The Covington Board of Education announced last night that it hired Cortnei Flucas as the next Superintendent of Covington Independent Public Schools (“CIPS”).
Flucas brings nearly two decades of educational leadership experience to her new role running Covington Public Schools. She most recently served as the Unified Student Supports Officer for Indianapolis Public Schools, the largest public school district in Indiana.
The Board’s appointment of Flucas culminates a month’s-long process to hire a new school superintendent. I was honored the school district selected me to serve as a member of one of two stakeholder panels that interviewed the final four candidates for the new superintendent’s job. I represented the Covington Business Council, the TEAM Foundation, and CIPS alumni on that panel.
This appointment has the potential to dramatically change the culture of the school district as well as its future trajectory — and in turn, the future trajectory of the city itself.
Improving Covington’s public schools is a key component to helping the City of Covington reach its full potential. A high-achieving, thriving public school district will attract more families to the City and keep existing ones living in our community.
As a graduate of Covington Independent Public Schools, this issue is very important to me, and it also should be important to every resident and business in the City. When I attended Holmes High School in the mid- to late-1970s, from an academic standpoint — and athletically, too — Holmes was competitive with most other high schools in our community.
Fortunately, my education in the Covington public school district provided me with a strong foundation for my post-secondary education and future careers as a journalist, lawyer, business owner, and city manager.
Unfortunately, today’s Covington public schools are a mere shadow of the schools I attended as a young man. Although the most recent school ratings released by the Kentucky Department of Education last November showed modest improvement in Covington public schools, the school district still lagged behind many other school districts in Kentucky, including most other school districts in Northern Kentucky.
Due to these poor marks, couples considering having families or those with preschoolers are often reluctant to move into Covington. In addition, many families move out of the city when their children approach school age or after attending CIPS grade schools or they send their kids to Covington’s private or parochial schools rather than its public schools.
My own family is a prime example. When our kids were ready for grade school, we moved to my wife’s hometown, Fort Thomas, which had and still has an outstanding public school system
I recognize that the mission of Covington’s public schools is more difficult than many other school districts in our region – with obstacles such as poverty, homelessness, lack of parental involvement, and many students learning English as a second language — but other urban school districts around the country and in Kentucky have found ways to excel despite these challenges.
While CIPS is a separate taxing district that operates autonomously from the City of Covington, it’s important that school district and city officials work together with business leaders and other community leaders to build strong relationships and partnerships with CIPS to achieve improvements in our public schools and student outcomes.
As an alumnus of Covington public schools, over the years, I have continued to support the school district, including serving as a board member and secretary of the Tom Ellis Athletic Memorial (“TEAM”) Foundation, which supports student-athletes at Holmes, and other school-related groups and committees.
On March 21, I served on one of two separate stakeholder panels that interviewed the final four superintendent candidates, all of whom were established educators and school administrators outside of the Northern Kentucky/Greater Cincinnati area.
I was impressed with the qualifications, experience, and intelligence of all four candidates we interviewed, and I, along with the other interview panel members, provided our thoughts about each of the candidates to the school board after we completed each interview.
Flucas has built a reputation as a thoughtful, student-centered leader who brings innovation and accountability to the educational organizations in which she has worked. Flucas stood out not only for non only her professional track record, but also for her understanding of and her alignment with the values and priorities the community expressed throughout the search process, including academic improvement, transparency, accountability, strong communication, and a willingness to be creative and innovative in improving student outcomes.
As Covington schools’ new superintendent, Flucas must now develop and execute a bold strategic plan for the school district and exhibit the fortitude needed to make the tough decisions that previous superintendents and administrations may have avoided.
That means holding people accountable for their actions — or inaction — in achieving the goals outlined in this plan. A key to achieving these expectations is to have high expectations of faculty and staff as well as students and making them all accountable for achieving these expectations. This accountability breaks down into three separate levels:
The job ahead for Flucas will not be an easy one. She will encounter a lot of challenges However, I’m hopeful that based on her past experience, successes, and passion, she can be the transformative leader that Covington needs to get our public schools back on track. I look forward to working with Flucas and her team to continue the Board’s ongoing efforts to improve our public schools and student outcomes in Covington.
Paid for by the Jay Fossett for Covington City Council Campaign