartner. Yes.
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We just got through preschool. Yes. We did private preschool, which she loved. Yeah.
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But a lot of families are in a transition year. So like I say,
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I have a child going into kindergarten. Yes. She doesn't necessarily love the
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school setting. She doesn't like change. She doesn't like separation.
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I have one also going into middle school. So we got two transitions that are lost this year. Yeah.
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So do you have any like words of wisdom for the, well, all families with,
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you know, kids in school, but those transition years that are really difficult,
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do you have any like words of wisdom that would be helpful to families?
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Sure. That's a fantastic question, by the way.
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You really should be like, whatever they're paying you is not enough.
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It's a really professional. Thank you. Great interview.
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So my words of wisdom would be a couple of things. Number one, maintain flexibility.
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Understand that this is a traumatic thing for a child anytime that there's a transition.
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And so what our folks do and what we strive to do more than anything else is
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develop a strong relationship with the child on a one-on-one basis.
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Make sure that we get to know your daughter, your son, whatever that happens
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to be, and let them know, hey, we're here to help you.
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It can be a very scary thing. But ultimately, again, go back to the promise.
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How do we make sure that every student succeeds?
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Well, the first and easiest thing that we have to do is create a relationship with that child.
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If we do that, everything else becomes much easier because the child develops trust.
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So I would encourage anyone who's having any difficulty with transition,
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reach out directly to your teacher first, then reach out to your principal, and then reach out to me.
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If you have any questions or concerns or areas in which we can provide assistance,
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we want to make sure that that is right, that everything goes well.
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Because, you know, again, we're trying to remove any barrier that exists.
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Right. I can I can only having two children in the school system.
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So Harper, my oldest, came from Peaks Mill. I love Peaks Mill.
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Mr. Barton and Miss Allen are the greatest. I love I was almost had a hard time.
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She's going to be going to Elkhorn Middle. Yeah. And then Finley is going to
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be in kindergarten in Collins Lane.
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And I will say a shout out to them. Also, we reached out because she has transition
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issues. And Miss Richardson, the counselor, has already given her a tour of
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the school, has already gotten to know her. We've met the principal. Yeah.
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Great. We feel so lucky to do it in the school system. You're blessed.
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Look, I think it's all about the, sometimes the analogy I use is people on the
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right seat on the bus, right?
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I think in terms of our principles, I feel so great about every single one of them.
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You know, Ms. Laudmell at Collins Lane is a rock star. And so is her counselor. And, you know,
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it's going to be okay. That's the other thing I would say. Everything is going
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to work out fine. Be patient and flexible.
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But also reach out for assistance. That's what we're there for. Right.
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I think sometimes it's harder on the parent. Oh, a million percent.
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Moms have a lot harder time than anybody else does. Hey, dad did too. I remember very well.
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My kiddo just graduated from college a couple of weeks ago. So,
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yeah. That's a hard transition. That's a really hard transition.
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I'm still writing checks. I thought they were supposed to end me. Yeah. This is over.
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Okay. As we get back in the swing of the school year, safety is a big,
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let's talk about safety for a little bit.
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Can you talk about like the measures that you all put in place to keep students
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and staffs, you know, safe?
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I know this is a more serious topic, but, you know, You know,
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everybody, we kind of send our babies off for you all to have all day.
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So what is your kind of view on safety and how do you all do that?
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Yeah, it's the most important thing that we do is making sure that we get the
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kids to school and from school home safely every single day.
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We have a wonderful school safety coordinator in our district.
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His name is Jeff Abrams. He was the former chief of police here in Frankfurt.
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And Jeff organizes and supervises our school resource officers.
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I'm always very proud to say we were the first school district in the state
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to have a school resource officer in every single building, elementary, middle, and high.
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And we have 13 amazing school resource officers. And their job is to obviously,
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provide a safe environment, do everything we can to ensure that happens with locked doors.
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Closed entry systems, cameras everywhere, all of those things.
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But the other thing that they provide, which again goes to the promise of making
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sure that every student succeeds, is they develop wonderful relationships with our kids.
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You can see that when you're in the school with them. You can see that.
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You'll see at Collins Lane, Officer Ken, who's the SRO there,
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the kids absolutely adore him and vice versa. He loves the kids.
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You could say that about every single one of our school resource officers.
