September 17, 2024 • 9 mins
Academics, busing, PVA and taxes, just a few issues discussed as Tony Cruise caught up with JCPS Super Dr. Marty Polio today on NewsRadio 840WHAS!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning. I'm Tony Kruz. Happy to have doctor Marty
Polio joining us this morning here on news radio A
forty WHS. So, doctor Polio, when you became superintendent, did
you know you had to be a sociologist, psychologist, traffic engineers,
social media curator, gang interventionist, and dabbling politics.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Were you ready for the You know, I really did not, Tony.
I did not realize we'd be going through a global pandemic.
I didn't realize the staffing shortages, all of those things.
But you know, it's kind of you know, leadership today.
You got to take what the hands your dealt and
move forward with it.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
All right. I want to start with things that school's about,
and particularly I want to know what's the Academics of
Louisville program is. I know that some reps from Central
Arkansas school districts came in to see what JCPS is doing.
So describe this because I want to start this off
with something about education.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
If you don't mind, yeah, yeah, that's that's good. I
appreciate that. But you know, it has been something we've
been working on for seven or eight years. Has been
a passion of mine. Being a high school former high
school principal for ten years, which is engaging kids in
there something that they're passionate about. And really it is
about I know the old term is vocational education, but
really it's career in tech education. And so the old
(01:17):
model of just having a few kids get on a
bus and go to a vocational technical center does not
give access to a lot of kids. So what we
did is we built in these pathways in our high
schools that are what is really needed for employment in
Jefferson County. So we're talking things like you know, manufacturing it, healthcare,
(01:39):
these things that we're looking for positions, getting kids on
these pathways, getting them trained, getting business partners to partner
with us, and making sure kids graduate and they have
a certification, college credit hours ready to go right into
the workforce. And so we got twenty two thousand. People
say to me like, you know, we need to go
(01:59):
back to vote EDGI. We have twenty two thousand kids
in vocational education right now. We call it career in
Tech d now, so really proud of it. And we're
seeing record numbers when it comes to post secondary readiness
and graduation rate. And when we know we're doing well
is when we see other districts. Four districts come to
visit us to see what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
All right, let's talk a little bit about you brought
up the bus situation. How's buzzing going and are we
going to see some other students have the opportunity to
go to Magnet schools visa the bus anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, I'm really pleased with what has had through very
very difficult times with transportation, with just millions of minutes
being lost over the past couple of years, and that
impacts student outcomes, There's no doubt. I mean, you can't
say a kid is missing school and that's not going
to impact student outcomes. But we've just about eliminated that
this year. We made tough decisions in the spring that
(02:54):
were very controversial obviously that a lot of people didn't like.
But once again, my commitment is to what's best for
ninety six thousand kids and I just can't have thousands
of kids being late to school every day. And so
it's going very well right now. As far as adding back,
I mean, we partnered with Tark, but right now we're
(03:16):
struggling to get you know, the amount of drivers we
need to add back to pass what is called an
ess endorsement. So we've got about twenty six right now past,
but we've got to get up to about fifty or
sixty before we add back. And my commitment is, you know,
I will not add back if it's going to impact
kids getting to school on time. And right now it's
(03:39):
going very well. Kids are getting to school on time,
they're being picked up right after school, and I want
to continue to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You can't avoid it, and I can't avoid the question.
I mean, we've seen some violence on buses now with
video and everything else, and we've seen now we've seen
violence in school, those kind of things. I guess the
question I have is what happens to those kids that
wind up with violent behavior? What what's the process after
(04:08):
this happens, and what do you do to try to
avert the situation? Teachers and principles.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And the like. Yeah, well, it's very really really disappointing
to see a child make a decision and do what
they did to another young person, you know, really disappointing,
and you know, Mart obviously goes out to the victim,
you know, in this, but and I can't get into
(04:35):
specifics about what we do to individual students. But I
will tell you this two things. First of all, in
recent years, we are taking the most absolute assertive discipline
we can against students who have egregious violent behaviors and
as I go as far as I possibly can based
(04:57):
on the law and our policies or board policies, and
we absolutely do as much as we possibly can, which
usually includes removing the student from that school setting. The
other positive we have now is we have our own
police force. We have or closing in on fifty five
(05:18):
police officers. And I'm not saying we couldn't press charges before,
but we have our own police force now, and so
it is much more I'm not saying better, but much
more efficient for us to be able to also have
legal consequences against young people who do these things because
(05:39):
we have our own police force. So I think that's
been something that has really benefited us. But you know,
I can tell you this, Tony, we are really taking
the most assertive stance we can, both discipline wise from
a school perspective and a legal perspective as well.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Tony grees here with doctor Marty, doctor Polio. The Board
of Education set property tax rates. They actually cut the
rate to what four percent, I think, But it's going
to generate more revenue because we the PPA has coming
pounded this for Texas. So with that, I want to
ask you a little bit because I had forgotten about this.
