Ky. district with three schools in poor shape surprised by inquiry from People magazine

School officials in Clark County, Kentucky, had become used to the added attention they had received since a 2009 Lexington Herald-Leader story revealed the county had three schools on the Kentucky Department of Education’s list of worst facilities in the state, but they were surprised by a call from People magazine. The magazine had chosen Fannie Bush Elementary as one of the six worst school facilities in the nation for an upcoming story, Bob Flynn of the The Winchester Sun reports. "I thought the call was a joke at first. Surely People magazine wouldn’t be calling us," Fannie Bush Principal Angie Taylor told Flynn. "But after the interviews, I feel good about the article because they focused on the conditions and difficulties of educating the kids in these conditions."

Taylor said she was completely honest with the reporters in listing challenges of working at the facility, including having only one entrance for traffic, having a gymnasium that also serves as the cafeteria and having only one set of bathrooms to serve more than 300 students, Flynn reports. "The thing that is surprising to me more than anything is for Clark County, in the area that it sits in Kentucky, to have three category 5 schools, is very unusual for this part of Kentucky," Clark County Schools Superintendent Elaine Farris told Flynn. Category 5 is the designation given to the oldest and most decrepit schools by the state.
"I try to use the resources the best I can to the best of my ability for these kids, but you are still limited in what you can do. You can’t magically make a cafeteria appear, but we are still providing a good education," Taylor said. "We are meeting our Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals set by No Child Left Behind. How much better could we do if we were in better conditions?" (Read more)