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So when there's that trust that develops at a very early age with law enforcement,
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that's a really powerful thing.
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And I know we're talking about safety specifically, but it's a win-win again.
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It's you're developing trust in law enforcement at an early age,
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and that's going to help you down the road as you get older and become an adult
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and understand that the police and the sheriffs and, you know, they are there.
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To help. And so that's a really great thing. The other thing.
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That we did from a district perspective that I can talk about very briefly is,
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just this two years ago, we implemented a new safety system called audio enhancement.
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And audio enhancement is one of the greatest innovations in educational technology I've ever seen.
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It was a company that began in the 80s. There was a woman who had two children who were deaf.
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And she wanted to make sure that they had the same accessibility to learning,
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that every other student did.
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So she created a microphone system that teachers could wear that could then
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go into a speaker and into headphones that her children could hear whatever
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the teacher was saying, no matter where they were in the room.
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From that small and impactful idea grew this system that now also incorporates safety.
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So we have in most of our schools, and by next summer, it will be in all of our schools.
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Audio enhancement is a microphone that our teachers wear that they are able
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to speak into. It amplifies their voice in the classroom.
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It's also connected to a system in the front office.
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So it's an intercom system. that you can make all call announcements on.
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You can also go to specific, you can press the little thing on the screen in the office.
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I know I'm doing this really badly. No, no, no. Yeah, they can press the little, you know, and then...
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That specific teacher. Yeah. You can just, hey, I only want to make this announcement
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at Elkhorn Middle School to the sixth grade teachers.
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So you can make announcements on it and all those things. That's also connected,
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to the security system so that a teacher in their classroom,
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let's say that there's an incident, there's a fight or something like that.
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They can press their microphone. There's buttons on it.
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They press these three times and it immediately goes to every administrator
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and school resource officer in the building and it will tell them where there is an incident.
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It's tracked by GPS so that our teachers, our administrators and our SROs can
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be there within seconds. Wow. The other thing they can do is they can also put,
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the school into a lockdown by pressing it eight times.
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If they see someone out the window that doesn't look. Not for sure about it. Hey, lockdown.
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And on the screens all throughout the building, it will come across and say lockdown.
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And there's some things I can't talk about, but there's some codes that our
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teachers then have to do.
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And again, it ensures a safe environment. That's amazing. So it's really, really cool.
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One other thing it does that's really not about safety, but it is more about
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instruction, but I got to mention it.
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We have a lot of students who English is not their first language.
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And if you're in a math class and you speak Bosnian and you're trying to figure out how to do algebra.
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It's really challenging. Yeah, especially as a child. I can only imagine. Right.
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So this new piece of the audio enhancement system, the kids come into the classroom
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who are in that situation.
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They have headphones that plug into their Chromebook. They scan a barcode in the room.
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And then when the teacher speaks into the microphone, their voice is translated
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immediately into 140 different languages. Wow. So the student can understand
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and listen to algebra in Spanish, in Russian, in Bosnia, whatever it happens to be.
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And so they can learn the content without having to worry about figuring out,
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what the word equals means. Oh, that's wonderful.
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Yeah. So we're super excited. We have it in all of our middle and high schools.
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This summer, we're adding it. We've added it to Hearn and Westridge.
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And then next summer, it will be put in the rest of the elementary schools,
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Collins Lane, et cetera. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah.
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So a long-winded answer of saying we take safety very seriously.
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I love getting to talk to you. This is fun to learn about.
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Makes me feel better, too. Like I say, my babies are there. There you go.
26:13
I'm happy to hear about it.
26:15
Okay. So like another little avenue of safety is we all have to kind of get
26:18
back into school driving mode. Oh, yeah.
26:21
So talk a little bit about like school bus safety and kids walking and biking to school.
26:27
Give some advice, kind of get everybody's head back into slow down,
26:30
pay attention mode. You know what I mean?
26:33
You stole my words. Slow down. Pay attention.
26:36
There's, you know, a few years ago, we actually out on Route 60, which is a two lane road.
26:44
We had a bus pulled over, dropping off a child and a vehicle behind decided
26:51
that their time was way more valuable.
26:52
Had the stop arm out, car pulled around, barely missed hitting a child,
26:58
and crashed into a, took out a mailbox.
