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Unpredictable winter weather may necessitate Boone County Schools to alter daily schedules or routines within the district. To be prepared please make sure your child’s school has up-to-date phone numbers and emergency contacts for your family. Also, have child-care arrangements already in place should the need arise to close school early, delay or cancel school.


Decision process

Boone County Schools have a great team working tirelessly to make decisions on closing or delaying school, always keeping the safety of our students as the top priority. As early as 3:00 a.m., if snow, freezing rain, sleet or other dangerous precipitation presents our Assistant Superintendent for Operations set out to inspect the road conditions. They drive designated routes, checking the roadways that are typically the most dangerous when snow covered. The team considers safe travel not only on streets but sidewalks, parking lots, and driveways. Other conditions to consider include the outside temperature, wind chill factor and the amount of precipitation fallen or falling. The Assistant Superintendent for Operations contacts the county public works department to check on road clearing progress. Once enough information is gathered and shared with the Superintendent the team focuses on one question: Would you feel safe transporting students in a school bus in the current or predicted conditions?

Whenever travel is affected by winter weather the District has four choices:

Cancel school
Delay opening
Early dismissal
Open on schedule

The team attempts to make a decision by 5:00 a.m. There are times when a decision is not clear-cut, for instance in cases of a snow storm happening right at the time of assessment.

Getting the word out

Once a decision is made, the notification process begins. We get the word out as quickly as possible, through our phone notification system, news media outlets, district social media outlets and the district’s webpage. Since the phone system has thousands of households to call, it can take 45 minutes to an hour for all the messages to go out. Please note that this information is general in nature and you should always refer to your child's school protocol for school closings and delays.

In the meantime, visit the following to check the district’s status:

• Website: www.boone.kyschools.us

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheBooneCountySchools

• Twitter: @Boone_County and @BCSWx
 

Click Here For The Wind Chill Policy

If school is closed to In-person Instruction:

Schools will not be open for regular business and students will utilize Remote Learning. Students engage in Remote Learning via a combination of Google meets with teachers and independent learning activities previously assigned or assigned that day through Google Classroom, Canvas, or some other digital learning platform.


If school is canceled:

Schools will not be open for regular business.

All afternoon and evening activities, including night school, are canceled as well. However, if conditions improve and after-school activities can safely be held, an announcement will be made.


If school is delayed:

All schools start either one or two hours later than normal. Buses may run their regular routes or an altered route depending on weather and road conditions at the time; just add one or two hours to the regularly scheduled pick up times depending on the length of the delay.

School dismissal times remain the same, and afternoon and evening activities continue as usual unless weather conditions deteriorate throughout the day.

Decisions about making up the time missed will be made on a case-by-case basis in accordance with state guidelines.

If schools dismiss early:

The decision will be made as early as possible to allow families time to make arrangements.

Children in the morning preschool sessions who ride the bus will be taken home at the regular time, and afternoon preschool sessions are canceled.

Decisions about making up the time missed will be made on a case-by-case basis in accordance with state guidelines.

Although students may get excited for an unanticipated day off from school, they will have to make up missed days before school ends for the year. However, the Board of Education does have the authority to adjust the school year calendar by reducing student days as long as the calendar meets all KDE requirements for attendance.

The Boone County Schools will always make decisions to ensure the safety of our students and staff to the best of our ability.

The Boone County Schools continually strive to provide a world class education to all students and to exceed in both traditional and non-traditional measures of accountability.  The Kentucky Department of Education has publicly released state test scores from last spring.  These results are being shared on our district and school report cards.  

 

The accountability system provides a color-coded rating for all schools at each level (elementary, middle, high) ranging from red (lowest) to blue (highest). Districts and the state receive a separate color-coded rating for each level of schools (elementary, middle, high).  Note, with the introduction of “change” into the system, comparisons cannot be made to 2022 accountability.  Although the color-coded dials represent school accountability in 2022 and 2023, the system is vastly different with the inclusion of “change” and should not be compared.

 

As with any assessment of our work, we will have areas to celebrate the work of our students and staff and we will have areas in which we must work to improve.  Our school and district staff are always working to assure that our students are safe and meaningfully engaged in appropriate grade-level activities as well as purposeful and meaningful assessments.  

 

Our district strategic plan guides the direction of our school district and provides focus for our resources and energy. The priority areas of our new strategic plan are:

• World Class Education
• Empowered Workforce
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Operations & Resource Optimization

 

 

These state assessment scores highlight the great work and progress of our students and staff.  While we are proud of everyone’s efforts, we have work to do to ensure that ALL of our students are performing at high levels.  Below is a district statement regarding the release of test scores.

 

Boone County Schools is the third largest school district in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, serving more than 20,000 students from preschool to 12th grade.  The 2023-24 School Report Card released by the Kentucky Department of Education indicates many areas of student growth in addition to areas for opportunity.  At the elementary level, Reading and Math proficient & distinguished rates are the highest of Kentucky’s ten largest school districts having student enrollment at 10,000 or more.  Specifically, elementary Reading proficient & distinguished rates rose to 60% compared to the State average of 47%.  Elementary Math proficient & distinguished rates rose to 59% compared to the State average of 42%.  At the middle school level, Social Studies proficient & distinguished rates are at 66%, almost double the state average of 34%.  Our district high schools earned high Indicator Performance Ratings of IPR’s of Green in the areas of Reading, Math, post-secondary readiness and graduation rates. Of our 27 schools, 7 elementary schools and 2 middle schools are rated Blue at the top of the IPR scale.  Other successes indicated on the School Report Card include 8 schools being released from Targeted School Intervention status for learning growth made by students with disabilities. Significant elementary English Learners language growth was awarded the highest IPR of Blue.  Some areas of opportunity include science proficiency rates which are only slightly higher than the state averages at all levels and writing proficiency at all levels. We are extremely proud of our students and the growth that is indicated on the School Report Card, as well as our teachers, staff and leaders for the extraordinary learning opportunities and support they daily provide students.

 

This new 5-year strategic plan is the result of extensive collaboration, input, and analysis from stakeholders across our district that include parents, students, teachers and school administrators, school board members, business and community members, faith leaders, and post-secondary education leaders. Their work was complemented by the feedback provided by the Business Leader Roundtable group, my Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council, the Boone County Fiscal Court, the Florence and Union City Councils, and the Florence Rotary Club. We believe that our strategic planning work is stronger thanks to the many voices that were included as the plan was developed.

The strategic plan embodies our shared vision for the future and outlines clear goals, strategies, and action steps to achieve excellence in education. By focusing on
these key areas, we aim to create an environment that fosters academic success, personal growth, and community engagement.

 

 

Please join us for this two-day event, Friday, February 23rd, from 6:00 pm - 9:30 pm, and Saturday, February 24th, from 8:00 am - 1:30 pm. Both days will include a meal, a keynote speaker, and various workshops and seminars, led by national, state and local experts in the areas of youth mental health.

 

This is the Call for Presenter’s link: https://forms.gle/Xde1nCM3PmFgFYNY6