Kentucky officials continue to focus their microscope on Jefferson County Public schools.

A state committee says it will need another year before recommending legislative fixes for the district.

Our June Leffler checked in with members of that task force and has this report.

Republican lawmakers make the case that JCPenney is the entire state's business.

If you don't live in Jefferson County, this is one six of the students in Kentucky.

We want them to be the best they can be.

The state has long scrutinized the district say teachers and their union.

Being watched or being under the microscope or having to constantly educate decision makers and the public about what we're doing and how we're doing and why we're doing things that way as kind of a normal setting for us.

Looking at most recent state and national test scores, J.C. Pierce falls short of the rest of the state.

A group representing large urban districts spoke in Frankfort this year.

Kentucky consistently outperforms Jefferson County in all four grades in subjects on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

But that snapshot changes when considering a student's race or socioeconomics.

The general picture that you see when you look at similar types of students, both by race and economic status, is that where Jefferson County is and where the state are roughly synonymous?

They aren't very different.

As a whole, JCPenney students are slightly poorer than those across the state, and they're much more likely to be black, Hispanic or English language learners, groups that tend to score worse than their white native born counterparts.

A state task force has spent months dissecting the district.

The committee says it will continue that work next year.

Time is of the essence.

I understand that with children they're graduating and we don't want them to be my age.

By the time we get this done.

But we don't want to make decisions that we haven't thought through.

That could ultimately result in legislative recommendations around who governs or controls the district.

For instance.

You know, when we started, everybody said, well, you want to split the district car, We shouldn't split the district.

That's not our focus.

Our focus is to teach the children the best that they can be to to be the best they can be.

Now, that isn't to say that we won't look at that, but without a plan, our data to show that that's the thing to do, then that's inconsequential.

An education analyst for the state told the committee deconsolidation is a novel idea.

He is not aware of any deconsolidation efforts.

That have been finalized into law.

All of the data that is out there, especially across the country, trends towards consolidation, not deconsolidation.

So simply from a data perspective, the data says that is not a logical or effective decision.

Another governance change that is getting political traction is expanding the school board.

Jefferson County has seven school board members, and then you look at the size of the city.

There's 26 council members and obviously they're able to represent their constituents a little easier.

A JCP parent suggested this, too, at one of the task Forces community meetings.

I had filed a bill last session to expand school boards across the state to scale with the size of their districts, and I think that could bring more input from the community and better represent from the community.

Senator Lindsay Tickner says she'll propose such a bill again in this upcoming legislative session.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm June Leffler.

Peace is in flux right now as the school board picks a new superintendent to replace Marty Polio.

Kentucky State Auditor Alison Ball is also working on an audit she'll release in 2026.

That's why Democratic State Representative Tina Bolger now she says the task force should pump its brakes.

She questions the need to make changes or hold taxpayer funded meetings until that audit is released.

In a related story today, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled against the JCP board.

The state's highest court set a Republican backed law that gives the superintendent more power and weakens The school board does not violate the state's constitution.

The 2022 law currently only applies to Jacobs.

Kentucky's constitution prevents legislation that applies to a single entity.

Writing for the majority in the 4 to 3 ruling, Justice Shae Nichols said the fact that JCP is the only entity bound by the legislation doesn't prevent other districts from being included in the future.

Dissenting justices warned the decision undermines constitutional protections allowing the legislature to pass laws targeting specific entities by creating broad classes.

Senate President Robert Stivers defended the law emphasis, saying the need for greater oversight of JCP.

S quote This ruling is a shot across the bow to Kentucky's largest school district, one which continues to fail its students, particularly low income and minority students.