27:03
Long story short, after prosecution, and we will prosecute to the fullest extent
27:09
of the law, any of those things, thank God no one was injured,
27:13
but those are things that can't happen.
27:15
And thankfully, one of the great things that the legislature did this year is
27:20
they passed a new law that the police department here is already putting some information out about.
27:26
And those stop arm violations are now going to include, if you're on a four-lane
27:33
road, much like 60 is when it's here in Frankfurt.
27:39
You know, 60 is a two-lane out, whatever I was talking about.
27:43
But in the four-lane area, it used to be that, okay, so if I'm following a bus
27:48
and it stops and the stop arm comes out, I have to stop behind it.
27:51
But if I was on the other side of the road, I could keep going.
27:55
Not the case anymore everyone has to stop yeah and our police department is
28:00
already warning people they're they're gonna they're gonna get you yeah so please
28:04
don't do it and no it's just slow down like you said,
28:08
you're everybody your time is not that important to take a chance at hurting a kid so yeah,
28:13
always think about that think about if if,
28:17
god forbid something happens to a child or to a to an adult.
28:22
Is that life, that worth your extra 30 seconds that you just picked up?
28:27
Slow down. Pay attention. Right. Good. Good advice.
28:31
I think one of the things people sometimes forget is schools are,
28:36
you know, a community effort.
28:39
How can residents, even, you know, ones that don't have children or grandchildren
28:43
in the school system, how can they support students or support our school system?
28:47
Do you have any advice on that? Yeah, I think we love to see the community come to our events.
28:54
We love to see community support for our kiddos, our athletes,
28:59
our quiz team folks, our kids singing in the concert.
29:05
So come and support. And I think that's one real important thing. Volunteer. Yeah.
29:11
We have a fantastic volunteer program and we will never turn down assistance.
29:16
It does take a village. They always say that, right? Right. So,
29:19
yeah, I would encourage I would encourage that as much as possible.
29:23
And we have some wonderful partnerships with the community already.
29:27
We try to work together with all kinds of different entities,
29:30
whether it's the Optimist Club, the Kiwanis Rotary.
29:35
You know, we're always looking for ways to increase our opportunities for kids.
29:40
Right. So if there are things that are going on out there and you need some
29:44
assistance, our kids always need volunteer hours.
29:47
So reach out to us. Let's make it happen.
29:50
We are here to support because we're all in this thing together.
29:54
Right. We're all in a community. I think people forget, you know,
29:56
some people that don't have children in the system think, you know,
29:59
I don't have any involvement.
30:00
But keep in mind, in a very short amount of time, these will be the people making
30:04
decisions and growing our community and making choices for us.
30:07
So we need to get them. We need to grow them and help them out.
30:09
Let's go. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely.
30:12
So some things that happen behind the scenes in the community,
30:16
partnerships, as we just talked about, on the city side of things,
30:19
we have everything from public safety assistance with your traffic,
30:22
maintaining streets and sidewalk, garbage service.
30:25
You use our parks and our fields quite a bit. Can you talk a little more about
30:28
how these partnerships kind of influence Franklin County's school system,
30:32
working with the city and county and places like that?
30:35
It makes us want to work more with the city and with the county when we look
30:39
at all the amazing opportunities that we have.
30:41
Potential of building a new indoor aquatic center. Okay.
30:45
This is a potential game changer. And it's something that our school district,
30:50
as well as the county and the city, have been in the three entities from the very beginning.
30:55
We have pledged to try to work together to make this happen because, again, we see the need.
31:01
We understand that the more we work together and the more opportunities that we can provide.
31:07
But the better it is for everyone. If we're able to work together to build this
31:11
indoor aquatic center, it's going to help our swimmers, obviously.
31:16
Right now we have kids getting up at five in the morning and driving to Shelbyville
31:19
or to Versailles to swim, or they're having to swim at 930 at night.
31:24
It's just not the most feasible thing for our kiddos to have to do that.
31:29
Well, and I think it'll help all athletes, really, not just swimmers,
31:31
all athletes. 100%. It's going to help drive economic development as well.
31:36
If we're able to build this thing to where it is a 10 lane that can host meets,
31:42
we're going to bring in a lot of swimmers from a lot of different counties.