(06:19):
I was talking to Mark Hebert who works for you,
the other day, and that is that I forgot that
a lot of the moneies that are collected by JCPS,
so to speak, don't stay here in Jefferson County. If
I'm not mistaken, that is that true? What is that about?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah? So what it's the SEEK Fund, which is equalization
which came back in the early nineties with the Rose
Case and KIRA, which equalizes property assessments. So the higher
the property assessment you have in a community, the more
or the less SEEK money you get from the state.
(06:58):
And so yes, we only get somewhere in the neighborhood
of thirty to thirty five cents on the dollar because
we are and I believe this, Tony, we're an anomaly
in this state, which is we have very high property
value and assessment across this community, but we also have
extreme poverty and there's not many districts like that. Usually
(07:21):
the high property assessments have you know, those are communities
that don't have a lot of poverty, and so you
know that that is a struggle for us because we
do send a lot of our dollars go out to
other counties across the state. And so you know, I
believe in equalization. I think that's important, but I also
(07:44):
believe that the legislature needs to look at that again
and make sure that you know, we have extreme poverty
in this community. Seventy percent of our students qualify for
free who reduce lunch. So to say that we're a
property rich community and don't have poverty is just not
the case whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Well, I can tell you from us experientially from family
members that sometimes property PVAs and other counties they don't
work the same way as it does in Jefferson County.
You get voted on here and the PVA they don't
want to raise taxes because they know they can lose
the gig. But another there's coullies that have not up
(08:26):
to the anti so to speak, on housing costs and
those kinds of things. And I think JA CPS and
I think Jefferson County gets I don't know, a little
bruised from that.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
And I want to be clear, Tony, JCPS has nothing
to do with setting property assessments, right, So when the
value goes up on a home, you know, I do
get some communication from folks saying that we have some
kind of hand and that we have nothing to do
with the property assessment. That's actually why we have to
drop the tax rate, because property assessments go up, so
(09:00):
for a lot of people. Actually, if you're not reassessed,
your tax bill went down this year.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Okay, fair enough, we got to go right now. I
have so many other questions I'd like to get to you,
so maybe we can do it at another time, Marty Polio,
thanks for your time.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Thanks Tony, have a good one.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
All right, you two, Marty Polio here on News Radio
eight forty whas kadech And is Wary News. We've got
more coming your way with Scottish Shelden's Sports Next the
Good morning. I'm Tony Kruz. Happy to have doctor Marty
Polio joining us this morning here on news radio A
forty WHS. So, doctor Polio, when you became superintendent, did
you know you had to be a sociologist, psychologist, traffic engineers,
social media curator, gang interventionist, and dabbling politics.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Were you ready for the You know, I really did not, Tony.
I did not realize we'd be going through a global pandemic.
I didn't realize the staffing shortages, all of those things.
But you know, it's kind of you know, leadership today.
You got to take what the hands your dealt and
move forward with it.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
All right. I want to start with things that school's about,
and particularly I want to know what's the Academics of
Louisville program is. I know that some reps from Central
Arkansas school districts came in to see what JCPS is doing.
So describe this because I want to start this off
with something about education.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
If you don't mind, yeah, yeah, that's that's good. I
appreciate that. But you know, it has been something we've
been working on for seven or eight years. Has been
a passion of mine. Being a high school former high
school principal for ten years, which is engaging kids in
there something that they're passionate about. And really it is
about I know the old term is vocational education, but
really it's career in tech education. And so the old
(01:17):
model of just having a few kids get on a
bus and go to a vocational technical center does not
give access to a lot of kids. So what we
did is we built in these pathways in our high
schools that are what is really needed for employment in
Jefferson County. So we're talking things like you know, manufacturing it, healthcare,
(01:39):
these things that we're looking for positions, getting kids on
these pathways, getting them trained, getting business partners to partner
with us, and making sure kids graduate and they have
a certification, college credit hours ready to go right into
the workforce. And so we got twenty two thousand. People
say to me like, you know, we need to go
(01:59):
back to vote EDGI. We have twenty two thousand kids
in vocational education right now. We call it career in
Tech d now, so really proud of it. And we're
seeing record numbers when it comes to post secondary readiness
and graduation rate. And when we know we're doing well
is when we see other districts. Four districts come to
visit us to see what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
All right, let's talk a little bit about you brought
up the bus situation. How's buzzing going and are we
going to see some other students have the opportunity to
go to Magnet schools visa the bus anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Well, I'm really pleased with what has had through very
very difficult times with transportation, with just millions of minutes
being lost over the past couple of years, and that
impacts student outcomes, There's no doubt. I mean, you can't
say a kid is missing school and that's not going
to impact student outcomes. But we've just about eliminated that
this year. We made tough decisions in the spring that
(02:54):
were very controversial obviously that a lot of people didn't like.
