It’s almost here — Jessamine County’s first day of school is Wednesday, Aug. 15, and we are excited to welcome each of our students as we return from summer break.  

District and school offices are open and ready to assist your family with whatever you might need to get the year off to a great start.  

As we go back to school, leaving the long, lazy days of summer behind is difficult for some.

For others, when school is out, their work to prepare for the next school year begins. Many teachers spent at least part of their “off” time this summer furthering their education, participating in professional development and honing their teaching skills.  A number of our school and district-level employees work year-round to ensure vital support services continue throughout the summer and to prepare for the upcoming year. 

During this summer, our maintenance department has been busy with upkeep and improvement projects in our buildings and on our grounds, including work to make our facilities more energy efficient.  

The District Technology Office has worked hard to upgrade our computer and phone systems and our transportation department has been performing maintenance on our fleet, as well as attending trainings and preparing bus routes for the upcoming year.

Construction on our new transportation center and diesel mechanics program space continued over the summer and is almost completed.  We’re eager to begin the first class of diesel mechanic students this year.

Hunger doesn’t take a summer break, and I’m excited to share this summer, JCS Food Service operated 15 meal sites and served 3,100 breakfasts and almost 13,000 lunches to Jessamine County youth.

Our commitment to ensure that no child in our community goes hungry continues this school year with some huge additions to our school nutrition program. I am proud to share that beginning with the 2018-19 school year, all of our elementary schools, as well as The Providence School, will participate in a program that will enable all students at those schools to eat for free. We hope to add the middle and high schools next year. 

For 2018-19, we will also add a supper program for our students participating in after-school activities, offering the opportunity for some students to eat three full meals a day at school. We also plan to serve lunch on some days when school is not in session, including holiday breaks and snow days.

Student and staff safety are top-of-mind for our district, even when school isn’t in session.  That is why this summer we collaborated with local law enforcement agencies to complete active shooter trainings for our staff district-wide.

This school year we are increasing the number of lockdown drills with our schools and performing four additional drills throughout the year. We will also send home a hard copy of our emergency guide for parents, to ensure each family has this valuable tool and is prepared in the case of an incident.  

Our district will continue to work closely with local law enforcement and we have planned to collaborate on safety tabletop exercises this year as well. 

As we begin the school year with bus and vehicular traffic increasing, we ask for your patience and caution, particularly on our campuses, around pedestrians and while buses are loading and unloading.   

Our district and school websites are a wealth of information and will be a great help to you as you navigate the hustle and bustle of the start of school and related activities.  

If you haven’t already registered your student, our convenient online registration process will be open through Aug. 14 to help your family complete the documentation necessary to register for the new school year.  

School supply lists, open house information, bus numbers, stop times and other helpful resources can also be found on our websites.

For the past two years, the Jessamine County School District has reached an all-time high in attendance. Thank you for partnering with us to accomplish this huge improvement and we know you will continue to help us stay on the right track with even better attendance this school year.   

Your interest and involvement are the most crucial factors in student success. We welcome your input and participation and thank you for all you do to support our students.

I’m thrilled to announce at the beginning of this school year, we will be rolling out our new district logo system. After several months of work with a design firm, our district now has a visual representation of our unified commitment to our students, their families and our colleagues.

I am excited to unveil those symbols at our opening day program next week. These images tell our schools’ individual stories and combine in a tapestry to convey what is most unique and special to our district, distinguishing us and setting us apart. 

Be on the lookout for these new marks. You will soon see them all around the county.

We are eager to begin the 2018-19 school year and to make a positive difference in the lives of our students.  

Please know each and every student interaction with each and every adult in our school system will be designed to meet each student’s learning needs, help students find their passion and purpose in life and to provide a safe and healthy culture where students can thrive.  

With these goals in our sights, we are excited about the possibilities of what we can achieve this year. 

Happy New Year, JCS.

Matt Moore is the superintendent of the Jessamine County school district.