31:47
And it's going to drive people that come to Frankfurt and say,
31:49
hey, we got this big swim meet. I'm going to need to stay at a hotel and we're
31:55
going to need to go out to eat.
31:56
And oh, hey, they have a, look at that. They've got a Pop Mart here.
32:00
I'm going to go check that out.
32:02
It's going to drive economic development. And also we have soon to be the world's,
32:07
or the world's, Kentucky's largest Target, right? It's going to be a thing.
32:11
It's going to be amazing.
32:13
We all love Target, right? Exactly. So long story short, I know that there's
32:20
sometimes there's a resistance to growth.
32:23
Growth can be a very good thing. Right. And we want to grow.
32:28
We want to grow with Frankfort and with Franklin County.
32:31
So having the only pool facility under our umbrella right now,
32:36
I can tell you when we have swim meets, it's packed. Yes.
32:38
And, you know, we can only do it in a short amount of time. Right.
32:40
It's really cold normally.
32:42
So, yeah, when we have swim meets, it's normally packed. Yeah.
32:45
And if this thing happens, it's another opportunity for Parks and Rec to be able to, again...
32:53
Have a facility for the community that the community can support.
32:57
You know, it'll be able to host meets. It'll be able to host kids during the
33:01
winter who just want to go and get a little recreation.
33:04
There are going to be spaces in there to have birthday parties and meetings
33:09
and anniversaries and all kinds of other things.
33:12
So again, I'm super excited for the potential and we've just got to find a way
33:18
to make it happen. Yeah. Any growth in Frankfurt's good.
33:20
Yes, and I would encourage everyone who does have some input they would like
33:26
to provide on that to come to the Paul Sawyer Library Tuesday.
33:31
What is that, July 21st? Is that the day? I think so, yep. Because today is the 20th, right?
33:37
I think that's right. So yeah, tomorrow night. And to provide some input,
33:41
that would be great. That's great.
33:43
We're going to get into some fun questions. But before that,
33:46
you have any last thoughts? You have anything you want to let the families of
33:50
Franklin County know about the school system and this coming school year?
33:53
We're in this together and our job is to make sure that your kids succeed.
33:59
And if you ever need to reach out to me, I have an open door.
34:03
So pick up the phone, call me, text me, email me, whatever it is.
34:09
And I'm so excited for the future of Franklin County Schools.
34:14
We're doing amazing things for the first time ever.
34:17
Half of our schools that are accountable were green.
34:21
So that's pretty impressive that half your district, proficient or better,
34:27
highest graduation rate ever.
34:30
We're now, we've gone from 90th in the state in 2017 in teacher pay to 26th in the state.
34:38
We're doing wonderful things for our employees and for our kids,
34:42
and I think for our families as well. So I would encourage you to,
34:45
if you have any questions, reach out.
34:47
If you have a child that's pre-K and you want to save some money,
34:52
if you have a child that's four years old, get that child enrolled.
34:55
It's a deal, let me tell you. Let's go.
34:57
It's paid for preschool, so jump on it. We can't wait. It's exciting. It's very exciting.
35:02
So thanks so much for your leadership. I appreciate you because, A, best interview.
35:07
I mean, you do a fantastic job. We're not done yet. We're going to do fun stuff now. All right.
35:13
We appreciate the local community. Appreciate your leadership.
35:16
Thank you. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you.
35:19
Where can people find you or follow you or what's the best way to get a hold
35:22
of you just so they know for the school year? Yeah.
35:26
What's the quickest? Should they call your office email? Call my office email.
35:31
Those are always the easiest way. I get every one of those emails on this phone
35:35
that I have with me 24-7. Okay.
35:38
Franklin County School District's website? Yeah, mark.com at franklin.kyschools.us.
35:44
Okay. They get a hold of you that way. Yeah. And the office number, I think, is 695-6700.
35:51
Ask for me, and they'll put you right back through to my desk.
35:53
Great. That's comforting for parents. Yeah. It really is.
35:57
So, this is the fun part, rapid fire. We do it with all of our guests.
36:00
Great. It's just kind of for the Frankfortians to know, like...