But once again, my commitment is to what's best for
ninety six thousand kids and I just can't have thousands
of kids being late to school every day. And so
it's going very well right now. As far as adding back,
I mean, we partnered with Tark, but right now we're
(03:16):
struggling to get you know, the amount of drivers we
need to add back to pass what is called an
ess endorsement. So we've got about twenty six right now past,
but we've got to get up to about fifty or
sixty before we add back. And my commitment is, you know,
I will not add back if it's going to impact
kids getting to school on time. And right now it's
(03:39):
going very well. Kids are getting to school on time,
they're being picked up right after school, and I want
to continue to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You can't avoid it, and I can't avoid the question.
I mean, we've seen some violence on buses now with
video and everything else, and we've seen now we've seen
violence in school, those kind of things. I guess the
question I have is what happens to those kids that
wind up with violent behavior? What what's the process after
(04:08):
this happens, and what do you do to try to
avert the situation? Teachers and principles.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
And the like. Yeah, well, it's very really really disappointing
to see a child make a decision and do what
they did to another young person, you know, really disappointing,
and you know, Mart obviously goes out to the victim,
you know, in this, but and I can't get into
(04:35):
specifics about what we do to individual students. But I
will tell you this two things. First of all, in
recent years, we are taking the most absolute assertive discipline
we can against students who have egregious violent behaviors and
as I go as far as I possibly can based
(04:57):
on the law and our policies or board policies, and
we absolutely do as much as we possibly can, which
usually includes removing the student from that school setting. The
other positive we have now is we have our own
police force. We have or closing in on fifty five
(05:18):
police officers. And I'm not saying we couldn't press charges before,
but we have our own police force now, and so
it is much more I'm not saying better, but much
more efficient for us to be able to also have
legal consequences against young people who do these things because
(05:39):
we have our own police force. So I think that's
been something that has really benefited us. But you know,
I can tell you this, Tony, we are really taking
the most assertive stance we can, both discipline wise from
a school perspective and a legal perspective as well.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Tony grees here with doctor Marty, doctor Polio. The Board
of Education set property tax rates. They actually cut the
rate to what four percent, I think, But it's going
to generate more revenue because we the PPA has coming
pounded this for Texas. So with that, I want to
ask you a little bit because I had forgotten about this.
(06:19):
I was talking to Mark Hebert who works for you,
the other day, and that is that I forgot that
a lot of the moneies that are collected by JCPS,
so to speak, don't stay here in Jefferson County. If
I'm not mistaken, that is that true? What is that about?
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Yeah? So what it's the SEEK Fund, which is equalization
which came back in the early nineties with the Rose
Case and KIRA, which equalizes property assessments. So the higher
the property assessment you have in a community, the more
or the less SEEK money you get from the state.
(06:58):
And so yes, we only get somewhere in the neighborhood
of thirty to thirty five cents on the dollar because
we are and I believe this, Tony, we're an anomaly
in this state, which is we have very high property
value and assessment across this community, but we also have
extreme poverty and there's not many districts like that. Usually
(07:21):
the high property assessments have you know, those are communities
that don't have a lot of poverty, and so you
know that that is a struggle for us because we
do send a lot of our dollars go out to
other counties across the state. And so you know, I
believe in equalization. I think that's important, but I also
(07:44):
believe that the legislature needs to look at that again
and make sure that you know, we have extreme poverty
in this community. Seventy percent of our students qualify for
free who reduce lunch. So to say that we're a
property rich community and don't have poverty is just not
the case whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Well, I can tell you from us experientially from family
members that sometimes property PVAs and other counties they don't
work the same way as it does in Jefferson County.
You get voted on here and the PVA they don't
want to raise taxes because they know they can lose
the gig. But another there's coullies that have not up
(08:26):
to the anti so to speak, on housing costs and
those kinds of things. And I think JA CPS and
I think Jefferson County gets I don't know, a little
bruised from that.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
And I want to be clear, Tony, JCPS has nothing
to do with setting property assessments, right, So when the
value goes up on a home, you know, I do
get some communication from folks saying that we have some
kind of hand and that we have nothing to do
with the property assessment. That's actually why we have to
drop the tax rate, because property assessments go up, so
(09:00):
for a lot of people. Actually, if you're not reassessed,
your tax bill went down this year.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Okay, fair enough, we got to go right now. I
have so many other questions I'd like to get to you,
so maybe we can do it at another time, Marty Polio,
thanks for your time.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Thanks Tony, have a good one.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
All right, you two, Marty Polio here on News Radio
eight forty whas kadech And is Wary News. We've got
more coming your way with Scottish Shelden's Sports Next the
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