A separate task force set up to examine the state's largest school district also held its second meeting today.

Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Marty Polio discussed teacher salaries and retention efforts, transportation issues and chronic absenteeism.

Republican state Representative James Tipton suggested there was more to teacher retention than just raising salaries.

I ran into a someone I knew as a JCPenney teacher on Saturday, and he said, You ready for the school year?

She said.

I retired 22 years and I'm out.

So as I'm talking to her, she didn't talk about salaries.

She talked about discipline.

And I know that's a major issue that probably I know you and I have talked about the difficulty that you have in finding that appropriate balance of discipline and also not having the federal government come down on you.

We are seeing a trend of decline in that which is very positive in nearly every single category of of discipline referral.

But that does not mean that's not still an issue.

You know, it was an issue prior to COVID.

It's been exacerbated since COVID.

I think we're starting to balance out where we're not seeing that that COVID impact that we did maybe 18 to 24 months ago.

But there is no doubt it is a challenge.

It's been a challenge for my entire 30 year career, which is the balance between high standards for student behavior and expectations of students, while at the same time making sure students are in school so that they can learn while at the same time having to face scrutiny from a variety of various educational groups, both federal and state, as to whether we are disproportionately impacting certain student groups.

And so, you know, I say one of my biggest challenges or frustrations that I have in my career is on the one hand, I can be told, were under disciplining students by not disciplining enough, while the next day I can be in a meeting with a federal group or even a state group who says we're over disciplining students and it's just a real challenge and a frustration for me.

Today, the task force also heard about new literacy and math efforts recently implemented by JCP.

Yes, the task force includes lawmakers, JCP, s educators and parents, a teacher union representative, a Louisville City Council member, and a school choice advocate.

They have until December 1st to submit a report to legislative leadership.