36:05
Um some of your favorite things around town so i'm going to ask you questions
36:08
okay just the first thing that comes to mind okay you don't have to explain
36:12
but if you want to okay super some of them are hard yeah i feel like all right
36:15
um are you ready i'm ready let's go
36:17
what's your coffee order for the first day of school,
36:21
and where are you ordering it from oh can i give two answers on this yes okay
36:25
so i'm gonna go black coffee with one stevia packet uh because i'm i've,
36:31
i've lost a bunch of weight and i've been trying to do be a good boy okay so,
36:36
but i like my sugar so but if if it was going and that one i'll just do from
36:41
home okay i'll just make that from home but if i really want to treat myself,
36:46
uh i'm going to go with oh man that's a tough one um,
36:53
pumpkin spice frappuccino if it's still if it's available at that time it might not be.
37:00
From Starbucks. Yeah, that's fancy.
37:02
Do you have, just curious, do you have any like first day of school rituals? Yeah, I do.
37:08
I do. You don't have to tell if you don't. No, no, I gladly will.
37:10
I actually will. I get up super early.
37:14
I do have a cup of black coffee. I take it with me and I go to every school
37:19
on opening day. You do? Yes.
37:21
Every single one. I'll, I start in the elementary school.
37:24
So I started right at about 7.15 and I hit every single school.
37:30
And it takes me usually until about two o'clock in the afternoon until I get
37:34
finished. Yeah. So it makes for a long morning.
37:38
Yeah. But I want to make sure that I get to see kids in every building.
37:41
So I've got a little route that I go. That's cool. I'm glad I asked you. I'm glad I know that.
37:47
Man, this is a hard one. I did not come up with this question.
37:50
I just want you to know. Best school mascot in Franklin County school system. Oh, my gosh.
37:55
You know, it's like a child. You can't have your favorite. I can't.
37:58
I can't. But here, I'm going to pick one. I'm going to pick one that is not controversial. Okay.
38:05
I'm going to go with the Peaks Mill Patriots. Yay.
38:10
I love the red, white, and blue and just Patriots. Yay. Peaks Mill's close to
38:14
my heart. I don't have a kid there anymore and I'm happy you picked that.
38:16
I love all of them. Yeah. But if I had to pick one, I'd go with that.
38:20
Yeah. Thank you. That's a good one.
38:22
Favorite Frankfurt Mexican restaurant? Garcia's. Not even, and I love the other
38:28
ones. Don't get me wrong.
38:29
Mr. Garcia is a neighbor of mine. Yeah. Wonderful person.
38:33
The food's amazing. Best salsa I've ever had. Yeah, you got to shout out your
38:36
neighbors. Yes. Good one.
38:39
Favorite place in Frankfurt for a field trip. So a field trip in Frankfurt. Ooh.
38:44
So I'm going to go with two different ones here if I can.
38:50
One that we can't really do right now because it's under construction.
38:53
But I love going to the Capitol.
38:56
You know, I love... I think kids love that too. Yeah. All of walking in the Capitol is really cool.
39:00
It's so impressive. Yeah. And since you can't go into the regular Capitol now,
39:04
I'm going to go with the old state Capitol.
39:06
As a former history teacher, when you walk into that building,
39:09
I mean, it just oozes history. Yeah. And I love that.
39:13
My oldest favorite thing in the world right now is history. Her history teacher,
39:16
Mr. Wagner at Peaksville, just really got her into...
39:19
She loves it right now. Yeah. You know he is moving, right? Did you hear about
39:23
this? To Elkhorn with her. She's real excited. Yay!
39:27
She's super. I think he'll be in an older grade, but that's her love.
39:30
Language is history right now.
39:32
He really is a great teacher because he really opened her eyes and has really
39:37
drawn her to history. Yeah.
39:39
And a third place would be the History Center. Yeah.
39:42
I love it. Cool. That's really cool.
39:44
Um, that's all of them. You did great. You did great. Banana milkshake.
39:49
That's my favorite milkshake. So you didn't ask me that. Banana.
39:51
Banana milkshake. Noted. Good to know. Um, thanks for joining us this week.
39:55
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. It's been fun.
39:58
It's been great. Uh, we'll catch you again next week on the City of Frankfurt podcast.
40:03
Don't forget to follow the City of Frankfurt podcast on Facebook,
40:07
Instagram, TikTok, and make sure to subscribe to our show on Podbeam or wherever
40:11
you get your podcasts. Awesome. Cool. thank you see you thanks so much thanks so much.